Montessori Theory

The Montessori Method approach pioneered by Maria Montessori, Italian physician and educator, has consistently fostered self-confidence, self-esteem, and a genuine joy of learning in young people. Additionally, Montessori students develop such important capabilities as love of order, an appreciation of silence and the ability to make choices.

The role of the teacher is to help the child develop mastery in the different areas by demonstrating how the "work" is used; modeling a peaceful nature, and helping the children learn self-control and mastery. The Montessori teacher spends a great deal of time observing the children in the classroom, thereby becoming sensitive to their personality, limits, interests, social skill level, emotional nature and learning styles.

The Montessori method is based on several premises:

From birth until 7 years old, the child's whole purpose in life is to absorb as much knowledge as possible - children have a natural desire to learn;
Children experience "windows of time" where they are "sensitive" to learning a certain skill such as twisting a lid on or off;
Given a safe, prepared environment in which to learn, children will be driven by their natural curiosity to the materials available for use; and
Young children learn about their environment through their senses; learning, therefore, must be hands-on.

The Montessori classroom is a prepared environment with materials and manipulatives that speak to the different developmental stages the child will move through. The classroom is divided into five major areas:

Practical Life

Activities include basic processes such as cutting, sweeping, washing, pouring, dusting and polishing.

Sensorial

This area involves exercises using the senses, including smelling, hearing and tasting. Activities also introduce basic geometric shapes and the complete color spectrum.

Language

Activities include sequencing items by size or color, working with a movable alphabet and sandpaper letters. Reading activities are introduced through a phonetic approach.

Math

Activities introducing the concept of the base 10 number system, number symbols of the numbers system, mastering concepts of teens and tens, basic addition and subtraction.

Cultural Arts

Multi-cultural studies, geography, botany, zoology and other related topics for understanding our universe are found here.