Program

The main goal of the school is to help children develop a rapport with their environment and to support them as they develop physical, social, and intellectual independence. The directress intensely follows each child, presenting carefully designed lessons and materials on a one-to-one basis, as the child is ready. The following areas of exploration are included in the program (the Toddler Program inclu.mostly the same, on a more basic level):

1) Practical Life: Through these activities, children acquire many daily living skills, and are assisted in extending their powers of concentration and coordinated movement.

2) Sensorial Activities: Children learn to experience the world through their senses, in a way that establishes the physical and mental foundation for further learning.

3)Language: Through a variety of phonics-based language activities and materials, children become familiar with sounds and symbols, and begin the process of writing which naturally leads to reading.

4)Mathematics: Children learn to identify and recognize numbers, rote count, are provided with an introduction to the decimal system and geometry, teens and tens, numbers, hundreds and thousands, skip counting, addition, multiplication, subtraction, division, fractions, measurement, time and money.

5) Social Activities: Emphasized in a Montessori schooling program are responsibility for one’s own behaviour, respect for others, and care of the environment.

6) Music and Creative/Physical Movement: Children are able to move freely about the room, choosing activities as they wish. Children are free to run, jump, and climb, during two outdoor play periods. The child develops musical abilities through lessons in rhythm, balance, movement/dance, intensity, introduction to some musical instruments, singing, an understanding of different types of music, circle time songs, as well as Montessori’s famous ‘bells’.

7)Science and/or Natural History: Children will participate in fun science experiments, and be introduced to Botany, Zoology, Biology, as well as other outdoor education topics and lessons.

8)History/Social Studies: Topics may include: a child’s understanding of themselves, the child’s history, family trees, people and cultures of the world, the passing of time, growth of culture, timelines, telling time, Canadian history, and dinosaurs.

9)Geography: Children will study the globe, land and water forms, continents, the universe, animals of the world, hemispheres, flags, the environment, weather/ climate, Canada, geology, rocks, minerals, and gems.

10)Art:: Children will develop an appreciation of art through studies in: drawing, ‘still life art’, portraits, art history, famous artists, cutting, patterns, colours, shapes, modeling, symmetry, painting, pastels.

11) Craft: Children love crafts, and, through them, they develop their own talents, creativity, and self-expression.