The link to the home environment. The activities help the child to grow in independence and thus be able to do things for themselves. They also help in the child's development and coordination of movement and help achieve "normalisation' (which leads to concentration). They help develop a sense of order, and they foster sociability.
Sensorial
Children live in a world of the sense. The sensorial materials highlight the impressions they have already received. Sensorial materials are used for clarification of large, small, heavy, thick, thin, loud and soft, high and low, hot and cold, colours, tastes, smells and for plane and solid geometric forms. The sensorial material is really a key to the world and is the basis for abstraction. Montessori believed that education and development of the sense was necessary before any superior intellectual activity. She also felt that far more could be experience by the child/adult if they were capable of discerning and appreciating fine differences in stimuli.
Maths
Use of concrete materials and manipulations for things generally treated as abstractions. The materials are sequenced so that condition for mathematical discovery will always occur. Children retain better and information which they ' figure out' on their own.
Writing and Reading
The key which can uncover, conserve and synthesize knowledge. Using alphabet cut outs and sandpaper letters young children are able to effortlessly link sounds, symbols, their shapes and their written formation. Reading fluently may happen at any time between 3 and 10 years, it is not forced, have faith in the child and the method.
Culture
Language is closely linked to cultural activities such as art, music, biology, zoology, science, drama and geography. In Montessori these are not viewed as a series of seperate subjects disconnected from everything else but rather as all interrelated. Montessori provides an integrated method whereby geography, science, history, art, music and biology are made known to the child through practical life, sensorial materials and language
