Programs we offer
Nido/ Infant
6 weeks – 18 months
Each of our infant rooms welcomes children as young as 6 weeks of age. Our classrooms are equipped with developmentally appropriate materials and activities that support the child through each stage of infant growth. We provide pull and push toys to promote gross motor movement and a variety of activities where infants can explore based upon her curiosity and mobility.
Our Infant program nurtures the sense of trust and security in each child. Infants, under the watchful eyes and guidance of caregivers, have a safe space in which to grow and freedom to move within that space. Nurturing physical, social, language, and cognitive development are a vital part of our Infant program. Most importantly, we talk to infants, rock them, hold them and encourage them to try new things as they grow.
Our individual care program allows the Infant community staff to follow each baby’s own rhythms for sleeping, eating, and activity.
PRE CASA / Toddler Program
18 to 36 months
Our Toddler program is designed to meet the needs of each child, while emphasizing movement, play, manipulation, exploration, socialization and autonomy. Children learn according to their own individual capabilities and enjoy a sense of freedom and spontaneity within a secure framework of daily routines.
Our rich curriculum for toddlers is especially designed to:
- Foster cognitive development and speech and language development
- develop and strengthen fine and gross motor skills
- develop practical life skills and foster independence
- instill confidence, kindness, and grace and courtesy
- allow children to learn by doing, using all their senses to explore the world
- instill social skills and cooperation
We have a dedicated team of loving and nurturing teachers trained in early childhood development and Montessori education.
Spacious, well designed areas where children are free to explore their environments with all their senses.
Toddlers learn language from stimulating materials and activities and learn to articulate their wants, needs, likes and dislikes. All this results in a child who can express themselves confidently, which results in less frustration and an all-around happier child.
Self-esteem and feelings of competence develop naturally as the toddlers successfully engage in fun and meaningful activities. They explore and engage in activities in the areas of Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Music, Physical Education, Dance, Art and Nature Exploration.
Toddlers are especially committed to achieving independence. As such, our teachers provide responsive individual attention as your child encounters positive experiences as well as frustration.
CASA/ Preschool
36 months to 6 years
Children learn by doing. In our Early Childhood classrooms, academic learning as well as the practical life and sensorial exercises are presented as activities that can be felt, handled, and manipulated. These hands-on experiences help a child to build their own understanding through discovery.
The Casa classroom is a ‘living room’ for children. Children choose their activities from among the self-correcting materials displayed on open shelves, and they work in specific work areas. Over a period, they develop into a community,” working with high concentration and few interruptions.
The Casa environment unifies the psycho-social, physical, and academic functioning of the child. It is an important task 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.
Peace Education
Dr. Maria Montessori worked tirelessly for global peace and received three nominations for a Nobel Peace Prize. Montessori strongly believed that the path to peace lies in the education we give to our children.Montessori Peace Education is the core of what makes the Montessori Method a world-changing practice.
Peace Education teaches children to be peaceful, positive members of a thriving society. Maria Montessori recognized that children are the keys to our future and made this practice one of the cornerstones of the Montessori Method.
It is important that at a very young age, we begin to learn how to settle our differences and appropriately handle strong emotions.
Peacemaking and conflict resolution are a daily part of the Montessori curriculum. At the “Peace Table” teachers help children to be good listeners and forge mutually agreeable solutions to conflicts. It is also a place where children can choose to go to enjoy a peaceful moment alone.
Grace and Courtesy
“A child who becomes a master of his acts through repeated exercises of grace and courtesy, and who has been encouraged by the pleasant and interesting activities in which he has been engaged, is a child filled with health and joy and remarkable for his calmness and discipline.” – Maria Montessori
The children aged 2 ½ -6yrs are in their sensitive period of learning Courtesy, manners and interacting socially.
Grace and courtesy is the foundation of the Montessori classroom beginning from early Morning greetings throughout the day! It is a child’s ability to show respect to others, be polite and to appropriately communicate their feelings to others. A Montessori environment helps a child to develop and refine the social skills while they develop self-esteem and independence. This environment encourages the children to be gracious, courteous, have respect for oneself, other members of the community, and the environment.
The Montessori teacher, also referred to as a “Montessori guide” models the appropriate behavior to be mirrored by the children in the classroom.
Practical life
Practical life activities in the Montessori environment are the daily life activities that provide a scope and sequence for everyday routine and practices. It refers to purposeful activities to develop motor skills, hand-eye coordination, concentration, independence, and a sense of responsibility.
This provides them with essential skills to function independently in the adult world and at the same time enhances the development of task organization and cognitive order.
