The typical Montessori day is arranged around two, three-hour uninterrupted work cycles, which means the children get to choose their activity and the teachers give individual or small group lessons. Here is our schedule at Sea Lavender:

8:30-11:30: Work cycle

11:30-1:00: Lunch and recess

1:00-1:30: Read aloud

1:30-3:30: Work cycle

The long work cycles are important so that the children learn how to make choices, get lost in the work, get excited, work on big projects, have the opportunity to fail and try again. They can have long periods of concentration and the opportunity to think and reflect.

The children track all of their work in a work journal. Once a week we have individual meetings with each of the children to review their work journals and plan for the future. We hold a weekly community meeting where we discuss classroom issues, resolve them, and show work to each other. We also make time every day to sing together as a group.

Children ages 6-12 have the same developmental characteristics, although these characteristics are new at age six, and hopefully mastered by age 12.

Montessori elementary teachers have content knowledge to provide academic curriculum through the 7th grade. But one of the beautiful things about the Montessori classroom is that the teacher alone doesn’t have to meet all the needs of all the children, because the children support each other.

The children tutor and support each other through lesson giving and informal support. Research shows peer tutoring results in higher test scores. And research also shows that children better gain mastery through teaching themselves.

Also, having a wide variety of ages allows children the freedom to work at their level without feeling ashamed if they are behind or scrutinized if they are beyond grade level. We can differentiate instruction really effectively because of the age span, rather than having to do a remedial reading group or gifted and talented program to meet everyone’s needs.

The children receive as much scaffolding from the materials and the adults as they need and leave it behind when they are ready.

Socially, the mixed-aged classroom has many benefits. It is natural for children, much like adults, to be drawn to friends based on shared interests and personality, rather than being limited to only those who are the exact same age. Additionally, the older children in the group thrive in their role as leaders, while the younger children benefit from having mentors. Parents often remark how Montessori children are so kind and respectful of younger children, both in and out of the classroom.

The shelves are organized by subject area. There are 8 areas: art, biology, geography, geometry, history, language, math, and music. There are also supply shelves because the children gather everything they need before they start an activity. Activities are organized in these areas so children can find them when they want them.

Additionally, in the Montessori elementary, children can choose to “go out.” Going out is not a field trip. It is an outing planned by a group of children to supplement their work in the classroom. For example, planning a trip to the local hardware store to gather supplies for building models of housing from ancient civilizations, or the grocery store to acquire baking supplies. These opportunities extend the classroom to the greater community and offer experiences that many children wouldn’t have until much later in life.

A child can choose any activity they’ve had a lesson on, either from an adult or another child. And because they’ve had so much practice at making choices independently, they typically know what they want to do. If they need a reminder, they can look in their journal. Ideally, they are choosing work that they are really excited to do.

Sometimes, children need more support. Just like when a child is first learning to put on their coat, sometimes they can do it by themselves, and sometimes they need help. This is the same with choosing activities. What people usually notice is that the older children don’t need help as often.

Montessori students get lessons in all the subject areas just like they would in any program. The main difference is that they have time to choose the subjects they are passionate about and spend more time on those. Additionally, the academic disciplines are quite integrated in a Montessori environment. Fractions can be explored as a discrete topic, or within the context of rhythm in music. In many non-Montessori classrooms there is a lot of wasted time either reviewing, or waiting for other children to catch up. The difference in the Montessori classroom is the children get lessons and practice in all subject areas, but can go deeper on those subjects that interest them. They also tend to maintain their love of learning and excitement about pursuing the subjects they care about.

There are a few main reasons we encourage handwork like knitting, crocheting and felting in the Montessori classroom:

1. Handwork is important for a child’s concentration. Children who struggle sticking with a work choice or maintaining focus, respond strongly to handwork, because it requires so much of their attention to be successful.

2. Handwork aids in optimal brain development. It is a crossing of the midline activity that aids in the development of vision, reading skills, and hand-eye coordination. Once mastered, handwork becomes an almost unconscious activity. At this point, it taps into the brain’s default mode network. In default mode, the brain consolidates concepts and new ideas occur. If you talk to innovators or artists, they will often tell you that their best ideas are sparked during mundane tasks.

3. Practicing fine motor skills in childhood helps develop dexterity and precision needed in professional fields, such as surgery. Medical schools are noticing a decline in students’ dexterity as a result of increased screen use and a lack of handwork in childhood.

4. Handwork is a community-building activity. Once mastered, children can both do handwork and engage socially with their peers.

We often see children gravitate toward handwork after completing a challenging work. They may be in the process of consolidating the Pythagorean theorem while working with their hands, following a difficult math problem!

Montessori teachers don’t correct a child’s work. The children check their work themselves. If the teacher notices an error, the teacher re-presents the lesson to help them learn to discover and correct the error on their own. Children learn better when they discover errors themselves than if they are told they are wrong by someone else, which also tends to squash enthusiasm and motivation.

Many of the Montessori materials are self-correcting. And the teacher is always checking in on a child’s work enough to know when they need to present a lesson to the child again.

We have a tablet and computer they can use when they need it for word processing and online research. The computer isn’t necessary to learn the basic things they need to learn; we use the computer as a tool.

Childhood is the time to understand how the physical world works, how to garner the ability to concentrate, reflect, imagine, and learn social cues. It is these foundational skills, developed in the absence of an overuse of technology, that allow for strong abstract skills in adolescence and adulthood. Interestingly, many tech experts keep their own children off screens at home and opt for low-tech schools for this reason.

There is no learning environment that we are aware of where all students meet all of the state standards. The difference is, in a Montessori classroom, if the child isn’t meeting a standard, we work with them until they are and continue to re-present lessons they haven’t mastered. It is a much more personalized learning approach. In mainstream schools, if a child doesn’t meet a standard, the rest of the class moves on without them so they either miss it or, if they are lucky, they end up needing to be pulled out for additional support that may help them meet the standards, but can be disruptive to the rest of their learning.

The biggest challenge we’ve seen in transitioning from Montessori classrooms to mainstream classrooms is feeling a lack of respect from the adults. In non-Montessori classrooms, for example, children typically have to ask permission from the adult to go to the bathroom. Rules like these feel strange to the Montessori child who is used to a high level of independence and respect from the teachers. Children from Montessori backgrounds often don’t like the rigid structure of a mainstream classroom, and that they often aren’t free or trusted to follow their interests.

Otherwise, children manage quite comfortably with the workload and translating their knowledge and skills. Time management skills of Montessori children are excellent. We hear consistently from mainstream teachers that the Montessori children come in knowing how to manage their own time.

Many Montessori alumni have commented that while it took a little work on their part to adapt to a more traditional system, they found that they were far better equipped to handle the transition to college life, than their peers who had not attended Montessori. Many Montessori alumni say that attending university felt like a return to their Montessori experience.