Curriculum

"I have studied the child. I have taken what the child has given me and expressed it and that is what is called the Montessori method."

The Montessori approach offers a broad vision of education as an aid to life. It is designed to help children with their task of inner construction as the y grow from childhood to maturity. It succeeds because it draws its principles from the natural development of the child. Its flexibility provides a matrix within which each individual child's inner directives freely guide the child toward wholesome growth.

Montessori classrooms provide a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work. The children's innate passion fo r learning is encouraged by giving them opportunities to engage in spontaneous, purposeful activities with the guidance of a trained adult. Through their work, the chi ldren develop concentration and joyful self-discipline. Within a framework of order, the children progress at their own pace and rhythm, according to their individual c apabilities.

The transformation of children from birth to adulthood occurs through a series of developmental planes. Montessori practice changes in scope and manner to embrace the child's changing characteristics and interests

• The first plane of development occurs from birth to age six. At this stage, children are sensorial explorers, constructing their intellects by absorbing every aspect of their environment, their language and their culture.
• From age 6 to 12, children become conceptual explorers. They develop their powers of abstraction and imagination, and apply their knowledge to discover and expand their worlds further.
• The years between 12 and 18 see the children become humanistic explorers, seeking to understand their place in society and their opportunity to contribu te to it.
• From 18 to 24, as young adults, they become specialized explorers, seeking a niche from which to contribute to universal dialogue.

There are prepared environments for children at each successive developmental plane. These environments allow them to take responsibility for their own edu cation, giving them the opportunity to become human beings able to function independently and hence interdependently.

Blossom Progressive Montessori offers a child an organized and well rounded program. The following is a short description of what is offered.

"Beyond the more obvious reasons why it is sensible to group the ages three by three, such as the little ones learn from the older children and the older ones learn by teaching the younger, every child can work at his own pace and rhythm, eliminating the bane of competition, there is the matter of order and di scipline easily maintained even in very large classes with only one adult in charge. This is due to the sophisticated balance between liberty and discipline prevalent i n Montessori classrooms, established at the very inception of a class. Children who have acquired the fine art of working freely in a structured environment, joyfully a ssume responsibility for upholding this structure, contributing to the cohesion of their social unit."

Practical Life exercises instill care for themselves, for others, and for the environment. The activities include many of the tasks childr en see as part of the daily life in their home washing and ironing, doing the dishes, arranging flowers, etc. Elements of human conviviality are introduced with the e xercises of grace and courtesy. Through these and other activities, children develop muscular coordination, enabling movement and the exploration of their surroundings. They learn to work at a task from beginning to end, and develop their will (defined by Maria Montessori as the intelligent direction of movement), their self-disciplin e and their capacity for total concentration.

Sensorial Materials are tools for development. Children build cognitive efficacy, and learn to order and classify impressions. They do thi s by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, listening, and exploring the physical properties of their environment through the mediation of specially-designed materials.

Language is vital to human existence. The Montessori environment provides rich and precise language.

"When the children come into the classroom at around three years of age, they are given in the simplest way possible the opportunity to enrich the language they have acquired during their small lifetime and to use it intelligently, with precision and beauty, becoming aware of its properties not by being taught , but by being allowed to discover and explore these properties themselves. If not harassed, they will learn to write, and as a natural consequence to read, never remem bering the day they could not write or read in the same way that they do not remember that once upon a time they could not walk."

Geography, History, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Art and Music are presented as extensions of the sensorial and language activities. Children learn about other cultures past and present, and this allows their innate respect and love for their environment to flourish, creating a sense of solidarity with the g lobal human family and its habitat.

Experiences with nature in conjunction with the materials in the environment inspire a reverence for all life. History is presented to the children through art and an intelligent music program.

Mathematics materials help children learn and understand mathematical concepts by working with concrete materials. This work provides the children with solid underpinnings for traditional mathematical principles, providing a structured scope for abstract reasoning.

Grace & Courtesy: in order for the children to learn the social courtesies and physical grace in movements, we have special group less ons in "Grace & Courtesy". These role-playing games reflect common everyday situations and modeled behavior, first by the directress and then by older more capable children. All children get to act out the courtesies and practice exercises in moving gracefully.

Some of these include greetings, excusing oneself to pass asking for objects, how to handle dangerous objects safely, how to ask others to work quietly, ho w to carry large items and many, many more. Points of consciousness which may present difficulty or which give reasons for polite behaviors are discussed with them.