When curiosity becomes an enemy of a child, what can you do?

I had presumed that 'fear of failing' is visible late in Higher secondary school and later ages. I was therefore surprised, when i noticed in young children of 3-4 years age in a Montessori.

Every child has a invisible 'challenge zone'. If the new task is 'below' the challenge zone, the child is bored. This is why child dumps a toy soon after he buys it. If the task is 'above' the challenge zone, the child faces the fear of failing in it. His response to this fear 'determines' his speed of learning.  If he withdraws, his learning stops for the time being. If he engages with the activity despite failing, he will learn to do it sooner or later. When he responds to one such difficulty by withdrawing himself, it does not matter perhaps. But when he responds to these new tasks - as he encounters them again by again - by repeatedly withdrawing from them, he sets up a pattern that is harmful for his learning.

Repeated response to a new task therefore determines the child's speed and extent of learning. Child's curiosity always drives him towards new tasks and objects. But his ability to negotiate this 'challenge zone' influences his ability to learn. If he fails to negotiate it, he stops taking new tasks which in turn stops his learning. If he manages to negotiate it, he keeps on stretching himself and continues to learn. For a child, who is not able to negotiate this challenge zone, Curiosity becomes his enemy. 

Imagine a child for whom Curiosity has become his/her enemy. For such a child new activity, instead of excitement, generates anxiety in him. Instead of engaging in new activity, he discovers new excuses every day to avoid new task. Some children even boast of activities that they claim to have done earlier. Instead of engaging with friends who explore, he finds friends who do the same activity again and again. Besides expending his 'physical energy', such games and activity offer him little help in learning. When I met a 3-year old child, who refused to remove 'training wheels' of his bicycle, because he found it 'challenging' to balance without those wheels, I felt sad. If you meet such a child, you will do your best to help your child nurture his curiosity.

What can you do in helping your child nurture his Curiosity?

These seven rules will help you:

First, give activities that are just above the challenge zone of your child. Many parents, in the haste to help their child grow faster, offer new activities which are way beyond their challenge zone. For such parents, small exposure is better than no exposure. When a child is offered an activity beyond his challenge zone, World map for instance for a child of 4 years, he learns nothing from the activity. He just repeats the steps mechanically and tends to memorise it by rote. Infact, it gives him a false impression of knowing more than he knows.

If you are not sure about the activity to offer to your child, consult your Montessori teacher or use a Montessori book.

Second, your child is unique. Please do not assume that a difficult task for one child will be difficult for your child.

A child will find a seemingly simple task difficult, and the reverse. For instance, N ( One  child in Sapience Montessori) found that remembering color names like red, blue and yellow was so difficult for him that he started saying "I do not want to come to Montessori'.  Another child H, found it difficult to match cylinders with the holes in the block, if the cylinders were kept at a distance of 10 feet. She could match them when they were kept closer to each other. She cried when reminded to do that activity.

Not every child behaves in the same way when a new activity is introduced. Some children, when introduced to a new activity, will take long time to engage in it. Some do it immediately. For instance, one child in Sapience takes up new activity next day, while another girl child takes it after a week.

Third, give the child enough space and time to overcome his/her fear of failing. 

For instance, N ( the child mentioned above ) became so anxious that he did not take any activity for 3 weeks. In Montessori, this cushion is provided to the child to accept his fear and deal with it. On the other hand, H ( the girl child mentioned above) overcome her fear by talking to herself for a month. She kept on telling herself that " I will be able to perform the activity if I do the activity again and again'.

Fourth, do not help the child to perform the new activity.

Initially, you may show your child how to do the activity by doing it yourself. But, once you show it, never help the child while he is doing it. Remember, he has to go through his feelings of inadequacy himself. If the child is struggling to finish it you may help him by making comments, such as 'Try once again' or 'If you do it again, you will get it".  

Fifth, do not punish 'indirectly' for doing activities unsuccessfully.

Parents do not punish a child directly. But when a child does not finish an activity, Parents indirectly punish the child by saying " I will not play with you if you do not do this'. Or they may even tease the child by saying something like " If you are a superman, why couldn't you do it?" Unsuccessful attempts should never be discouraged. Here is a chance for us adults to let the child know that 'it is ok to fail'.

