The Prepared Environment
The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning. The Montessori environment encourages babies and young children to play and explore because they feel relaxed, comfortable and ‘at home’ in this carefully prepared space. When children feel emotionally safe and secure, they are able to explore and find out about the place they are in and the things they can see, touch, manoeuvre or manipulate. Our environment is designed to offer activities that match the emerging developmental needs and interests of a wide variety of children. That way every child will find an activity that resonates with them. There are special prepared environments for all ages, from infants and toddlers to pre-schoolers.
In the Montessori prepared environment everything that the children can come in contact with would facilitate and maximise independent learning and exploration. The calm, well-ordered environment offers lots of opportunities for movement and children are free to choose and work on activities at their own pace. They experience a combination of freedom and self-discipline, as guided by the environment.
There are generally six aspects, or principles, to the Prepared Environment: Freedom; Structure and Order; Beauty; Nature and Reality; Social Environment and Intellectual Environment.
Freedom
The freedom children have when exploring and following their own natural impulses develops their potential and increases their knowledge of the world. Within the prepared environment children experience freedom of movement, freedom of exploration, freedom to interact socially and freedom from interference from others. This freedom ultimately leads to a greater freedom: freedom of choice.
Structure and Order
Structure and Order in the Montessori environment accurately reflect the sense of structure and order in the universe. By using the Montessori environment as a microcosm of the universe, the children begin to internalise the order surrounding them, thus making sense of the world in which they live. Montessori stated that there is a sensitive period for order which occurs between the ages of one and three years of age. This is when the children begin to draw conclusions about the world around them. If there is not order to his/her environment, the child’s sense of reason may be hampered since he/she will not be able to validate his/her findings. Therefore, change should be carefully considered. Is this change for the good of the children? If so, it should be done carefully, and its after-effects should be observed to ensure that it is of benefit to the children. For example, moving furniture around or changing where their coat is kept can be deeply disorientating to a young child and restrict their ability to act independently.
Beauty
Montessori environments should be beautiful. Uncluttered and well-maintained, the environment reflects peace and tranquillity. Beautiful objects come in a variety of means: fresh flowers and plants in pretty containers and vases, a few carefully chosen pictures on the walls- pictures showing real-life people, objects or scenes. The atmosphere in the environment is inviting and helps the children to come in and chose an activity. This atmosphere is easily seen by the attitude of those working there, by both child and adult. Beauty speaks to the child and beckons them in and helps them to respond to the environment with respect.
Nature and Reality
The Montessori prepared environment with its materials and activities helps children to connect to and be inspired by nature. Therefore, natural materials are preferred in the prepared environment- real wood, reeds, bamboo, metal, cotton, and glass are preferred to synthetics or plastics. It is here where child-size real objects come into play. Furniture is child-size so the children are not dependent on the adult for their movement. Brooms, jugs, tongs, buckets should all fit children’s hands and height so that their endeavour is made easier, thus ensuring proper use and completion without frustration.
Social Environment
Where there is freedom to interact, children learn to encourage and develop a sense of compassion and empathy for others. As children grow, they become more socially aware, preparing to work and play in groups. This social interaction is supported throughout the environment and is encouraged with the nature of multi-age classroom settings.
Intellectual Environment
If the above aspects are not recognised the intellectual environment will not reach its full potential. The purpose of the Montessori environment is to develop the whole personality of the children, not merely their intellect. By guiding the child through the five areas of the Montessori curriculum (Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Mathematics and Cultural subjects), the children have the structure which is at the forefront of the creative work in a Montessori classroom.
A great deal of time and effort is involved in creating a prepared Montessori classroom that is designed to meet the individual needs of all children. Through developmentally appropriate, sensorial material that moves hierarchically from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, children are given the freedom to develop fully their unique potential through a carefully curated learning environment.
