Language and Literacy
Stories, group discussions, singing, rhyming and social interaction all play a part in developing language skills.
Montessori placed great importance on indirect preparation. In other words, she found ways in which the child can learn how to do things without even realising that is what he is doing.
Many of the practical life and sensorial exercises will have already helped to prepare the child for reading and writing. The language exercises will help your child to develop these skills further. Metal insets used for drawing actually develop the fine motor skills needed for writing and when your child is ready, we introduce the sandpaper letters which are used to teach letter formations and phonic sounds. Then we move on to word building with moveable wooden letters and then word recognition/reading.
Montessori believed that it was important for the child to understand how words are constructed first before moving on to reading written words.