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Learning through play – Maria Montessori

Birch Bear Seasonal wheel

‘Play is the work of the child’. Maria Montessori

The environment surrounding the child is prepared and developed to meet the needs of the child, to foster independence where the child is free to respond to their natural curiosity to explore and enquire. Through naturally choosing their own ‘work’, they naturally and gradually develop their focus and attention whilst freely learning with interest and self-motivation. A research style of learning, to spark imagination and enquiry, engaging the child and laying foundations that develop the intellect through the primary years and beyond.

‘The greatest success as a teacher….is to be able to say ‘the children are now working as if I did not exist’’ MM

Providing a broad range of materials for open-ended exploration, provides a diverse range of qualities to investigate and connects the child to the natural world and environment around them. Rich sensory experiences nurture curiosity and imagination.

‘The senses, being the explorers of the world, opens the way to knowledge’. MM

A child learns more fully and deeply through ‘doing’ and in a safe, unstructured natural environment where they are free to express themselves and explore possibilities, their potential to thrive soars.

‘Free a child’s potential and you will transform him into the world’. MM

Choose toys and materials intentionally that lend themselves to freedom in play and exploration. You will be amazed by the rich and diverse ways in which your child interacts, constructs, imagines and engages when the play is self-directed.

‘He does it with his hands, by experience first in play and then through work. The hands are the instrument of mans intelligence’. MM

‘What the hand does, the mind remembers’. MM

Holistic play provides for a child’s natural curiosity and trusts the innate investigative nature of child-directed learning.

‘A child’s work is to create the person she/he will become’. MM

Nature is the ultimate classroom where a child’s senses are awake and alight with curiosity to explore and connect.

‘There must be provision for the child to have contact with nature, to understand and appreciate the order, the harmony and the beauty in nature’. MM

Here are some links to our range that support this investigative style of learning…..

Explore

Your Wild imagination

Craft