A material designed to encourage autonomy in the dressing of the child and stimulate their skills and skills
To become autonomous in self -management, the child needs time, freedom, graduality, order and exercise.
Maria Montessori, scientist and careful observer of the child, caught these needs and structured the work material for children who took into account these characteristics (in this regard, we recommend reading our complete article on the Montessori method). Each activity holds a specific purpose and these works can be grouped according to the competence they intend to develop: linguistic, motor, fine manual skills, personal care, environmental care, sensory expressiveness, logical-mathematical.
Conceptual, aesthetic, spatial, chromatic order
If you observe such a designed activity, you can grasp the order of information that the material intends to provide; An order not only conceptual, but also aesthetic, spatial, chromatic. This makes the activity attractive and interesting, while the conceptual order promotes the absorption of information in the child.
Let’s take an example. A sensory material such as La Torre Rosa (see photo), is a material designed to allow the child the experimentation and acquisition of the concept/difference between large and small. Consequently, the material will not provide distractions from this topic to allow maximum concentration on the concept of size. The pink tower is all pink so as not to confuse, to make the child concentrate on the size of the cubes.
A tower with cubes designed on all facades, and with one of the cable sides (in order to put one cube inside the other), makes the work very complex and does not favor the concentration on the quantities, the main objective of the activity. The child, especially if small (24-30 months), could be displaced by the overload of stimulation and remove the material considering it too complex and chaotic.
Odine allows a rapid understanding of the lesson; the repetition, or the exercise, the conquest of competence.
Lawning frames
Lawning frames are a material designed to encourage autonomy in the dressing: Close shirts and jackets and tie the shoes. The types of ties proposed on the frame can be the most varied: zips, large buttons, small buttons, velcro, alamari, clips, nurse pins, ribbon bows, straps of various sizes and degree of difficulty, hooks, buckles.
The frame is square and consists of:
- Two square -based wooden auctions (2 x 2 cm), about 30 cm long (to make the support on the work surface stable), to be put in parallel high and at the bottom
- Two round base wooden auctions (1 cm in diameter about x 30 cm in length), where you can put the flaps of fabric, to be left left and right to combine the two square -based rods
- two flaps of unable fabric with a particular closure
Each frame presents a single type of closing, to encourage order, and is organized so that the child can practice at least five times on the same closure: There will therefore be five buttons to close, one under the other, of equal size, material and color.
The objectives of this material are different: the training of precision in the use of hand, the coordination of the two hands simultaneously, the eye coordination, the training of concentration, the ability to complete a complex procedure, the stimulation of autonomy.
Each child can work with the material by pursuing one or all the purposes just described, and it is therefore very important to consider the level of development of the child and his source of interest in order to better understand what is the intent that moves it towards this activity.
Why use the frames?
The frames should be hung, for example to the wall, and be easily recoverable from the child. So, when he tried the desire to practice on a closure, he could choose the chassis, put it on the ground or on the table and work on it all the time he wants.
Why are the soft cubes of the lacing, easily available in toy stores, are not preferable? Because they generate a lot of confusion. They are full of colors and do not offer the possibility of repeating the same movement several times, as they usually have a single closure on each side of the cube. In addition, the surface on which you can work is very limited and the structure that is not very stable.
It is always preferable to choose simplicity, order and beauty, because they are characteristics that attract the child and reassure him. An attractive material recalls and promotes concentration and is only in a state of authentic concentration that learning can arise, The only way to the development of the child.
Some images are taken from: www.howemontessori.com with the authorization of the author
