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Montessori Works, Science Explains. Explore the research behind movement, choice, interest, and intrinsic motivation in Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius.
Without fail, most of my Parent-Teacher Conferences end with a parent asking, “What can we be doing at home?” And without fail, I respond, “Read. Read with them, to them, next to them, near them. Even if they read themselves. Keep them reading.” Reading is a skill that must be practiced, over and over again. Enjoying a book is not a skill that we’re born with in Kingdom Animalia. It’s a skill we learn by watching those around us, modeling reading as young children, trying over and over to find the book that hooks us for life. But what if your child doesn’t love reading? What if it’s a battle at home? Here are a few tips that I’ve learned from my fellow teachers, from my time as a parent, and from observing students in the classroom. Start early! Read to them as soon as you get them home for the first time! Not only does reading at a very early age have language comprehension, memory, and narrative skills implications for later in life, it also helps create a bond and habit early on. Feeling late to the party? Start now! Let them pick books they like. Are they choosing the same book again and again? Great! They’re reading! Are they reading the 8453rd installment of Rainbow Magic Fairies? Good! They’re reading! Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Great! The graphic novel of the comic based on the novel they already read? GREAT! Is your pre-reader paging through Goodnight Moon for the 54th time today? Wonderful. There is so much research showing repeated exposure to the same book supports fluency, automaticity, narrative expression, comprehension, and confidence at all levels of reading. Have books in every room. Like all new skills, without access to the needed tools and equipment, those new skills don’t get practiced. Stock your bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and cars with books. (My family has rules about the dining room table during dinner, but that rule can bend quite quickly when someone is “at a good part.” Assess what they are filling their time with instead of reading. Do they actually have time to read? Is there ever a “down” moment that they would even be able to fill with reading? Often, lack of time is one of the biggest obstacles. If your child wants to be in every after-school class, on the travel teams, or you’re just always coming-and-going, keep books in the car. Load your playlist with audiobooks (yes, they “count” as reading). And here’s where I lose some of you: Is what they are doing instead of reading something your family values? Are they watching videos of other kids playing Minecraft? Are they doom-scrolling at the age of 7? Are they on YouTube Shorts for hours? If so, the chances of them picking up a book, which takes mental work, isn’t high. If you want to help your child love reading, you have to assess what they’re doing instead of reading. Still with me? Make reading a moment for connection. Your children idolize you. They want your attention. They want to feel close to you. Build on that desire. Read to them for as long as they will allow. I promise, your teenager wants these moments. Your three-year-old craves these moments. Make the effort to build it into your routine to read together and guard that moment with all that you have. Let them put down books they don’t like. Do you remember being forced to finish a book in school, just so that you could be quizzed on it? To tell the adult asking you to read it that yes, you’d indeed finished it against your own judgment and free will? Don’t be the one that does that to their reading enjoyment. If they don’t like a book, let them move on to the next one. Is the book they detest your childhood favorite? I see you, I feel you, I’ve been you. It stings when your daughter does NOT feel the same way about Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle as you did in second grade. Even worse when it’s From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwieler. Just let them move on. It’s not worth the heartache of trying to convince them. Trust me, I know. Give them variety - and don’t talk down about their favorites. Allow them to read across a wide menu of options: graphic novels, comics, short stories, mysteries, picture books at an older age, a series that makes you want to roll your eyes. Not a fan of graphic novels or comics? Please don’t require “serious reading” before they get to something “fun.” That implies that some reading is automatically a drudgery - which will lead to avoidance altogether. Don’t overlook comics and graphic novels. Leaf through some at the library and see how they’ve evolved over the last decade. Comics are also shown to increase vocabulary, strengthen sequencing skills, and provide art education. Even better, comics and graphic novels can be a bridge for students with dyslexia, autism, and attention challenges. Don’t overlook them as a very helpful, brightly-colored tool in your reader’s toolbox! Remember - the goal is to get them reading to begin with and let them find what they love through the process. When I was a Wheaton Montessori School parent with young primary children, well before I took the AMI Elementary training, their teachers, Ms. Chiste and Mrs. Fortun, recommended “The Rights of the Reader” by Daniel Pennac during several of their parent workshops. I’d like to pass along the recommendation, as it has served my family - and teaching - for years now. Learning to love reading is a skill, just as reading itself is. Research is showing that we’re headed in the wrong direction, with just 1-in-3 public school fourth graders in Illinois reading proficiently, and college students at top universities being unable to follow or complete full books. Your chances and opportunities for “raising readers” are at-hand, so be off with you to the library! https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/ https://www.illinoispolicy.org/literacy-epidemic-hits-illinois-as-fewer-than-1-in-3-students-read-well/
Explore the Montessori three-period lesson and how its quiet simplicity unites words and meaning during a child’s sensitive period for language.
Explore a curated list of children’s books about water, rivers, and watersheds. These stories invite curiosity, care for the planet, and meaningful reading at home.
Montessori children experience long division in a concrete and meaningful way. This post shares how hands-on materials help children understand place value and build confidence with complex math.
Movement is central to how young children grow and learn. Discover how Montessori movement spaces support confidence, coordination, and independence for infants and toddlers.
The morning of an elementary-aged child at Wheaton Montessori School, including descriptions of math work and friendship.