Sixth, do not praise the child for doing new task/activities successfully.

This rule is most often broken by modern parents. When the child does an activity well, they give 'High Five', or a chocolate, or praise like " You are a good child", or " You are a superman". When we praise the child for 'successful outcome', we unconsciously promote the idea that "Succeeding in a task is more important than Trying to do the task'. When you praise the child too often in this way, such a child stops taking new activities where the chances of failing are high. For a child, getting praise is more important than doing a difficult activity and failing in it. That is why, in Montessori, the rule of 'No Praise' works.

Seventh, if you observe him failing for a long time, offer him 'strategies' to negotiate the difficulty,

Do not offer specific help to the child. Offer him 'rules'. He should apply the rule in his specific situation. Never give specific instructions to the child. Type of new task however determines the strategy.The task may be purely cognitive ( such as remembering the names of fruits), pure motor tasks (such as jumping on a bar with both legs), or a mixture of both ( such as seeing the shape of cylinder and matching it with right hole).

For instance, rule like ' Put the needle in the cloth from the same side' is useful for a child to weave a button. Or ' Look at the length of the cylinder and hole before putting the cylinder in the hole' is useful to put cylinders in the right hole.  Sometimes the best strategy is to follow another child , such as for pure motor tasks.

In a Montessori, the adult teacher devises customised strategies to negotiate the challenge zone that are unique for a child and his/her situation.

Summary

In a real Montessori environment, a child is offered hundreds of new activities where the child learns to negotiate his/her challenge zone again and again. From a single material kit like Cylinder block, 120 different exercises of varying difficulties can be offered. Child gets repeated opportunities to learn from one challenge and incorporate those learnings to negotiate the next challenge zone. Even if he fails in one, he still finds other activities that helps him regain his confidence. If he succeeds, he finds another challenge where he can test himself.

I think that this repeated pattern of negotiating challenge zones in a Montessori makes a Montessori child 'fail-proof'. This 'small' difference in his early age helps the child in taking tough challenges in his future life, which i think is a biggest gift that Montessori offers to a child.

Utilise freedom to inculcate discipline in the child

Generally, freedom and discipline are supposed to be opposites. This is because we have given our own meanings to these two words. While freedom is supposed to mean 'You can do whatever you want to', while discipline means 'do what adults say'.

Image Credit: Sapience Montessori House of Children

Dr Maria Montessori gave a different twist to these words and created a new method to help the child develop 'character traits' ( we also call them personality traits) such as patience, focus and independence. 

Discipline 

She classified discipline into two categories : Internal discipline and External discipline. Generally, we as adults are more concerned about external discipline which we can visibly see in a child - does he do whatever he is doing without getting distracted, does he disturb others, does he damage the material. She however asserted that this 'external discipline' behaviour is the consequence of 'internal discipline'. So instead, she urged teachers to focus on developing 'internal discipline' in the child. 

Freedom 

But how to achieve internal discipline in a child ? Her counter-intuitive answer was 'Use freedom'. She gave 'restricted' freedom to the child that is compatible to the nature of the child.

For instance, in Montessori environment, the child is given complete freedom to choose his own activity from the myriad of activities, every day. He has the freedom to move in the environment and observe anyone doing it . Child has the freedom to do her activity at her own pace and not do what the rest of the students in the class are doing.

But this freedom is not without restriction. For instance, child can choose his own activity, provided he has been presented earlier and provided it is available on the rack. If it is not on the rack, he has to wait for other child to finish. This is how he develops patience. Child can do any activity in his own way, provided she does not misuse the material. For instance, a child cannot use pink tower to play Lego. This helps her respect the proper usage of the material. Or the child can move in the environment freely, provided he does not distract other child. This helps the child to develop 'social intelligence'.

On the other hand, the child is given complete freedom in areas which matter to him a lot. For instance, he can eat at whatever time he wants. Or he can go in the outer environment at any time. Or, he can do 'nothing' if he is upset about something. He can refuse to take new activity and assert his independence. He can repeat an easy activity to feel good about himself.  

