I’ve put the words “work” and “toys” in quotes in the title of this article, because for young children, the ideas of “work” and “play” are synonymous.  They have not yet made a judgment decision that “play” is all for fun and “work” is necessary but unpleasant.  To the young child, everything is exploration and discovery, and this is inherently fun to them — and so they will work very hard at it.

When adults are first exposed to the traditional Montessori materials and teaching style, the initial reaction is often: “well yes, I can see how that activity would be very useful and educational… but do the children actually enjoy doing it?  And when do they play?”

The answer is, yes, they do enjoy it.  And as far as they’re concerned, they ARE playing.

Child’s Play is Serious Work

A child does not have to be running around, giggling, or even using their imagination to be playing.  Those are all different kinds of play, but they are not required for the definition.  A child can appear deeply focused, intent, quiet, even serious, when at the thoroughly entrancing “work” of constructing a brand new person from the inside out.

As jaded adults, we might look on this seriousness and say “oh dear, that doesn’t look like fun, it must be draining, they need a break to go play and refresh themselves.”  But in fact, as Dr. Montessori herself, and generations of Montessori teachers and parents after her have observed, after a period of intense focus and “work” such as this, the young child will frequently finish the activity on their own (generally after having repeated it many times), and seem rejuvenated, refreshed, and content.

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, and I have now seen with my own eyes how young children will not only enthusiastically ‘work’ with Montessori and Montessori-inspired materials and activities… but they will be drawn to them.  The urge to create themselves through exploration of their environment will naturally zero in on activities providing the greatest benefit to whatever developmental stage they happen to be in – Dr Montessori’s “sensitive periods”.  Indeed, they crave activities suited to their task.

Montessori “Toys” in Action

This past week, I acquired a few new Montessori “toys”.   Opening the parcel, I first unwrapped a geometric shape puzzle, and set it down in front of Pomme to play with while I unwrapped the rest.  I thought this particular puzzle might be a bit too challenging for her as yet, but she immediately set to it and was deeply involved in it.

Another item I unwrapped was a set of mini knobbed cylinders.  A central staple of the Montessori equipment, I have been coveting the knobbed cylinders since I first learned about them.  But they are so expensive!  I finally found an acceptable compromise in the mini cylinders, only 5 cylinders per block instead of 10 and they are smaller in size, for less than 1/3 the price.

I set the blocks on the counter and went to Pomme’s bedroom to put something else away.  I had not, at this point, even shown her the blocks.  When I returned less than a minute later, she had discovered the blocks, taken one down, and completely on her own initiative, having never seen this item before, had set about removing and replacing the cylinders.  Having mastered this set, she then proceeded to take down the rest of the blocks, lined them up, and got to work:

This was a toddler on a mission!  And there was no cajoling, no bribing, no window-dressing, no inviting, no presenting.  She had simply recognized an excellent tool for exploring her world and herself, and had seized upon it.

Further proof happened a couple of days later.  My brother and his family were over for New Year’s Eve.  They also homeschool, and mostly unschool.  I was excited to share my new “toys” with my sister-in-law.  My 4-year-old nephew, who was right there while we were talking, has had little to no exposure to ‘formal’ academic work, he has lived a fairly free-spirited life thus far.  So he came into this “experiment” with no pre-existing bias one way or the other.

I brought out two blocks to show them, took out a few cylinders, and asked my nephew if he wanted to try to put them back in.  He did, and of course it was easy for him.  He almost seemed… not too impressed, really.

So we adults got talking about other things.  Within a few minutes, I noticed that my nephew had, on his own, returned to the blocks, and this time was trying to work with both sets at once.  So, I brought out the other two blocks to give him the full set, and he worked at them quite diligently for several minutes!

Truth be told, he didn’t actually finish the activity.  It was a busy and noisy house at the time, and he was too quickly distracted by all the commotion around him.  In Montessori terms, we didn’t “respect his concentration”.  Quite forgivable, given the holiday, I think!

Still, there it was.  He had taken to this activity with seriousness, concentration, and on his own initiative.  Would he have done so if it was not, in some way to him, “fun”?

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