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Description
We offer more than 2000 carefully-selected, child-size, developmentally appropriate items for the Montessori and early childhood classroom environment.
Montessori Services - A Resource for Preparing the Child's Environment
Remaining true to Dr. Montessori's vision of transformational education, our mission is to provide busy teachers with hard-to-find items, specialized materials for Montessori classrooms, and intriguing complementary resources that will help create rich environments. Every item is carefully selected to ensure it is well-made, appropriate, and certain to nurture the young child's unfolding potential.
| Preparing the Environment | |
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Maria Montessori’s Casa dei Bambini showed that the forgotten street children of Rome in the early 1900s were capable of learning much more than was thought possible. Their “absorbent minds” were ready for the structured, self-guided learning Montessori came to pioneer. Part of her success with these children came from providing a predictable classroom environment. She saw that they felt secure and independent in the order surrounding them. Everything in the classroom is part of the curriculum! Child-size, accessible, and aesthetically pleasing furniture, mats, containers, and materials should be selected with great care to meet the needs of the young, developing child. |
| Practical Life | |
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The exercises of Practical Life provide the foundation for all other activities in the Montessori classroom, fulfilling the child’s plea: “Help me to do it myself!” Through exercises in daily living, such as pouring and scrubbing, sewing and gardening, or practicing grace and courtesy, the child gains confidence and mastery of the environment. After individual skills are refined, children apply them in purposeful work, such as serving juice or polishing. Specifically, these activities contribute to the control and coordination of movement, development of concentration, and the self-esteem that comes with making a real contribution to the group. |
| Washing and Cleaning | |
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A basic premise behind Maria Montessori’s philosophy of early childhood education was that every child is eager for work, even when the work seems like chores to the adult. Through the activities of Practical Life, children not only perform a task; they are also forming foundations on which to organize skills and intelligence. Nowhere is this premise more evident than in Washing and Scrubbing exercises. Through these activities, children develop concentration, become aware of order and sequencing, gain control over their movements, become more independent, and learn to care for their surroundings. |
| Woodworking | |
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A prerequisite of any Practical Life activity in the Montessori classroom (whether polishing, cooking, or sewing) is that children master the skills involved before applying them to more sophisticated projects. Even in woodworking, children as young as three can have a successful experience if allowed to master one skill at a time. As their skill levels increase, they’ll create finished products. |
| Sewing and Weaving | |
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Lacing and stringing activities help young children develop manual dexterity and manipulative skills. By using their hands, children more fully integrate learning experiences. Weaving, sewing, and other kinds of handwork extend the benefits of Practical Life work for the older child. Children will continue to develop fine motor skills and concentration, while building self-confidence with successful experiences. |
| Food Preparation | |
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When children begin to internalize the foundations of Practical Life, they seek ways to use their skills and assume broader responsibilities. Preliminary activities that isolate single skills demonstrate children’s amazing ability to handle kitchen tools. Preparing and serving snacks (and even meals) is a natural way for children to learn cooperation and experience community. Where kitchen facilities are limited, create cooking and clean-up areas with a toaster oven, cutting boards, basins, and pitchers. |
| Yard and Garden | |
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Taking care of the outdoor environment, whether gardening, raking, or pulling weeds, is a valuable activity in which children love to participate—and the rewards can be bountiful! Our gardening items provide another way for the child to participate in the indoor and outdoor life of the classroom or home. Learning to care for living things will help the child develop a sense of appreciation for nature and our connection to it. Caring for plants, both indoors and out, will also foster the aesthetic sense. |
| Sensorial Resources | |
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Children from birth to age six are in their “sensitive period” for exploring the world through their senses. Maria Montessori encouraged us to provide children with many opportunities to organize the sensory impressions they’ve been receiving since birth. By your careful selection of items of different textures, colors, sizes, and geometric shapes, children will discover relationships and exclaim, “This bolt is a hexagon,” or “This cloth is rough.” Sensorial experiences also indirectly prepare children for future exploration of language, mathematics, geometry, art, and music. |
| Art Resources | |