Sleep is a skill children develop with support, trust, and preparation. This reflection explores how Montessori philosophy aligns with sleep science to support healthy rest for children and parents.
How Your Young Children Learn and Why It Matters Your young children learn by actively constructing themselves through purposeful work. From birth through age six, learning is not passive or instructional. It is driven from within your child, supported by responsive adults like you and all of my colleagues. This internal passion to learn is also boosted through the campus design and surroundings. Every movement, repetition, and exploration is meaningful work that builds the child’s body, mind, language, and sense of self. How learning happens Active construction through work: Your young children learn by doing. Don’t we all! Movement, using the hands, exploring real materials, and repeating challenging tasks are how the brain develops. This work must be meaningful and appropriately challenging, not busy work. Movement and the hand: Development of walking, balance, and refined hand use is foundational. Your children of all ages need freedom to move and manipulate real objects to fully develop coordination, concentration, and foundational academics like writing and adding. Language through relationship: Language develops through reciprocal human interactions. Rich spoken language, conversation, naming the world, and storytelling are essential. Wheaton Montessori School eliminates screens and background noise to highlight communication. Sensorial exploration of reality: Your children learn the world through their senses. Touching, comparing, carrying, observing, and interacting with real things builds the foundation for imagination, reasoning, and abstract thinking later. Authentic Montessori immerses us in exploration and discovery. Sensitive periods: Your children pass through brief, powerful windows of heightened interest and ability, such as for language, movement, social behavior, etc. Wheaton Montessori School teachers observe and offer the right experience at the right time. Learning happens easily and joyfully and feels like play! Concentration and normalization: When your children are connected to meaningful work that they choose themselves and repeat, they develop deep concentration, self-regulation, delight in effort, and care for others. Why This Is Important Early experiences shape lifelong learning: Early experiences lay the neurological, emotional, and social foundation for everything that follows. Missed opportunities are harder to recover: Skills learned during ideal stages are acquired with ease. When these periods are missed, learning later requires more effort and frustration. My colleagues are passionate about tailoring lessons and their classrooms to match child development (and adolescent development, too!) Strong foundations support later independence: Your children deserve rich early support leading to confident, capable, socially aware, and academically prepared people. Well-supported children become well-adjusted humans: This approach supports not just academic readiness, but the development of secure, courteous, empathetic children who care about their community and the world. In short, your children learn best when they are trusted as active learners, supported by attentive adults, and given real, challenging work at the right time. Investing in this early foundation supports not only your child’s success in school, but their lifelong well-being and ability to thrive.
At Wheaton Montessori School, your child is guided by highly trained professionals who deeply understand child and adolescent development. Every day, thoughtful structures and intentional practices support students in using their intellect, curiosity, time, and choices successfully, so they can grow into capable, self-directed individuals. Dr. Maria Montessori never equated being “good” with silence or stillness. Our teachers do not equate being well-behaved with being quiet and sitting still. In fact, like Dr. Montessori, we believe that movement, communication, and social interaction are essential to learning. When you observe a classroom at Wheaton Montessori School, you’ll see exactly that: children moving purposefully, talking with peers, collaborating, and responsibly managing their academic work throughout the day. What may look like “freedom” on the surface is actually built upon a strong underlying structure. Students experience a sense of choice, what to work on, where to sit, how long to engage, and who to collaborate with, because the environment has been carefully prepared to support those decisions. The Power of Structure and Grace The foundation of our campus is made up of proactive lessons called Grace and Courtesy . These lessons explicitly teach students how to: Set up and return materials Respect others’ space and work Ask to observe a peer’s work Acknowledge feelings and resolve conflict respectfully These shared lessons give everyone a common language and reference point for living and learning together. Older or more experienced students model appropriate behavior, creating classrooms full of young teachers, not just the adults guiding the environment. Students always have opportunities to challenge themselves or to take a healthy break. They work and play with materials they are developmentally ready to use, ensuring success while still encouraging growth. Not a Free-For-All: A Thoughtfully Designed Community Authentic Montessori environments are often misunderstood as unstructured. In reality, our campus is carefully designed to meet the developmental needs of preschool children through high school freshmen. The structure is natural, respectful, and aligned with who children and adolescents truly are. We know learners may still experience frustration, regret, and disappointment at times. Those moments are part of learning. When a child sits beside a teacher to regroup, it may feel like a “time out” to them, but it is actually a moment of support, reflection, and connection within a safe community. When challenging behaviors arise, our teachers respond with empathy and expertise. They understand that all behavior communicates a need. Rather than relying on rewards or punishments, teachers may guide a child toward a break, offer work that better meets their developmental needs, or help them return to a centered and purposeful state. Growing Self-Discipline From the Inside Out At Wheaton Montessori School, self-discipline and regulation develop through meaningful activity. Expected behavior grows through practice within a warm, structured community. Curiosity sparks interest, interest fuels focus, and focus leads toward mastery. This process contributes to valorization, your child’s growing sense of confidence, capability, and belonging. Children who feel balanced and respected naturally behave with greater care for themselves, others, and their environment. This sums up Dr. Montessori’s limits in three rules: care for yourself, care for others, and care for your surroundings. The true outcome of this work is human development: your child and adolescent’s identity, agency, purpose, and love of learning. When they understand big ideas and see themselves as capable contributors, they grow in ways that last a lifetime.