The four categories of Practical Life lessons isolate different key concepts that are all part of the child’s journey towards independence. Together they help a child learn self-awareness and to become conscious of their language, behavior, actions, and impact on others. The four categories are:
- Grace and Courtesy – getting along well with others
- Control of Movement – being aware of your body in space
- Care of Self – learning to care for your own needs and to help others who need it
- Care of Environment – cleaning up after yourself and being responsible for your actions
The Sensorial
Maria Montessori believed that the sensorial experiences began at the time of birth and a child studies the environment through their senses.
A child to Montessori is a “sensorial explorer”!!
The Sensorial materials are designed to help children refine their wide range of senses like: visual, tactile, Baric, Thermic, Olfactory, Gustatory, and Stereognostic and help the children acquire clear, conscious information to be able to make classifications in their environment.
They learn about qualities like color, size, shape, length, texture, and sound. 3-6-year olds are increasingly able to make finer discriminations of the many stimuli all around them.
Language
Children have a thirst for language and communication!
Children’s language development begins long before they enter the classroom. Dr. Montessori asserted that children from birth to age six are in the age of the absorbent mind. During this time, children are able to learn language simply by living around others who are using language. Montessori classrooms incorporate both spoken and written language into the environment to further enrich this early learning.
Communication allows the child to express her needs and ideas to others. Through language we are able to cooperate, collaborate, receive knowledge and pass knowledge to others. Children go through a series of stages to acquire language.
As the children grow older they are introduced to the names of things, and sounds, and letters, language materials are often tactile, taking advantage of the 3 and 4-year old’s sensitivity to learning through touch.
The phonetic material allows the children to practice reading that is meaningful and fun. They explore phonetic reading, phonograms, the grammar material, and word study. Once they have the mental and physical preparation, children are introduced to the mechanics of writing and letter formation.
The mental preparation is through the understanding of the symbol or letters/sounds that make up words. The physical preparation begins with the materials that help develop the pincer grip, hand and wrist strength when tracing shapes. Eventually children work with a pencil and begin to perfect their control.
Mathematics
Montessori believed that a child’s mind is mathematical and based on the order of perceptual awareness found in the development of the senses. The acquisition of mathematical principles is seen as developing logically from concrete to abstract, and from simple to complex.
Developing mathematical skills and spatial awareness is one of the most important things we can help children with. Children learn to recognize shapes, angles, size, position, and the spaces they live in. Montessori Maths has a wonderful process of working with materials, from concrete forms to the more abstract.
Math materials in every Montessori classroom are all ordered from the simpler to more complex. By working with authentic Montessori Math materials, children are encouraged to develop and bring to life their understanding of mathematical concepts.
The Children build their abstract mathematical reasoning skills on these early concrete experiences. They learn how a numeral represents an amount. They manipulate objects to see concrete operations like addition and subtraction. These exercises cater to children’s developing sense of order, sequence, one-to-one correspondence, and directionality.
Culture
Montessori classrooms give children initial exposure to the many areas of knowledge that they will encounter throughout life, enabling them to develop an early interest in learning about the world, science and nature, history and culture, and music and art.
The cultural activities in the classroom are essential for a child’s integral development and helping him/her to adapt to the world.
Art, music and movement
Montessori students are encouraged to express their feelings, experiences, and creativity through art, music and movement. This helps to refine fine motor, gross motor, auditory discrimination, and self expression skills. With these goals in mind, the sequence of lessons and materials is important. The Art, Music, and Movement category is divided into subcategories that contain lessons sequenced in the order in which they would be introduced for most children in many Montessori classrooms. In addition to exploring different techniques and styles of art, music, and movement, children will also discover famous artists and their works.
Enrichment Programs
Our weekly music class is uplifting for children as well as calming, soothing, and comforting. Children learn rhythm, melody, and harmony while developing listening and memory skills. The children extend their vocabulary, which helps them to learn new languages and the meaning of words.
Our weekly fun classes not only teach the ABCs of soccer – Agility, Balance, and Coordination but also teach teamwork and perseverance. Children are introduced to basic soccer skills, such as dribbling and kicking, and games that will lead them to skills and not “drills.”
All children love to do Yoga with their teacher while learning the calming techniques for self-health, relaxation, and focus and develop self-confidence. It not only promotes growth and development but increases their flexibility.
Dance is a fun and high energy class that gets the children grooving to upbeat music. This class introduces them to basic dance moves and techniques. Dance inspires creativity & free expression while uniting cultures and generations.
SUMMER BREAK CAMPS
Our camps include a variety of activities to provide the children with a fun environment during the Summer break! There are no formal Montessori lessons during the summers to give the children some break during this time. Children explore a different theme each week as all activities are related to that specific theme.
A “Camp Flyer” detailing dates, times and fees will be sent out to parents during the end of March of each school year to plan the summer vacations accordingly.