The young child looks out on the wonders of a brand new world through the fresh eyes of a small body. Almost everyone and everything else is bigger. The child needs a sense of place, a location from which to launch wider explorations. They start with a sense of self, a body that is his own, a body that experiences what it encounters through its senses. It is the place where impressions reside, the here and the now of everything that exists. The child is also aware that he lives in a house. He has already explored its rooms, nooks and corners. Outside the house are trees, cars, strange people, stores and a fair amount of general chaos where they are usually escorted by family members often in a hurry.

Now there is a classroom, a new space introduced as their very own space. It is also inhabited by other children close in age. The accommodations to these new people in this new environment are significant steps in learning about place and getting a sense of location in the wider scheme of things. This is Montessori geography in practice. The special materials that will allow the child to locate and describe the vast unseen world must start from here. A globe represents water and earth, substances known and felt. Maps will extend the metaphors of representational geography using familiar notions and colors. Out of these beginnings will flow stories about peoples of different languages and customs in far away places.

Flags, banners, pictures, and even classmates will make more concrete the difficult idea of what and where exactly are the locations being described as far away from this place.