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Art, like language or music, has been a means of expression for every culture on Earth throughout history. Young children have a natural tendency to use art to express themselves; seeing and appreciating the art of others enhances children’s experiences. If opportunities for art are always available, not a special event, children will feel satisfied with their efforts. When they can choose materials and activities freely, children will create spontaneously. As Montessori said, the adult’s role is to encourage without judgment, nurturing the development of “a sensitive soul, an eye that sees, and a hand that obeys.” |
| Music & Movement | |
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Sometimes called a “universal language,” music adds a sensory dimension to life like nothing else. Present in some form in all cultures, music reflects the character of a people by the style, melodies, tones, and instruments used. Children have an innate capacity to appreciate music of all types, and an uninhibited inclination to move, dance, and make music. Take advantage of young children’s openness to the world of music by singing every day, by using various instruments or movements, and by introducing the music of other cultures and times. |
| Language Development | |
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Montessori perceived the miracle of language development as “a treasure prepared in the unconscious, which is then handed over to consciousness, and the child, in full possession of his new power, talks and talks without cessation.” Words are the labels for our experiences. A child who has varied experiences and is given the labels for those experiences will develop a well-rounded means of expression. Just as a rich vocabulary is dependent on the child’s experience, the transition to reading and writing is dependent on a strong vocabulary. Soon, the child, explorer of the world, will be able to express thoughts and understand and interpret the thoughts of others. |
| Math Resources | |
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All of their work with the Practical Life and Sensorial materials brings order to children’s experiences, important indirect preparation for the mathematical mind. The developing child yearns to organize, classify, and abstract. Fortunately the whole world obliges with toes to count, temperatures to read, and clocks to check. The Montessori math lessons lead the child through progressive hands-on activities, emphasizing concepts while preparing the child for abstractions. The resources we offer here complement and support work with Montessori’s legendary math materials. |
| Geography/Culture | |
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Geography is the study of place and how humans have adapted to all of Earth’s environments. Physical geography looks at the outward appearance of the environment. Cultural geography looks at what Maria Montessori called humankind’s ability to “continue the work of creation.” Through meeting the basic human needs for food, shelter, and clothing, groups of peoples developed language, tools, transportation, rituals and celebrations, religion, music, art, and crafts. By celebrating other traditions with food, music, and stories, children can begin to see the uniqueness of other cultures, yet come to understand how much we all have in common. |
| Science | |
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Through sensorial exploration, the young child’s powerful “absorbent mind” soaks up information about everything in the environment. With the acquisition of language, the child begins to label the world with words. Hands-on experiences prepare the way for the child to internalize concepts. The Montessori classroom provides activities to guide the child in making connections. Maria Montessori believed the teacher should present the big picture first, in order to prepare a foundation for more detailed explorations later. Discovering relationships between things, not learning isolated details, guides the child to a thorough and thoughtful understanding of science and the world. |
| Elementary Resources & Cosmic Education | |
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The Elementary Montessori materials are designed to give children a picture as big as their developing imaginations and interests. As they enter into the world of the abstract, children begin to ask “why” and “how.” Their growing capacity to reason searches for the interrelatedness of all things. By discovering and connecting the details, children are better able to form an understanding of the whole. |
| Education for Peace | |
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A true citizen of the world, Dr. Maria Montessori told us, “The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind.” With an implicit emphasis on peace in her writings, Montessori provides us with a sense of vision as we direct our own work. Her vision was to create an obstacle-free environment within which children could fully realize their potentials — as individuals and members of communities. Montessori teachers are in a unique position to introduce practical tools for individual and community peacemaking and to help children incorporate the abstract concept of peace into their own lives. |
Nothing takes the place of actually seeing our products before you purchase them!
If you are traveling in the Northern California area, please take time to drop in and browse in our showroom. Our sale shelves are always well-stocked with close-outs and one-of-a-kind items. If you know of some items you’ll be purchasing, you can call in your order in advance and we’ll have it ready for you. Of course you can browse as long as you’d like.
We are located about an hour north of San Francisco. Our showroom is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.
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