The Montessori Printable: Friend or Foe for Homeschoolers?
In this episode, we're talking about Montessori printables, what they are, and whether you need them. (But first, if you’re looking for Montessori Materials recommendations, you should go check out this list of Essential Montessori Materials to buy or DIY.)
Did I spend hours and hours cutting out Montessori printables as a homeschooler when I had littles? No I did not. I wanted to spend the bulk of the school day with my children.
And my nights? Well, let's be honest.
I'd like to say they were all about self care and filling up my cup, but the truth is that my evenings and early mornings were mostly spent tucking the children into bed (falling asleep with them) or spending time connecting with my husband, who has been my best friend for the last 20+ years.
I had a some sets of cards I DIYed when I taught Kindergarten, but they were not the center of our homeschooling. They were explored once or twice - during each of my children's sensitive ages, and then they were done...stored back in the closet.
That's not true for all children, but if I had a dime for every time a mom wrote me and said she was feeling overwhelmed by all the cutting and laminating - or that she was feeling resentful that her children only did such & such parts cards one time, well...you get the point.
The thing is, there are certain children who cannot get enough pictures to classify and moms who really, really love their laminators, but it's not necessarily a must in Montessori. My preferred way to handle printables as a parent: if you want to introduce one, choose quality over quantity. Cut them right there in FRONT OF your child, and then PLAY with them without the fuss of feeling like you need to make them last another 100 years.
That's why we do create a variety of printables for our Constellation members. They can be a fun, inspiring PART of a Montessori education, but they are not THE Montessori education.
I'm Aubrey Hargis, Montessorian and mom of two. I see parenting as an inherently creative process. Every day unfolds in a different way than it did before. Every week my children are slightly different beings, as am I, and Montessori grounds me in this flux. It's a challenge, but it's worth it. Because education is a journey we take with our children…and the opportunities for learning start over every day.
Hey, Sweet Friends (1:13)
How are you this week? Things here have been rough. There are these terrible wildfires going on right now in our state...and they're all converging in the Bay Area right now. This means the air quality has been terrible, and means we actually woke up the other morning and couldn’t see the sun. That took EVERYONE in our family some time to process.
That, coupled with a very sick relative, has made it so hard to focus!!! So...that's just me being real with you. That's where I am today. And just before I started this podcast, I got a sweet letter from a member of one of my courses and it was just really, really sweet with gratitude for the kind of work that I do. It made me feel like I could sit down here and do this podcast for you and make this one of the glowy good parts of my life. So here we are together: glowing together, finding the joy together, and thinking about Montessori together.
The Topic We’re Diving Into Today is: PRINTABLES! (5:40)
This is something that I'm asked a whole lot as parents discover Montessori and then they discover my website. Eventually, they end up in my inbox with these questions: Do I need to download all of these printables that are out there? Do I need to make all the trays and put them on my shelf to have a Montessori home? And how does a busy mama do this?
When I'm already so stressed and overwhelmed with what's going on in my own life?. How do you fit in the homeschooling, and also download all these printables, and cut them all, out laminate them, and get them ready for the child? Is that really necessary???
Printables Help People Find Montessori (10:40)
They are available everywhere online now! If you just Google Montessori, you're probably going to come across some blogs and websites that offer free printables...because it is a great gateway into Montessori. Usually when people come to Montessori, they don't come asking to learn Montessori or deep philosophy.
Instead, they go practical: What kind of things can I do with my child? How can I facilitate their learning in a hands on way? Montessori has all these language and classification cards which are enjoyable for children but are especially appealing and intriguing, accessible and fascinating to adults. It has led to this kind of internet craze over Montessori printables: things that you can print out, cut out and use at home.
Types of cards (15:03)
Naming/Vocabulary Cards
Matching like cards (picture to picture matching)
Matching Pairs (eg: Antonyms, singular and plural, seed to fruit)
Parts cards (eg: Parts of a horse, parts of a flower, parts of an instrument)
Sorting/Classification Cards (eg: Land/Water/Air, Vertebrates and Invertebrates)
They are a REAL Montessori Material... (17:46)
And they do benefit the child. They are generally self-correcting. They allow for the introduction of information from simple to complex: you can start with just naming cards and later revisit the same nomenclature to help a child practice reading with three part or definition cards!
Here’s how you use them… (22:27)
I like to do them on a rug myself, so there is plenty of room to spread out. You just:
Take one set of the cards.
Spread them out on the mat one at a time while naming and discussing them with your child (I lay them left to right, top to bottom, as reading preparation; you may choose to do differently, and that’s okay!). Model going through the second set of cards and putting the top card to the right of each card to see if it matches until you find the match.
Let the child try!
It’s okay to do these your own way. There is no MUST: you can try them at a table. You can lay them out in whatever configuration makes sense. You can practice matching however your heart desires. Play with them and make them yours!
How many do you need? (26:47)
You don’t need a whole lot of them--especially because while some children eat them up, others do not! Some children will do one set and then another and another--however many the adult is willing to provide. Others are going to do each set exactly one time and then never use them again...or use them to match to objects and pictures in the world around them and in books.
They are cute, and when you see so many amazing sets on social media, it can be easy to get caught in the trap of making a TON of them, cutting them, laminating them, and having them be around forever...even if they don’t get used.
What makes them Montessori, and which ones are essential? (29:47)
Montessori has a focus on vocabulary building and nomenclature--and they can be helpful for that! That is absolutely why they exist as a Montessori material. But they are not the ONLY way you can teach nomenclature--the best possible way is to experience things first hand! The second best: through a manipulative, a printable, or a book.
There are no ESSENTIAL cards--pick the ones that feel relevant to your situation and your child! You don’t need EVERY “parts of…” set.
It’s *OKAY* not to do them. (37:26)
I want to say: if you are one of the people who printed out a million things online, and you thought that this was Montessori, or you HAD to print these things out to do Montessori with your child…. If you found that your child only wanted to do it once, and they were done….
If you are feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with the printables and the fact that there's just so many and they are so time consuming for you to do…don't do them. Okay?
As I've mentioned before, you don't need to do them in order to do Montessori. It doesn't have to be part of your life. It can be if it's something that inspires you, and you're enjoying it, but it does not have to be. You can definitely do Montessori without a single printable in your home.
Gratitude (38:50)
Today I am grateful for the trees and their resiliency in these fires; for the heroes out there fighting these fires, many of them incarcerated and not receiving appropriate compensation. They are working so hard and saving so many, many lives.