r/Montessori

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Hi y'all. I'm new to Montessori and taking the Prepared Montessorian Institute classes for children's house lead guide. I'll be filling the lead guide position in September. How do you all have your presentation album set up? Digital or physical? Are presentations organized by type or general age? Is it best to prioritize keeping each lesson to 1 page?

Any and all suggestions appreciated 😁

Has anyone here gone through Montessori training? If so, how was it for you?

Hello! My daughter is 23 months old and we recently welcomed her baby sister to the family. We practice Montessori principles and our daughter attends a Montessori school. We have been home with her new sibling for a week now and she's having a hard time adjusting. Thankfully, she loves her sister and has not expressed any displeasure towards her directly, but she is clearly aware of the changes and frankly I think she's just scared at what this all means for her. She is incredibly helpful with her sister and we've been engaging her in the process of caring for her without forcing her to do anything. As expected, she loves to help.

Most notably, she has started to downright refuse some of our standard daily routines like getting dressed, getting in her car seat and even walking vs being carried. Getting dressed is met with extreme defiance, yelling "no" and grabbing onto any stall tactic she can. Previously, we moved through our day pretty easily. The routine was known and there was no pushback and she always engaged in the process. My heart aches for her as I know she does not have the language to express her feelings and also it feels like we are getting away from some of the Montessori principles that we have worked so hard to build, such as respect for the child. We always talk to her about what we are doing (changing diaper, getting dressed, etc.) but when she's downright screaming and it feels like there's no other way to actually get clothes on her than struggle through it, it feels yucky as a parent. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

First-time mum here, due in a few weeks. I’m curious if the topponcino is something you used every day or more of an occasional use.

Also, what item or practice would you recommend for newborn stage? Thanks!

Kid is partially potty trained. For the past year, he’s been doing the number 2 in the toilet. He knows it and says he wants to go. But for the past 3 weeks now, he’s been quiet. All he does is go in his diapers/underwear.

We keep asking, do you want to go, etc.

He keeps saying no.

But after literally 15 seconds, he’d grunt and by the time we reach him, he’s done.

In the times we notice he’s starting, we carry him to the potty and he just keeps saying no no no.

Sometimes he just sits. Does nothing. Asking him over and over. Then after standing up, cleaning and all that, he plays for like two minutes and goes.

Any advice? Is this just a “regression” and part of the journey?

My kid is 2 and has been accepted to a Montessori school. She is scheduled to start in September. Unfortunately, I have had to enroll her in a traditional day care due to child care changes. I’m worried that this may make the transition to Montessori harder for her. Outside of continuing to practice Montessori in the home, are there any other things I can do?

I’m probably the most disorganized Montessori Guide I know. 😂 I’m such a Type C personality—I have the best intentions when it comes to planning, but I know my students so well that I often just teach from what I know they need in the moment.

It also doesn’t help that I have ADHD. Sitting down to lesson plan for more than five minutes—let alone planning for 20 children—feels nearly impossible. 😅

That said, my students are doing beautifully, and their growth honestly brings me to tears. ❤️

My school is asking for more intentional lesson planning and visual presentation schedules to better support my assistants, so I’m looking for a system that actually works.

What’s your favorite lesson planner or planning system?

Sibling training to be a Montessori trainer. The institute is affiliated with AMI Netherlands. The trainer is targeting her , asked her to kneel on the floor as punishment. She is also being singled out - she was told that she was being suspended for no reason and other trainees were not allowed to speak with her. She is being isolated as well. Can she raise a complaint to AMI Netherlands ? She will go to the police as well after collecting proof.

Editing to add : she is just one month into the course and the trainer already told her that she will not allow her to receive the Montessori certificate.

I’d appreciate some advice here.

My son just turned 2 a couple days ago. He’s been going to a Montessori school since the beginning of June - 2 days a week.

He’s been full-time at home with me his entire life. I don’t technically need him to be there. I freelance and make my own hours but I don’t have a heavy workload. It’s mostly so I can have a day to clean the house and another day to run errands.

I had a lot of anxiety when we decided to enroll him, I was reassured by my husband and my family he’d do great and love it, but it’s just not going well.

First couple days he did great. After his very first day, the owner told me he was an angel, had so much fun, etc etc and put me on the spot to register him for the fall. I had 24 hours to decide. Ooook annoying but whatever my husband and I decided to go for it. There’s a huge waiting list (just like everywhere else) so we figured we’d go for it. They only have full-time options in the fall so we’d essentially be paying full time prices but send him 3 days a week. Again, not that he needs to go, but my thinking was he’d be settled somewhere once we have our hypothetical second baby.

Well. He’s crying. A lot. He’s SCREAMING for mommy or daddy when we drop him off. They have to physically pull him off me. He’s crying on and off all day. He’s not napping. He’s become insanely clingy with me since starting and refuses to let anyone else really hold him or take him or do anything. School called me Friday to tell me to come get him because he wouldn’t stop crying all day. Broke my heart. And I cried the whole way to pick him up.

People are telling me (including the owner) he just needs to go more often and get used to it…. Mmmmm idk about that. Why would I keep forcing him into a situation he’s not happy or excited about when I could just keep him?

I really freaking enjoy having two days off. But jfc i don’t know how much more I can take of his freaking screams at drop off. I feel like it’s torture. For him and for myself.

I’m considering pulling him entirely and just eating the registration fee. But idk. My husband doesn’t care either way. My mom is telling me to pull him & that he’s too young/not ready. My SIL (her kid is at the same school) is telling me to send him more often. What would you do?

