Pre School/nursery/montessori

[Guest]

Our new chair takes her child to a local Montessori and says that as soon as they get there, her child has to trace their name on paper as a registration activity, all the children have to do this have unless they are very young (2 years). She wants us to consider this more structured approach for our children.

 

We are a rural village Pre-school, held in a church village hall, one room.

 

Any comments... especially from Montessorians - do you do this? I feel really uncomfortable about it.

 

Rachel

[Guest]

Hi there,

 

personally I'd be carefully considering that if the child attends that setting and develops their way of registering (and it works for them), then the children at your setting will be just as comfy doing things your way.

 

We have 46 children aged 2.5-4 and out of them I would say there is a small handfull which are struggling to even recognise their name - so much so that we have added pictures onto their name plates to help them along (these are working really well).

 

Montessori establishments and theory are different in many ways and this is reflected in their practice. Also, as you may see from previous threads on the forum it could be a wise move to just make sure the chair and committee understand their role as the employer, not the practitioner as it can complicate things sometimes.

[Guest]

i have had no montessori training but am very against children trying to write or trace before they are ready. i would rather provide trays of shaving foam, sand, paint, rice etc and let children attempt their initial letter with a finger than trace their whole name with a pencil. i think it is more important to get the muscles in their hands working through lots of fine motor activities such as threading, pegboards, playdough, messy play etc. i bet you are already doing all of this. EYFS suggests mark making and early writing should be coming from roleplay activities etc not rigidly structured tracing sessions. only my opinion of course

Lorraine

[Guest]

Thank you both of u !!!

 

I agree with everything you have said. We do all of these activities during the session and it works for the children. In fact we got the cornflour out (dry) ready to say 'what will happen when we pour the water on it?' and the children started to draw shapes and letters before the water was added (which we took photos of) .

 

Also yes thank u cirhossa1, I have visited the Montessori and I didn't see what the parents saw but I am also aware that we need to have choice. But I feel as though I have to teach the committee every year > This could be a whole new post