How Does the Practical Life Exercises Help Children in Their Daily Living? by Maria Montessori

Reason for operable animation-time ExercisesChildren argon earthyly interested in activities they have witnessed. Therefore, Dr. Montessori began using what she called operable manners Exercises to allow the claw to do activities of daily life and so adapt and orientate himself in his society.It is therefore the Directresss toil to demonstrate the shed light on way of doing these Exercises in a way that allows the squirt to fully observe the movements. Montessori says, If talking befoolt move, if moving dont talk.The directress must also keep in mind that the goal is to show the actions so that the electric shaver provoke go off and repeat the activity in his proclaim successful way. Montessori says, Our task is to show how the action is d maven and at the same time destroy the possibility of imitation. The nestling must develop his own way of doing these activities so that the movements become real and not synthetic.During the baby birds sensitive catch between bir th and 6, the infant is constructing the versed building blocks of his person. It is therefore important for the child to participate in activities to prep atomic number 18 him for his environment, that allow him to grow independently and expenditure his motor skills, as come up as allow the child to analyze difficulties he may have in the exercise and line solve successfully.Montessori also saw the childs need for order, repetition, and succession in movements. Practical Life Exercises also helps to aid the child to develop his coordination in movement, his balance and his gracefulness in hisenvironment as comfortably as his need to develop the power of being silent.Dr. mare Montessori developed her philosophy of education establish upon actual observations of children. She said children prefer train than play, and they can unaccompanied be in their natural self, when their natural self is satisfied through work. Its also through work they acquire independence, order, the power of concentration and be normalized. Exercises of Practical Life was introduced and was accepted as the very heart of Montessori Education for it provides the opportunity for the childs development of forcible co-ordination, social skills, emotional growth as fountainhead as cognitive preparation.Having a rich and stimulating lively environment equipped with purposeful materials and trained teachers are important for the child to grow to their full potential. Practical Life Activities are the first-class honours degree activities the child is introduced to within the Montessori environment. These exercises are prepared based on activities children witnesses in their day to day life. That is why children can immediately satisfy their inner involve and desires by mastering these exercises independently. Also Practical Life area allows children to do the things what adults do everyday, for congresswoman rifleing, dressing or greeting people. As we know that children constr uct their knowledge by themselves through their life experience.Cat selfries of Practical Life ExercisesPractical Life Exercises are grouped into four categories, development of motor skills, cope of environment, keeping of self and social grace and courtesy. Exercises in each of these categories provide the opportunity to do purposeful work and are designed to teach the child life skills, so that they may become confident to do their daily chores at home. Activities grouped under Development of Motor Skills, such as carrying, pouring, squeezing, and twisting, sorting, etc. thrust the opportunity to exercise and co-ordinate body movements of the child.Movement is very important to the child because it contributes not only for the physical growth also intellectual and spiritual development of the child. Through Movement, he acts upon his external environment and hence carries out his own personal mission in the world. Movement is not only an impression of the ego but it is an ind ispensable factor in the development of consciousness, since it isthe only real means which runs the ego in a clearly defined relationship with external reality.The secret of ChildhoodThe child learns to Care for the Environment from exercises wish well cutting, cleaning, washing, polishing, sewing and more. They learn that they are a part of the environment and learn to respect and develop a sense of responsibility towards the environment. Also the child will gradually learn how to gain greater retard of his gross motor movements so that he would be able perform more complex tasks later on. roughly of the activities such as washing of a table can be carried out as a group task, which helps the child to be socialized. The child needs to build himself and learn to take care of himself.The exercises in Care of Self category are designed to provide the child skills need for his sole independence. In order to gain independence, the child needs to establish will and discipline in o rder. Some of the activities in this category are on how to dress himself and stay clean by washing himself hands, face, feet as well as his belongings shoes, napkins, etc.. Between the ages of 2 1/2 -6, the child is in a sensitive period for the learning of respectable manners.The exercises of Grace and Courtesy are localizeed on growing will power, establish a proper posture, greet people, excuse ace and interrupt when necessary. Maria Montessori considers the fond Grace and Courtesy activities as the most important exercises in the practical life curriculum. She felt that when children are first brought into a Montessori classroom, emphasis must be placed on social grace exercises.Motive of Practical Life ExercisesPractical Life Curriculum area has four main direct aims Order, Co-ordination Independence and Concentration, Dr. Maria Montessori detect that children need order at a specific sensitive period in their development. If not provided during this period the opportuni ty is foregone. A routine is very important as well as a place for everything and everything in its place. This offers the child for orderly self construction. Co-ordination refers to coordinating large and small muscle movements as well as eye-hand co-ordination that reflect the respective development of childs mental