the prepared environment – Truly Montessori

“the spiritual embryo needs to be protected by an external environment that is warm with love and rich in nourishment, where everything is disposed to welcome and nothing to harm it. “
Montessori

What does it mean to nurture child’s spirit? Dr. Montessori talked about the spiritual embryo in her numerous writings and we often just look over and go straight to the materials. Have you ever wondered what she meant? How do we guide our child in his/her journey of spiritualism? These were all the questions I had ever since I learned that I was pregnant with my child. I always knew that I wanted to raise a spiritual child but didn’t know where to start.

On Montessori’s tomb it says, “…spiritual renewal and to the progress of humanity through child”, these words do make me ponder deeply what did she mean to do with her work? Spiritual renewal and progression of humanity was Montessori’s goal not the fancy wooden toys and extravagant Montessori set ups. This is especially important when we are facing such adversaries like Covid-19, with Black Lives Matter movement, and the political divide that we are facing in this country. If humanity stands any chance, we must begin at birth. We must begin with nurturing the spirituality in each child. When I speak of spirituality, I am not speaking of the religion. Spirituality is something we already have before we were born. We are born as this spiritual being and what we need from our environment is to continue to nurture this light within us.

“Spirituality is an inner sense of relationship to a higher power that is loving and guiding. The word we give to this higher power might be God, nature, spirit, the universe, the creator, or other words that represent a divine presence. But the important point is that spirituality encompasses our relationship and dialogue with this higher presence.”
Dr. Lisa Miller

Ways we encourage spirituality in our home:

Modeling quiet time every morning and in the evening. We do not necessarily pray but we sit quietly and just observe our breath. With a toddler that is less than a minute sometimes we have a set time and space to do that. We want him to understand the value of making SILENCE.
We encourage non-materialistic values. Our son do not get toys or too many materialistic things. We do buy him things that he needs for his growth but for wants we do practice the concept of LESS IS MORE.
Communicating positively and using mindful words. Words are so important, not just what you say to your child but to your own personal self. Sometimes our inner dialogue is so negative, “I am not doing good enough”, “I should be a better mother” “I should always stay happy in front of my child.” That inner dialogue has a vibrational energy that is felt by your child. Change your inner dialogue because you are doing an amazing, wonderful job raising your child.
Let the child explore safely and freely. We are just here to guide our son in his journey of self discovery. We prepare the environment so he can discover his true potential freely.
Reading mindful books about peace, kindness, emotions, diversity, and people. We also practice gratitude in our daily life. Simple gratitude such as, “We are grateful for each other.” ” Grateful for pancakes in breakfast.” “Grateful to spend time and read together.” “Grateful for a beautiful walk outside.” Once you start practicing gratitude everyday, your whole mind set and mood changes because we all have so many things that we can be grateful for. Right now, I am grateful for the internet so I can connect with so many wonderful, positive people in the world.
We get lots of outdoor time as being in nature really makes us feel connected to our inner self.
We talk about kindness and model what that looks like by doing kind things for our friends, families, neighbors or even helping out a homeless person or by simply giving a smile to people we see in a grocery shop
We express our own emotions, all emotions, in front of our son in a positive way. If I am angry, I tell my son how I feel and I firmly believe that my son needs to know that I am not always happy and I too feel sad . It is okay to feel those things as all emotions are healthy and necessary for our ultimate growth.
Nurturing the Prepared Adult. Nurturing my own self by doing things I enjoy and caring for my mind, body, and spirit is the most important lesson that I can show my son. It is important for him to see the value of enjoying simple things. Sometimes I simply put on music and dance to the beat in front of him so he can witness his mother enjoying something she likes.
Lastly, we let our child wonder. We let him explore the world with his senses and let him observe the world in awe. This is so important as we want our child to have reverence for all life around him, for this planet, and for himself as he is the greatest MIRACLE that was ever created.