#4 Child Directed Work

Learn by doing:  These are formative years for social, physical, and intellectual development. Your child’s absorbent mind propels them to learn by actively interacting with the purposeful materials in their environment. There are five curriculum areas in our classrooms:  practical life, sensorial, language, mathematics, and culture (geography and science).

Practical life is the foundation of the Children’s House classroom. Practical life indirectly prepares children for all the other curricular areas especially reading and writing.  All the materials on our shelves are set from top to bottom and left to right which is how we learn to read   Practical life activities help children refine their fine and gross motor skills and strengthen their order, coordination, concentration, and independence all while learning how to care for self and the environment. Pretty amazing!
 
Sensorial materials lay the foundation for math exposing children to geometry concepts that will be built upon when they enter elementary.  Sensorial materials also help children experience, notice, and categorize all the sensory information around them while strengthening their logic, judgement, and perception skills.
 

Language experiences support your child as they move at their own pace through the stages of language:  vocabulary expansion, writing, and reading. We utilize short phonetic awareness daily activities to ensure our students have the foundational reading skills `necessary to be successful when they enter elementary school. The aim of the math materials is to awaken the mathematical mind that exists within all of us. The focus is on the process moving from the simple to the complex, the concrete to the abstract. Your child ‘s mathematical ability will astound you. Finally, culture lessons expose children to the world around them in hands-on wondrous ways. Young children have an unquenchable desire to experience, know, and understand their place in the world. 

To learn more about each of these areas in more detail click the link to our Children’s House program guide.

Follow the child and choice:  Children are active, self-motivated learners. Core principles of the Montessori method are that children make individual choices and teachers follow the child and offer the least amount of help needed in the process. We leverage children’s intrinsic motivation by helping them learn how to learn so they can develop a life-long love of learning. A hallmark of a Montessori education. 

Independence, autonomy, and social responsibility: Everything we do from day one is to support your child’s independence while being part of a community - their right to choose to work with others or alone (autonomy), to value others uniqueness, and learn peaceful resolution strategies. These are powerful attributes that are often underscored in a world focused on grades and competition. Our children become strong academically but just as important they are prepared to be global citizens.