You don’t have to know anything about the Montessori Method to understand the incredible capacity of a child’s mind to absorb the world around them.  Even tiny babies are absorbing sights, sounds and smells and storing them up for future reference. The mind remains an absorbent sponge, soaking up the world around it and never reaching capacity.

Maria Montessori broke the Absorbent Mind into two phases. First is the unconscious phase, which goes from birth to three years old. Second is the conscious phase, from three to six years old. It is during this first six years of life that the foundation for all future learning is laid. A child learns more during their preschool years than at any other time. They are learning verbal & non-verbal communication; small & large motor control; emotional & social skills, and so much more! According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, more than 1 million new neural connections form every second in the first few years of life!

Infants and toddlers are learning about the world around them without conscious effort mostly through mimicking. When you hold an infant in your arms, you can see them closely watch your facial expressions until they begin to imitate them. Toddlers will imitate their caregivers in the way they care for a baby doll, clean up a room and even in the way they read a story. It is during these first few years that children are absorbing the world around them and storing all the information up for future use.

“…if we compare our ability as adults to that of a child, it would require us sixty years of hard work to achieve what a child has achieved in these first three years.” – Maria Montessori

By the time a child reaches preschool, they are ready to take all the information they’ve absorbed as an infant and toddler and start to sort it out.  This is when they will begin to consciously seek different learning experiences.  It is also a time when you will hear a child saying, “Let me do it myself!” For this reason, Montessori preschool classrooms are designed to encourage independence.

Montessori materials and activities in the infant, toddler and preschool classrooms introduce concepts that build upon one another.  The goal is to allow children to master the current phase of development while preparing them for the next.  When a child is provided with a positive environment full of opportunities for their Absorbent Mind to learn and grow, they will flourish.

“The child has a different relation to his environment from ours… the child absorbs it. The things he sees are not just remembered; they form part of his soul.” – Maria Montessori