Dr. Maria Montessori, discovered in her search over 100 years ago that children don’t have to be forced to learn — they actually want to! And they learn best when given the opportunity to explore according to their interests.

The philosophy, which guides everything we do in Montessori, is to follow the child.

It is applied to every aspect of the child’s education. For example, Maria invented classroom furniture that was child sizes. That seems obvious to us now, but only because Maria challenged commonly held beliefs.

Children learn at different paces, and have different interests. That is why an important part of the Montessori approach is the one-on-one relationship between your child and their teacher. By observing and engaging, the teacher knows how they are advancing, when it is time to move them up to a more challenging exercise. The other key factor in Montessori education is the meticulously designed, extensive series of exercises. Each exercise is part of a carefully planned progression-mastering one skill that is an essential ingredient of a more complicated skill.

For example, in the preschool program, children trace with their fingers the sandpaper outlines of letters and numbers. Not only do they get a physical feel for them, they are making the basic movements for writing, so that skill comes more naturally to them at a later stage.

The Montessori method is the result of much research, still ongoing, into the best ways of helping children learn.

We know that as a dedicated parent, you will want to learn more about Montessori so please feel free to call us at 613-692-1969.