What You Should Know About Montessori Preschools

Posted by

If you have preschool-aged children, you may be evaluating local preschools and determining what type of learning environment you want for your children. Before searching for the “best Montessori preschools near me,” you should know some things about these institutions.

Teaching Methods

Montessori methods focus on the specific needs of each child. Instead of creating a general curriculum and teaching method for all the students, these teachers create individualized teaching plans for each child. The purposes of this method is to meet every child where they are and not restrict their growth. Montessori schools allow children to work at their own paces and choose their own activities.

Where traditional education focuses on reading, listening and observing a lesson, Montessori education focuses on using all five senses to learn new concepts. Although they work with the children, Montessori teachers often take on an observatory role rather than an instructive role. They guide their students into new lessons when they are ready. They do not typically instruct. Instead, teachers focus on building a learning environment in which the students want to learn.

Classroom Environments

Montessori classrooms have child-sized furniture. Children have easy access to all the tools and activities because they are placed on open shelves. These classrooms have a comfortable, homey feel. They may include rugs, lamps and plants. They have large, open spaces and quiet areas for different types of work.

These classrooms also have children who are different ages. For example, a classroom may have children aged three to six years or two to five years. This allows older children to help younger children, which solidifies the knowledge in the older children’s brains as well. Typically, children have the same teacher for several years.

The Montessori method teaches children to be kind and helpful to each other. You will find groups of children working together to learn lessons.

If you are looking for an interactive environment that encourages and enhances your child’s learning, consider researching Montessori schools.