Tim Seldin & Paul Epstein Ph.D. An Education for Life

ever invest in tasks that have been
assigned.
Providing Structure: Setting High,
Individually Tailored Expectations
Individually tailored expectations
doesn’t mean that students can do
whatever they want academically. They
cannot elect whether or not to learn to
read. Montessori students have to live
within a cultural context, which for us
involves the mastery of skills and
knowledge that we consider basic.
Montessori gives students the opportunity
to choose a large degree of
what they investigate and learn, as well
as the ability to set their own schedule
during class time
Montessori children normally work
with a written study plan for the day or
week. It lists the basic tasks that they
✺ Learn about magic and master a
new trick.
✺ Build a bridge out of popsicle sticks
held together with carpenter’s glue
that will span a three-foot chasm
and support several bricks.
✺ Interview your grandparents about
their childhood. Write a biography
or share what you learn with your
class.
✺ Using one of the better books on
children’s science projects, select
an experiment or project, carry it
out, and prepare a report that
documents what you did.
✺ Build a model sailboat using different
types of sail plans. Race them
on a pond with your class.
✺ Select a city somewhere in the
world where you have never
traveled. Find out everything that
you can.
(Above) An Elementary Montessori student taking her weekly spelling test.
✺ Learn something new and teach it to
someone in your class.
✺ Meet a real artist and visit her studio.
✺ Learn first aid.
✺ Prepare a time line of the presidents of the
United States, along with picture cards,
name tags, and fact cards. Study until you
can complete the timeline on your own.
✺ Make your own set of constructive triangles,
golden beads, or some other familiar
Montessori material.
MONTESSORI FOR THE ELEMENTARY YEARS
✺ Using 1 cm. as a unit, build out of
clay, wood, or cardboard pieces to
make up units, tens, hundreds,
thousands, ten thousands, hundred
thousands, millions up to one
billion.
✺ Prepare a scale model of the solar
system in which the distance from
the sun to Pluto will be two miles.
Prepare carefully measured models
of the planets and sun and calculate
the distance that each will need to
be placed on the scale away from the
sun.
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