Early education can have a significant long-term impact on your child. High-quality early education can provide your child with a firm foundation on which to build. When you understand the impact of early education, it can help you decide which program is right for your child. Choosing a Montessori program for your child’s early education can help them develop practical life skills, become independent learners, and gain a sense of responsibility for themselves and the learning process.

Develop skills through practical life activities

Early Montessori education provides students with the opportunity to learn and practice practical life skills. The youngest Montessori students are presented with activities that allow them to develop practical skills that they will use throughout life. Examples of practical life activities that young Montessori students practice include hand washing, self-care tasks, sweeping, mopping, watering plants, putting on and taking off a jacket, and many more. These skills help students develop the skills needed to move through daily tasks more and more independently. Each new skill can provide students with a sense of accomplishment. The process of mastering skills that are used in everyday life can help students grasp the fact that learning in the classroom can be applied to various areas of life. Long term, this can help students see the value in education.

Become an independent learner

An important goal of early Montessori education is to help students develop into independent learners. Being an independent learner sets students up for a lifetime of learning. The youngest Montessori students are provided with age-appropriate activities that allow for independence in the classroom. Students are allowed to explore and engage in hands-on activities on a daily basis. In the Montessori Philosophy, learning is viewed as a lifelong pursuit. Students who are provided with the opportunity to become independent learners will approach learning differently than those who believe that learning can only happen inside the classroom.

Gain a sense of responsibility for themselves and the learning process

Early education in the Montessori classroom can help students gain a sense of responsibility for the learning process. Each student in the Montessori classroom is given responsibilities. Having these responsibilities and being expected to carry them out can have a positive long-term impact on how students approach life and the learning process. For example, if students expect to have responsibilities in the classroom from the very beginning, it will not be as difficult to transition to the increasing demands as they move to higher grade levels.

The overarching goal of the Montessori Philosophy is to prepare students for success in life. This goal impacts every aspect of Montessori education, including the layout of the classroom to the design of the curriculum. Even the youngest students in a Montessori program will have a learning environment designed to provide them will skills that will set them up for a lifetime of success inside and outside of the classroom.