Outcome of using freedom for developing internal discipline

Dr Maria Montessori carefully orchestrated the freedom that suits the nature of the child. This leads to a child who becomes independent, self-learning, and observant. A child in Montessori, for instance, learns to do many 'blindfold' activities without cheating himself, because the child understands the benefit of learning.

Conventional schools, on the other hand, manage this freedom in a wrong way. By forcing child to do a pre-decided activity, they disregard the child's willingness to learn. By making every student learn at the 'same' pace, they force every child to disregard their own individual grasping ability forcing him to miss a lot. By restricting his movement in the class, they take away the child's opportunity to  learn from seeing others doing it.

How can you use this wonderful rule of freedom at home for a child age 3-6?

When we discussed these methods in a parent's meeting, following three ideas emerged:

1. Re-negotiate choices with the child while eating

Have fixed times to eat. If the child eats in between, he is not hungry at the food time and therefore refuses to have his food. If the food is new to him/her, give him the choice to eat or not. But once the child sits on the dining table, which should suit his small size, do not give him choice to move while eating. Do not use TV to distract him. Do not use mobile to let him play games. Make him sit with others until the food is over. Do not force him to eat, but he must sit at the table.  

2. Re-negotiate choices with the child while sleeping

Prepare him for bed. A good cue is to change his dress while sleeping, if possible. While going to bedroom, dim the lights. While going to bed, if possible, give him options like : listening to music, singing a lullaby, or telling a story. If you wish to tell him a story, restrict him to one story. Children often ask for many stories. One of the parent suggested a new method to restrict the story to one. If you ask the child to 're-tell the first narrated story',  he is not able to 'recount the story' at this age. This helps us to restrict the story to 1.

3. Give restricted freedom to the child in public places like roads, malls, and trains

In public places, safety is paramount. In these situations, do not negotiate the choices with the child. If the child is told to hold your hands ( as far as possible , do not hold his hand), he must hold it irrespective of anything. If the child refuses to listen, be stern. There is no need of raising voice. A stern look is good enough. But if the child refuses to listen, warn him. For instance, warn him that he will be taken back to home. And do it , if the child does not listen.

At the end, the child must develop his internal discipline, not external discipline. He should become independent in making his choices. It is easy to make the child listen to 'us'. But in a long run, it does not help. Because we do not want our child to depend on us to make his choices all the time.

Designing and narrating stories for your child

Parents of children between age 3-6 must learn to design their own stories for their children, because the stories available in the market are either irrelevant or inadequate to meet the child's requirement. 

Here are three reasons why you cannot use most of the book stories in the market. 

1. Stories are irrelevant to the child's experience : Current stories in the book market are about fairies, kings and queens or jungle animals. 

Children of this age cannot 'find' any relevance of these stories because they have not experienced 'jungle animals'. Even if you want to help the child to 'imagine', the child can imagine only when you give him an 'anchor' to relate 'imaginary object' with something they have seen or experienced. For instance, if you are telling a story of a jungle lion to your child, he should have at least seen a 'farm' to imagine the 'jungle'.  With no 'anchor', the child is unable to 'connect' with the story and draw any meaningful conclusion. Learning opportunity is missed. 

2. Fantasy stories of Arabian Knights or Panchtantra are not useful to the child of this age, because children at this age cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. From these stories, they often learn incorrect correlations about 'magical lamp', 'flying saucer' or 'magical fruit which can bring the wealth'.

This disconnection from reality often makes the child believe in wrong correlations such as when they believe that 'If I hit another child, that child will not feel the pain' , or 'I can hide in pumpkin', or "I can be as strong as Superman and can ask for ice-cream even at 12 midnight'. Or 'animals can eat or bite me'. Or if his Mom is compelling her to eat, she calls her 'Devil', because she is correlating anything 'unpleasant' with being 'Devil'. As it is, the reality is vast and big. Instead of taking the child closer to the reality, fantasy stories 'distorts' the reality and makes it more difficult for the child to understand reality. We are unknowingly creating a learning hurdle in the child's path. That is why Montessori method does not encourage telling fantasy stories to a child of this age. 

