Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook

Maria Montessori

Mar 2012 · Courier Corporation

About this ebook

One of the truly great books on early childhood development, Maria Montessori's illustrated guide was written nearly a century ago in response to thousands of requests from American parents and teachers. In it, the noted educator provided copious information on how to use familiar, simple, easy-to-obtain classroom materials to make any home an effective learning environment. It was to be a "children's house," where youngsters would be their own masters, and free to learn at their own pace.
Sound cylinders, sandpaper letters, and numerical rods became features of the typical Montessori classroom. Designed to hone the child’s visual, auditory, and tactile perceptions, tools such as these enabled the child to experiment and learn through the powers of observation, recognition, judgment, and classification.
An essential teaching aid for parents and educators, this handbook features sections on teaching music, arithmetic and language, and developing sensory and motor skills.

About the author

Maria Montessori, an Italian educator who was the first woman doctor granted a degree in Italy, has been well known in the field of childhood education since the early 1900s. Dissatisfied with the educational methods of her time, she developed her own theories in systematic fashion. The Montessori Method, as it became known, allows each child to develop at his or her own pace through the manipulation of materials. The teacher's role is to provide the materials and then act as a supervisor and a guide. This and other concepts of hers have had considerable influence on modern education. Montessori first worked with retarded children, then classified as "untrainable," most of whom she succeeded in teaching to read and write. She established a number of Houses of Children in Italy devoted to providing new opportunities for underprivileged children. Recent U.S. efforts in this direction have led to a strong revival of interest in her work, and Montessori's methods also have been expanded to children beyond the preschool years.