What is Montessori?
Montessori is a method of education that was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori. It was Montessori’s belief that the goal of early education should not be focused on filling the child with pre-selected information, but to to encourage his own natural desire to learn. In the Montessori environment the children are able to select activities based on their own natural curiosity and with the help of specially trained teachers the children are encouraged to explore, create, and fall in love with learning.
The Montessori Classroom
The Montessori environment is based on a multiage classroom. The preschool environment has children from 2 /12 to 6 years of age. Having a mixed age group allows the younger children a grade series of role models and lets the older children reinforce their own knowledge by helping younger peers. The environment is prepared by the teacher to be inviting and spark the child’s curiosity about the world around him. This is why the materials are graded in such a way that it allows the child to grow from one level of complexity to another in a natural progression.