We are so excited to welcome this new addition, the Montessori Blue Reading Series to our language category. The three levels of Montessori reading; pink, blue and green are world famous. They fulfil all that a child requires to support them in their thirst to read. So often, children have an ‘explosion’ of reading during the foundation phase (between 4-to-6-years old). However, no two children are alike, and it often depends upon so many factors, outside of the child’s control. In normal circumstances….
If the Child receives sufficient stimulation in the form of love, touch, sight and sound from their caregivers in the first three years of their life, the infants’ brain (hopefully) develops and grows correctly. The neural networks develop normally, and at the age of three, the pre-school child is ready to phonetically sound out the sandpaper letters of the alphabet, as they trace them with their fingertips.
This phonetic sounding out action continues through to the next stage of combining letter-sound knowledge and phonemic awareness as they master tracing and saying the large moveable alphabet letters. At this stage, it is so exciting for the Child to begin sounding out short vowel words with the use of objects to discern their meaning. This knowledge is gained by using the Montessori Pink Reading Series, together with the mat and large moveable alphabet letters. The objects will be available in a few months to supplement this work.
Next, the Child is ready to move towards the Blue Series. These words consist of 4 (and occasionally 5) letters. They have only one vowel but can have a blend of consonants at the start of the word (strap) or the end of the word (bulb) or even both (strand). If you include the double consonants like ‘ll’ and ‘ss’, you will find many blended consonants. The teacher determines the progress of the Child. S/he knows when greater challenges or stimulations are required or not.
Each child is unique and will determine their own pace of advancement. The important issue is to ensure that the Child continues at the correct pace for their level of competency to prevent them feeling over-whelmed.
It is remarkably interesting to consider that even now, the teacher is not teaching the child to read. The Child is reading through their personal absorption of knowledge through their senses of sight, tactile and phonetically sounding out the letters.
“The development of language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between people” Maria Montessori
