Montessori: Map Work immediately grabs (and holds) kid’s attention

Our oldest child who is four and a half loves animals.  It wasn’t too much of a surprise when he immediately grabbed Montessori: Map Work and put it in his bedroom to where I couldn’t find it for a couple weeks.  Having found the book again I can now review it just in time for its release.

Montessori is a teaching concept that begins with the concrete and moves to the abstract.  Using that principal, children would learn that the Earth is round, made up of water and land; then moving onto each continent and its name.   Montessori: Map Work has the continents outlined in a textured area so that kids have another TPR method of having them learn.

Having taught ESL for a couple years I know-and can attest to the power of TPR methods.  The Montessori teaching methods are new to me, but based on the flow of this book I can see how they help young people to learn.

Every two pages cover a different continent with three animals, the land mass that they live on and a sneak preview of where they were going next.  When they visit a new area they take a different means of transportation each time.  The final page ties the world together by showing all of the continents and the animals that were just shown.

Our son kept getting frustrated that he couldn’t remember “cockatoo” from Australia.  He kept calling a “toucan” a parrot too.  This is one of his comfort books. For our younger child who is two and a half he likes turning the pages and touching the animals when we ask him where they are.

For us this book was a no brainer.  Our oldest loved it from the get-go and our youngest is leaning to love it, which is an aspect of Montessori.  It’s approachable and lets little ones learn or explore at their own pace, but also has guide rails for the adults to steer the education.