I have a 4 year old and have been a Montessori mom for exactly a year and 2 months. My child attends a public school Montessori program, so I am extremely fortunate. The school has been great about inviting parents to events to learn about Montessori education and even offers free books for us to learn more. I have recently begun reading "The Absorbent Mind" by Maria Montessori and it has been extremely helpful in helping me understand the concept of the "guide" in the Montessori classroom. I would suggest this book to anyone thinking of sending their child to a Montessori program. The book begins with birth and talks about the education of the child into adulthood. The primary theme is that the child's brain is learning from the day he/she leaves the womb and it's up to us as parents to foster that....this was a breakthrough concept in the early 19th century and still relevant today as a lot of times we think we need to save money for our kids education when they are older, but Montessori challenges that by saying invest today. The investment can be a time commitment as well as just paying attention to the child's needs and interests. These interests can be in everyday life like picking of up language and speech or cooking or math equations. I haven't finished the book, but already Montessori has convinced me that my child needs an extra language course, so he currently attends Language Stars, a fun class that teaches many different languages to young children. My son loves and looks forward to this class on Saturday mornings, and so do I. He's learning a new language without even realizing it and working on his social skills outside of his everyday classroom. In the spring, the program will focus on gardening other outdoor life skills.
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