Sensorial Learning: The Montessori Method in Action
How Emir faced his challenges and thrived through sensorial education
Dear curious learners and loving parents,
In the last newsletter, How Montessori Transformed a Child’s Life, I shared the story of Emir, a young boy frozen with fear and anxiety. His cultural differences and learning challenges compounded the difficulties he faced in the classroom.
With constant loving guidance and daily encouragement to explore the Montessori materials, Emir developed a love for learning. He found friends to help him through his journey and a new-found confidence to venture into a world of discoveries.
Here is the continuation of his story: how a sensorial approach in education cultivated his hidden skills and interests, leading him to personal success. We shall also explore the various principles of the Montessori Method by focusing on kinesthetic learning.
Beyond Mathematics: A World of Learning Unfolds
Emir’s enthusiasm to learn spilled over to other subjects. He marveled over the geometric blocks, stroking the glossy blue shapes. He worked on the red rods like a puzzle and built bridges with the Roman arc. Soon after our first storybook, Emir showed interest in learning to read.
Since Emir skipped steps in the sequential order of lessons in math and reading, he faced challenges. Realizing this, he agreed to lessons in reading 4-digit numerals. He welcomed the review of the sounds of the letters and worked on reading 3-letter words.
The attractive materials played a strong role in Emir’s progress. The beauty of each item, the feel of the weight and texture, and the smell of the jar all contributed to his improved initiative and motivation.
The demands of working with Montessori materials required movement. Emir needed to step away from his desk, using his large motor skills to carry heavy objects. He used his fine motor skills to count beads and lay them out in order. It required precision of movement and coordination.
In essence, Emir was learning with the use of his entire body.
Most activities required a buddy to work with. Social skills came into play as children took turns and cooperated with each other. Emir found a friend who was eager to coach him through his addition and multiplication challenges with the Checkerboard.
Sensorial Learning: The Montessori Method in Action
“There is nothing in the intellect which is not first in the senses.”
-Aristotle
Dr. Montessori believed children have the tendency to build abstract concepts from material objects. The best preparation for the development of the intellect is an extensive, varied, and robust sensorial life.
She designed each material with this principle in mind. Her materials lured the children into learning, minimizing the role of the adult to initiate exploration. They engaged the child’s five senses, providing a complete sensorial experience.
Montessori used the isolation of qualities for children to focus on one distinct feature.
”If one sense is isolated, it seems to be enhanced in its power of perception. The possibility of perception is more profound. It is the concentration of the conscious mind upon that sense.” -Maria Montessori
Her Geometric Solids, with one color, weight, and size, vary in shapes only. Her colored tablets are exactly alike but vary only in colors. And her red rods are identical except for the length.
The Knobbed Cylinders are all –you guessed it- cylindrical, built with the same texture and color of wood. One set varies only in width, another varies only in height. The two introductory sets vary in three dimensions, teaching the concepts of big and small. The knobs require the writing fingers (thumb, pointer, and middle fingers) to lift the cylinders and fit them in the cavity of the wood block. (This prepares the child for handwriting.)
Preserving the Self-esteem of the Child Through Self-correction
Built in the Montessori materials is the control of error, a means of correcting the child without the interruption of an adult. This preserves the self-esteem of the child, making them feel empowered, encouraged, and capable.
“We must help the child to liberate himself from his defects without making him feel his weakness.” -Maria Montessori
If the child places the Knobbed Cylinder in the wrong cavity, they will immediately know. It won’t fit. A built-in correction.
“The child must see for himself what he can do, and it is important to give him not only the means of education but also to supply him with indicators which tell him his mistakes.” -Maria Montessori
Dr. Montessori believes in the power of concentration. If the child is continually interrupted by an adult, this not only discourages the child, but it also makes them lose their focus. It is of utmost importance to preserve the flow of learning in a Montessori classroom. Applying the control of error in every lesson guarantees utmost cognitive development.
The control of error in the Checkerboard preserved Emir’s sensitive nature. He was able to count the beads and see if it tallied correctly with the answers. He needed minimal reminders from me, making him feel capable. A strong feeling of self-reliance overcame him, boosting his self-esteem and encouraging him to accept challenges.
The Golden Beads: Grasping Mathematical Concepts Visually
Teachers introduce mathematical and geometrical concepts through Montessori’s ingenious manipulatives. One of her most valuable learning tools are the Golden Beads, an introductory apparatus which presents the decimal system through geometrically designed beads.
The unit is one bead, a dot in geometric terms. The tens are represented by a string of ten beads, a straight line in a child’s mind. The hundreds are ten rows of ten beads (10 x 10), creating a flat plain, and the thousands are represented by ten plains stacked on top of each other creating a cube.
If that’s not brilliant, I don’t know what is.
So, when a child adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides with these manipulatives, the concept of place value is entrenched in their minds. Each child learns through a constructive sensorial experience.
Working with the Golden Beads requires a lot of movement. Children carry them on trays, feeling the weight of each value. Some of them spill over, reflecting the enormity or quantity of the number. They involve their gross motor skills.
A School Full of Brilliance
The Golden Beads is one of many materials designed by Dr. Montessori. We have classrooms full of ingeniously-designed didactic “toys.” Each one was created with the same principles mentioned above.
Next week, we will explore the importance of movement and play. We will see how movement affects the child’s memory and cognitive skill. All these tie in how a child learns through an interaction with their surroundings.
Stay tuned to more amazing and effective ways your child can learn.
Thank you for joining me on this journey. Despite a recent adventure in the Philippines and a slight detour for eye surgery, I'm excited to reconnect and continue our conversation.
Till our next adventure together,
Susie