Between the ages of 3 and 6, Maria Montessori called this environment Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House). Having created the foundations of their personality, three-year-old children arrive in the prepared environment ready to develop and perfect their abilities.

 

Learning through real-life activities that further support independence and self-efficacy. 

 

Manipulation of objects to provide concrete sensorial experience; and open-ended exploration leading to the refinement of their movements, sensory perceptions, language and the development of their intellect. All members of this expanded community of 3 to 6-year-olds thrive through opportunities to follow their own interest, freely choose their own activities, develop their capacity for concentration, and engage at their own pace their emerging powers of reason, imagination, and sociability.

 

Grace and courtesy are encouraged from the earliest level and consistently reintroduced.

 

These lessons include: what level their voice should be, the steps of a work cycle, how to push in a chair, how to roll a mat, how to welcome a visitor, how to solve conflicts, how to interrupt, how to sit on line, and how to greet others. Grace and Courtesy are essential to ensuring a smooth work cycle and set the framework of a successful working Montessori classroom.

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Practical Life skills: preparing the child for life.

 

It is the foundation of the Montessori environment that nurtures

the needs of the early childhood child. Practical Life skills build a

child’s self-confidence by allowing him/her to be successful at a

task. There are four main goals in practical life activities: order,

concentration, coordination, and independence.

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Montessori philosophy indicates that our ability to understand

math can be sourced to our innate intelligence and the quality of

the environment in which we are placed. Montessori practice

begins with concrete experiences that will innately lead to

abstraction when the child is ready.

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Children learn through their senses.

 

The sensorial materials train and sharpen the sense of the child and bring awareness to learning in other areas. Language is woven through the sensorial lessons. Language activities build self-confidence by expanding the child’s vocabulary and ability to communicate thoughts more precisely.

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Geography, history, and science are interrelated ideas and materials. The lessons are introduced with a leading question, then the child works with the materials, and draws his/her own conclusions/inferences. The purpose of this work is to provide the children the opportunity to understand their own relationship to the planet.

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A day in the life of a 3-6 year old.

 

Students will enjoy a five-day a week program, with a typical daily schedule shown below. To learn more about our admissions process, you can visit our Enroll page.

 

As per AMI guidelines, the morning cycle will consist of a long, uninterrupted work period of approximately 3 hours, followed by a lunch and rest period. During the morning work cycle, students work independently or in small groups in the curriculum areas of Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Mathematics, and Social Studies (Geography, History, Zoology, Botany, Science, and Spirituality). Students will have access to both Art and Music as daily offerings within the classroom environment.

 

After lunch, the afternoon work period or work with specials is offered, such as Outdoor Classroom, Art, Music, Dance, PE, and Gardening/Farming.

 

A Typical Early Childhood / Primary Schedule

8:30am - 8:45am arrival

8:45am - 11:00 morning work cycle with snack

11:00am - 11:30pm circle gathering
11:30am - 12:15 outdoor play

12:15pm - 12:45pm lunch

12:45pm - 1:00pm bathroom break and ready for nap

1:00pm - 3:00pm optional naps and /or afternoon work cycle

3:00pm - 3:30pm bathroom break, outdoor play, and get ready for dismissal

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