Preparation for a New Role

Here I am writing once again, but this time from a new perspective. I am now not only a Montessori teacher but also a Montessori mom! I am hoping to get this blog started again, this time writing about my adventures in starting a Montessori family.

One of the most important things I've learnt since becoming a Montessori educator is that there are three basic pillars that form the basis of education: the prepared adult, the prepared environment, and the child. In this post I'll be talking about the first of these. During my pregnancy I prepared myself as much as I could for the new role I was about to play, even though I believe I somehow started preparing long ago.

Since I am Primary- and Elementary-trained I have always been interested in the 0 to 3 period and on what the Montessori philosophy has to say about it. During my first Montessori teacher training (Primary: 3 to 6) at The Montessori Institute of San Diego our trainer spent some time talking about this and we even attended a conference by Dr. Silvana Montanaro (world-renowned Montessori teacher trainer at the 0 to 3 level and author of the book Understanding the Human Being). It goes without saying that it has had a major impact in my life and on my view of the whole child starting from conception. 

Three years ago I also had the opportunity to attend an introductory one-week 0 to 3 course at the AMI Montessori teacher training center in Paris (Institut Supérieur Maria Montessori). Of course one week is not nearly enough time to learn about all the things one needs to know about this period but it proved an invaluable resource and added value to my Montessori teaching (I was teaching 6 to 10 year-olds at the time) as well as to my personal outlook on life.

While pregnant I was very lucky to have moved to a city not too far from where a 0 to 3 educator holds Montessori workshops for parents-to-be and parents of young children who want to implement the Montessori pedagogy at home from birth. I signed up to a cycle of sessions and was coached in the art of creating a developmentally appropriate environment for my baby.

I read a lot too. I read all of Dr. Montessori's writings and other books recommended by Montessori fellow teachers and trainers, and like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, all the knowledge I had started coming together in my mind. One of the things I realized is that one of the most important aspects of "doing" Montessori in the home lies in the preparation of the future parents for their new roles as the first - and main - educators of the child, as well as in their knowledge of the needs of the child in order to create an appropriate environment. As Silvana Montanaro says in her book:

"The first years of life should be considered fundamental in the literal sense in that they form the basis for the edifice of the personality. In order to provide adequate help in this construction activity, good will and the willingness to work are not enough; we also need the right information." 

(Silvana Q. Montanaro: Understanding the Human Being).

Another excellent resource, albeit of a different kind, happened to be Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE) and Janet Lansbury's website in which she writes about the RIE approach to infant care. The RIE approach is based on Emmi Pikler's work which is not only highly compatible but also complementary to Montessori. I highly recommend checking out those websites.

And here is a list of the must-read books I believe encompass the fundamentals of a well-rounded preparation for the early days of a different kind of parenthood:

By Maria Montessori:
      The Absorbent Mind (click here for French edition)
      The Child in the Family (click here for French edition)

By Silvana Q. Montanaro:
      Understanding the Human Being

Others:
      The Joyful Child: Montessori, Global Wisdom for Birth to Three
      by Susan Mayclin Stephenson

      Montessori from the Start: the Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three
      by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jensen

      What's Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First           Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot

      And for French readers only:
      Pour une enfance heureuse by Catherine Gueguen

About Emmi Pikler's approach to infant care:
      Lóczy: An Unusual Approach to Mothering (click here for French, Spanish)
      by Geneviève Appell and Myriam David

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more!

My family