OUR CLASSROOMS

The beauty of a Montessori setting is that it is never necessary to tell a child to work with a particular activity or to develop a particular skill. Teachers alternately offer, guide, encourage, and wait patiently while the children — some quickly, some more slowly — develop the confidence in themselves to be able to choose wisely and to work carefully. For every child, progress is inevitable!

We believe it is important to bring a child to want to learn. Thus, we take it as the primary responsibility of the teacher to attract the child to the various elements of the "prepared environment." As teachers, everything we do is to this end. The classroom and everything in it are made and kept as beautiful as possible. Choices are continuously offered to each child, but we do respect the child’s right to decline what is offered at any given moment. Children are permitted—in fact, they are strongly encouraged—to observe the activities of their classmates so that they may in this way come to want to explore a particular exercise.

The Montessori Prepared Environment is purposeful. Maria Montessori believed that the teacher should prepare the environment and herself with a definite purpose to allow for the spontaneous progression of the child’s development. Thus, the Montessori classroom is not just a place of learning abstract ideas but rather, a place to acquire an education for life. The Montessori Prepared Environment with all of the elements comes together to educate the whole child, not just the academics of the child. The materials teach the child and the teacher is the guide. The teacher is the link between this uniquely prepared environment and the child. There are three main elements that come together to create the Montessori prepared environment: the child, the materials in the prepared environment, and the teacher. We believe that these are the distinct characteristics that stand out when compared to other educational systems.

¨ Practical life exercises

¨ Sensorial experiences

¨ Language development

¨ Mathematics

¨ Cultural Studies/ Arts & Crafts/ Computer Applications

¨ Music and Movement

¨ Drama