How Does Montessori Compare to Gentle Parenting?

As parents and educators, we want what is best for our children. Parenting styles are the practices and attitudes that guide how we interact with our kids so they can grow to be confident, productive and functional adults. While there are many parenting styles, Montessori-style parenting and gentle parenting share many of the same values, such as empathy and respect. The two styles can work together to create a nurturing, harmonious environment at home, but they are not the same.

Explore the similarities and differences between these two parenting methods and learn how you can incorporate Montessori parenting techniques at home.

What Is the Montessori Parenting Method?

Montessori-style parenting is a unique approach that emphasizes teaching by doing. The belief is that even the littlest child is capable of more than you realize. Rather than punishing children, this method encourages parents to understand the “why” behind their child's behavior and explain the appropriate way to act to the child. By understanding their child's perspective, parents can teach from a place of empathy and love — not anger or frustration.

The goal of Montessori parenting is to create an atmosphere of trust, respect and independent learning. This allows children to discover through exploration under the watchful eye of a nurturing parent.

Core Principles of the Montessori Parenting Style

The Montessori parenting style brings education into the home by encouraging self-esteem, empathy and good manners. Crucial elements of Montessori parenting include:

• Encouraging independence and responsibility.
• Demonstrating appropriate behavior through role-playing and modeling.
• Fostering respect, empathy, compassion, honesty, peace and harmony.
• Helping the child develop and practice essential life skills.
• Saving praise for effort, not outcome.
• Avoid using external rewards to motivate their child and teaching internal rewards instead.

How Is Gentle Parenting Similar to Montessori?

Like Montessori-style parenting, gentle parenting focuses on teaching through experience and empathy. Parents aim to understand a child's behavior. This method involves explaining to a child how to handle a situation and demonstrating how to act rather than punishing them.

Other similarities include:

• Nurturing respect and empathy between child and parent.
• Encouraging internal motivation rather than focusing on an external prize.
• Setting consistent boundaries while teaching children how to self-regulate.

How Does Montessori Differ From Gentle Parenting Techniques?

Montessori parenting is different from gentle parenting in that it's primarily an early childhood education method. The principles and techniques were developed over 100 years ago by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori. She believed that children learn best in environments where they are empowered to do things independently.

By contrast, gentle parenting is a term and parenting style introduced by Sarah Ockwell-Smith in her 2016 book, “The Gentle Parenting Book." Its four core values are parenting with respect, empathy, boundaries and understanding.

Since Montessori-style parenting incorporates educational principles, it's more comprehensive than gentle parenting. For instance, in addition to emphasizing teaching over punishment, Montessori parenting focuses on:

• Learning by doing.
• Developing work ethics.
• Building life skills like cleaning up and putting belongings back in their place.
• Maintaining an organized, simple home.
• Creating opportunities for children to practice organization skills.
• Providing children with the freedom to self-determine.

Incorporating Montessori Parenting Tips at Home

Whether you're an avid advocate of gentle parenting or you simply wish to be a more active presence in your child's life, here are some ways to incorporate Montessori parenting techniques into your home life:

• Create a safe space for learning: Organize your home in such a way as to encourage independent exploration and self-directed activities. This allows your child to learn by interacting with your home surroundings.
• Emphasize life skills: Your home offers numerous opportunities for independence for a growing child. Letting them take on age-appropriate responsibilities sets your child up to be a capable and caring adult.
• Let your child make mistakes: Allowing your child to perform a task uninterrupted, even if they make mistakes, helps them become comfortable doing difficult tasks independently. While you can offer guidance or support if needed, avoid giving specific instructions so your child can learn autonomy and problem-solving techniques.
• Observe interests: Pay attention to what sparks your child's imagination and wonder. This allows you to create opportunities to explore their interests more thoroughly.
• Teach through example: From speaking with respect to taking responsibility for mistakes, you can model empathy and understanding to your child through your actions.

Schedule a Tour at Sapientia Montessori

Raising Montessori children can work in harmony with applying gentle parenting techniques. Both Montessori and gentle parenting styles help shape happy, resilient children who love learning and aren't afraid to make mistakes.

Are you interested in sending your child to a Montessori school in Greater North Austin? Consider Sapientia. Sapientia Montessori School is recognized by the Association Montessori Internationale as a premier choice. For over three decades, we've been helping children blossom to their fullest potential.

Schedule a tour of Sapientia Montessori today, or contact us to learn more.