‘Sensitive periods’ are Dr Maria Montessori’s name for the period when the child shows unusual capabilities for acquiring particular skills. Modern psychologists refer to these as ‘critical’ learning periods. New brain research information refers to them as ‘windows of opportunities’.

The classroom is a child-sized world. Whatever is in the world outside can be incorporated meaningfully in the Montessori classroom. By careful selection of materials, the teacher set up the environment to allow the child a place to explore life on a level which facilitates learning. The materials or activities are designed to encourage exploration independently by the child. The child proceeds at his/her own pace from simple, easy activities, to more complex, harder ones. Through this process, the child’s natural curiosity is satisfied as he/she experiences the world about him.

This environment is the child’s community. They move freely within it, selecting work that captures their interest, rather than participating in all-day lessons and projects selected by the teachers. In a very real sense, the children are responsible for the care of their own child-sized environment. They take pride in replacing work once they are finished, caring for the plants and pets, cleaning up spills and helping others clean-up spills, pouring and filling.

They are many benefits in mixing children from 2 – 6 years old in one classroom. The older children are able to assist the younger ones with activities which are familiar to them, thus raising their self-esteem and confidence. Whilst the young children observe the older ones working on more complex tasks, encouraging them in turn to work even harder towards their goals. The older children serve as role models and everyone learn that we need to respect each other and to appreciate that we all have different needs.

The Montessori teachers are guides. Their primary role is to prepare and maintain the physical, intellectual, and social/emotional environment within which the children will work. Certainly, key aspect of this is the selection of intriguing and developmentally appropriate opportunities for learning to meet the need and interests of each child.

Montessori teacher rarely presents a lesson to more than a handful of children at one time, and they limit lessons to brief, efficient presentations. The goal is to give the children just enough to capture their attention and spark their interest, intriguing them enough that they will come back on their own to work with the material.

Montessori teachers closely monitor the children’s progress, keeping the levels of challenges high. They get to know the child’s strengths and weaknesses, interest and anxieties extremely well. They use the children’s interest to enrich the curriculum. In addition, Montessori students acquire mastery of the skills and knowledge that are considered basic.

The concept of freedom in a Montessori classroom is “freedom within limits”. A child is allowed to work freely as long as he/she does not disturb others. Actually, the child who is allowed the freedom to follow his/her interest is generally happy and busy with the work. Freedom needs to be allowed for learning to be achieved. A free child is one who has developed his/her potential and prefers to work out problems when necessary. An undisciplined and unskilled child is not free, but a slave to his/her immediate desires and is excessively dependent on others whether parent or teacher. The free child grows into a free adult.

Children who start their education in a Montessori setting are generally well rounded, confident individuals who have developed a love for learning. With this enthusiasm, the transition into any style of education is embraced by the child.