3. Stories often portray pictures with disproportionate figures. For instance, a story of dog and his friend may show the Dog to be 10 times the size of the boy. Or even animals like lion and elephant are not shown proportionately in their sizes. Because of these disproportionate figures, the child cannot 'imagine' the size of elephant until he has seen a 'real elephant'.  A story, instead of helping the child get closer to the reality, takes him 'far away' from the reality.

Designing and narrating your stories 

Because of the above inadequacies in the books available in the market for the children between 3-6, a parent today is compelled to design and narrate his/her stories. Here are five suggestions to design a compelling story that will help child learn and get closer to the reality: 

1. Create Picture stories: A child of age 3 requires pictures to 'use' his imagination to connect with the story. So click real pictures, or use pictures from the net. If a child has experienced the 'event' in the real world, he may not need as much help from pictures. For instance, if the child has used a bus/train to travel, this child can 'relate' with the story of a child 'lost in the bus'. But if the child has never used a bus, he may need some help to imagine the 'bus'. Therefore, as the child reaches the age of 5, he needs less and less pictures to 'appreciate the story'. You can also use a free program like Scratch to create your story. 

2. Stick to a theme in a story: Decide the theme and stick to it.  For instance, the theme could be emotional fears like fear of dark or fear of strangers. Or the theme could be focused on the personal likes such as 'inability to eat fruits' or 'not eating regular lunch' or 'taking too much time to get ready in the morning for the school'. Or the theme could be 'behaviour in social situations' such as 'a child going to mall and reading books in a shop', or a 'child lost on the bus stand'. 

3. Use the same picture story with different objectives: A story can be used to help the child to increase his vocabulary of new words - be it the mother tongue or the second language like English. Or the story can be used to help the child face his/her emotions, such as fear of dark, or fear of detaching from mother when mother goes to the market, fear of small insects. A child is unable to 'name' his fear because he is not 'aware' of his emotion. Instead of feeling that ' I should be a superman and not be afraid of insects', child needs validation from adults that 'It is OK to be afraid'. A story can help the child 'experience' and 'name' the emotion.

4. Dramatise the story while narrating it:  Use the pitch and frequency of sound to express emotions in the story. Use body language if necessary. Use laughter if required. The story narrating is a one-man act. The more emotions you can show in the story, the better the child can 'connect and retain' it. Of course, the emotions should be appropriate.

5. Involve the child in the story by asking questions: A story for an older child can be a 'monologue', but a story for a child between 3-6 should be a 'dialogue'. Involve the child in the story by asking him questions. 

Involving the child also helps you understand your child better. If the story is about fear of dark, ask him 'if he ever got afraid of darkness'.  If your child is 'masking emotion', that is a big input for you to understand your child. You may also get surprise answers to your questions. For instance, when i asked a child what he remembered about the trip to another school, the child told me about the 'van' he enjoyed to go to the school. 

Summary

If parents can learn this art of designing and narrating a story, it can help them in achieving all the four objectives: understand their child better, train the child in increasing 'emotional' range, help them in conversing smartly, and above all, take them one step closer to the 'real world'. We are often in a hurry to help the child 'imagine', but please remember, imagination without an anchor to the real world is just an escape for the child from facing the tougher reality. 

We have formed a group of parents who are designing their own stories. We shall post one of the story here to help you understand the 'template of a good story' for a child between 3-6 age.  

Help the child to pause in his daily routine

Background

Often parents, in the haste to make their children super achievers, offer children learning kits and options one after another. They take their children to 'activity centers'. They buy 'learning kits' like travel kits from websites and give them to children to 'occupy' their time. They take their children to ' Art Clubs'. They take their children to 'Language classes'. What can this lead to? 

Unknowingly all these 'activities' take the child to the one extreme end of the learning spectrum. Children use Brain's Executive Attention Network ( EAN) to learn from their activities. But children also have to use brain's Default Mode Network (DMN) to help them reflect, pause, process and imagine the data they have culled from doing the activities. 

Without using enough DMN, child just moves from one activity to another. The child may become hyperactive. Without DMN, the child does not develop the patience to do the activity again when he/she encounters failure. Without DMN, the child does not process the information 'mentally' in the background which is so critical in learning.  

