Prepared Environment: Repetition

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montessori bead stringing

One of the trademarks of the Montessori environment is opportunity for repetition. Through observation, Montessori found that children naturally develop and learn when given opportunity for meaningful activity. A key to an activity being meaningful is repetition. A child must be able to repeat an activity as many times as they need to feel satisfied. This does NOT mean that they need to repeat an activity in order to master it. During the first plane of development (0-6), it’s all about process over product.

There are many opportunities for repetition in the Montessori classroom. There is also the gift of the uninterrupted three hour work cycle, which gives the children time to repeat an activity until they feel satisfied. Parents can support spontaneous activity at home by providing opportunities for repetition. Here are a few ways you can support repetition in the home:

  • Provide open ended toys. Often, when a child has “mastered” a toy, they misuse it. Ever wonder why that light up toy laptop always gets misused or broken? Because they have used it, mastered it and cannot manipulate it. Toys that are designed to be manipulated offer endless opportunities to repeat activities.

  • Provide practical life opportunities that can be repeated. Washing the windows can be repeated until a child’s heart is content. The same goes for spraying and wiping a table, and opening and closing containers.

  • Provide low stakes ways for children to master skills. Putting a shirt on a chair to practice buttoning offers repetition and is a lot less frustrating than a child trying to practice by buttoning their own clothing.

  • Cutting paper and stringing beads are simple art activities that encourage repetition and use items that you likely already have at home.