What You Need To Know Before Choosing Montessori Preschool Programs
Are Montessori preschool programs on your list of potential early learning options? Whether Montessori is at the top of your list or somewhere in the middle, take a look at the need-to-know facts that can help you to make a decision right now.
Montessori Is More than Just Academics
While the learning element of Montessori is a primary concern, this type of pre-k education extends well beyond academics—and the classroom. Instead of focusing on only the A,B,C's and 1,2,3's, Montessori education emphasizes the child's entire development. This type of holistic approach provides the young student with the chance to build social, emotional, and other skills.
Montessori Emphasizes Grace and Courtesy
Do you want your child to treat others with kindness and respect? Are you unsure how school can help them to do so? Montessori preschools focus on the concepts of grace and courtesy inside and outside of the classroom.
Through one-on-one social interactions, role modeling, and opportunities to act as part of a community, children in Montessori pre-k's learn how to empathize, communicate, use appropriate manners, and act respectfully towards others and themselves.
Montessori Fosters Educational Building Blocks
Even though Montessori early childhood education goes well beyond academics, this type of pre-k also fosters necessary concept-based skills. From early literacy to math and science, your child will have the opportunity to explore academics in a way that meets their individual learning needs. This allows your child to build basics they'll use right now and throughout their education.
Montessori Provides a Self-Paced Educational Environment
Children learn at different paces. While there are generally accepted developmental milestones and curricular marks to meet, most young students vary in how and when they build specific skills. Montessori pre-k takes these differences into consideration. The Montessori educational environment doesn't include lectures, only teacher instructed lessons, or standardized worksheets and tests.
Instead of a standard or one size fits all education, Montessori classrooms give children the chance to explore materials that interest them and learn at their own pace. This allows children to individualize their own educational path, creating meaningful learning experiences.
Montessori Encourages Real-World Skill Building
Instead of pretend play kitchens filled with fake plastic food (and other similar toys/activities), Montessori classrooms encourage real-world skill building. This means the young students learn using real materials, tools, and other items. While imagination-based activities are still part of the pre-k learning process, Montessori doesn't focus solely on make-believe.
If you're looking at preschool programs for your child, consider the Montessori philosophy.
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