Montessori

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education

@Sophie interesting!! It seems that many toys marketed as Montessori really aren’t quite that then?

Probably not - it’s probably one of those terms that gets misused

It's an approach to education created by someone called Maria Montessori. It's all about involving kids in real life activities and teaching them those skills. If you're really strict with it there's nothing that isn't real so no books about talking animals or dragons or whatever. But most people I know pick and choose what they like. Generally on Instagram it's just people taking photos of beige playrooms or shelves with wooden toys which may or may not actually be Montessori 😆

It’s also about letting them explore how they want to do things rather than telling/showing them the ‘right’ way to do something. So really allowing them autonomy etc a lot of the wooden toys etc are much broader in what can be done with them- hence being Montessori. Rather than something where there’s only one way to do it.

It’s very “trendy” lol

And schools! Apparently there is no accreditation or requirement to label a school Montessori in most states, so anyone can use it haha

@Tiff yes! I think it’s a trendy money grab… but that’s just me lol I can understand the appeal

@Brittany Definitely is! My daughter goes to a Waldorf school, they take it very seriously, and it follows what are supposed to be very similar practices to Montessori - so knowing how different they are in comparison, I now know many of these other schools are faking it to get that price up because it is pretty detailed stuff lol