Montessori is a method of teaching children, especially at an early age, focusing on the independence of the child. Teaching this way has many benefits, but it is very different from traditional education.
In Montessori, the alphabet is taught in order and with letter sounds before letter names are taught. It is usually taught in 6 different sets of letters. In this way, children learn to read better because they associate the letters with the correct sounds.
The Montessori method of teaching the alphabet offers many advantages that the traditional teaching method does not. The more you understand about this way of teaching children, the more meaningful it will be. There is definitely something special about the Montessori school and its teaching techniques!
Montessori ideals and goals
Raising a child through Montessori education is very different from raising a child traditionally. Typically, children taught in Montessori methods are between the ages of 2 and 8. It is rare to find a Montessori school that teaches beyond the upper primary school, but there is little need for a higher Montessori education as children often have an easy transition from Montessori to the traditional school and retain the skills they have to learn from it. .
Montessori pedagogy has a unique focus on the mental and physical learning abilities of the child.
The exercises give the child a lot of freedom to do the work in a way that makes sense to him and allows him to learn on his own with outside tutoring when necessary.
The environment in which Montessori is taught is important. The classroom should be well thought out, organized and stimulating for the child. They should feel they have the option to move from one play area and study to another at their own pace. The goal is to foster confidence and productive habits that they can apply throughout their lives.
How Montessori teaches the alphabet
Learning the alphabet is one of the first things every child learns, regardless of the teaching method. It is the initial ability that allows children to be able to read and write in the future. The Montessori teaching style has a very different approach to traditional teaching. Montessori teaches the alphabet with a much greater emphasis on the sounds that letters make.
Montessori teaches children in a way that prepares them for the next step in learning while fully covering the topic at hand. Exploring the alphabet is a great example of this. Montessori teaches the alphabet with a much greater emphasis on the sounds the letters make and the order of their frequent use. This method prepares children to learn to read.
sounds in focus
When learning to read, children often find it difficult to make a connection between the letters in a word and its pronunciation. With traditional learning, there is an unnecessary intermediary of the name of the letter between the phonics and the reading of the word. Montessori cuts out this middleman by simply teaching the letter name after the pronunciation has been learned.
Children Montessori learners are taught the alphabet through the sounds they make. Instead of learning the letter C by its name "see," children learn it by how it sounds when read, "cow." This applies to all cards. For example, a traditionally taught child will read the word CAT as "see-ay-tee" and then have to translate those names into the sound they make. By omitting the letter name, a Montessori-trained child immediately reads it as "kuh-aah-tuh" and can infer that it sounds like the word cat.
Although letter phonics is taught first, letter names are not completely ignored. They are taught, but only after mastering the sounds of the letters, so as not to confuse the child.
changing the order
The order of the traditional alphabet is arbitrary and has no other purpose than to give a more universal way of teaching. The Montessori teaching method provides a consistent order with its focus on the phonics of letters. They are taught in 4-6 letter increments so as not to overwhelm the child.
There are different orders for teaching letters, but one of the most common, especially for beginning Montessori parents, is 6 sets of 4 letters, except the last one, which has 6. It goes something like this:
- Establecer eins: c m a t
- Sentence two: s r i p
- Game drei: b f o g
- Movement four: h j u l
- game five: d w e n
- Set six: k q x y z
Letters are taught and ordered based on their phonetic relevance to one another. By learning consonants and vowels that occur in the same word, the child can learn as many words as possible while learning the letters. Some people worry that children don't know the traditional alphabet order and are different from other children their age, but the world around them will make them learn the alphabet and it will become the way they learned it before, not them. it affects.
Tips for Teaching the Montessori Alphabet
There are many little details to pay attention to when teaching your child the Montessori alphabet if you do it at home.
- Enter lowercase letters first. The priority when teaching Montessori is to teach the most frequently used letters and words first. Since a child will see lowercase letters more often when reading, she should be able to recognize these symbols perfectly before learning to recognize uppercase letters, which she will see less frequently.
- When teaching letters with more than one sound, start with the most common sound first. Many consonants make other sounds, but by teaching the most common sound first, your child will be able to read more words without confusion. For a letter like G, teach the "guh" sound before the "juh" sound because the child will encounter this sound more often and feel more capable.
- Similar to teaching consonants with more than one sound, it is better to teach vowels in a similar way. All vowels have multiple sounds, so start teaching with common short vowel sounds like "ih," "eh," and "aah" first. These are more common and more useful and less confusing.
