The Child's Work

Children under three, especially toddlers
often have a very negative reputation.

Those terrible twos.

We often think toddlers are unruly,

that they are very egotistical,

which they are and need to be for a while.

We often think of them as being
very difficult to handle,

very difficult to discipline…

Before the will develops
there is an energy

that is directing the child’s development.

That energy is referred to as the Horme.

The Horme is sometimes defined as a life force.

And it’s evident in all living organisms.

It’s that force that pushes that organism
to become what it is supposed to become.

Dr. Montessori talked about the idea that

we are able to touch
the periphery of the child.

The exterior of the child if you will,

and there is a center inside that child.

And inside that center is this secret of childhood.

This incredible bundle of energy
that she called Horme.

This is what is the core
inside of each of us.

That we’re born with and
given the ability to construct ourselves.

No parent taught their child to speak
or taught their child to move,

it was because they are driven from inside.

Young children have a very active Horme.

So children aren’t being disobedient to adults.

They’re really obeying this very strong,
very internal force that they can’t deny.

So a child who has to move all the time
is being moved from inside to do that movement.

That’s the power of this Horme.

Nature knows that’s the process

and is putting that child on
that path of development

so that they can stand and free their hands

and then they can explore the environment

and that’s when we need to give them materials

to manipulate, to develop the control
and coordination that happens.

The art of working with young children

is to try to figure out what it is
they are needing to do--

they are being pushed
to do from this energy--

and ask them to do it.

Freedom is a point of arrival.

It is not where we begin.

It’s not a point of departure.

And children are given various freedoms,
depending on their increasing ability

to handle the responsibilities
that come with those freedoms.

Montessori talked about
the development of the will.

That as a child’s will developed

their ability to make a choice and
take responsibility for that choice,

it had enormous impact on their ability
to function in a social setting,

with a set of rules, accepting
those rules gradually,

whether or not they even agreed with them.

The child first starts out just lifting their head.

And then slithering.

You can’t even notice it sometimes
when they are slithering,

and all of a sudden you notice,

they are two feet from where
they were when I looked last.

And then, slowly, rolling from back to front.

And eventually crawling.

And pulling up.

And attached walking and walking…

and then beyond that
with the challenges of running.

As soon as they walk, they
want to start running and climbing

and challenging themselves
in more difficult ways.

So we look at the whole continuum
from birth to three,

in terms of gross motor

as well as fine motor.

So the development of the grasps,

from reflexive all the way to a fine pincer grasp,

that they can learn by the age of nine months

if they are given the opportunities.

And the materials to help
those muscles to develop,

and to help those
neurological pathways to connect

so they can use their hands
to affect their environment.

Movement is the key.

It’s through movement that we develop our brain.

An environment for young children
really has to have enough space

so that the environment itself

is not an obstacle
to their development.

And often unconsciously
we create those obstacles

by making spaces too small or too cluttered
or too crowded with furniture

so they really can’t practice
the movements they need to practice.

Sometimes the obstacle is an adult’s attitude.

“Stop moving so much.”

“Stop climbing up and down off the chair.”

“Stop pushing, stop pulling, stop climbing… stop…”

All the movements they need to practice.

We often try to stop them
because it is an annoyance us.

And yet we have to understand that
to perfect their gross body movements,

but also their hand movements,
they HAVE to practice.

And they need a lot of practice.

So the environments they need
for the whole first three years

are going to change significantly.

But the change is based
on their developmental needs.

The hand is so allied to
the development of the brain

and the work of the brain

that sometimes I think we shortchange it

by not giving enough to the work of the hand.

Neurologically, children can make
what is referred to as a primitive pincer grip,

which is a very flattened kind of
index finger and thumb grip.

That’s a neurological acquisition.

To move this from this real tight
flattened pinched movement

to a refined pincer or what’s called
a mature pincer is experience.

That’s not neurological-

it creates a neurological pattern,
but that comes from experience.

This comes from neurological development.

How many of our children are stuck here?

Rather than being allowed
to move to something like this?
And it comes early.

Still if you are a three-to-six teacher

you see children coming
in to your environments

with very immature hand skills.

