Repetition!

A Montessori classroom allows a child free choice of activities.  Our goal is that children concentrate on the activity they are doing.

One indication that a child is concentrating is when a child repeats an activity. Dr. Maria Montessori observed this phenomenon and over the years it has become seen as something desirable in a classroom. “Though such instances of a concentration reaching insensibility to the outer world were not usual, I noticed a peculiar behavior that was common to all, and practically the rule in all they did – the special characteristic of child work, which I later called “repetition of the exercise.” She goes on to write that after repeating works, children appear “as if rested, full of life, with the look of those who have experienced some great joy.”  (The Secret of Childhood, 1986, p. 127)

We are beginning to see repetition in the classroom! This is very exciting because it suggests that children are beginning to concentrate at a deep level.