In the Children's House, children learn through curiosity, exploration, and independence. Classrooms are a vibrant community of children who work together and learn from each other every day. Children grow from being observers and learning from older mentors to taking pride in being experienced leaders. 

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An essential part of the Montessori teaching method is a thoughtfully prepared environment that is beautiful and orderly. The classroom is outfitted with carefully prepared and sequenced materials meant to meet each child at their particular level of development. Through skillful observation, the adult is prepared to offer children instruction that will stimulate their interest and activity. The special relationship between child and adult in the Montessori classroom is perhaps best conveyed by these words of a young child: “Help me to do it myself.”

 

Our classrooms are multi-age. Mixing ages is an important component of the Montessori philosophy. It allows for more individualized work and for students to move through the curriculum at their own pace in a non-competitive environment. Older students have a chance to be role models, while younger students have the benefit of a more stimulating environment.

 

In the Children’s House (CH), our goal is to help develop each child’s interests and abilities. We guide children towards engagement, concentration, purposefulness, and respectful behavior. Children will also work on learning how to engage in a “work cycle”: to choose a work, work purposefully and with concentration, and clean up after themselves. We encourage children to be independent whenever possible and assist a child only as needed.

 

In the Montessori preschool, five distinct areas constitute the prepared environment:
 

• Practical life enhances the development of hand-eye coordination, gross motor control, and cognitive order through care of self, care of the environment, development of social relations, and coordination of physical movement.
   

• The sensorial area enables the child to order, classify, and describe sensory impressions in relation to length, width, temperature, mass, color, pitch, etc.
   

• Math makes use of manipulative materials to enable the child to internalize concepts of number, symbol, sequence, operations, and memorization of facts.
   

• Language arts includes oral language development, written expression, reading, the study of grammar, creative dramatics, and children’s literature. Basic skills in writing and reading are developed through the use of sandpaper letters, alphabet cut outs, and various presentations, allowing children to link sounds and letter symbols effortlessly and to express their thoughts through writing.
   

• Cultural activities expose the child to basics in geography, history, life sciences, and earth sciences. Music, art, and movement education are part of the integrated cultural curriculum.

 

The Children’s House environment unifies the social, physical, and intellectual functioning of the child. Its important function is to provide children with an early and general foundation that includes a positive attitude toward school, inner security and a sense of order, pride in the physical environment, abiding curiosity, a habit of concentration, habits of initiative and persistence, the ability to make decisions, self-discipline, and a sense of responsibility to other members of the class, school and community. This foundation will enable them to acquire more specialized knowledge and skills throughout their school career.

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Reference: Kahn, David, et al. The Whole-School Montessori Handbook: for Teachers and Administrators. NAMTA, 1999. P.103-104