As the children move beyond the age of six, they enter the Second Plane of Development referred to as the “Intellectual Period”. The children’s focus shifts to their development as social beings and their exploration of the world moves from the concrete to the abstract. The functioning of the environment and the relationships within it arouse the children’s interest.

During this period, children are capable of great effort and concentration. Their intellectual curiosity is limitless and their appetite for knowledge is immense. Montessori wrote that during this Intellectual Period, “All other factors…sink into insignificance beside the importance of feeding the hungry intelligence and opening vast fields of knowledge to eager exploration.”