The Joy Of Learning

Grace and Courtesy Exercises

After I talked so much about how important it’s to train children to be able to focus and concentrate first before we started them the academic subjects, I am actually quite afraid of well meaning friends who brought their children to my school to play-play so that their children can learn to focus and concentrate. They usually left me with a classroom that looked like just visited by hurricane!Montessori education is actually more than just “playing” with the apparatus. Children who are not train how to handle the equipment, children whose body and spirit are not in tune, they will not know how to behave in the classroom and pay attention in handling the Montessori apparatus, they would just treat them like any other toys, after the initial excitement, they would just dump them aside and/or don’t want to return them to where they belong. Unless they have Plantar Fasciitis, children who are not train to be aware of their body movement would either run wild or bump into things in the classroom.

That’s why it’s very important for us to teach the grace and courtesy exercises first, before we let them handle the apparatus. It will be too late to chase after them and shout after them, when they started to go wild in the classroom. It’s really not the children’ fault that we should punish them for that. We need to give them the training they need, so that they are away of their movement and the noise they produced.

Walking on the line and the silent game are two important exercises that help the children to be aware of their body movement and get in tune with their inner spirit. It may sound like real mysterious, but I assured you, it’s not. It’s the secret behind a “quiet” Montessori classroom.

Filed under About Montessori, Parenting |