Whenever someone asks me how to begin homeschooling an elementary-aged child in the Montessori pedagogy, I tell them it all starts with the Great Lessons. What are the Great Lessons, who are they for, and how do you implement them? Why do they matter so much? Consider this a crash course into the five impressionistic stories that shape what the Montessori child learns between ages 6-12.
The Great Lessons are a series of five stories that give children an overview, a cosmic vision, of the story of everything. These stories start with the big picture then funnel down into child-driven, detailed follow-up in a wide range of topics. They are meant to inspire the child to study science, math, language, history and culture by presenting why these subjects matter up front.
“Our experience with children in elementary schools has shown us that the age between six and twelve years is a period of life during which the elements of all sciences should be given. It is a period that, psychologically, is especially sensitive and might be called the “sensitive period of culture” during which the abstract plane of the human mind is organized.”
(Montessori, Maria. Childhood to Adolescence, p 85)
(Montessori, Maria. To Educate the Human Potential p 10)
“Not only can imagination travel through infinite space, but also through infinite time; we can go backwards through the epochs, and have the vision of the earth as it was, with the creatures that inhabited it.”
Ideally told closely together at the beginning of a school year and repeated each year, the five stories that are told cover a ton of ground:
The first story is traditionally called, “God with No Hands” but also has a secular version: the “Coming of the Universe.”
Follow-up topics may be astronomy, earth science, meteorology, volcanoes, oceanography, chemistry, physics, creation stories, landforms, stellar nucleosynthesis, the water cycle — whatever fits with the dawn of time up until the first spark of life.
That brings us to the second Great Lesson which is “Life Comes to Earth” or the “Coming of Life.
This is a great time to learn about dinosaurs, the timeline of life, the tree of life and the diverse species on Earth, biomes, life cycles, ecosystems, habitats, food webs, taxonomy, marine biology, insects, mammals, bacteria, botany — really any interest having to do with life is fair game.
“The Coming of Humans” or “Humans Come to Earth” tells the story of humanity and its accomplishments.
Follow-ups include ancient history, the rise and fall of civilizations, human migrations and evolution, the stone age, cave men, fundamental needs, inventions, tools, spiritual and physical needs, religion, culture, imagination, defense, art and more.
Story four is the “Story of Writing” or “Coming of Communication” or some variant that explains how important language is to us all.
This story talks about topics like why our words matter, where the alphabet comes from, hieroglyphics, cuneiform, the printing press, books, poetry, drama, newspapers, Shakespeare, the Odyssey, rhyme schemes, grammar and could go into computer coding, networking, and even social media as a form of communication.
That leads us into the fifth Great Lesson, the “Story of Numbers” or the “Coming of Mathematics.”
Here we cover topics like trade routes, barter systems, economic geography, the calendar, numerals, algebra, geometry, estimation, fractions, money, the Fibonacci sequence.
“We see no limit to what should be offered to the child, for his will be an immense field of chosen activity.”
(Montessori, Maria. The Absorbent Mind)
You see, with the Great Lessons, we give the child the cosmic scope of everything and allow the imagination to take over. If this seems like a huge and daunting task — don’t worry too much. You don’t have to cover all of these topics. The important part is to give the child a desire to learn, one little spark of inspiration, to guide them in their studies.
“The essential thing is to arouse such an interest that it engages the child’s whole personality.”
(Montessori, Maria. The Absorbent Mind)
To learn more in depth about these stories and the “second plane child” or development that takes place between ages 6 to 12, I highly recommend the following resources:
- Children of the Universe: Cosmic Education in the Montessori Elementary Classroom by Michael Duffy and D’Neil Duffy (check Montessori Services for an affordable hard copy)
- The Secret of Childhood by Maria Montessori
- To Educate the Human Potential by Maria Montessori
- The Deep Well of Time – The Transformative Power of Storytelling in the Classroom by Michael Dorer
- Montessori Teachers Collective for stories and experiments
- Miss Barbara’s Great Lessons Page for presentation ideas, experiments and follow up ideas
Once you know about the Great Lessons approach and the needs of the 6-12 year old child, the next step is to find good Montessori albums and materials. However I think we covered quite a lot of ground so to speak already for one post; expect follow-up recommendations on pulling these resources together very soon.
