The first 3 years of a child’s life are the most formative. During this period, children absorb innumerable impressions from their surroundings as their inner development takes place.
Young children are happiest when their living environment is familiar and constant. They thrive on routine,motivation,encouragement and respect for their individuality. Planning, teamwork and commitment to excellence affects the quality of a young scholar in a Montessori school.
At “Little Scholars” we aspire to make our children to be rooted in one’s culture and values and keep abreast with technological advancements in the world at the same time.
Children are led to take a tour of their environment through an integrated approach involving play way methods. Exploration, Investigation and Discovery is achieved through guided involvement in activities such as sand play, water play, book corner, nature study, music and movements, audio visuals etc., which leads to physical, social, mental and emotional development.
The aim of this approach is to provide them with amenities to do the everyday life activities more constructively and methodically.
The school is equipped with a matted indoor playroom stocked with Story Books, Soft Toys, Puzzles, Blocks, Play Dough and much more.
‘Listening is Knowing, Seeing is Understanding and Doing is Retaining’ thus we have a ‘Puppet Theatre’ for realistic dramatisation and a ‘Projector’ for larger than life audio visuals.
The school has a committed faculty which constructively channelizes and focuses children’s energy and broadens their horizons to fare the challenges of the time.
Our Toddler Program is a natural extension of the home, a harmonious community that allows each child to reach his or her full potential. It provides a nurturing experience disregarding further independence, language and creativity for children.
In a large, bright open environment, toddlers observe each other’s enjoyment and discovery. Each week different art activities are offered using a variety of materials and techniques. Daily music circles provide each child with the opportunity for singing and musical movement. Learning to use the toilet and socialisation are important aspects of the Toddlers program.
The teachers gently guide the children through each successive level of development and achievement, always encouraging and supportive.
Our program offers young children a unique year of self development in a tender atmosphere of special understanding, respect and support. Through song, dance and freedom of choice the toddlers have access to a variety of large muscle activities that offer them opportunities to jump, climb, balance, crawl or skip.
Our playhouse is not a formal academic program but a time to allow your child to learn by exploring, playing and experimenting with objects. The classroom is set up with a “hands on” approach.
In this type of program there is a mixture of both self directed and teachers-directed activities. The teacher has a curriculum of activities that fit the child’s age and level of development.
There is a schedule that is followed each day, but may be looser in the morning with “free play” and later may be more structured with circle time or a group activity. A sense of independence is developed as the child remains away from the parents for a couple of hours, thus breaking free from separation anxiety.
Montessori education was founded in 1907 by Dr. Maria Montessori. She based her educational methods on scientific observation of children’s learning process guided by her discovery that children teach themselves, Dr. Montessori designed a “prepared environment” in which children could freely choose from a number of developmentally appropriate activities emphasising learning through all 5 senses, not just through listening, reading or writing. Children in Montessori learn at their own individual pace and to their own choice of activities from hundreds of possibilities. Learning becomes an exciting process of discovery leading to concentration, motivation, self discipline and a love of learning.
Dr. Maria Montessori, approach to education is “child centric”. In this approach everything is geared to the child. He is the central and the most important part in the learning process and everything else in the classroom is there to assist his natural individual style and tempo of development.
In Montessori children rarely learn from texts or workbooks. In all cases direct personal hands-on contact with either real things under study or concrete models that bring abstract concepts to life allow children to learn with deeper understanding.
In Montessori programs, children do not work for grades or external rewards. Children learn because they are interested in things and because all children share a desire to come competent and independent human beings.
Montessori is divided mainly into four curriculums namely: Exercises of Practical Life, Sensorial, Arithmetic and Language.
The Practical Activities are the first activities the child is introduced to in the Montessori environment. This is because they can immediately begin to satisfy the young child’s inner and hitherto frustrated desire for skills and self-sufficiency. The Practical Activities allow the child to engage in day to day activities which he/she observes in his/her environment.
The Sensorial materials were developed with the specific aim of the education of the senses are probably the most valuable tools for a teacher of children. This sensory stimulation lays the foundations for future learning and assists in the development of perceptual, visual and motor skills and other vital cognitive abilities. Fortunately, Montessori recognized the direct relationship between sensorial training and intellectual development and provided us with the materials with a simple design to focus the child’s attention on a particular concept to be used to carry out this essential education.
Once we feel that the child is ready, we prepare the child for understanding the concept and sequence of numbers. Perhaps of all the Montessori materials the mathematics apparatus is the most attractive. They give the children the sensorial experience of the abstraction that is mathematics, allowing them to absorb concepts so that when the time comes to deal exclusively in abstract terms, the understanding is already there. The main advantage of learning mathematics the Montessori way is that both the abstract and the concrete, the volume and the visual aspects of numerals become clear to the child.
Language is introduced to a child with the help of phonics. Phonics is teaching the sounds that each letter makes. We teach letter sounds as a starting point towards reading; Montessori teaches the phonetic sounds of the letters, rather than the letter names. The belief is that the letter names will come naturally. This is a stepping stone to further endorse reading.
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