24 Things That Parents Can Do To Help Their Montessori Child (borrowed from an ongoing list, published by Bayside Montessori)

– more to come

1. Help your child to have positive connections with people of diverse ethnicities, language, and beliefs.

2. Laugh a lot. Play with words. Tell jokes. Help your child to develop a sense of humor.

3. Share your profession or occupation with your child. Have him/her visit at work and have
some appreciation of work done in the world.

4. See that your child learns to swim — the younger the better.

5. Have a globe or atlas in the house, and whenever names of places come up locate them with
the child.

6. Make sure your child has the tools he/she needs — child size broom, mop, dust pan, whisk
broom, duster, etc., to help maintain the cleanliness of the household.

7. Learn to say, “No,” without anger, and with firmness and conviction. Not everything children want is appropriate.

8. Arrange environments and options so that you end up saying yes more than no.

9. Avoid laughing at your child.

10. Alert children to upcoming events so they can mentally prepare, e.g., “In ten minutes, it will be time for bed.”

11. Help children to maintain a calendar, becoming familiar with days and months, or counting
down to special events. Talk about it regularly.

12. Don’t replace everything that gets broken. Help children to learn the value of money, and, the consequences of actions.

13. Take a nighttime walk — listen to sounds, observe the moon, smell the air.

14. Allow your child to use his/her whole body and mind for active doing. Save computers for the Elementary years and later when they become a useful tool of the conscious
mind.

15. If you must travel without your child, leave notes behind for him/her to open each day you are gone.

16. Expose your child to all sorts of music.

17. Teach your child his/her birthday.

18. Help them learn to sort: the laundry, silverware, etc.

19. Help them become aware of sounds in words. Play games: what starts with “mmmm?” “What ends with ‘ssssss’?” (remember we use the phonetic sounds of letters rather than the names)

20. Talk about the colors (don’t forget shades), textures, and shapes you see around you.

21. Provide art materials, paper, appropriate aprons, and mats to define the workspace. Provide
tools for cleaning up.

22. Evaluate each of your child’s toys.
Does it help him/her learn something? Does the child use it? Does it “work,” and are all pieces present? Is it safe?

23. Try to avoid doing for a child what he/she can do for himself/herself.

24. Alert the teacher to anything that may be affecting your child — lack of sleep, exposure to a
fight, moving, relative visiting in home, parent out of town, etc.

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