MONTESSORI
EDUCATION
The
Montessori approach to early childhood education is based on the
method of seeing children as they really are and of creating environments
which foster the fulfillment of their highest potential - spiritual,
emotional, physical, and intellectual.
Dr.
Maria Montessori based her method of teaching upon the spontaneous
interest of children in learning. This gives each child the freedom
and opportunity to explore the self-learning environment and find
the circumstances which are most appropriate to his/her own particular
stage of development. The Montessori classroom is thus centered
on the activity of the child, not that of the teacher.
 The
Curriculum Areas in a Montessori Classroom -- there
are four major areas and several adjunct areas:
- Practical
Life Exercises
Acquisition of coordination of movement and independence through
fine-motor and gross-motor activities.
- Sensorial
Activities
Sharpen the perceptual skills of the child while indirectly
preparing for writing and reading through a wide variety of
sensory motor exercises.
- Math
Exercises
 Development
of a mathematical mind through indirect and
direct preparation for arithmetic and geometry
via manipulative materials leading to number and measurement
precepts and concepts.
- Language
and Communication Skills
Phonics via sandpaper letters, matching exercises leading to
sound and visual recognition of letters and words, the building
of words via the "Movable Alphabet," oral communication,
hand-eye writing control exercises which allow her/him to blossom
into reading.
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