The demand for Montessori education has seen a huge rise amongst the millennial parents. The reason is simple; traditional schooling helps any kid to get through the academic courses but with Montessori Training it is possible to learn about the various aspects of not just education but other interests that can help them grow into a better human being. So, one of the many elements which actually make Montessori education different than the rest is the mixed age classroom approach. Rather than having children in a classroom based on their chronological age, the classroom environment has children spanning various ages. When you are taking up Montessori Training program, you will be taught how to encourage and mix with the kids across various ages and still keep up with the education.
Why have mixed age classroom?
There are some key points which actually show that having a setup where you have students of the close ages can be beneficial for both the younger and the older kid. Let's have a look how that helps -
Leaders and models
When you have children of various ages in a single room, all of whom are working towards a said goal, the younger children will be in an environment where they can find their own models. It is often been seen that children learn the best from another children. For instance a 6 year old can learn better from an eight-year-old than his or her mentor or parent. Similarly, the older children in the class can have opportunities where they can grow in leadership roles. They can also cultivate this skill which can even surely help them become more independent in their community.
Skill progression fluidity
One of the most important lessons that you will get from online Montessori teacher training programs is that no learning is linear and this is not limited for the younger children. For any age, the learning procedure does not follow a linear curve. There are periods of rapid growth and also some phases when there will be a plateau in the progress. This is a very normal symptom and can vary according to the subjects that the individual children are taking up. It is strongly believed in Montessori curriculum. While some of them will find too much interest in learning the science others can have interest in finding out the various scopes in language and literature. These lines of division can be blurred when you do not have to rely on any typical grade level.
Stronger relationship
When a kid is there in a class for three years, the mentor really gets to know him or her rather than a traditional teacher. So the person is not just a class teacher but is more of a guide. The deeper level of understanding helps to cultivate the strength and weaknesses of the child which eventually helps the kid to grow better.
Social opportunities
Diversity is extremely important in our lives. It is important to be able to open up to different kinds of ideas, people and situation. When they are spending time with people of various ages, they are also mixing with children of all sorts of skills as well as nature. The interaction has a very positive impact on all of them and can help to grow qualities like patience, empathy and open-mindedness.
Reflection for real life
When these kids will grow up, there will be hardly any situation when they will find themselves surrounded by people who are all of their age; which is why, if they are open to multi age classrooms right from the beginning, there will be better scopes of approximation and will also benefit them right through their early experiences.
The concept of Dr. Montessori
The mixed age classroom has been very well defined by Maria Montessori. She believed that her way of schooling have shown how kids of different ages can help each other; where the younger one asks all sorts of questions and the older one explains. This is in general a very useful way of teaching because the younger one understands in a language which is closer to them while the older one can explain what they actually understood, and as a guide one can observe and correct in case there is any error. Also otherwise, it creates a harmony and communication between both them and there is a natural mental osmosis which works in favour of both the kids. There can be different planes of development however, the classrooms in a Montessori setting generally have 3 year age spans ranging from-
- Infant/Toddler
- Primary/Early Childhood
- Elementary
- Adolescent
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