The Montessori material when used properly serves two main purposes. It furthers the inner development of the child; specifically, the indirect preparation that must precede the development of any new ego function. Secondly it helps the child to acquire new perspectives in his exploration of the objective world. The material makes the learner aware of certain qualities of the objects, their interrelationships, existing principle of differentiation within a given category, organization sequences, and special techniques for handling the objects. It awakens in the learner the urge to exercise his newly acquired insight through endless repetition. (Montessori, Mario, Jr) The material is scientifically designed to precise exactness, is made of attractive, durable material and some are housed on low shelves in sequential order of difficulty while practical life activities are present throughout the environment such as low sinks, child sized storage shelves and drawers of replenishing materials, and various cleaning supplies. (Boehnlein)

“The scientific instrument must be constructed upon a basis of exactitude. Just as the lenses of the physicist are constructed in accordance with the laws of the refraction of light, so the pedagogic instrument should be based on the psychical manifestations of the child.” (Montessori, Maria, The Advanced Montessori Method, Volume I, p. 55) “The material is intended to facilitate a transfer of non-specific knowledge, that of a general idea or principle that can later be used as a basis for recognizing special cases or applications of it. Montessori material should be developmental. It should be limited to essentials and should be constructed so that a particular general idea or principle is isolated…The built-in controls of error show them when they are wrong.” (Montessori, Mario, Jr., Education for Human Development, p. 60) “In fact, in our school there is a noticeable wealth of didactic material which allows the children to educate themselves. Children using the didactic material develop their intelligence and inner life…. So, an object takes the place of a teacher.” (Montessori, Maria, The 1913 Rome Lectures, p. 78) “Our sensorial material provides a kind of guide to observation, for it classifies the impressions that each sense can receive: the colours, notes, noises, forms and sizes, touch-sensation, odours, and tastes. This undoubtedly is also a form of culture for it leads us to pay attention both to ourselves and to our surroundings… The child who has worked with our sensorial apparatus has not only acquired greater skill in the use of his hands but has also achieved a higher degree of perceptiveness toward those stimuli which come to him from the outside world. To this extent the outside world has become enriched for him, because he is able to appreciate delicate differences, which to a less perceptive person might as well not exist.” (Montessori, Maria, The Absorbent Mind, p. 163)