Why İndependence is İmportant
Starting to move means that your baby is now slowly getting ready to move independently from you. It is very, very important for us to give our baby independence. If you want to be conscious parents by following us, please listen to our word and make an effort so that your baby can stand on his own feet independently. We have said it before, but we would like to repeat it once again for those who have just joined us: Studies show that the key to success in adults is self-confidence. If we want to raise self-confident individuals, we must recognize the independence of our children (with limited freedom – we will explain all this later -), we must trust them first and make them feel this. A child can learn to do better and more accurately only with experience. If we constantly speak for our children, do what they want for them, feed them, tie their shoes, wear their cardigans, do their homework, maybe we can make them happy at that moment, but by adopting a very wrong attitude for their future, we are taking away their happiness in the future.
Montessori Philosophy
A child will feel the greatest pleasure when he completes a task on his own as a result of certain trials. He learns the most important teaching from his own experience. Every child is unique and each person’s repetition needs are different. If we do not give them enough time and opportunity to do this repetition, we will negatively affect their development. The motto of the Montessori philosophy is “Teach me to do it myself”. Although Montessori practices were developed a century ago, the reason why Montessori practices are so common all over the world today is that the basic needs on which they are built are still the same. Think about it once. America and England are among the most powerful countries in the world today. Their presidents probably have many times more resources, advisers, and assets than you do. For example, former US President Bill Clinton and today Prince William of the British Royal Family choose Montessori education for their children. When you investigate the reason for this, we see that the Montessori education philosophy, which was developed at the beginning of the last century, contains many new research results today. Many approaches highlighted in childcare books that come to the fore in different subjects today have been represented in this philosophy for years. It’s not because we don’t like other approaches. We see and appreciate that each approach has a rational basis and positive contributions to child development in different ways. Throughout our application, we will introduce you to as many different systems and methods as possible so that you can choose the one closest to you.
Teach me to do it on my own
Dr. Maria Montessori’s motto is “Teach me to do it myself” because she attaches great importance to independence and freedom. Our babies are born with 100 billion neurons, as we mentioned before, and each neuron comes with its potential characteristics. The important thing is that the environment is equipped with stimulants that can reveal these potentials. E.g; Every human being is born with the potential to speak four or five languages. However, we can only speak these languages if these languages are spoken in our environment and we can hear and perceive these languages in a way and learn them later. If we are not exposed to these stimuli, we cannot normally learn these languages.
What are the Stimuli?
We talk a lot about the importance of stimuli in our correspondence or practice with you. So what are stimuli? By stimulus we mean anything that we can feel with all our senses. A language we hear, a surface we touch, something we see, a smell we smell, anything that encourages us to do a job, materials that stimulate the need to use more than one function while doing a job, etc. are different stimuli we receive. People around us, things, weather, environment, our clothes, etc. all variables are determinants of how many healthy or unhealthy stimuli we will encounter (or whether we will encounter any stimulus in the first place).
As for İndependence…
Natural development can be defined as gaining independence levels when the child is ready. Independence is not needing someone else’s help to do what one needs. In this way, the true nature of man can be revealed in a way that allows him to discover his limits. Our job as adults is to provide the means for our children to be independent, to offer activities to support their independence. Our children cannot be independent if an adult does what a child needs to do. The creator of the Montessori philosophy, Dr. Maria Montessori says: “Any unnecessary help to any growing organism will derail its development. The child will become more independent as he experiences new things, repeats more, and copes with his tasks.”
Giving our children their independence is one of the best things we can do for them. Children who are independent feel the joy of being able to do things on their own and experience the confidence of being able to stand on their own feet. The self-confidence we bring to our children, whom we try to raise for a beautiful future, is the key to success.
Independence is Both Physical, Emotional and Psychological.
Independence is about freedom, discipline and responsibility. A child can be independent only when he is free and is free only if he is independent. The more confidently a child can explore his environment, the better he will be able to overcome developmental stages and build new skills that will help expand his sense of independence.
The urge to be independent in humans is so strong that nothing can stop it. If you as parents become an obstacle to your child’s independence, your child will begin to deviate from the developmental cycle.
Giving children independence does not mean keeping them alive in abundance. It means to trust the child. The child who feels that he is trusted will love his parent more. The child needs to be independent in order to gain extraordinary thinking skills.
To achieve independence, the individual must:
– Must work towards realizing their own potential
– Be able to judge their own abilities and limitations realistically
– Must be completely free within the community to which they belong
– Be able to cooperate with other members of the community to which they belong and respect their rights to pursue the same goal.
Looking at the tiny baby in your hand, you might think, isn’t it a little early for these issues? However, avoiding unnecessary interventions and learning not to force our child for behaviors that he is not ready for are principles that are valid from infancy. If we do this and offer our babies and children a safe environment where they can gain their own independence and support their development, we will fulfill our most important mission as conscious parents.