What makes a Montessori education unique?
CULTIVATING A LOVE FOR LEARNING
A Montessori education is unique in its profound respect for a child’s sincere desire and ability to learn, and in its recognition of his need for independence. A balanced attention to intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual development is regarded as fundamental to their progress and enjoyment in learning. Children have an innate curiosity and love of work, and of order, that can become life-long traits if encouraged appropriately. This is the role of our staff and their joy of teaching.
The Montessori method is based on observation, first and foremost. Observe the child, in order to discover his unique personality, needs, tendencies, and talents.
It is preparation of educational material in the environment to meet these needs; it is respect for each child’s rhythm and choices, interests, and ways of processing information; and, it is a profound respect for – and protection of – the crucial periods of concentration and contemplation, that nurture the child, and reveal the normal human: happy, peaceful, kind, generous, focused, hard-working, healthy, and creative.
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Montessori vs. Traditional Education
WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
The goal of both Montessori and Traditional schooling is the same: to provide learning experiences for the child. The biggest differences lie in the kind of learning experiences each school provides and the methods they use to accomplish this goal. Montessori educators believe both differences are important because they help shape what a child learns, his work habits, and his future attitudes toward himself and the world around him.
- Montessori
- Emphasis on cognitive and social development
- Teacher has guiding role
- Environment and method encourage self-discipline
- Mainly individual instruction
- Mixed age groups
- Grouping encourages children to teach and collaborate
- Child chooses own work
- Child discovers own concepts from self-teaching materials
- Child is allocated time to work on and complete lesson
- Child sets own learning pace
- Child spots own errors from feedback of material
- Child reinforces own learning by repetition and internal feelings of success
- Child can work where he chooses, move about and talk at will (yet not disturb work of others), group work voluntary
- Multi-sensory materials for physical exploration organizes program for learning care of self and environment
- Traditional
- Emphasis on rote learning and social behavior
- Teacher controls classroom
- Teacher acts as primary enforcer of discipline
- Mainly group instruction
- Same age groups
- Teaching is done by teacher; collaboration is discouraged
- Curriculum structured for child
- Child is guided to concepts by teacher
- Child generally allotted specific time for work
- Instruction pace set by group
- Errors in child’s work highlighted by teacher
- Learning is reinforced externally by repetition, rewards and punishment
- Child is usually assigned seat and is required to participate during group lessons
- No organized program for self-care instruction – this is left primarily up to parents
The Toddler Program
18 MONTHS TO 3 YEARS OLD
We engage and encourage from the beginning; this is the time when children use their bodies, senses, and emerging problem-solving skills to learn about and make sense of their world in the ways most meaningful and effective for them. While respecting individual personalities, the focus at this stage of development is on cultivating basic motor coordination, independence, and language development. Care is taken to respect different levels of maturity and separation concerns. This allows children to settle into their new environment as smoothly as possible.
Our teachers give toddlers responsive, individualized attention to help build skills in:
- Sensory and Perception
- Self-help
- Physical and Motor Skills
- Language
- Social and Emotional Growth
- Potty-Training
Royal Montessori- Where self discovery happens.
The Primary Program
3 TO 6 YEARS OLD
Children at this stage of development have the ability to embrace knowledge and activity without effort, or fatigue, because of an ‘absorbent mind’. One teacher and one assistant teacher welcome children into each primary classroom.
To aid this period of self-construction, our teachers encourage individual, as well as group work. Focus is on engaging the children in purposeful work. The ability to think and express with more clarity are cultivated in the following ways:
Practical Life exercises instill in the child the care for oneself, for others, and for the environment. Activities are those children might enjoy at home, including ‘grace and courtesy’.
Through tasks such as buckling a shoe, children develop the muscular and fine motor co-ordination necessary for handwriting. Their powers of control and concentration evolve, so they learn to work at a task from beginning to end.
Sensorial Material serves as a tool for both physical and cognitive development. The children develop mental order by being allowed to explore their world through their senses and respond to their natural desire to sort, classify and arrange both the physical properties of their environment and more abstract experiences.
Mathematics material similarly helps the children evolve from a solid understanding of basic mathematical principles, to preparation for later abstract reasoning. This also helps them develop problem-solving capabilities.
From tracing sandpaper numbers, they move on to the decimal system with the golden bead material for counting, and start to assimilate the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, through the bank game and other group exercises. In this way, they learn to love mathematics!
Reading and Writing ability is developed by paying attention simultaneously to the mind, the hand and the eye of each child, a multi-sensorial approach. Practical life and sensorial exercises enable the use of a pencil, pen or chalk. Children gain a notion of rich and precise language through bilingual conversation, story telling, poetry and songs.
Presented with a sandpaper letter for example, the child will look at it, trace its outline, repeat the sound, thus acquiring an audio, visual and tactile awareness, which promotes the development of written expression and reading skills.
Geography, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Art and Music is presented as extensions of the sensorial and language activities. The children learn about people from other cultures including their language, food, dress, music and behavior.
Royal Montessori Academy is dedicated to guiding and nurturing children’s’ full development by providing a learning atmosphere that promotes peace, harmony and respect based upon Montessori principles of education.
Peace through Education
TEACHING CHILDREN TO LOVE THEMSELVES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT
Establishment of a peaceful environment lies at the core of Montessori education. Dr. Montessori was the champion of the revolutionary concept of an open classroom, where children are guided rather than controlled. She believed that by giving children the freedom to exist in a cooperative environment rather than a competitive one, they learn respect, how to work both alone and collectively, and with children of different ages and abilities. In fact, they learn more readily from observing others because of their mutual differences, as they are at their most absorbent stage of knowledge acquisition as young humans.
The mission of all Montessori teachers is to create an atmosphere of calm, order and joy in the classroom and to be there to help and encourage the children in all their efforts, allowing them to develop self-confidence and inner discipline. With the younger students at each level, the teacher is more active, demonstrating the use of materials and presenting activities based on an assessment of the child’s requirements. Knowing how to observe constructively and when, and how much, to intervene, is one of the most important talents the Montessori teacher acquires during a rigorous course of training.
When Montessori principles are applied in the wider context of society, their possibilities are vast and all encompassing. It is only through teaching children to love themselves, their work, their peers and the environment within which they exist, that we can expect them to continue on as such as adults in the world community. Peace can only be achieved through education.
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