The Joy of Learning

Liberty/freedom is another pillar of Montessori education and Dr. Montessori insists it be one of the constants of all educational endeavor.

Maria Montessori said:

“No one can be free unless he is independent: therefore, the first, active manifestations of the child’s individual liberty must be so guided that through this activity he may arrive at independence.”

“Any child who is self-sufficient, who can tie his shoes, dress or undress himself, reflects in his joy and sense of achievement the image of human dignity, which is derived from a sense of independence.”

“We habitually serve children; and this is not only an act of servility toward them, but it is dangerous, since it tends to suffocate their useful, spontaneous activity.”

The Montessori dressing frames are an exercise for the young child that encourages independence as they learn to dress themselves. The young child will work on coordination, concentration and motor control.

The dressing frames in the Montessori classroom are frames with various dressing exercises, but for parents with one or two kids, using a teddy bear to show a young child to dress and undress may be an alternative?

The dressing frames in my classroom are handmade.

My carpenter cousin made this frames for me from scrap wood(from wood casing of containers, beautiful pine wood, indeed)

I think you may get the shop that do framing pictures/paintings to sell you the frames. Or, if you can buy the dowels of appropriate size and make the frames yourself. My cousin just cut the wood at 45 degree at both end, and use a big stapler to stapled them together at the corner. He borrowed the stapler from his friend who does upholstery.

(L to R): Snaps, small buttons, big buttons,

(L to R) Normal Zipper, Zipper for jacket and shoe lacing,

I also have velcro, ribbon lacing, belt buckets, eyes and hooks frames that I didn’t take pictures.

I cut the materials and sent to a seamtress to surge the edge, a sewing supplies shop in Melaka town did the snaps, the holes for shoe lacing and ribbon lacing.

I borrowed this stapler from a friend who is a seamstress to staple the finished cloth on the wood frames. If I need to wash the materials when they get dirty, I can just take them off and re-staple. They are still very clean after 2 years of use, so I guess that’s not a problem.

(Pine wood is a very soft wood, so the stapling is make easier, compare to harder wood, I think)

When I first started the pre-school, the photocopy place I frequent charged me RM1.50 per copy for laminating A4 sized paper. Later, I found a work from home service that charged me RM1.20, I was quite happy. But then I still have to be very selective about what I sent for laminating, I just couldn’t afford to laminate everything. So, to save cost in the long run, I decided to invest in a laminator. I bought one of those low end laminators from Tesco for RM100 odd. It was a nightmare trying to use that machine, not just heartache to see all the DIY materials went to waste, I also wasted so much of the laminating sheets trying to figure out the temperament of the machine. The cheapo machine must be so poorly made that the temperature is always fluatuating and overheating.

Somebody on the Montessori groups shared that she used the iron to heat the laminating sheets. I thought I will try, it turned out fine. Then I asked the maid to iron some materials, she tried to do it fast and had the temperature at the highest, it caused “bubbles” and not to say she ruined the materials. After playing around with the temperature, on the National dry iron that I am using, starts with No 2 and occasionally turn it to No 3 worked fine.

I bought the A4 sized laminating pouches RM23 per 100 sheets (2-ply), so I am able to laminate an A4 sized sheet for less than RM0.25. I have been laminating everything made of paper in my classroom since then.