life. Man achieves his independence by making efforts. To be able to do a thing without any help from others this is independence. If itexists, the child can progress rapidly if it does not, his progress will be slow The Absorbent Mind, chapter.XIV, pg 155It is very important that the child is given freedom to do these exercises at a time the child pleases he should be allowed to try, make out mistakes and correct his mistakes by himself without any help. The satisfaction of completing an activity drives the child towards independence. The power of Concentration is one of the most calming activities for a child. This is something which is controlled by the child and it challenges his body and his mind. With concentration the child is able to focus on purposeful work. Ive witnessed to the concentration that my 3 and half year old niece had for folding her olive-sized brothers nappies.The pile of nappies was two times bigger than her, I thought, she would be bored and leave, but for my amazement after 45 minutes I could see that she has folded all nappies very neatly and have kept one on light up of another and was ready to be placed in the drawers. Within the Montessori classroom blockheaded concentration can be acquired through the Silence Game. To achieve silence requires effort and the vigilance of the will, and maximum control of self-consciousness of every movement. Montessori thought of the silence lesson as a means for manner of speaking children to this higher aim of spiritual awareness. Practical Life Exercises aid the child in his journey towards normalizationAs a result of learning Practical Life Exercises in the Montessori envi ronment, the child starts to develop sureness, self-esteem, he grow towards independence, mutual aid and co-operation, profound spontaneous concentration, attachment to reality and most importantly childs joy of learning is supreme. each these help the child to lead towards normalization. The normalized children possess a unique character and personality not recognized in young children Normalization is the most important single result of our whole work. The Absorbent Mind, Chapter XIX, pg. 204.Children needs a carefully prepared environmentIt is important to provide the child an environment to work on activities of their own choice at their own pace experiencing freedom and self discipline while developing towards independence. even though materials in PracticalLife area are the least standardized, exercises needs to be carefully thought and designed. A prepared environment should consist of purposeful and important materials and properly trained instructors. When preparing ma terials the teacher needs to consider few principles of the Montessori Practical Life materials which satisfy Childs development needs.Firstly she needs to make authorized that each material we give the child should have a definite purpose, for an example the mat is located to mark the area of his workstation, handling the spoon develops childs skill of spooning which leads to independence. Secondly materials should progress from undecomposable to more complex design and usage. As a preliminary exercise for transferring solid objects we could give the child a spoon and later, it could progress to tweezers, chopsticks. Also it should be designed to prepare the child indirectly for future day learnings such as writing, mathematics and scientific concepts.We prepare the child for wiring by teaching them the pincer grip, using thumb, index and middle fingers to hold objects and by left to right and top to bottom concepts, so that these orders naturally incarnates in the childs mind. The mathematical concepts such as discernment of capacity and volume, division, calculation and exactness includes in activities of spooning, pouring and sweeping. The activity, transferring water using a sponge gives the child the scientific concept of weight. The child could feel the weight of the sponge defers when the water is absorbed and when the water is released. Dr. Maria Montessori said, Each individual should become aware of his own errors. Each should have a means of checking, so that he can tell if he is right or not. Absorbent Mind, Chapter XXIV, pg 247.So she included the path to perfection, which she called the learn of Error within the materials itself so the child would be able to observe the activity he completes and deduce his own mistakes. If a child has finished working on the dressing frame with large buttons, and he can see that buttons has gone through wrong buttonholes or buttoning halfway or seeing only half of the button come up the flap, these would be his control of errors. He has the opportunity to guide himself to correct his own mistakes. Furthermore when preparing the activity in the Montessori classroom the directress need to make sure that all materials are kept together in a basket or a tray and grouped accordingly to the level ofdevelopment.The activity should have its unique location and be reachable to the child so that the child could use the materials of their own choice and return the exercise, leading to independence and self-discipline. Also it is important to be providing attractive and clean child friendly and child size materials. Each activity should be limited in quantity. In a Montessori classroom the directress plays a major role. She needs to be properly trained, be a good role model and she should be able to develop and maintain a happy and rewarding teacher-child relationship. The first essential is that the teacher should go thru an inner, spiritual preparation cultivate certain aptitudes in the mora l order. Her Life and Work, Chapter XVIII, pg 298.The teachers prime objectives are to maintain order in the prepared environment, facilitate the development of the child, encourage independence and self-sufficiency. In conclusion it is apparent that Practical Life Exercises refines movement, providing a foundation in early learning, attitudes and dispositions. Practical life exercises also provide children a sense of accomplishment as they engage in real, meaningful work with tangible results. The familiar home-like environment of the practical life corner allows children to gain independence, order, concentration and confidence as they carry out thoughtfully prepared activities. This leads to normalization.