Class
Our programs are based on the Montessori method of education for children from 1,5-6 years old. The Montessori method is an individual, child-centered approach that promotes independent learning. It encourages children to explore and learn through experience and self correction. Children desire independence and seek perfection and the Montessori method employs these desires and motivations during "sensitive periods of learning" using specific materials and equipment designed to maximize the child’s learning and development.
Environment
With loving, nurturing devotion our qualified and experienced Montessori trained teachers exactingly prepare the environment enabling maximum commitment to a life-time love of learning. The environment in our class is prepared for the children: the materials are displayed on open and child-sized shelves so that the children can choose their work easily. Children are able to work on a table or on a mat. All the lessons are individually presented to the child when they are ready and at a level created for their abilities. The Montessori materials are designed to stimulate the child into logical thought and discovery. They develop the child’s senses and coordinate movement in preparation for reading, writing and calculating. The child learns through practice with presented materials. These concrete experiences lead to a thorough understanding of each step of a process, laying a solid foundation for more complex future work.
Teachers
Our teachers support young students to think and act independently even as they learn to explore the world in their own way. A Montessori teacher is a guide or facilitator whose task is to support the young child in his/her process of self-development by recognizing and interpreting each child’s needs. The teacher provides a link between the child and the prepared environment by introducing the child to each piece of equipment when he/she is ready in a precise, clear and enticing way. The teacher also provides a link between the classroom and the parent by meeting with each child’s parents to discuss progress.
Program
Our Montessori classroom is organized into five main curriculum areas:
- Practical Life – these activities aid in the growth and development of the children’s intellect and concentration, and also help them develop an orderly way of thinking The major purpose and aim of the Practical Life material is to help children gain control in the coordination of their movements, and help them gain independence and adapt to their society.
- Sensorial – these materials help children discriminate and match shapes, sizes, colors, sounds and smells. The purpose and aim of the Sensorial works are for the child to acquire clear, conscious information, and to then be able to make classifications in their environment. Montessori believed that sensorial experiences began at birth. Through their senses, the child studies their environment and through this study, the child then begins to understand their environment.
- Language – developing the areas of reading, grammar, writing, enriching vocabulary and enhancing self-expression. Montessori observed that between the ages of birth and six, a child is in a sensitive period for the acquisition of language. That’s the reason we have such a wide variety of language materials.
- Math - these materials give children many opportunities to build a solid foundation in math and acquire a deep understanding of how numbers function and as they learn real mathematical concepts, the materials lead to the abstract.
- Culture - these materials include geography, history, botany, zoology and science. these areas help children discover and understand the world in which he/she lives.
Although there are many opportunities for art and music, children also participate in Outdoor Education and Field Trips.
