Important Periods of Childhood Development
Most children are passionately interested in practical life activities because the activities respond to all the sensitive periods (important periods of childhood development). Practical life activities build a foundation on which the children will grow and carry over into the other areas of the classroom, and over in to their every day life. The Montessori Practical Life exercises respond to the need for:
Order of activities (sequences, routine, hierarchy, a cycle or full rotation of an activity)
Movement. All practical life activities involve great movements that are varied and attractive. The variety of movements help the child's self-awareness within the environment and increase the child's acquisition of intelligent movement.
Sensorial exploration (sights, sounds, smells, and eventually language).
Needs and tendencies are responded to, to help the children adapt so that they can actively participate and grown within their environment.
A child's love of work. Practical life activities feed their natural desire to work and play an active role in their environment.
Practical Life Lessons Guide Children
1. Construction and integration of the child’s personality through their freedom of choice, and through the variety of their choices. Freedom of choice is necessary for the healthy development of the will.
2. Spontaneous purposeful activity that is only possible when children are allowed to exercise their curiosity through repetition. It is only through repetition that abstraction is possible. This abstraction brings about a feeling of completion for the growing child.
3. Development of co-ordination of movement. The child thinks of the activity, wills himself to the activity, and then does the activity.
4. Development of the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of the child.
5. Purposeful movement that helps the development of