Napier Courier: Suzuki fits with Montessori

• Napier Courier
• 20 Jul 2016
• BY HELENA KERR

My first awareness of the Montessori philosophy came when I was living in Wellington in the late 1990s.

As a qualified Suzuki music teacher I was teaching the violin, and my studio included a number of ‘Montessori families’. One of the mums pointed out to me some of the similarities between the Montessori and Suzuki philosophies, and I was hooked.

Shinichi Suzuki and Maria Montessori were both early childhood educators ahead of their time. They each felt that, with the right environment, children are capable of learning very advanced skills at a young age, and so a key element of each teaching method is child-centred learning and the creation of a child-focused learning structure. In Dr Suzuki’s case he designed a method of learning the violin by listening, just as children learn their primary language, and that is why it is sometimes called the Mother Tongue Method. Parents play a vital part in this method, as teachers and encouragers, just as they encourage their children when they learn to talk.

Maria Montessori used child sized furniture and created activities for the children aimed at developing skills to help them learn to care for themselves and their environment, and to become independent.

Fast-forward 20 or so years and my husband and I are now living in Hawke’s Bay and have four children. Each of them has been fortunate to have a Montessori preschool education. They have loved the freedom of being able to choose for themselves the tasks and activities that interest them, from sweeping leaves to working with the binomial cube.

This month @ Montessori 3-6 is music month and I will be in each week to work with the children, introducing them to basic music and rhythm skills.

Article Name:Suzuki fits with Montessori

Publication:Napier Courier

Author:BY HELENA KERR