I really did not know much about Montessori education when we received a review copy of Montessori Map Work by Bobby and June George. This children’s geography book introduces the Earth’s continents and animals that live on them. I was curious to see what makes a book “Montessori.”
I have learned a little bit about what Montessori education is about, which helps me make sense of how things are presented in the Montessori Map Work book (recommended for ages 2-5 years).
As with all things Montessori, students begin with the concrete and move to the abstract. When learning geography, students first develop an understanding that the earth is a round globe, made up of land and water. (Source: www.bobbyjgeorge.com)
The book is not a story book, it first presents the idea that the Earth is made from land and water. Then goes on to show each of the continents, oceans and animals with simple illustrations and short sentences like, “This continent is…” and “These are some animals from…” I was surprised that my 4 (almost 5)-year-old son was so very intrigued by the book. We read it together several times just looking at the pictures.
As we were reading, I realized that the seven continents have textured edges. I looked on the book’s cover description and found out that kids are supposed to trace each continent’s shape with their fingers. So I showed my child how to do that on each of the pages.
My son is very interested in animals, so I thought it was good for him to learn where different animals lived throughout the world. He likes to learn and I found out he is pretty good at remembering just about everything we read.
The last page of the book folds out to show all the continents and says, “This is our world.” while asking kids Where do you live? and Where will you visit?
The aim of the book is: Young children will absorb the age-appropriate geography and gain a better sense of their place in the world (Source: www.bobbyjgeorge.com). I do think that the book does its job. I never thought to introduce the idea of continents, etc., at a preschool age level. My 4-year-old does seem to understand a lot more about geography than I thought he did, now that we have read Map Work many times over the past few weeks. He enjoys opening up the book and looking at it, even without me there to read it.
This was our first introduction to anything Montessori, and I like it. There are other books in this series (Shape Work, Number Work, Letter Work) that I will be looking into purchasing for us to use at home.
WHERE TO BUY:
Purchase Montessori Map Work and other books in this series online at Amazon.com
Are you familiar with Montessori? Do you have a Pre K aged child at home?
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