Instead of pushing your child to do new activities all the time, if you allow the child to pause and reflect, it will help your child retain what he has learnt, but also use it further. Here are 4 ideas to help your child , between the age of 2.5 to 4, to help him become better learner.

1. Tell Stories to the children 

Children imagine themselves in the character of stories. This imagination helps them pause and reflect. At this age, use picture books to tell the story, because the child finds it easier to utilise his limited imagination to understand the story. Because picture book stories available in the market are not well designed, use one of the two options. Either use the picture books available in the market, but create your own stories. Or click your own pictures and make your own picture book. 

To make the story interesting, follow these 5 guidelines at the minimum. 1> Dramatise the story by acting the feelings or actions. If the child cannot understand that 'there is a bird behind the curtain' narrated in the story, show him the curtain. 2> Make the story short, not more than 5-10 minutes at a time. 3> Ask questions while narrating the story. For instance, if the story is about a child going in a 'mall', ask the child if he has gone to the mall. Wait and let the child talk about the mall before continuing the story further. 4> The story should have relevance in the child's life. Do not, for instance, tell stories about going to the jungle, because the child cannot relate to it. Instead tell him about going to the 'garden' or 'farm'. 5> Try to have a 'mystery' component in the story. Mystery component is a component which the child is struggling to understand. For instance, children cannot express their fear about dark or of big sound. Weave the story around 'dark'. Or children are scared of missing mom. Or children have questions that make them worry about 'insects biting'. Weave stories around those themes.

2. Slow the pace of the child's daily routine

Often the child is busy doing one activity of another during the day. We feed his 'activity-ness' by constantly offering him new activities. Instead do the reverse. Pause the button of the child by using some of these ideas.

For instance, play instrumental music in the background in the morning. Show the child insects and talk to him about insects. Involve the child in activities that promote introspection like colors or painting. Or making mud sculpting. Or gardening. Or cleaning cars and vehicles. Or, very simply, find a group of playing children, and let him play with them. 

3. Involve the child in 'real' activities 

Do not give him 'game activities'. The child knows that these activities are meant to 'test' him.

Instead involve the child in house-hold activities like cutting vegetables, sifting grains, peeling beans, cleaning utensils, arranging mattress, replacing bed sheets, cleaning crockery and so on. Take care to give him items which are non-breakable. Give him items which are small in size and weight.Give him separate material to do his work which should be according to his size. For instance, if you want your child to broom, use broom of small size. 

4. Design activities with 'constraints'

For instance, if you want to give your child mop to clean, design the full activity. Mark the space where he can use mop, put a small bucket of water and fill it with appropriate amount, have a mop of small size to mop, show him how to dry the mop before using it again. Only after this entire activity is designed , demonstrate it to him before giving it to him.

Or for instance, while telling him to water the plants, do not give him carte blanche. Give him a specific instruction like 'Please water only rose plants'. Or 'Please water hibiscus plant'. Please request him to pour water at the trunks and not leaves. If he asks why, tell him the reason.

Summary

Please do not get misled by the child's constant desire of seeking new activities. His large number of neurons wants constant stimulation. But if you want your child to learn, not just remember items by rote, it is better to help him pause and reflect on 'what he is doing'.

Brain development myths and pre-schooling

Myths of brain development have contributed to the proliferation of pre-schools. There are many myths of brain. Here is one list. We shall discuss here about three top most myths that affect pre-schoolers.

1. Myth 1: Brain is plastic only till the age of 6: Many parents today believe in this myth and therefore are eager to put their child in the pre-school. They believe that if the brain is kept 'idle', it will remain un-utilised, and therefore the child will not develop better. This myth has been busted and is not considered to be true. Our brain is plastic enough to change at any age. So do not put your child in pre-school, because his brain is more plastic at this age.

