​Parten’s stages of play have made us know the child's method of playing so educators and parents can make the most of the playing experience. According to Mildred Parten, there are six stages of play, and we will learn about the 5th stage of play in this article. Let us get to know more about this 5th stage of play. 

​The 5th Stage of Play
Among the six stages of play explained by Parten, the fifth stage is considered to be the most important one when it comes to Montessori childcare. The fifth stage of the play shows the interaction of a child with its peers. The fifth stage of play is known to be “associative play”.
Associative Play
The child learns to engage in associative play when he joins Montessori preschool. Children's interaction with their peers would be the same as your interaction with your associates in your office. The child learns to play while focusing on his own activities as well as playing with the playmates. 

​Features of Associative Play
If a child is in the fifth stage of play, then he must be going through some of these steps to achieve this stage.

• Observe and imitate other children while being at a near distance
• Bargain about shared tools
• Play alongside each other but not a common goal
• Also, play independently with a number of goals and strategies
• Communication is less among the children
• Ask questions during gameplay with their emerging language and chatter skills.
• Play is in a chaotic fashion among children.

Just like your interaction with people in your workplace, your child also interacts with their Montessori preschool mates while he or she is content to play alongside them and also pays attention to his own activities.

A child in Montessori daycare is not necessarily motivated enough to carry out different activities. An ideal Montessori daycare will build intrinsic motivation in your child rather than extrinsic motivation
42 Ways to Build Intrinsic Motivation in Montessori Children

Here are some of the ways to build intrinsic motivation in a child.

1. Create an environment of encouragement and use the prepared environment to build children's motivation
2. Set achievable goals
3. Define outcomes
4. Let the child have a sense of accomplishment
5. Let the child know about his success as well as improvements
6. Make tasks easier so the tasks can be achievable
7. Extrinsic motivation like rewards and punishments need to be eliminated
8. Give them goals that make an impact on the child
9. Let the child have the freedom to choose
10. Set the child up for success
11. Reduce dependency
12. Let the children share their accomplishments as well as struggles
13. The key is to know how to learn
14. Your feedback needs to be helpful
15. Be truthful to the children in your feedback
16. Encourage children to work in a group
17. Make a group of children work toward a common goal
18. Let the child work on something greater than himself
19. Allow the child to be curious
20. Let the child explore his environment
21. Make the child responsible for the work in the project
22. Allow the child to set his own rules and goals
23. Let a child takes personal responsibility for his tasks
24. Make a child work for community service (or any other group project) to see the impact and value of his work

1. Provide choices
2. Avoid unnecessary interruptions while your child is working
3. Let the child volunteer for different tasks
4. Be patient with the child
5. Respect the child’s boundaries
6. Work together with the child as well
7. Give them tasks with more visual impact like decorating a room or growing plants (this will help them see the impact of their work clearly)
8. Let the child learn at his own pace
9. Do not try to control the child
10. Do not rush the child
11. Use encouragement over praise
12. Offer help only when necessary or when they ask
13. Accept disobedience as a part of intrinsic motivation
14. Give the children an accepting environment
15. Freedom within limits
16. The process is important than the product
17. Solve the problems together
18. Be the role model of intrinsic motivation for the child

Blossoms Montessori located at 3700 Louetta Road Spring, TX, 77388, focuses on developing intrinsic motivation in its Montessori students as they know the importance of intrinsic motivation.