Seeing the World through the Eyes of a Pre-schooler

In a couple of days, we will begin celebrating Montessori Education Week. Dr. Montessori was a physician, a scientist and a child advocate. She remarked how, to the young child, the world is wondrous place, filled with an endless collection of mysteries. The child is life’s little scientist, constantly sleuthing to make sense of the natural world around him.

Over 100 years after Dr. Montessori, yet another child-development specialist stresses the importance of observing children. "Adults often have trouble understanding young children’s needs and inner lives—but paying closer attention to the way they experience the world can be valuable." Read more about what we can learn from and about young children in this article.

Montessori at Home (Taken from American Montessori Society)

Have you marveled at the remarkable order of the Montessori classroom? Has your toddler told you that at school she pours her own juice? Does your teenager hang or put away all her clothes—without being asked?

 Encouraging order, independence, and self-motivation are fundamental to the Montessori approach. Carefully designed classrooms allow students to develop competence in caring for themselves and their surroundings. And from the sense of pride that “I did it myself!” blooms the confidence to take on the world.

Bringing Montessori principles into your home can be a valuable bridge to what your child learns at school. Here are some ways to build that connection.

Celebrating and nurturing each child’s intrinsic desire to learn

This past weekend we came together at The Westmont Montessori School to learn about what makes the “K” year particularly impactful in the Montessori classroom. Our Head of School, Colette Cross, our teachers, and our Curriculum Coordinator shared some of the milestones of the K year.  

Five and six-year olds are going through a period of tremendous brain development--a period when they are developing and honing their reasoning skills. Affording them this year of continued discovery where they have ample opportunity to problem solve as they move from the concrete learning materials to more abstract thinking helps them to really crystallize so many concepts that they have been exposed to in the Early Childhood classroom.

In addition to the academic progress that occurs in the K year, children benefit from continued physical, social, emotional, and spiritual growth. During this “pivotal” year, Kindergarteners take on a real leadership role in the classroom and even the school, serving as role models and helping younger friends in their classroom community.

To learn more about what makes Montessori education the most widely used pedagogy in the world, read more about the Montessori approach. Or just ask one of our Kindergarten alumni!

The Montessori classroom--a window into the universe

The cultural curriculum in the Montessori classroom is a window into the universe at large. By exposing each child to the cultural area of the classroom—Geography, Science, Botany, Zoology, and History—we invite them to develop an awareness of how their world came to be and cultivate an appreciation for all the things, big and small, which coexist in it. 

Through this hands-on exploration, using their own curiosity and drive, children learn about:

• natural resources (land/air/water; sink or float; parts of a plant; how to grow a plant),
• the seasons (seasons sorting cards),
• the elements on our planet (magnetic vs. non-magnetic)
• the flora and fauna (vertebrates vs. invertebrates; extinct vs. non-extinct)
• the vastness of our world (the solar system; the colored globe; the continent maps)
• the concept of time (calendar; telling time).

Through these and other Montessori works, we help children to discover our natural world and embark on their journey to becoming “cultured” people.  Cultured people are grateful for the balance in the universe and recognize man’s role in maintaining this balance. And thus, they create the beautiful possibilities of a more peaceful world.

Take a look at our facebook page to see the ways in which The Westmont Montessori School celebrates culture!

Why Montessori in the K Year?

The Montessori approach is carefully based on what we've learned about children's cognitive, neurological and emotional development from several decades of research. The kindergarten year is a dynamic year, a time to really internalize the early concrete experiences and make important, solid cognitive connections.

By this third—or Kindergarten—year, many of the earlier lessons in the Montessori classroom come together and become a permanent part of the young child’s understanding.

Here are 20 reasons to keep your child in Montessori for their Kindergarten year. 

Come learn more at our Kindergarten Open House this weekend!

What Dr. Montessori knew then, brain research validates today

If you have ever tried to learn a new language as an adult, you will quickly experience what neurological research has borne out: “The ability to learn a second language is highest between birth and the age of six, then undergoes a steady and inexorable decline. Many adults still manage to learn new languages, but usually only after great struggle.”[i]

The child, on the other hand, moves through this “acquisition” of new things (language only being one of them) rather seamlessly and joyously.  Today’s brain research corroborates what Dr. Montessori intuited from her own observational research more than 100 years ago:

“…in the first few years of childhood there are a number of critical or sensitive periods, or "windows", when the brain demands certain types of input in order to create or stabilize certain long-lasting structures.

…Rich experiences, in other words, really do produce rich brains.” [ii]

Montessori advocated for the importance of taking full advantage of the “absorbent mind” during the period in the child’s development when the mind is most receptive—during what she called “sensitive periods”. This time from birth to 6 years old represents a period of rapid growth in man’s intelligence.

It’s a time when the child is particularly sensitive to stimuli that promote the development of a certain skill. In a Montessori classroom, stimuli comes in a variety of forms, where the materials and the whole educational methodology are designed to provide a very rich, multi-sensory, hands-on approach to learning.

The melodious, quiet  “hum” of a perfectly active Montessori classroom speaks volumes of the power of letting children “do”, “absorb”, “create”, and “develop”. They do this through the focus that comes from the activity, repetition and the freedom to persevere. And from within the child, this “explosion of learning”—the sudden outward manifestation of a long process of internal growth—as Montessori called it, does ensue.

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i:FERTILE MINDS By J. MADELEINE NASH Sunday, June 24, 2001

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,137214,00.html

ii: IBID

A Warm Welcome

It’s a New Year, new beginnings… a time to exude optimism and wish for great things to come. Speaking of which, some are already off to their first day of preschool and we wholeheartedly wish them a joyful beginning. 

The Westmont Montessori School is so happy to see all of our children back and extends a warm welcome to our 4 new friends: Anzel, Harper, Ella and Maggie. 

And in global news, they are joined by another young friend, who just began at Westacre Montessori School in the UK: Prince George. See adorable photos of his first day here.