Can we do Montessori at home if our child does not go to a Montessori school?

Children are back to school. You may wonder how to keep up with the Montessori approach If they are not going to Montessori school.

Here in the UK, we do not have so many Montessori schools for children over the age of 5. Mainstream education is quite often the only option. Home-schooling is not for everyone either.

My son was in a Montessori school until the pandemic struck. My daughter went only to a Montessori preschool, so she has been in a mainstream school for even longer.

If you see Montessori as a way of life then yes, you can have a Montessori approach at home even if your children do not attend a Montessori school.

Learning does not happen only at school.

Children spend an average of 6 hours a day in school, over 39 weeks. We still have the most influence over our children - at least until they are in secondary school when peers tend to be more important.

Technically, we have time to stay connected with our children. We have time to enjoy activities together. Of course, you may work full-time and pick up your children from the after-school club at 6pm. Whatever your “working situation”, the time you spend with your children will have a big impact.

Both my children attend a mainstream school, and yet I have always considered our family as being Montessori inspired.

Let me share with you 10 tips to live a Montessori lifestyle!

Respect and understand your child.

What transpires when you read books written by Maria Montessori is her immense respect for the child. For centuries, children were seen as less valuable than grown-ups. Parents were not encouraged to be attached to their children. Chances of survival past early childhood were slim until the 20^th century. All that changed at the time of Maria Montessori. She, like other educators and psychologists of her time, started to value children. Maria Montessori said that, as adults, we tend to exert authority on our children when they interfere in our life. This is why we talk about the “terrible twos”. So, keeping in mind my child’s development, what they are capable of, focusing on respecting your child, on seeing them as human being who deserves the same respect as we deserve is really something that guides me every day in my parenting.

Simplify your life and slow down.

Montessori emphasizes following your child and letting them explore at their own pace. That does not change as your child grows. After-school clubs and extra-curricular activities can be a rich experience. However, after a day at school, most children need to slow down and relax in the safety of their home. Enjoy the mundane, the slow pace, the repetition of the day-to-day routine! Give your children time to get bored. When children are bored, they find way to create!

Look at your extra-curricular activities, play dates, and weekend activities. Do you achieve a right balance or is it too much for your family?

Montessori discipline

Despite that the fact that your child’s school might implement a reward system and classic behaviour control discipline, you can still discipline the Montessori way. Focus on having clear limits. Discuss your family rules.

When my children were little, I would state the rules. Most rules were based on safety. As my children grow, many rules are also based on respect of others and of the environment. For example, tidying up their bedroom is not really linked to safety, however they can understand that their belonging cost us money. They have to respect that.

More about Montessori discipline here.

Keep preparing the environment.

You may not have a specific Montessori shelf, or a specific drawer in the kitchen. But your children will still need to have access to what they need. Children in the second plane can be very messy and disorganised. Their bedroom becomes their “private domain”. I find that having less on view in their bedroom help my children to keep their bedroom tidy. It’s also a great age to set up a desk and/or an art area.

More purposeful practical life

Hands on learning

You can still choose toys and activities that are in line with the Montessori principles. Favour natural, practical, hands-on toys and materials. What about learning woodwork? Electronics? Gardening? Children still like to learn in a concrete way!

Support their interest!

When my children express an interest, we find ways to encourage them: borrow books at the library, do online searches, etc. Whether they are interested in learning the piano, football, or collecting of Pokémon cards, we keep encouraging their spontaneous interests!

Extend the school learning.

One way I kept “doing Montessori at home” was to extend the school learning. My daughter used to come back home exited by a school project, asking me to do more activities about that specific topic. My son is more “independent” and will generally checks facts about the topic in his books or with a google search. Being a Montessori teacher, I enjoyed preparing activities for them based on whatever they were learning at school. It’s one of the reasons I started my Montessori box subscription!

Encourage your child to spend time outdoors

This is definitely the weak point of any school system. Children do not spend enough time outdoors. If we had to focus on one thing, it would be on spending as much time as possible outside.

Nurture free thinking

One of the main attractions of the Montessori philosophy is the idea that children know, from the start, what is good for them. Each child is born with a potential. When we give freedom to children, with few limits to protect their safety, they will flourish. This includes giving them the freedom to think by themselves. We believe our children should form their own opinions and beliefs. As adults, my husband and I have our own values and beliefs. We want to make sure that we don’t impose them on our children. We constantly promote diversity. We have never imposed our religion. We often say, “some people think”, or “I believe that…” followed by an open-ended question “so, what do you think?”. My children are 9 and 13 years old, and we have interesting conversations about religion, ethics, and politics. I can see them developing their own values and it is, in my opinion, one of the biggest wins of the Montessori way of life!

I hope this blog post will help you keep living the Montessori way at home.