TLDR: 2yo isn’t doing well at school and idk if I should pull him out or not.

I am currently looking at schooling alternatives for my 7-year-old daughter, who is autistic and likely ADHD. She attended two different Montessori preschools when she was younger, and recently I had a long conversation with guides from a local Montessori elementary school at a school fair.

Reflecting on all three of these experiences, I realized I’ve had the same persistent concern, and I’m trying to discern if we've just encountered poor execution of the method, or if there is a fundamental mismatch between Montessori pedagogy and her specific neurotype.

When she was in preschool, she really struggled with what felt like a paradox in the environment:

• On a macro level, the long, open work periods felt under-structured for her. Without explicit scaffolding, she would often wander the room, lost and unable to choose a task.
• On a micro level, the materials felt overly rigid. While Montessori objects are designed to be self-correcting, I noticed that the adults were often incredibly eager to jump in and redirect her the moment she deviated from the "proper" presentation of the material.

To a 3-year-old, it felt like, "This adult won't let me play." Now at 7, she has more tolerance for adult intervention, but it still completely kills her intrinsic motivation. For example, at the fair the other day, she was fascinated by the binomial cube and was trying to figure it out. But the guide at the booth constantly interjected with, "No, you take them out like this," and "No, you put them back like this." I watched my daughter physically stiffen and immediately lose interest.

As she has grown, I’ve realized her needs are actually the exact inverse of the typical Montessori setup: she does better in with a highly structured, predictable daily schedule and clear goals, but once the goal is set, she needs some freedom to be left alone to figure out the execution in her own way.

For the guides and parents here: Is the heavy, immediate adult redirection we keep encountering a misinterpretation of "following the child," or is this high level of precision inherent to the method? I would love to hear from anyone who has navigated the Montessori environment with twice-exceptional or neurodivergent kids who require structure but minimal intervention once she's started working.

Has anyone else had a student be disappointed there is no golden bead material to represent 10000? I had a group of children this year who loved using the golden bead material to make "big numbers" and kept asking me about a ten thousand cube. A couple even tried to make one, using tape and the thousand cubes from the bank, but it not being a cube was disappointing for them. We talked about how because 1000 the first unit, we could think about the thousand cube like a unit bead, and that a 10000 object would probably look like a 10, and I think that worked for them. But man, they were really looking forward to getting to use some sort of hypercube.

I've been an assistant in an IC for about 6 years. I have my own 2.5 year old child. We started toileting at 19 months. We've been doing this for 9 months now and she's still peeing her pants multiple times a day. I've never experienced this before. Usually we have an issue in the classroom when the parents are not doing it at home, but we are doing this consistently in the classroom and at home. I don't know what to do anymore. I'm beginning to get frustrated, which is not helpful.

Any advice is welcome.

I have a 2 year old. He keeps pushing other kids at playgrounds/parks. I shadow him tell him no, be nice and stop him when I can. Obviously it’s next to impossible every time plus he’s fast lol. I refuse to do any kind of spanking so please don’t suggest that. He has a speech delay. He sees a speech pathologist for his delay. He’s advanced in all the other areas. But he’s taller than most other kids his age. I know when he pushes he just wants to play with the other kids. He wants to be very social with other kids but his way of communicating I think is to run up to another kid push them and run and have the other kid chase him/play with him. He starts preschool in 8 months when he turns 3 and I really don’t want him pushing kids there. Right now he’s being watched at home by my wife who is a stay at home mom.

Any advice is much appreciated.

so for context, i just got my AMI diploma in april, and have started working in a school. the school, despite telling me i would not be the lead adult in the classroom, made me one - and fast forward to friday, in the overwhelm of a kid not choosing work and disrupting everyone else who was working, i said, “i won’t send you home until you finish your work.”
i rightfully had my ass handed back to me, even through the yelling and screaming by the founder. but i’d like to know what phrases work better to help a child redirect to work or things they like within the environment? i work as a guide in the 3-6 classroom, and this kid is 5 and a half, ready for elementary.

i obviously feel very shitty about saying it, and i’ve never been a fan of using that phrase at all - when i used to intern before i got my diploma, at the previous workplace, the adult i worked under would use it often, and i thought it would work here. clearly it’s a shitty phrase from the get-go. i thought of an alternative of “your parents are waiting for you outside, it’s going to take a long time to finish if you sit with the material like this” but that, too, i think instills some fear in the child.

We are doing a staff development day and I want us all to observe toddler and primary programs in the area. Looking for recommendations.

My 5 year old has her first loose tooth (eekk!!). I am so not prepared for this. We’ve been rooted in Montessori parenting from the beginning. Santa and the Easter Bunny are a characters that we see in movies and books and can often represent the spirit of the holidays.
We just finished her first year in elementary school (pre kindergarten) and she’s seen most of her classmates lose teeth and have a visit from the tooth fairy this year.
I’ve never entertained the idea of tooth fairy coming to visit her but I don’t want her to feel left out if her friends ask.
Do you have a special tradition you do with your littles’ teethies that does not include the tooth fairy?
Or do you break the mold and partake in this tradition?

hi all! i have a 7 month old and ive heard from a few friends their kids love montessori toys. i just wanted to know what makes something montessori? what’s the importants of it? are there disadvantages? i’ve bought a few things labeled as such but they’re all different from each other! i’m just curious over all about what it is and what makes it what it is! tyia