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Understanding Practical Life Series: Part 1June 6, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments

The Practical Life component of the Montessori Method is an important basis from which all the other subsequent stages of the method grow out of. Practical Life exercises and activities are essential to the child’s tactile experience and functional understanding of how the world works with his or hers presence taken into account. That is a very important aspect of Practical Learning to take into account: the respect for the child’s presence and interaction in the daily chores that comprise our modern day society. Practical Life will set the stage for further growth and higher learning.

A child understanding the intricacies of spatial relationships, weight, movement, real world cause and affect is pivotal in the initial stages of overall development. The process in which these principles are applied to real every day situations is practiced through Practical Life lessons. The Practical Life area is a specific learning area stocked with all the tools required to enhance the child’s introduction to scholarship.

The Practical Life area is responsible for sharpening the fine and gross motor skills of the child. Kinetic movement is encouraged and a prime component of the physicality of the Practical Life area. The sheer physical development that Practical Life enables is profound. The child is now self-secure with an empowered sense of control over the body and capabilities such an epiphany opens up. This emotional strength spurs a greater capacity and desire for learning. This new found inner sense of security further expands itself into a tooled curiosity to explore the environment. Through concise control and disciplined concentration the child becomes enlightened to the fact that the Practical Life materials can be successfully manipulated. The utilization of this newly refined skill set through natural repetition leads to the development of the basic pillars such as: left to right order, the enhancement of the attention span, a sense of precise order, coordination, self control, and independence. With these skills in hand the child is better equipped to succeed at the rigors of academic learning. The child has the natural tools because of Practical Life learning.