imaginative play question

[maybemom05]

My DS will be starting in a toddler program 3 days/week in September, he'll be 22 months. While I was researching schools, I felt like Montessori would be the best fit for him for a number of reasons, but I do have a reservation about the lack of imaginative play.

Often DS will pick up something - a usually a block or something, hold it up to his ear and say, "hello" - then grin and hand it to me to pretend like I'm on the phone.

I know that Michael Olaf says somewhere in his materials that it is disrepectful to children to let them use materials inappropriately. Do you have any sense of how a Montessori teacher would handle this kind of thing in class, where DS is pretending something? I don't want to stifle his creativity, etc.

I'm sure I'm making this a bigger deal than it should be , and I will mention it to his teachers and the director, but if any of you have any experiences along this vein, I'd love to hear about them.

thanks!!

[fizzymom]

I don't know what Michael Olaf thinks is inappropriate, but at my kid's Montessori it means doing something that will cause harm to the materials, the environment, or to others.

That said, my DD and some of her classmates built an airplane out of the red rods (on 4 mats) with a space for the pilot and 2 passengers and proceeded to have a conversation about the trip they were taking. The teacher observed that they were not causing harm and let them develop their spatial awareness and social skills. I don't know if you would call that imaginative or not.

In my experience, Montessori allows for a lot of imagination. I really don't understand why people think it doesn't - maybe bad experience with pseudo-montessori...who knows?

I think the key is to find a good school.

HTH

[nkm1968]

At dd's school, the children naturally engage in a lot of play in between working; although they do not in general use the Montessori materials for it, they draw kings and dragons and princesses and monsters, sculpt little animals from clay or wax, and play with them. In the All Day room, there are dress up clothes, unit blocks, trucks, cars, and a baby doll area too. However, these areas are NOT in the NOT All Day classrooms, as those children are pretty content to do Montessori work for their 3 hour school day, then go home, eat lunch, and play imaginatively at home. Montessori in general does not have regular imaginative toys available in the strict work-cycle classrooms (as opposed to All Day) because Dr. Montessori understood that there isn't any way to prevent imaginative play, but there were lots of ways she developed to ALSO encourage cognitive, gross motor, fine motor, and social development with the materials most people do not have at home, thus making a Casa preschool experience something much different to adjunctively enhance early development, and to complement children's tendencies outside the prepared environment.

[Valkyrie9]

I'm still really new to all this, but my inference is that Montessori doesn't really discourage imaginative play/activities, but tries to put it in the context of day-to-day "real" activities. So where the PP talks about making the airplane, that's an imaginative activity involving something real, tangible and possible for them to encounter. I think what is avoided are things that are clearly fantasy--talking animals, fantasy characters, etc.

[fizzymom]

Originally Posted by Valkyrie9

I think what is avoided are things that are clearly fantasy--talking animals, fantasy characters, etc.

Are you suggesting that this type of activity is discouraged? That has not been my experience. DD will frequently use animals and objects from the cultural bins or from the letter boxes to have conversations.

As far as fantasy characters are concerned, are you refering to Waldorf type gnomes and fairies? IMO, a lot of this type of play actually originates from adults.

In some people's families, gnomes and the like are a part of their cultural heritage and it would make perfect sense for a child learning about their heritage to play gnomes. However, it is not part of my family's heritage. We have instead fairies and shapeshifters, so my kids play at this. I, frankly, would find it odd if my kids started to play gnomes unless they had some friends who did (i think gnomes are creepy- but I also think clowns are creepy. yeah, I'm weird ).

I also have found that the cultural lessons at my kids school often do deal with the mythology and folklore of various cultures so they may someday come home playing gnomes after all. *shudder*

That said, playing characters such as Spiderman or Batman IS discouraged because this usually involves making someone the bad guy (often against their will) and often leads to aggressive behavior. But again, that play also originates from adults.

[Valkyrie9]

Originally Posted by fizzymom

Are you suggesting that this type of activity is discouraged? That has not been my experience. DD will frequently use animals and objects from the cultural bins or from the letter boxes to have conversations.

As far as fantasy characters are concerned, are you refering to Waldorf type gnomes and fairies? IMO, a lot of this type of play actually originates from adults.

I'm trying to remember exactly where I read it: Montessori From the Start, maybe? Or on a related website. But the context I got from it was more about what books the kids read: the intent was that the younger Montessori set (toddler to 6, maybe?) were engaged in a type of learning that needed reality-based play in order to help them find their own niche in the world. They need the context of non-fantasy types of things so that they could differentiate later between what was real and what was pretend. I'll have to look around for some links...

[Maggieinnh]

:

Interesting thread! I am looking into Montessori, as it is close to where we live right now, but VERY undecided, especially due to this subject.
Please, Valkyrie9 could you find those links/ articles and post them!

[Valkyrie9]

Related--here's a link to an MDC mom's blog where she talks about fairy tales and refers to the debate.

Here's a portion of an FAQ from the Montessori.edu web page:

Q. I recently observed a Montessori classroom for a day. I was very very impressed, but I have three questions.

There doesn't seem to be any opportunities for pretend play

The materials don't seem to allow children to be creative

Children don't seem to be interacting with another very much

Any help you give me would be appreciated. Thank you very much, BD

A. Dear BD, I can give you three very incomplete answers to your perceptive questions:

(1) When Dr. Montessori opened the first Children's House it was full of pretend play things. The children never played with them as long as they were allowed to do real things - i.e. cooking instead of pretending to cook. It is still true.

(2) the materials teach specific things and then the creativity is incredible. Like learning how to handle a good violin and then playing music. It is not considered "creative" to use a violin as a hammer, or a bridge while playing with blocks. We consider it "creative" to learn how to use the violin properly and then create music. The same goes for the materials in a Montessori classroom.

(3) there is as much interaction as the children desire, but the tasks are so satisfying that, for these few hours a day, children want to master the challenges offered by them. Then they become happier and kinder—true socialization. Also, since concentration is protected above all, as all "work" is respected, children learn early on not to interrupt someone who is concentrating.

Hope that helps. And for the record, I think pretend/fantasy play is great. We'll probably incorporate it into DD's home life, but I can respect the reasons for it not being in Montessori school programs much.

[Maggieinnh]

Thank you very much Valkyrie9!
I just read those links you posted as well and that was pretty much what I remember from Montessori as well.

Off the subject, I read in the blog this paragraph as well:
"Add to that, the fact that the true original fairy tales are not the ones we know today, are NOT those of Disney and adaptations on a theme of a theme AND that places like Barnes and Noble no longer stock Grimms tales in many shops as they are deemed "not politically correct" you may be easily of the opinion that perhaps they should be left alone, after all, what is the point?"

I can not believe it!!! I love books and respect them and am soo pi#4ed off about censorship, if this is true.....
This is unbelievable, I knew that Barnes and Nobles did also tell me about two different titles that they were discontinued, which was a flat out lie and I ordered the books from the UK, but...I just do not know what to say to this! :
Since those book incidents I refuse to spend my money there, as far as I remember very bad things happen from book censorship!
If a place that sells the written word censors it after its own accord,....oh where will this end up!

[RomanGoddess]

Dr. Montessori was not against fantasy. She was against introducing it at too young an age when a child was unable to distinguish fantasy from reality.