But why is it still important for a child to learn the 'right way' till the age of 6? It is due to 'brain wiring'. Each of our brains is wired differently depending on where we start, what we experience, and how we learn. This 'wiring' is unique for each of us. So if we learn 'numbers' in a particular way, for instance, our wiring will be happen in that specific way. And our future learning also gets 'channelised' due to the existing wiring. Certain types of brain wiring, for instance, how we learn to react to people or how we develop patience impact our 'future learning' much more than, say the way we learn 'a subject like geography'. Montessori is more helpful because it helps child to properly wire his development of 'traits' like patience, concentration and overcoming the fear of failing, instead of wiring the 'content' of subjects.

2. Myth 2: Our brain impressions are permanent: This myth makes parent believe that whatever the child learns at the age of 3-6 stays with him forever. Once again, this understanding is mistaken. When we learn something for the first time, we use our 'memory' to retain it. If we however do not repeat this often, we lose the 'content'.

How does the child retain the 'content' for a long time? He/she retains it by using five tricks: repetition, use of emotion, interest, understand the relevance and interlinking. These five keys help the child  retain the 'content' for a long time. That is why, when the child  repeats the content again and again, the child retains it after few repetitions. How do we make the child repeat 'content again? 

One is by force. For instance, ask the child to 'write' 1 to 100 three times in his homework every day. This use of force however creates unintended consequences. It 'distorts' the will of the child and makes the child feel 'helpless'. The state of 'helplessness' affects the child's overall learning, because he loses motivation. This is what happens in normal pre-school. After the initial spurt of learning new content, the child soon loses his motivation to learn. Morever, it also affects his future learning of  arithmetic, because the foundation of his brain wiring of 'numbers' is not proper.

On the other hand, Montessori uses 'interest' to fuel the repetition. A child in Montessori repeats an activity due to his/her interest. And because every child can take the material on his own ( there is no group learning in Montessori), he can repeat it as many times as he individually wants. This repetition enables the child to first master the 'fine motor skills' but also the later 'sensory' impressions. Even when the child is 'taught' numbers, he learns it in a 'fundamentally proper' way. This helps his brain to 'wire' the numbers in an appropriate way, which later helps the learning of numbers through an appropriate channel.  

Myth 3: Brain has compartments for different content and skills: This myth has resulted in misdirected strategies of learning. One is , for instance, left brain-right brain compartmentalization. Now researchers agree that brain does not have these left brain-right brain compartments. 

But this dichotomy has resulted into various misdirected learning strategies. For instance, Left brain retains analytical content and right brain retains imagination. So to teach imagination, some pre-schools teach content like 'drawing, music or craft'. Naturally this does not help the child to 'imagine' better. On the other hand, Montessori takes a different approach. It trains the child to build 'reproductive imagination' which later can mature into 'creative imagination' using the entire brain, not just one part of the brain. 

Another myth arising out of this compartments is that we have different learning styles. For instance, some learn by 'doing', some by 'visual pictures'. Once again, this is just a myth. We may prefer to use a specific  mechanism of learning more than other, but that is not determined by our 'brain'. It is determined by our 'initial wiring'.

If you are interested in knowing more about brain development in simple language, see this http://www.brainrules.net/. 

Source of image: http://www.kayramuhendislik.com.tr/

How Montessori helps child imagination

Many parents are confused about Montessori's role in helping child's imagination. Because Montessori does not encourage art activities like singing and drawing, or telling stories of fairies or animal talking to each other, it is assumed that Montessori does not develop imagination. Here is an attempt to present the full picture of the Montessori's role in developing child's imagination.

Two types of Imagination

Imagination of child grows in two steps: Step 1 of Reproductive Imagination and Step 2 of Creative Imagination. 

Reproductive imagination develops when a child has to remember a sensory impression and use it: whether it is sound, smell, taste or visual ( shape or colour). For instance, when a child is reciting a song's melody ( not the words), the child is using reproductive imagination. This imagination uses  memory and involves faithful representation of what already exists. 

Creative Imagination develops when a child learns basic variables of a medium, say Sa Re Ga Ma in music, and then learns to 'creatively' reconfigure them to construct a new 'tune'. Creative imagination therefore goes one step ahead: it does not stop at faithful representation of reality, but recombines the 'real variables' in a new image. Creative imagination therefore requires 'mastery' of basic inputs of a medium ( the medium could be painting, dancing or physics ) before those inputs can be reconfigured creatively. Therefore a scientist takes longer time to use his creative imagination to produce an innovation, then say a musician or painter. 

