Any seasoned veteran homeschool parent will tell you that there are about as many approaches to homeschooling your child as there are people on Earth. Like many other things, education is all about meeting children’s individual needs and working out a system that takes their unique interests and learning styles into consideration.
However, that doesn’t mean we can’t all glean some knowledge from homeschool quotes from those who came before us, like Maria Montessori and other educational greats.
Who Is Maria Montessori?
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori was an Italian physician and educator who lived during the late 1800s and early 1900s. She is best known for her contributions to early childhood education pedagogy and her innovative education method, the Montessori method.
Maria Montessori opened the first Montessori school on January 6, 1907 in Rome, Italy. After the success with Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House), Montessori shared about her approach to early childhood education around the world. Now, over 7,000 certified Montessori schools exist around the world, including nearly 4,000 in the United States alone.
8 Inspiring Homeschool Quotes from Maria Montessori
Although the Montessori method isn’t exclusive to homeschooling, many of Montessori’s beliefs and thoughts on education make informational, inspiring homeschool quotes that can help parents direct their thinking. In fact, these 8 homeschool quotes can provide a great scaffolding for parents as they map out their homeschool curriculum and schedule.
1. “Our aim is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core.”
As parents and homeschool teachers, it’s our job to ignite a spark within our child and feed that spark. When it comes to a homeschool curriculum, parents should consider approaches that focus on creativity, problem solving, and other critical thinking skills instead of simple rote memorization and copying from a book. By doing this, you’ll not only give your children the tools to succeed in life, but also help foster a love of learning inside of them.
2. “The hand is the instrument of intelligence. The child needs to manipulate objects and to gain experience by touching and handling.”
Hands-on learning is so important, especially for young children. Homeschooling lends itself to a hands-on approach particularly well because of the flexibility and number of real-life resources available inside the home. When planning out your homeschool activities, look for ways to make the activity hands-on or interactive in some way.
3. “Children acquire knowledge through experience in the environment.”
Children retain the most information when they can apply it into real-life scenarios or see the information play out in real time. This is why experiential learning and field trips can be so beneficial to children. The more you can take your child out into the world and their everyday environment during the homeschool day, the more they will learn along the way.
4. “Education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.”
Many first-time homeschool parents falsely assume they need tons of expensive materials and training to teach their kids, but that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, many children will learn from what they’re given and even make their own unique discoveries without any direct instruction. Your job as a homeschool educator is to provide a framework, and then watch your kids grow as they learn on their own.
5. “Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavor to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence.”
Unlike most traditional school settings, homeschool provides parents with a unique opportunity to map out their schedule based on their child’s individual interests. In many cases, parents find that children are most cooperative and willing to focus on school work when the topics and activities interest them. The more you can sprinkle your child’s interests into your homeschool day, the better the day will be!
6. “Everything you say to your child is absorbed, cataloged, and remembered.”
Children’s minds work like sponges—they soak up all of the information we give them and apply it in new, exciting ways. This is great within a homeschool setting, because chances are your child will take in everything. It’s also great from a general parenting point of view, especially when you’re teaching kids something new or engaging with them in a meaningful way.
7. “The first duty of an educator is to stir up life but leave it free to develop.”
As parents, we can sometimes get too caught up in giving our kids the right answers or helping them along so they are successful. However, this can actually backfire at times and leave kids with major deficits in terms of free thinking and problem-solving skills. Instead, we should run our homeschool environment in a way that encourages thinking and learning, but also leaves space for the children to explore on their own.
8. “Education of even a very small child does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life.”
When homeschooling your child, it’s sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees. While you do want your child to learn all of the required standards and skills needed to eventually earn their diploma and possibly move on to college, you also want your children to learn all of the needed life skills for them to succeed as adults. Keep in mind the end goal of your child’s education when teaching, and everything will work out in the end.
Walk Away Inspired
Maria Montessori’s unique approach to education has continued to grow over the past century, and it continues to inspire teachers and parents across the world. If you’re looking for a great guide to help you approach homeschooling your child, consider the Montessori method and Maria Montessori’s wisdom. With her amazing homeschool quotes to help you, you’ll find success as a homeschool teacher in no time at all.
