Has your child ever played Nia House at home? The parents of Julian recently shared some pictures of Julian’s Nia House work at home.
Julian has been asking his parents for trays at home. With these trays, paper, markers, and his amazing memory, Julian has replicated math works from his Nia House classroom.
Though Julian is able to replicate specific works from his classroom, he is also demonstrating the internalization of order that comes from a Montessori learning environment.
Julian started Nia House at 18 months and is now nearing his fifth birthday. For the past 40 months, Julian has encountered organization in his learning environment. Trays in our Montessori classrooms, from the toddlers through the preschool, come prepared with all the items necessary to complete the given task. Every tray encountered accompanies a presentation. The organization is replicable and predictable. Though the materials change, the systems stay the same.
When Julian asks for a tray, his mind assembles all the required items to effectively execute his math operations. In these pictures, we see Julian arranged the materials from left to right, in the order he needs to use them. Every tray is modeled in this precise way. “These movements are arranged into precise sequences. Children learn… to engage in precise sequences of actions on classroom materials.” (Lillard 301)
Julian’s repetition with the materials has made him not only able to act with mastery on the classroom materials, but also recreate them- precisely! Maria Montessori writes, “Repetition is the secret of perfection…”
It is a joy to see Julian practice, play, master, and perfect his work at Nia House!
Lillard, Angeline Stoll. Montessori The Science Behind the Genius. Oxford University Press, 2005
Montessori, Maria. The Montessori Method. Schocken Books Inc., 1964.