What Are Montessori Game Boards And What Are Their Benefits?
According to Maria Montessori, an Italian doctor of medicine and educator, a child who learns at his own pace is happy and develops by enjoying his environment. Play plays a vital role here and toys play a key role in games. One good tool for learning – while enjoying the game – are Montessori game boards.
What are Montessori game boards?
A Montessori game board is a toy specifically designed to develop certain skills in a child. The most common skills these toys develop are creativity, problem solving, logic, and fine motor skills. How, then, are these game boards used? They contain games and little riddles that the child should try to solve independently using their cognitive abilities – such as logic and observation – and thus find the right solution.
In addition, these game boards encourage perseverance, as it is likely that a child will make mistakes on their first attempt. However, the child must be long-term and put his patience to the test, think, deduce and find the best solutions to the riddles he faces. The game board contains various locks that hide concrete elements, such as animal drawings. Through a question or problem, the child tries to guess what is hidden behind each lock, inferring according to his or her own knowledge and capacity.
These game boards also improve hand skills related to fine motor skills. For example, a child must open and close various locks typical of a toy. In this way, the child’s hand and finger skills expand.
The benefits of Montessori game boards
Montessori game boards have clear benefits for children up to the age of six.
Problem solving
These game boards help the child improve their ability to solve simple problems because games require you to observe and look for hidden things.
Fine motor skills
The fine motor skills we mentioned earlier are also developing, as the child has to move pieces of different sizes in games according to their age. This allows for eye-hand collaboration and the practice of fine motor skills.
Improving memory
It is good for you to know about Montessori game boards that it helps to improve memory functions. The child should remember certain images and characters that he or she should associate with different concepts. Here the child makes use of his own memory.
Learning environments
Montessori game boards are available with many different themes. Some focus on cooking, animals, nature, and medicine. So they help the child get to know their environment as well as the life and the world around them.
Perseverance
Game boards teach a child perseverance. When a child is interested in something, such as problem solving, but he or she does not know how to solve that problem, no matter how he or she wants to. However, the child will continue to work long-term until they find a solution without giving up.
Patience
The child is not inherently very patient. That is why it is important that the child learns and internalizes patience as early as possible through play. Fortunately, Montessori game boards are a great help here.
Attention
We also know that it is not easy for a child to stay attentive for long periods of time at a time. However, this is a skill that improves as the child develops. Montessori games help develop a child’s alertness.
Stimulation of curiosity
Everything in the world is new to a child. These game boards provide basic elements of everything around, such as farm animals and kitchen utensils. With these, the child learns to know what the different things are for, what the animals do and why the child needs to respect all kinds of life forms. Montessori game boards make a child want to know more and more about things.
In short, Montessori game boards are toys that focus on a child’s independent development and learning from a wide variety of different angles. They improve the child’s coordination, logical thinking, and capacity for analysis, as well as motivate the child to seek new challenges and optimize their cognitive abilities.
