EastRiverMontessori.com
Title
East River Montessori
Description
About the Montessori Method
The Montessori method, founded by Italian Maria Montessori in the early 1900s, is focused on developing the concentration and intellect of the child through a rich and prepared environment. The materials at East River Montessori are carefully selected to captivate the child and to enhance the child’s natural ability to learn by doing. Every activity engages the hands and the senses, encouraging the child’s quiet concentration on his work.
A few examples: a child gets her own snack from a platter at the time of her choosing. After she finishes eating, she cleans up her place and sets the table for the next child. Many of the other materials are also centered around “life skills:” washing tables, sorting beads, squeezing oranges to make juice and so on. Writing, reading, and math preparation are achieved through the use of special materials designed to interest and motivate the child in a natural progression of learning. The toys and games of a typical classroom are absent, since children in a Montessori classroom learn to accomplish real tasks in which they can take pride.
In the Montessori classroom the children are free to work with whatever materials they choose for as long as they choose. The children are required to respect the materials (no throwing the wooden sphere, for example) and to respect each other (they must ask for permission from each other to work with another’s chosen materials). The students’ respect for their work and for one another creates an atmosphere of calm but purposeful activity- the mark of a Montessori classroom.
Languages
English
