Montessori seems like it is harder on the teacher and easier on the child than "standard" education. And the learning is more enduring. The "standard" way is like cramming for a test and then forgetting most of it next semester. One thing humans a really-really wired for is learning language. If they don't have one they will make a new one, a creole. And it is the children who make it. I do not read letters, I read words. I think (and Mercy will know whether I am right or not) that learning the letters has to be in the context of words and fit with what they already learned.
Montessori seems like it is harder on the teacher and easier on the child than "standard" education. And the learning is more enduring. The "standard" way is like cramming for a test and then forgetting most of it next semester. One thing humans a really-really wired for is learning language. If they don't have one they will make a new one, a creole. And it is the children who make it. I do not read letters, I read words. I think (and Mercy will know whether I am right or not) that learning the letters has to be in the context of words and fit with what they already learned.