How To Learn To Write With The Montessori Method – I’m A Mom
The Montessori Method model for learning to write has been increasingly used in Kindergarten or during the early years of Elementary School for teaching writing. This type of handwriting helps children to control hand movements when drawing the strokes.
Maria Montessori introduced this calligraphy guide to learning how to write in children’s learning. Thanks to her experience as a teacher, she devised this method to provide autonomy to children at the beginning of writing and, therefore, contributes to making the acquisition of this skill easier for children.
Learning to write with the Montessori Method: what does it consist of?
This method is characterized by separating the structure of the letters into three parts, divided by four lines.
- Two horizontally oriented center lines for the lowercase body.
- Two lines (one superior and one inferior) for the extension of some consonants that will mark the limit for the dashes. “b, l, t, d, etc.” (extension of the upper line) and “g, j, p, q, etc.” (extension of the bottom row).
This method helps children reach a higher level of writing perfection, with two levels of difficulty: a spacing of 5 millimeters and a smaller spacing of 3.5 millimeters. Thus, it is necessary to improve the layout of the letters.
At what age is it possible to learn to write with the Montessori Method?
This method considers that the literacy process can start between 13 or 14 months. This does not mean that children at these ages can already learn to write, but rather that they can receive a previous stimulus to facilitate this process.
It is important to awaken children’s interest in reading by reading stories to them. Thus, we can ensure that they have a prior preparation, after which they can start practicing writing with this method. What we must take into account to start is that the child has already acquired the preparation phases.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we should take advantage of the moments when our child is more receptive and, through play, adapt to his rhythm so that he can learn progressively. We can take advantage of any task in daily life to motivate children to learn to read and write.
Steps to be followed to learn to write with the Montessori Method
Children must have acquired some prior stages of knowledge so that they can face the beginning of the writing learning process. Below, we detail some of the steps we must follow for children to learn to write with the Montessori Method:
Begin teaching writing with lowercase letters before capital letters
Often, the schools usually begin to teach children to write capital letters before the letters lowercase. However, according to the Montessori Method, it should not be done that way, but the other way around.
Why start teaching lowercase letters before capitals? Because for children it is easier to draw curved lines than straight lines, so teaching capital letters should be left for later.
Teach letters to children through their sounds, from phonetics
This means that instead of teaching the letter “s”, it is necessary to teach the sound “ssss” . Thus, the child will associate letters with sounds and will have an easier time learning.
Do sensory activities to stimulate the senses
Although children are in the process of acquiring writing, we can complement it with activities that stimulate the senses, such as passing objects from one place to another, running a finger over letters made on embossed paper and, at the same time, pronounce these letters, etc.
write in a sandbox
We can give the child a box with sand, placing some cards with the different letters beside him so that he can reproduce them in the sand. In this way, the small will internalize the directionality of the letters and we introduce, little by little, graphomotricity.
moving alphabet
After writing the letters in the sandbox, we’ll move to the mobile alphabet, in which the consonants will be red and the vowels will be blue. Thus, the child will understand that, by putting some letters together, it is possible to form words.
write on a blackboard
Before starting to write on paper with the Montessori Method, the child must control writing on a blackboard. This should be done with chalk, which also serves to stimulate the senses when composing the lyrics.
Write on paper with the four-line Montessori Method
Finally, the child can start copying words on lines prepared for the Montessori calligraphic method.
In short, learning to write with the Montessori Method brings enormous benefits to children, as this way it is possible to achieve a more harmonious writing, with better directionality and more standardized. In addition, the upper and lower limits help children to trace the extensions of the ascending and descending letters.
