Montessori and Your Child

Montessori is a unique curriculum that nurtures a child’s desire to learn. Montessori focuses on the whole child — his/her cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. This curriculum is right for children of any age. Creative Montessori Academy offers a Montessori experience from PreK – 8th grade.  Introducing your child to Montessori as early as possible puts him/ her on the right path to becoming a confident, self-motivated learner.

In a Montessori environment, children learn by exploring and manipulating specially designed materials. Each material teaches one concept or skill at a time and lays a foundation from which students can comprehend increasingly abstract ideas.

Children work with materials at their own pace, repeating an exercise until it is mastered. The teacher may gently guide the process, but her goal is to inspire rather than instruct.

Throughout the classroom, prepared curriculum areas contain a sequential array of lessons to be learned. As students work through the sequence, they build and expand on materials and lessons already mastered.

Many children spend only their preschool years in a Montessori classroom. Others complete the elementary grades before transferring to another — usually traditional — school. A smaller group of students stay with Montessori through secondary school.

A child who transfers out of a Montessori school is likely to notice some differences. For example, instead of choosing his/her own work to investigate and master, he/she might have to learn what’s on the teacher’s lesson plan. Instead of moving freely around the classroom, they’ll have to sit in an assigned seat. Instead of learning in a classroom with a mixed-aged grouping, they placed just with students his/her own age.

Children are adaptable. Students who transition from Montessori typically adjust quickly to the ways of their new school because they have learned to become self-reliant, and are used to working harmoniously as part of a classroom community.