In a Montessori classroom, does a child have to be a certain age in order to be able to do an activity?
This will be my third year as a public school teacher in a Montessori classroom. The past two years I taught 3-5 year olds. This year I am teaching kindergarten and first grade (something that was concocted for us to go through AMS certification and work out with adding upper elementary). Just to give a quick background…. To answer your question…No! Montessori lessons should NOT be based upon age. There is a sequence for the materials and most lessons fall within a certain age bracket, but no sequence should interfere in a child’s learning. Children should learn lessons that they are ready for! Sometimes I skip lessons in the sequence b/c children do not need them and are ready to progress forward. The bead chains are for skip counting/multiplying. I prefer for my children to have a background in addition before doing these because they are for skip counting/multiplication (and multiplication is repeated addition as you know). Saying that, however, if your son can linear count and
