About Montessori
Montessori is an education for life, a learning process where children are encouraged to develop at their own pace in a safe and caring environment. Montessori is about learning to balance responsibility with freedom of choice. It offers children the opportunity to realise their potential, in a non-competitive environment and seeks to promote in them:
- Self-confidence and self-esteem
- A sense of achievement and self-worth
- A sense of responsibility for themselves and their actions
- Independence and adaptability
- Co-operation with others
- A sense of community respect for the rights and needs of others
- Concentration and persistence in completing a task
- Initiative and self-motivation
Montessori Curriculum Areas
Practical Life
The Practical Life section lays the foundation for all other work to be done in the classroom. The activities are everyday tasks that a child needs to learn to master the care of self and care of the environment. Such activities include pouring, sweeping and tying, as well as courtesy. The activities are presented to the child in such a way that concentration, coordination, independence and order are developed.
Sensorial:
The goal of the Montessori sensorial section is to educate the child’s senses. The curriculum area contains Montessori-specific materials that help the child refine his or her experience of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. In addition, the materials of this section are modelled on scientifically based concepts. Sensory experience, with these specially selected materials provides children with the first step in understanding abstract concepts.
Maths:
Maths in the Montessori classroom can be separated into a few major categories: beginning counting, advanced counting, the decimal system, rational numbers (fractions) and the operation of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. Concepts are presented in a very concrete way so that children are not only able to count but work with square numbers and thousands.
Language:
Montessori language curriculum is an integrated approach that combines phonetics and whole language. The child is introduced to letters and sounds. After several sounds, he can begin to spell and read words by linking these sounds together.
Culture:
This topic integrates geography, history, science, art, music etc. The children study different areas of the world, and experience concrete examples of that area’s language, literature, dress, food, artwork and music, both past and present. This increasingly important area introduces that child to our planet’s great diversity of people.