- When you teach letter sounds, say them lightly and clearly. It would not be very useful for a child to learn the letter C as "KUH" but rather as a sharp and bright "k".
- When teaching blends and digraphs, do them slowly, making sure your child understands how letter combinations work. For the blends, have them try to connect the two letters without breaking up the sounds, such as "mmmmaaa." When teaching digraphs such as "sh" and "ch," teach each new sound one at a time, making sure the child understands each sound well before moving on to the next.
application to read
While we have explained a bit about how learning the alphabet in this way helps with reading, there are a few more details that make reading easier for Montessori literate children.
Parents want their children to understand the connection between the "aah" sound and the "a" symbol. The Montessori teaching method reaches the same point as traditional teaching, but in a different wayEffectiveFar.
Italicit is the preferred way to teach writing or coding.
Not mentioned yet, but beneficial for developing reading skills is the way Montessori teaches children to write. Cursive is the preferred way to teach writing or coding. By teaching cursive, children better learn to associate connected symbols with a word. Help the child see that the letters of that word work together to make the sound of a word. They will also understand how normal scripted text works because it is in the world around them.
A mandatory part of learning to read is understanding how to shuffle letters. When a child understands how to pronounce the letters together, he is better at forming words. Cursive helps them see relationships between sounds, but they can't pronounce them without learning the proper combination. Instead of CAT being "kuh"-"aah"-"tuh", it should be understood as a complete word of mixed letters without breaks.
Montessori focuses on phonological awareness, which is a child's ability to recognize and manipulate small sound units used to form words. Teaching the alphabet in this way places special emphasis on phonemic awareness, which ultimately makes the child more literate.
Activities and resources for Montessori teaching
While we have covered the ideas behind teaching the alphabet the Montessori style, it would probably be beneficial if you had some ideas on how to teach these things. Montessori pedagogy has a strong focus on giving the child independence and letting them figure things out.sensory activities. Here are some activities and tools you can use to teach the Montessori alphabet.
wooden boards or blocks
A highly recommended aid for learning the alphabet are the letters structured on wooden boards. The texture invites the child to trace the letter and develop a memory to write that letter. A great activity to increase your child's letter recognition is to have them lay out the entire alphabet in no particular order and place pictures or picturesAnimal figuresbeginning with this letter next to the wooden board. This helps them make better connections to practical applications rather than just memorizing the letters and their sounds.
Listen and discover the game.
Gather items that begin with the sounds the child has already learned. Go through them one by one and say what they are so that the child can hear the beginning sound. Once familiar with the names of the objects, ask the child to find the object that begins with the "k" sound. When the child picks up the correct object, a cup, a toy cat, etc., she understands these letters.
A small mobile alphabet.
Having tangible letters as objects that the child can move can be of great benefit to them. It helps them really understand the shapes of the letters instead of just the flat blocks. You also have the new ability to manipulate letters to spell words. This is a great way to introduce them to sound blending, as they will better understand that joining letters makes words.
Trace letters with objects
Another way to increase a child's understanding of how to write letters is to give him a bowl of small, relatively uniform objects.work sheetswith dotted letters. Have the child use the objects (marbles, pebbles, dried beans, etc.) to trace the letter on the page. You will get more reinforcement to write the letters and you will also be able to practice your eye-hand coordination.
Objects and letters connection game.
A much larger version of the Listen and Spot game, this game is ideal for a child who has learned more sounds or the entire alphabet. Place cards or mats with the letters on them and collect a bucket full of objects that begin with those sounds. The child has the opportunity to stop associating animals with letters and instead really listen to the sound and associate new objects with the letters. Having multiple objects per letter requires the child to really understand the sounds of the letters rather than using the exclusion process to figure out where the objects belong.
Implementation of the Montessori method
One of the best things about Montessori classes is that you don't have to enroll your child in a dedicated Montessori school if it's out of your budget or lifestyle. With preparation and understanding of the best way to guide your child, you can teach him this way from home.
Having a dedicated area in your home to teach Montessori, being prepared for new lessons and activities, and understanding the goals your child needs to achieve is enough to get you started at home. It is an excellent teaching method for preschool children as they can learn the basic things they need to learn before traditional kindergarten and will be better prepared for what they will learn in kindergarten.
All parents should strive to teach their children the alphabet and the Montessori method is a great way to do it because it gives them freedom and makes learning fun. Using this method, your child can even benefit from some things and put him a step above his peers.