A Montessori Early Childhood classroom feels more like a home than a school. You won’t see desks, nor will a teacher stand at the front of the room delivering a lesson to the whole class. Instead, you’ll see children happily working individually or in small groups, at tables or on the floor near small mats that delineate their own space.
Specially designed learning materials are displayed on open shelves, easily accessible to the children. Classrooms also include low sinks accessible to the children, child-sized furniture, cozy spaces for quiet reading, reachable shelves with work available for free choice, and child-sized kitchen utensils so the students can eat, prepare, and clean up their snack on their own. Teachers gently guide students to help maintain the organization and cleanliness of this environment to keep it orderly and attractive, and to help your child understand how to care for materials and clean up after themselves—skills you will be happy to observe carrying over in your home.
During the first three years of life the child’s intelligence is formed. They acquire the culture and language into which they have been born. It is a period when the core of personality and the social being are developed. An understanding of the child’s development and the development of the human mind allows environments to be prepared to meet the needs of the infant and foster independence, motor development and language acquisition.
Programs
Infant: (8 Weeks to 12 months)
- Observing changes in infants indicating readiness for activities
- Activities to develop cognitive skills, including focusing, remembering, matching, identifying, tracking, and more
- Activities to develop motor skills, including rolling, grasping, placing, stacking, pouring, and more
- Activities to develop sensory abilities, including visual tracking, experiencing sounds and volume, recognizing patterns, feeling textures, identifying objects.
- Special considerations when presenting activities to infants.
Pre -Toddler: (12 months to 18 months)
 Dr. Montessori discovered that during the toddler time, a young child has a special aptitude for learning certain things:
- He is especially sensitive to order – and we build on that interest to establish good habits that last a lifetime.
- He is able to absorb language from his environment – learning even big words easily and with pleasure – and becomes happier as he learns the words to express his needs, rather than needing to resort to crying or tantrums.
- He is eager to learn to take care of himself, to become independent – and we guide him to learn how to do things by himself, thereby developing his budding sense of self-efficacy.
- To be a toddler is to be curious, so following their lead, we encourage the child to explore fully.
- Activities are positioned around the room, each with a particular theme, skill, or subject of value to toddler development.
Toddler: (18 months to 24 months)
Our toddler curriculum is to foster independence, cognitive and language development, speech, and strengthen fine motor and gross motor skills. An important part of a toddler’s developing independence is learning to care for him/herself. Toddler exercises and activities recognize that children learn by doing.Â
Montessori materials are always accessible, attractive, safe, and geared for a child’s success. The safe, loving, gentle atmosphere puts children and parents at ease and makes for a trusting, spontaneous transition to school.
As your child grows, our school curriculum builds upon their understanding of emotions and emotional competency. They learn to recognize different emotions, express wants and needs, and develop a sense of independence.
They build the foundations for mathematical comprehension through early quantity and number concepts, including filling and emptying, putting in and taking out, taking things apart, and putting things back together. Finally, they identify familiar objects, build their active listening skills, and improve communication through gestures and language.
As a toddler, your child is exploring language and learning how to communicate. In our school toddler program, your child develops speech-like patterns, learns and uses new vocabulary, understands the reciprocal aspect of language, and learns how to verbalize their needs.
Pre - primary: (2years to 3 years)
The two to three years are the time when children use their bodies, senses, and emerging problem-solving skills to learn about and make sense of their world, in ways most meaningful and effective for them. This is the period to be curious, so following their lead, we encourage the child to explore fully. Activities are positioned around the room, each with a particular theme, skill, or subject of value to toddler development. Imaginative play activities and learning materials appeal to the child's sense of wonder and investigation.
Outdoor play and daily walks are an important part of the day, as are reading and quiet play. Our teachers provide respect, tenderness, and warmth that allow the children to blossom. There is ample space for physical activity and exploration. Our toddler classrooms allow them the freedom to learn as much as they can, as quickly as possible. This is the time for children to explore and discover through active play, since children learn best by doing. In addition, our educators give toddlers responsive, individualized attention to help build skills in:
- Sensory and Perception
- Self-help
- Language
- Physical and Motor Skills
- Social and emotional skills
Primary: (3 years to 6 years)
Montessori Primary program offers a unique, mixed-age classroom environment, for children approximately 3 to 5 years old. Here, children engage in individual learning experiences, as well as one-on-one interactions, which are integral to the Montessori method
Practical life exercises like sorting, pouring, or washing dishes absorb them completely. We recognize this as the beginning of control and coordination of mind and body. That’s why our classroom Montessori material revolves around tangible, hands-on experiences.
Children use concrete materials to learn math; movable alphabet letters to explore language; and cubes, cylinders and other objects to categorize, and more. Practical learning experiences explore key subjects including:
- Science and Nature
- Music and Movement
- Sensorial
- Cooking and Nutrition
- Cultural Awareness
- History
- Geography
- Language Arts
- Mathematics