A child therefore first uses reproductive imagination when he learns to 'copy and reproduce' the music or painting. Only when the child masters the 'real variables' through using step 1 repeatedly, a child can take a leap and start using the creative imagination to 'reconfigure' those variables and produce 'new music'. 

How does Montessori help a child in imagination 

Montessori helps a child in reproductive imagination during the pre-school stage , age 3 to 6, or also called as first plane of education. Montessori actively develops this imagination by designing M1 and M2 activities for many sensorial material. For instance, M1 activity in cylinders involves the child keeping all the cylinders in one tray, and then bringing each cylinder to fit a 'cylinder socket' by recalling the image of a cylinder that may fit the socket. M2 activity uses 'imagery' even more because in this activity, child distributes the cylinders in the various parts of the Montessori environment, not just in one tray, and therefore requires to use far more 'reproductive ' imagination to complete the activity.

In Montessori, shapes and textures are also used in developing reproductive imagination by doing them with 'blindfolds'. Doing stereognastic activity with blindfolds using 3-dimensional solids like cube, cylinder and prisms also develops this imagination. More importantly, the child in Montessori is enabled to understand the real properties of a object such as length, breadth, thickness, colour and sound more distinctly with various sensorial material such as Geometrical cabinet, colour cylinders and three dimensional solids. These distinct properties can then be used to 'reconfigure' in second plane of education, which starts after 6 years of age. In other words, the foundation of creative imagination is laid in this pre-school very firmly in Montessori.

How to help your child of 3 to 6 age to develop his/her imagination 

Based on the available literature, here are 4 ways that a parent can help a child develop his/her imagination:

1. Avoid unhelpful fantasies

Unhelpful fantasies are those that encourage 'wrong correlations'. For instance, when a child watches a cartoon where a character hits someone with fist and that person 'flies' and falls without getting hurt, the child also 'believes' that hitting by fist does not hurt. These wrong correlations of 'cause' and 'effect' confuse the child. Therefore fantasies presented in typical cartoons confuse the child by introducing 'wrong correlations' which he has to 'unlearn'.. Fairy tale stories also introduce child to wrong correlations and are therefore not helpful.

2. Facilitate helpful fantasies like pretend play

On the other hand, some type of fantasies may actually help a child. For instance, 'pretend play' type of fantasies are fantasies where children role-play imaginary conversations of adults, such as parents asking the child to 'eat' his food. Children also role-play the role of a fruit vendor and imagine buying fruits from him. These fantasies help the child understand the 'real world'. Accordingly psychologists believe that these fantasies are helpful.

Other fantasies - such as when we tell the story of animals talking to the child - are supposed to be neither helpful nor unhelpful. Psychologists believe when children are told that 'animals talk', they actually believe that 'animals can really talk'. In technical language this is called 'Credulity'. Child uses this information as 'real variable', instead of 'imaginary variable'. Montessori therefore does not encourage these kind of stories.

3. Help the child learn a medium like music, painting if the child shows inclination

As we mentioned earlier, creative imagination can be done only when the medium is 'fully understood'. As mediums like music and painting can be learnt at an early age, a willing child can be helped in learning this medium just by watching others sing, play a sitar or drum. If the child shows an inclination ( inclination is more important) in learning music, encourage it because it will help him later after he reaches the age of 6. In Montessori, child is introduced to music through a musical material in an appropriate manner. However, I have not heard of any other medium ( such as drawing) which has been introduced to a child at such a early age ( before 6). If anyone knows this, i would be glad to be informed.

4. Use the child's imagination to incite his curiosity

Child's imagination is developing at the age of 4, not at 3. If a child of 4 is introduced to the card, say 'potter' making pots, it can excite the child in asking lot of questions. If the child's curiosity is sufficiently triggered, the child may 'want' to see a real potter and the process of making pots. When such a willing child is shown the process of pot-making, the child has more questions because of his use of imagination. Learning is deeper and stickier. This method of firing the child's imagination to make him ask questions is a very effective way of learning for a child. You can use this method to help him understand lot of things in real life. Instead of 'stuffing the child' with more and more information, which he is not interested to hear, use child's imagination to incite his curiosity so that he learns 'better' and 'deeper'.

