Nurturing Patience and Perseverance
in Young Children
Repetition is a quality that is built into many Montessori works. Children can repeat activities endlessly. This no only leads to mastering specific skills, it also helps to lengthen attention span. In a Montessori classroom, there are no huge, intimidating projects to be done. Instead, work is on individual trays isolating individual skills. Activities begin with smaller tasks/skills and build it up over time, gradually adding a bit more as the child’s attention span lengthen.
A good example of this is Sewing Work. It begins at the beginning-threading a needle, then tying a knot. Next activity would be simple stitching on a line, then sewing a button. As skills improve and attention and persistence develops, a pillow, bookmark or puppet can be created. All of the steps or processes support future academic and social emotional learning.
This article has some great things you can do to help encourage perseverance in your child.
