Children's House
The Children’s House is for children ages 5-6 years and is the Kindergarten grade equivalent. Children’s House, is the special Montessori term for 3-6 year old classes because the carefully prepared environment for these children includes so much more than just school work. It is, in fact, a small version of the world, a world scaled down to the child’s age and ability level. Work in the Children’s House includes everything from taking care of the classroom environment and learning practical life skills to studies in Math and Reading.
Practical Life are the activities of daily living such as pouring liquids, carrying objects, washing dishes, polishing furniture and taking care of their environment. Through these exercises, the child develops muscular coordination, self discipline, independence, and their powers of concentration by learning to work at a task from beginning to end. Lessons of Grace and Courtesy are taught and modeled through conversational manners, table manners and courtesy to others.
Sensorial - Children learn best when allowed to touch, feel, hold, smell, listen, see and taste. The sensorial activities use the Montessori materials developed to help children experience the similarities and differences of size, shape, weight, texture, color, smell or sound. Practice with the sensorial materials enable children to refine their vision, their small motor movements, and their hearing and speech skills in preparation for learning and using written language.
Language - The Montessori classroom offers a precise and rich approach to language development. Children are encouraged to participate during lessons, to ask and answer questions, tell stories, explain activities, name objects in the environment, classify plants and animals, locate geographic places and participate in social conversations. The Language materials include objects and pictures to be named, matched, labeled, and classified to aid in vocabulary development. Once the sounds of the letter symbols are known, the child begins to use them, first to construct words with the letters of the moveable alphabet and then to read. Reading and writing skills are interwoven throughout the program. A wide variety of reading materials are used to gain proficiency and a love of reading.
Mathematics - In the Children’s House Montessori environment, children learn and understand the concepts of math by manipulating concrete materials that are designed to isolate a concept. The child, working with the materials, develops an understanding of quantities, symbols, the decimal system, the basic operations of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division as well as confidence in using numbers in everyday life. This step-by-step process provides the child with a solid foundation in math and prepares them for future abstract reasoning.
Cultural Studies - Language and sensorial are extended within the classroom through the activities of culture. History, Geography, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Science, Art and Music are presented to the child in a sequenced, experiential format. This “Cosmic Curriculum” is boundless and allows children to flourish in a rich environment. They explore their own and other cultures, past and present.
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