We visited our Uber Montessori Neighbor today. I asked her what are some essential tools in a three year olds classroom. She said “Sandpaper letters.”

U.M.N. said the teacher starts with three letters at a time. The teacher shows the child how to trace the letter with two fingers and to say the sound, not the letter. “Mmm” instead of “Em” for example. Then the next time they sit down at the letters the teacher would go over the three letters and if the child got them they would move on to another three.

U.M.N. said when a child starts showing interest in letters and sounds they are in a “sensitive period” or a prime learning period.

Lou definitely lets me know when she’s ready to learn something. She brings it up. She starts pointing out letters and asking about them, she starts trying to write…

However, I take issue with calling it a sensitive period as if it were such a small amount of time that if you were to miss it, there would be negative consequences. I think “sensitive periods” are likely things that a child would do with or without your help.

Here is the list from Montessori.org:

Movement Random movements become coordinated and controlled: grasping, touching, turning, balancing, crawling, walking. (birth ‘— one)

Language Use of words to communicate: a progression from babble to words to phrases to sentences, with a continuously expanding vocabulary and comprehension. (birth ‘— six)

Small Objects A fixation on small objects and tiny details. (one ‘— four)

Order Characterized by a desire for consistency and repetition and a passionate love for established routines. Children can become deeply disturbed by disorder. The environment must be carefully ordered with a place for everything and with carefully established ground rules. (two ‘— four)

Music Spontaneous interest in and the development of pitch, rhythm, and melody. (two ‘— six)

Grace & Courtesy Imitation of polite and considerate behavior leading to an internalization of these qualities into the personality. (two ‘— six)

Refinement of the Senses Fascination with sensorial experiences (taste, sound, touch, weight, smell) resulting with children learning to observe and with making increasingly refined sensorial discriminations. (two ‘— six)

Writing Fascination with the attempt to reproduce letters and numbers with pencil or pen and paper. Montessori discovered that writing precedes reading. (three ‘— four)

Reading Spontaneous interest in the symbolic representations of the sounds of each letter and in the formation of words. (three ‘— five)

Spatial Relationships Forming cognitive impressions about relationships in space, including the layout of familiar places. Children become more able to find their way around their neighborhoods, and they are increasingly able to work complex puzzles. (four ‘— six)

Mathematics Formation of the concepts of quantity and operations from the uses of concrete material aids. (four ‘— six)