It’s simply environment that has caused that.

It’s not their brain.

It’s not. It’s just their experiences
that have caused that.

During the second year the child
is becoming a socialized human being.

Up until that point they are very egotistical.

But gradually they come to understand
that everyone in this group has certain needs.

Has certain rights. Not just me.

And as they understand that,

this social development is occurring simultaneously
with the Horme declining in its power

and the will becoming stronger and stronger.

And we support that development
by giving young children choices.

But also allowing them to experience
the consequences of those choices.

We empower them by giving them choices.

You can do A or B.

We’ve controlled the situation
by the choices we give them.

But we empower them to make that choice.

“You need to get off the table.”

“Can you do it by yourself or
do you need me to help you?”

“We’re going outside.”

Can you put your shoes on by yourself
or do you need some help?”

It’s a choice.

So when we can empower them that way,
we’re also feeding this developing will.

Because they are making choices
that they then get to see the responsibility for. ..

I think one of the secrets to making
all of this work with toddlers

is to have very few rules.

We have one overriding rule:

you may do nothing that hurts yourself,
others or the environment.

If you think of that overriding rule,

that gives you such a big parameter
to guide this development.

And we try to use a positive approach.

“We walk inside, we run outside.”

“We talk inside, we yell outside.”

So we give them all of these limits,
if we want to call them limits,

by voicing them in a positive way.

If children are living in an environment
where there are no limits,

where they can do anything they want,
whenever they want, however they want,

that is absolute abandonment.
The greatest fear of a child.

So that the limits that we do create,
and there aren’t very many,

but the ones that are there are very clear,
give a child the structure.

Give them the security of knowing
this is what I can do here.

This is what I can’t do here.

And gradually, they reach a point where
they can consciously choose to obey that structure.

Practical Life with toddlers is interesting.

It’s often messy. It often involves a lot of water.

And you just know that.

You know that’s part of the attraction of it to them.

There is a lot of collaborative work
around Practical Life in the beginning.

And as the adult, we watch
how their motor skills are coming along,

how their cognitive skills are developing,

and as they appear to be able to do bits
and pieces of a piece of work independently

the collaboration diminishes
and they take over more and more of the work.

Till the next thing you know,
they are doing the work independently.

People marvel sometimes that these children
are able to bake bread, for example.

The smell of baking bread
is a great aspect of a community.

But this is a contribution they are making
to the communal lunch.

It’s not something that
they are just doing for themselves.

Their initial motivation is of course,
an egotistical one.

But at the lunch itself, someone asks:
“who baked this bread today? It is so good.”

“Thank you so much for baking this bread.”

“Yes! Pizza!”

When I go into an environment
I’m looking for order and cleanliness

and the appropriate materials for specific ages.

One of the things that is challenging for teachers

when they first come out of training

is which materials do I have in my environment?

However you don’t always have
every single child that needs

every single material that’s
in your album at the same time.

So you have to look at
the children that are there.

That are present.

Are there things on the shelves
that children don’t even look at? Or notice?

That environment needs to be dynamic.

It needs to change
according to the child’s needs.

And that doesn’t mean we change
the entire environment every week.

But it does mean that we have to observe.

To pay attention to what the children are using,
what they are not using,

what they are misusing as well
because that can be also a flag telling us…

okay, this is not
an appropriate material right now.

They are trying to use it
and it’s just not working

and they are not getting anything out of it,
and they are actually being destructive with it.

So it’s not feeding a need.

So I’m looking to see that the materials
are connected with the children.

And somehow helping the teacher
to understand that also.

To train her to observe, to train her eye
to see those kinds of things.

What the child really needs
in terms of their motor skills,

in terms of their interests.

Because it is not only about
ability and what they can do,

it’s also about what they are interested in.

Children of this age are showing us
every day what they need.

Child: “Look it!”
Teacher: “Can you see your face in the mirror?”

Meeting the child’s needs
and realizing they will get there one day.

They have their own path.

And they are also going to do it very differently
than the way that you do it.

So you’re going to go in

and when you finally do that button presentation
you’re going to do it perfectly!

