| practical life | sensorial | mathematics | language | social studies |
All children love to touch things and explore their environment. They are constantly prying and poking and investigating. Children are attracted to these stimuli for themselves, not for the reasons for things. Montessori noted this and recognized the need for something more that just the education of the intellect in the classroom.
The child is gathering up perceptions from his environment constantly. Montessori strove to refine or build up their powers by educating the senses themselves. All that is to become an idea, and abstraction, first sprang from a touch, or a small physical contact. The stimuli are first perceived by the senses, which activate the nerves, which send the impression to the brain. The intellect, through the senses, creates abstract ideas.
Montessori sought to train or exercise the senses through the use of specially designed sensorial equipment. This equipment she terms “didactic”, which means educative or that which educates. Hence, it is the material that does the teaching through the child’s manipulation of it. This “auto-education”, learning though movement of the materials, is a basic concept of sense training. The materials appeal to the child when presented, but are also designed to function as a basis for future work. IT is the job of the sensorial materials to gradually increase the child’s ability to perceive things in a more refined and ordered way. The exercises are graded so than the child can perceive first strong contrast and are gradually refined to finer and more delicate differences. The child is provided with an opportunity to repeat these exercises as often as he wishes for repetition is what builds and exercise the senses.
The child is gathering up perceptions from his environment constantly. Montessori strove to refine or build up their powers by educating the senses themselves. All that is to become an idea, and abstraction, first sprang from a touch, or a small physical contact. The stimuli are first perceived by the senses, which activate the nerves, which send the impression to the brain. The intellect, through the senses, creates abstract ideas.
Montessori sought to train or exercise the senses through the use of specially designed sensorial equipment. This equipment she terms “didactic”, which means educative or that which educates. Hence, it is the material that does the teaching through the child’s manipulation of it. This “auto-education”, learning though movement of the materials, is a basic concept of sense training. The materials appeal to the child when presented, but are also designed to function as a basis for future work. IT is the job of the sensorial materials to gradually increase the child’s ability to perceive things in a more refined and ordered way. The exercises are graded so than the child can perceive first strong contrast and are gradually refined to finer and more delicate differences. The child is provided with an opportunity to repeat these exercises as often as he wishes for repetition is what builds and exercise the senses.
