Maria Montessori Sails To America, Private Diary 1913
The diary Maria Montessori kept on her first voyage to America at the end of 1913, translated and introduced by her great granddaughter Carolina Montessori. 95 pages, hard cover, 2013 edition. It is the first publication of her own unedited thoughts, and what comes through is not the theorist: she describes shipboard life with wit, takes stock of a year that had changed everything, and writes about her adolescent son Mario, who had come to live with her only months before. Paper and cardboard.
“Children display a universal love of mathematics, which is par excellence the science of precision, order, and intelligence.”
Maria Montessori Sails to America introduces young children to the historical narrative of Dr. Montessori's pioneering journey through authentic diary excerpts and vintage ship illustrations. This illustrated historical account serves as a bridge between the child's concrete experiences and abstract concepts of time, travel, and educational innovation.
- Understanding historical sequence through Maria Montessori's journey timeline
- Developing visual literacy by interpreting vintage ship illustrations and historical imagery
- Building vocabulary related to ocean travel, diaries, and early 20th century life
- Connecting personal narratives to broader historical events through diary excerpts
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The diary format presents history as personal narrative rather than distant facts, allowing children to connect emotionally with Maria Montessori as a real person who traveled, wrote, and had adventures. Through age-appropriate storytelling paired with historical imagery, the book addresses the child's need to understand their educational heritage while developing early literacy skills. The visual narrative of ships, ocean travel, and 1913 America provides concrete imagery that helps young learners grasp temporal concepts and geographical awareness. By presenting Dr. Montessori's actual diary entries alongside illustrations, children encounter authentic historical documents in an accessible format that respects their developmental capacity for understanding the past through story.
How to present it
Follow the Montessori method of presentation for optimal child development.
Place the book on a reading mat with a globe or world map nearby. Have paper and colored pencils available for children who wish to draw. Consider displaying a calendar to reference dates mentioned in the diary.
- 1
Begin by examining the cover illustration together, discussing what a diary is and why people write in them
Let children share if they've ever kept a diary or journal to make personal connections - 2
Read selected diary excerpts, pausing to examine the vintage ship illustrations and discuss ocean travel in 1913
Use the globe to trace Maria Montessori's journey from Italy to America - 3
Compare travel in 1913 to modern travel, using the illustrations to highlight differences in ships, clothing, and technology
Children often enjoy calculating how long the journey took versus modern air travel - 4
Invite children to create their own diary entry about a journey they've taken or would like to take
Provide sentence starters like 'Today I traveled to...' for beginning writers
Every Child Is a Little Creator
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Since 1929
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