In light of the way things are going these days in our public school system, with sex, drugs and even all the random shootings that are becoming more and more prevalent, it is no wonder that parents are wanting more and more to take their children out of the public school system and teach them at home.  So you’ve been doing a lot of research on what would be the best home schooling program for not only your children, but also for you because now teaching would become your responsibility and not that of the teachers in our school systems.

Through your many searches, you run across one that really peeks your interest.  It is called Montessori home schooling or teaching.  So naturally you ask yourself what in the world is Montessori teaching.You soon learn that it is a way of life, a philosophy about how human beings might live their lives and treat one another, an attitude of respect and encouragement for each other, no matter how young or how old.  It is a sense of partnership rather than having power and authority over one another.

As parents, we know that newborns come into our lives lacking the ability to be self-sufficient and dependant and so therefore they rely on us for everything.  So not only do we provide nurturing and protection we help them learn how to become independent and start to do things for themselves.  The single greatest drive of a young child is  to become independent, to feel competent and capable and to be seen as worthy of respect.

From personal experience as a parent, you know just how frustrating a child becomes when he is trying to complete a task and just can’t seem to get it right and then come the little tantrums as a result.  So it is only natural for you as the parent to want to take over and do it for him not realizing that this only frustrates them more and perhaps delays their independence causing a delay in their development and self-esteem.

Dr. Montessori teaches that children who feel respected and competent will develop at a far greater level of emotional well being than a child who is simply loved and doted upon.  One of her famous quotes is “The adult should be an aide to life. We must help the child learn how to do it for himself.”  In other words, the primary role of the parent is to help the child to become mature, independent and responsible.  We tend to overprotect, not realizing that our children can only learn about life through experience, just as we did.

Another Montessori teaching is that a child needs two things in life to live happily as an adult:  a strong sense of his or her identity apart from their parents and a sense of their full membership in not only the family, but the larger community in which they live.  So we need to present an honest picture of the world we are living in to our children according to their growing ability to understand.  So be a good example as children tend to learn more from what we do than what we preach!