What Does Scooping Beans and Cleaning Tables Have to Do with Reading and Writing in Montessori?

Parents new to Montessori often have many questions about the purpose of many of the activities in the classroom. A common one revolves around how the practical life curriculum prepares children for the language arts curriculum. So, how does scooping beans and cleaning tables prepare the child for reading and writing?

Order

Order in Montessori practical life serves a couple purposes on the road to reading and writing. Activities are demonstrated with a left-to-right process, just like we read left-to-right. For example, when scooping beans, they are transferred from the left bowl to the right bowl. Then, they are returned to the left bowl so that it is ready for the next person. When cleaning tables, the child wipes with the sponge in a top-to-bottom, left-to-right fashion, similar to the order in which we read and write.

Materials on the shelves are also placed in order of difficulty from left-to-right, top-to-bottom. The easiest activity is on the upper left side of the shelf and the most difficult is found in the bottom right. Children know to follow this sequence, which then translates into reading and writing order.

Concentration

Scooping beans and cleaning tables provides an opportunity for concentration. Spend some time pouring beans back and forth. You become focused on making sure the beans make it into the proper containers. The repetitive sound is almost hypnotizing. Your body will calm, thus allowing you to relax and better concentrate on other efforts.

Scrubbing a table is a great release of tension and energy to satisfy the proprioceptive sense. As the tension and energy is released, the child is able to pull himself back in to reawaken his spirit. Once that spirit is awakened, the body and the mind have calmed, the child is more receptive to learning.

Independence

As the child learns how to scoop beans and scrub tables, he is learning important life skills. Everyone needs to be able to serve food without spilling and to clean up after himself. As he becomes more independent, he is more confident. A confident child is better able to open himself up to trying difficult tasks. Learning anything new requires confidence in one's own abilities.

Coordination

The Montessori practical life curriculum helps children prepare for writing by refining their fine motor skills. The grip required on that spoon for scooping beans is similar to that being used on a pencil. Squeezing out a sponge when cleaning tables further exercises the child's finger muscles.

What about the older children?

Montessori practical life is traditionally taught to the younger children who are preparing for these reading and writing skills. For older children, though, the practice continues to be beneficial. Older children still need a method of relaxation to help center them back into their academic work. It is also possible to increase the difficulty of these activities in such a way as to require greater control and coordination.

Can children learn how to read and write without scooping beans and washing tables? In theory, yes they can. But think about it. These skills used to be taught in the home as a part of regular life. Even in a regular preschool, children are doing dramatic play and love to help clean. The Montessori classroom just happens to be a place that embraces and encourages such activity as an integral part of the reading and writing curriculum.