And they’re going to go in
and they’re going to pull.

And they’re going to try and –you know—
rip that button off

because they really want it to
get out of that hole right now!

And you’re going to have to be patient
with that and allow the child.

And it’s not that you didn’t
do your presentation correctly,

it’s that the child is learning.

And they are in a process.

And we have to see what
they need before we just step in.

That classroom has to be immaculate clean.

You have to be able to organize
the toilet education, toilet awareness,

the snack, the food preparation,
the practical life.

In that toddler class,
you know that at the beginning,

the moment that that child
goes into the environment,

he will touch everything. Everything!

In the toilet environment there is no way
you can say you can not touch this.

So I would start with very few things.

With many conversations,
basically it is a matter of order, routine,

how to go into the toilet,
how to take off your clothes,

how to change your shoes…

So they are such tiny little things
that you have to do,

so to establish a routine

and also to establish that
the child feels very comfortable

and the child feels that he can predict
exactly what’s happening in the classroom.

Order is extremely important for the child.

And in setting up the environment.

So things need to be found in their place.

And the adult needs to help in that process.

With children under three,

we can’t expect them to be
putting things back from where they are…

from age 8 weeks, it’s a process that happens.

And in Nido, it rarely happens.

It’s the adult that’s keeping the order.

But the child still needs to be able
to find what they need to

in order to satisfy whatever development
is going on inside of them.

So if they are working
on that four-finger-to-thumb grasp,

they can go over and find
the rocking base where it was.

It’s not going to move to a different area.

Even though they can’t put it back.

They need to be able to find it there
to satisfy their development.

Then when they get to the infant community,

they start to understand things
can be found in the same place.

This is how order is;
it gives security to the child.

They form points of reference
that makes them feel more comfortable

in their environments so that they can find things.

Usually they don’t learn
how to put their work away

until they are transitioning to the primary.

That’s kind of one of the signs
that we know they’re ready

because they can do a complete cycle of activity.

So in the beginning, they’re just going over
and working at the shelf.

Knowing where that item belongs.

And as things move along, they might
take that item to rug or to a table to work with.

And then it stays at the table. It doesn’t get back.

But at least they know work goes on a rug or a table.

That’s a sense of order
that they’ve gotten from the environment

in terms of the adults and
in terms of other children.

Then they start putting their work back
on any shelf in the classroom.

So that rocking base might go
in the shelf that has shoe cleaning on it.

Any shelf in the environment.

But they have internalized that order.

That work goes on the shelf.

They know that that work goes on a shelf.

They don’t go over and put it in the sink.
They put it on a shelf.

Because they have internalized that order.

So they are putting it on any shelf,

and then eventually,
they’re putting on the correct shelf.

Not in the correct spot,
but on the correct shelf!

Then finally, it goes on that spot where it goes.

Having works that are complete
as well is important.

So that means that all of the cloths
for handwashing need to be present,

otherwise the child can’t be successful
in doing handwashing

if he doesn’t have a towel to dry his hands.

So, we need to make sure that the child
when they are done replaces those cloths

and if they don’t then we’re replacing those cloths.

If there are no more cloths,
then we’re removing the material somehow.

Putting it somewhere it’s not available anymore

because the child doesn’t understand
there are no more cloths.

They will go over and they will still try to do that activity.

Being comfortable with getting messy.

Being comfortable with letting children
do things that aren’t in your album,

being comfortable with allowing them to make mistakes,
to see what happens if they do things in a different way,

things like that are challenging
when you are working in a community.

We have to give up a lot of control
and be patient and breathe

and have a strong center and be really grounded.

Open to accepting these children’s possibilities
and their accomplishments.

And what an accomplishment is,

an accomplishment is learning,

and having a smile and being joyful

and feeling good about yourself.

You are there because you are the support

and you are the one
that prepared this physical environment

so that the child can do that independently,
can do that work,

can succeed and can gain that feeling
of normalization

of using their mind and body together
to be a happy human being.

That positive experience of being able
to do for himself and to succeed

without anyone interrupting
is going to stay with him

and that’s what we want him to take away.