Summary

Montessori, before the age of 6, helps the child develop her 'reproductive imagination' through various methods in a very active manner. It also helps the child to introduce fertile mediums like 'music' that can directly help the child use creative imagination later. Further, by preventing the child learn 'wrong correlations' through unhelpful fantasies, Montessori reduces the confusion in the child's mind and therefore helps him use his imagination more productively. More importantly, Montessori incites curiosity in a child , so that child can start asking his own questions and direct his own learning.

Reference to the above material has been sourced from many Montessori books. I owe a lot to this paper of Sarah Andrews on Montessori and imagination

I see the parrot sound

This is how one of the student in the Sapience Montessori spoke in his early attempt of conversing in English at the end of first year. In India, a child normally speaks in his mother tongue which is different than English. His English conversation therefore starts in a set up of Montessori, either at the end of the first year, or at the start of second year.

How can a child, whose mother tongue is not English, converse in foreign tongue of English in one year. Montessori makes this possible by using three tools:

1. Adults converse with children in English from Day 1: At the age of 3, the child is absorbing language. This is how he learns his mother tongue from his parents. The same method is used with English. For instance, all instructions like 'please tie apron' or 'please pick the pounding material', 'please take the chair for eating' and so on are spoken in English. However, as the child does not understand English at all, after every English instruction, the instruction is converted into his/her mother tongue so that the child can understand. With every passing day, the child is more and more comfortable in English.

2. Increase his English Vocabulary by 100 words a month: As the child is getting comfortable with English, he is introduced to English words for all the normal objects he sees in the house. For instance he is introduced to objects in the kitchen, bathroom, living room. He is introduced to names of games, cars, trucks and other water vehicles, musical instruments. Animals, vegetables, fruits are other normal categories introduced to the child. With his vocabulary of English increasing every day, the child is ready to speak in English

3. Mistake-tolerance created by Montessori environment: When the child is going to speak English, he is going to make mistakes, infact lot of them.It is therefore important for the child to not feel embarrassed with his mistakes and continue to try to 'speak' even if it is wrong. Mistakes, instead of creating guilt, should be the source of finding one errors quickly and then correcting it.

Whatever mistakes are known to the child are due to the self-corrective nature of most of the material. Child knows her mistake through control of errors like that are designed in many activities such as when the pounding spills on the oil cloth, or water spilling. And when a mistake is committed by the child, the adult is not supposed to 'tell' this to the child. Montessori creates this environment where mistakes are not even 'commented', leave alone 'punished'. Mistake tolerance is Montessori's unique contribution to the development of the child which allows the child to take on challenges without the fear of losing their self-respect.

Summary

By the end of first year, the child has the confidence to 'speak' in English and knows 'sounds' of many objects. In the second year, the child learns to 'construct' words from the sounds of object. This word creation and construction of simple sentences - Noun and verb - enables him to 'write' English.

In the third year, the child is introduced to Grammar ( Noun, Verb, Article, Adjective, Adverb) so that he can decipher 'long' sentences'. By the end of third year therefore, a child in Montessori can 'read' English and understand it. It is called 'Total reading" in contrast to 'Mechanical reading'. Mechanical reading is 'reading' each word without understanding the sentence.

And this starts the 'next' virtuous cycle of the child. Because the child can 'read' books, she enjoys reading. That in turn increases her vocabulary. Which in turn makes it easy for the child to 'speak' and converse. This in turn increases her 'subject knowledge'. And on and on.

Putting in your child in the virtuous spiral of  language is the best way to ensure that the child becomes 'smart'. I do not know of any method of education, apart from Montessori method, which teaches language like English as beautifully. But if you can initiate this spiral with  your mother tongue - Hindi, Marathi, or Kannada - this also helps the child equally well. The child should however be introduced to the literature of mother tongue fairly early.

In short, learning language for the child is not just about communicating. But it is about opening up his windows and doors for more and more learning which can be 'powered' by the child himself. 

Photo credits: YIM-Hafiz / Flickr