What is Montessori?

What is a Montessori Education?

Montessori is a method of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. In Montessori classrooms children make creative choices in their learning, while the classroom and the highly trained teacher offer age-appropriate activities to guide the process. Children work in groups and individually to discover and explore knowledge of the world and to develop their maximum potential.

Montessori learning for children ages birth to three years:

• provide a safe, engaging and nurturing environment for the child

• promote trust in themselves and their world

• develop confidence in their emerging abilities

• develop gross motor coordination, fine motor skills, and language skills

• offer opportunities to gain independence in daily tasks

Montessori learning for children ages three to six years:

• foster the growth of functional independence, task persistence and self-regulation

• promote social development through respectful, clear communication and safe, natural consequences

• contain a large variety of materials for the refinement of sensory perception and the development of literacy and mathematical understanding

• offer opportunities for imaginative exploration leading to confident, creative self-expression

Montessori learning for children ages six to twelve years :

• offer opportunities for collaborative intellectual exploration in which the child’s interests are supported and guided

• support the development of self-confidence, imagination, intellectual independence and self-efficacy

• foster an understanding of the child’s role in their community, in their culture and in the natural world

Montessori learning for adolescents ages twelve to fifteen years:

• ideally a working farm in which adolescents engage in all aspects of farm administration and economic interdependence, but also include non-farm environments in urban settings

• assist the young adult in the understanding of oneself in wider and wider frames of reference

• provide a context for practical application of academics

• emphasize the development of self-expression, true self-reliance, and agility in interpersonal relationships.