About Montessori
about montessori | FAQs | links/resources

Why Early Childhood Education?
A maxim has been posed by advocates of early learning: Kindergarten is too little, too late. This statement comes out of current research which indicates that children gain 80% of their lifetime intelligence before they reach their eighth birthday. The most significant developmental years of the child's life are zero to six. Dr. Montessori called these years 'the sensitive years'. During these years, a child learns with the whole body: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and above all doing. Through the senses and through small and large muscle movement, the child absorbs the world around him and develops the basic concepts on which the remainder of his learning will rest. One of the most important decisions and investments a parent can make is the choice of an early learning environment for his or her child.

What Is a Montessori Education?
Montessori education is a century old, and is practiced in over four thousand public and private schools throughout the world. Dr. Maria Montessori, the founder of the approach, believed that the goal of education should be 'a help to life'. The school should aid total development in the child's sensitive years. Children typically enter the Montessori program at the age of two and a half or three and remain with the same teacher for a three year learning cycle, after which they are ready for the Elementary program.

It is through constructive activity (work) that the child will build his intellect, will and personality. The youngest children are introduced to the Montessori school through familiar and simple activities that they enjoy. Children two to four use materials designed to help develop concentration, completion of task, sequencing, mental and physical order, development of fine and gross motor skills, motor memory, and independence/self-direction--all essential learning traits necessary for the more advanced exercises they will perform at age five and older.

In a Montessori classroom, the child learns through purposeful movement directed towards an intelligent end. For example, the children manipulate quantities of beads to gain an understanding of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division in the decimal system.

The Montessori school is homelike in atmosphere, not 'institutional'. The classroom is a 'living room' for children. Children choose carefully selected and arranged materials from open shelves and work with distinct, yet integrated, subject areas like every day living skills, math, language, art or geography.

The teacher is a guide, directing the child's learning experiences through instruction in the use of the learning materials and through observation of the child's progress. Each child's learning program is 'tailor-made'. The teacher remains aware of each child's interest and developmental stage, providing lessons appropriate to both.

Over time, the children evolve into a 'normalized community', working with cooperation and concentration. Often Montessori children are observed to be different; their excitement towards learning and harmonious relationships are evident. Self-discipline and respect for others is visible in the 'normalized' Montessori child.

Site Info | Contacting Us