Preschool Program

The focus of the Montessori Approach to educate is to actively aid the growing child as he creates and expresses his own uniqueness as a person, and to help him acquire the knowledge and skills he needs to understand the world.

This help takes concrete form in the Prepared Environment - the Montessori term for the classroom setting. The Prepared Environment provides the child freedom within a definite structure. Everything in the environment is there specifically for the child. Through individual work with the materials and interaction with other children, the child discovers and thereby learns. The materials in the classroom are grouped into five basic areas:

1. Practical Life materials allow the child to become independent and responsible for himself and his environment. Shoe polishing and dressing skills are examples.
2. Sensorial materials help the child create order in his mind out of all the sense impressions he perceives. He works with such attributes as color, pitch and dimension.
3. Language materials break language development into the basic skills necessary for writing and reading. The materials also deal with various forms of communication - art, music, literature - in both an appreciative and expressive manner.
4. Math materials enable the child to manually work out the basic math concepts and processes.
5. Cultural Activities expose the child to basics in geography, history, life sciences and earth sciences.