NOTICE: We closed down Spin Distribute on December 31st, 2022. ❗
Spin Distribute has been a wonderful SEO service since early 2009. Unfortunately, after almost 14 years, it no longer meets the very strict quality criteria of our company.
We pride ourselves on only providing SEO services that are best-in-class. Unfortunately Spin Distribute no longer qualifies.
For this reason we closed down new sign-ups and new orders on Spin Distribute on December 31st, 2022.
Of course all your existing orders will be delivered in full. Thank you!

- Aaron Sustar, CEO, INFINET LLC
SmileyTech Solutions - Smile about your Online Business!

Take your IM business and SEO efforts to the next level!

Log In

Once you are logged in, you are able
to use all of our services.
Your Email Address:
Your Password:
 
What can I do when logged in?
Once you are logged in, you are able to use all of our services. This includes:

You can submit new articles, so we can make unique versions of them and distribute them for you.
If you want to simply publish the same article on 800 websites, you can tell us to do that.
You can see the archive and current status of all your article distributions.
You can order any number of high-quality articles - just let us know your keywords.
You can browse the archive of all the articles we have written for you.
You can order our Complete Service (10 high-quality articles plus 10 article distributions).
You can purchase more credits for our services and check your affiliate earnings.
Much more ...

SpinDistribute.com Article Directory

« Back to articles from category "Education"

The following article was published in our article directory on August 29, 2012.
Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System.

Transitioning to Montessori: The Prepared Environment (Part 5 of 5)

Article Category: Education

Author Name: Heike Larson

Every fall, children transition to our Montessori programs from other preschools or elementary schools. What can parents do to help with this transition? In this series of blog posts, we lay out a few Montessori principles that apply at the later preschool and early elementary school level. Our focus is on children who transition into Montessori during their kindergarten through 2nd grade years, but many of the ideas suggested here are helpful for preschool children, too.

"Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment."

"The environment itself will teach the child, if every error he makes is manifest to him, without the intervention of a parent or teacher, who should remain a quiet observer of all that happens."

-Dr. Maria Montessori

A Montessori elementary classroom looks very different from a traditional classroom. Visit, and you'll see children working alone or in small groups all around the room. They sit at small tables or work on mats: not a desk in sight. The teacher wanders between them, sitting with a child here and there for a few minutes, or bringing five children together around her desk now for a 10 minute small group lesson.

Parents often ask how the individualization of Montessori works: how can a teacher tailor his lessons to each child? How can there be order, when each child works on something different? How can children master the same fundamentals, if they have so much choice?

A key element to solving this apparent puzzle is what we call the prepared environment. Dr. Montessori observed that young children learn more from interacting with materials, then from listening to the words of teachers. That's why the activity in a Montessori elementary classroom centers not on lectures and assignments, but on short lessons on how to use the activities spread out around the classroom on low shelves. These activities, plus the set of definite classroom rules that are essential to making freedom within limits work, are an essential part of the prepared environment.

In his Montessori class, a child receives lessons on how to use different materials. Once a material has been shown to him, he is free to use it to master the skills embodied in the material. A 2nd grader, for example, may receive a lesson setting up a multiplication problem on the Montessori checkerboard. Thereafter, he can spend many productive hours practicing this new skill, self-checking his results without adult intervention, as the problem cards have solutions on their back. The children understand and accept that they are free to practice and explore any material in which they've been given a lesson--and the teacher performs the ongoing responsibility of nurturing them towards materials that optimally engage and challenge them. The whole system works beautifully--if you don't believe it, you can get a glimpse of it here!

In preparation for your child's entry into the lower elementary class this fall, you can implement some aspects of the prepared environment in your home. This will make it easier for him to feel at home, once he comes back to school in September. It will also enable him to share his experiences with you during the school year: while there is very little homework assigned in a Montessori lower elementary class, it's not unusual for our enthusiastic students to want to share their work at home anyway!

•Set up a work area in your home. Invest in a few low bookshelves (Ikea works just fine), a child-sized table (not a desk), some child-sized chairs, and a few work rugs. Equip them with materials your child can work with - a set of high-quality colored and regular pencils, pencil sharpeners, scissors, glue, blank and story writing paper. Put your child's books on the shelves so he can access them. You may also want to put other activities your child enjoys there - such as puzzles, arts & crafts activities or building materials. Finally, provide him with a place to put his completed work, such as a drawer or a file folder he can easily access.

•Provide guidance on how to work in this space. In a Montessori environment, each child is only permitted to have one activity out at a time. He takes it from the shelf and carries it to his work space (table or rug on the floor.) Once he is done, he replaces it on the shelf, and tidies up his work space (sweeping pencil droppings, carefully rolling up the rug and replacing it in his bin.) He can then choose something else to explore. You can establish similar rules at your home, and guide your child to complete the process. A nice side benefit: there will be less clean-up needed at the end of each day!

•Give him time and space to explore. Often, we over-schedule our children, taking them from one activity to another. 5- and 7-year-olds, just as younger children, benefit from some unstructured time. Now that you have set up his work space, you may suggest some ideas to get him started (see the follow the child post for details), then let him run with it!

The prepared environment in a Montessori classroom is essential to helping a group of 20+ individual children work productively. Once your child is settled into his routine this fall, we invite you to come and observe him. We bet you'll be surprised at what you see!

About the Author: Heike Larson is a well respected Vice President of Outreach and blogger of LePort Schools. Visit their website at http://www.leportschools.com for more information about Montessori preschool.

Keywords: preschool

Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System. We also offer one of the Best Article Writing Services out there - give us a try if you need great articles on various topics!

SpinDistribute.com Network

Each article you submit at SpinDistribute.com is sent through our innovative Article Distribution System to our network of more than 1840 publishers - about 55% of them are high-quality article directories, 30% of them are niche blogs and 15% of them are other content-rich websites.

To achieve the best possible success we only publish your article to most related websites. This means your article will show up on approximately 640 - 880 most related websites which will give you great SEO results.

We also offer a separate Professional Article Writing Service to everyone who's looking for high quality web content and well researched unique articles.

1 article = 800+ backlinks

ARTICLE DISTRIBUTION

Publish 800+ unique versions of
your article on 800+ websites!
Let us do all the

ARTICLE WRITING

Need lots of keyword optimized
quality articles? Search no more.
We recommend our

COMPLETE SERVICE

We write articles. We distribute
them. You get all the gains!
Have any questions?
Feel free to check out the "Frequently Asked Questions" section, or use the email address below to contact our team. You can also register for free and contact our Support Department. Read more
Why choose
Spin Distribute?
boost your traffic and online income and crush your competitors with our great article distribution system
get more than 800 highly relevant backlinks with each article distribution (from $1.60 per distribution)
try out our "Complete Service" that puts everything on auto-pilot (we write & distribute articles for you)
have us write all the articles for you, so you can focus on your business
get detailed HTML and PDF reports for every article distribution
contact our Support Department and Live Support to get answers
get FREE access to our SEO Tips & Tricks Guide (worth $27 alone!)
join our Affiliate Program and make money with our services
 
E-mail: info
   
spindistribute.com
Smile about your Online Business!

> Frequently Asked Questions
> Terms of Use & Privacy Policy
> Affiliate Program
 
I've been pleasantly surprised with your service because I got burned a few times in the past.. but your service is as good as you guys promised! I went from nowhere-on-Google to the first page in less than 2 months!"
Danny Reiland