“And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.  It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment.  The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.”
Dr. Maria Montessori

Practical Life: Exercises involve care of the environment, pouring, spooning, polishing, cleaning, sewing, and many other tasks, which promote development of useful skills, coordinated movement, and fine motor control.

Sensorial Material: Activities allow the child to manipulate and classify objects in the environment. All the senses are utilized as the child learns to make finer distinctions in quality and gradation.  Games help to form mental images of concrete objects, paving the way to abstract thinking. The materials assist the child in learning to differentiate between sizes, colors, weights, textures, sounds, and smells. They help organize, and classify, and to give a language to the sensory experiences the child has received since birth.

Language: A phonetic approach to reading is incorporated with a sight-sound-touch presentation of the alphabet. As the child learns to manipulate cut out letters for word construction, reading follows as a natural event.  Whole language experience is provided to aid in the development of reading and writing skills, creating the basis on which the child continues to build more advanced language skills.

Foreign Language Instruction: Second and third year students receive weekly instruction in Spanish.

Mathematics: Number and quantity skills are a continuation of earlier sensorial material integration. The child works from the concrete towards abstraction through repeated sensorial impressions of geometry, relationships of quantity, and the processes of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division.

Geography, History and Science: Lessons in combination with readily available materials, provide the child with factual information and impressions of various cultures, land formations, eco-systems, and the interrelationship of all parts of the earth. Environmental education forms part of the learning experience, both indoors and out.

Art, Music and Drama: Experienced as an integral part of the child’s daily work, during circle time musical games, singing, and practice of harmony and rhythm. Second and third year students receive weekly formal art instruction.