Use Montessori Picture Cards

Use Montessori Picture Cards

Use Montessori Picture Cards : Multi-thousand tips to make your life easier.

The Montessori picture cards are a great way to teach children the basics of reading through self-correcting cards that match particular words with particular images. Because the cards are self-correcting, children can use the Montessori picture cards by themselves without supervision. Just make sure that you instruct the children on how to use the cards, and they should be able to learn and have fun at the same time. Here’s how.

• Basics. First of all, you need to give the children information on when to use the Montessori picture cards and where these cards can be found. If you are a teacher who handles a group of children, place the cards in an accessible place such as the library or in the classroom. If you are a parent, however, you should place the cards somewhere accessible at home, such as in a quiet room where the child can use them. The cards should not be in the bedroom, however, because there are usually too many distractions in a child’s bedroom, such as the bed and the various toys scattered around.
• Teaching the children the mechanics. Now, tell the children how they can use the cards. Basically, there are two sets of cards in the Montessori system. One set of cards has pictures, while the other set has words. Each word corresponds to one picture, and there are hooks attached to the cards so that each picture card will correspond with only one word card. This way, the child can check whether he pronounces a word correctly by attaching the corresponding picture card.
• Pronunciation. Give emphasis to not just recognizing the words but also knowing how to pronounce the letters in the words. Make sure that you instruct the children to read each word out loud. Reading out loud reinforces the words that the children are learning and helps them make reading a more concrete activity. If there are certain difficult words, make sure that you teach the correct way of pronouncing them first.
• Show examples. The first time that the children use the Montessori picture cards, it is best that you demonstrate first with a couple of the cards. Take the word card, and then pronounce the word. Afterwards, find the corresponding picture card and hook it to the word card to show the children how to check whether they were correct or not.
• Step back. After you have demonstrated, let the children do the rest of the exercises. Remember, supervision is at a bare minimum when the children are using Montessori picture cards. The whole philosophy behind Montessori teaching is that the children should have the initiative and opportunity to learn by themselves, after all.

With these in mind, you should be able to use the Montessori picture cards to help your child learn how to read and how to pronounce words correctly. Best of all, your child learns all by himself and gets the chance to see that learning can be fun too.