On January 6th in the year 1907, the first Montessori Children’s House was opened in Rome, Italy by Dr. Maria Montessori. She is known for bringing us knowledge about how children grow and develop. Through her scientific observations of children she saw the importance of preparing an environment that is child centered with materials that are accessible to children and that allows them to discover the principles implicit in the materials. The environment fosters competence and responsibility for the development of the child’s self-confidence and the ability to problem solve. This finely integrated system is designed to follow and support human development. It is such a pleasure to see these aspects at work each day in the toddler, primary and elementary environments.
From the competent toddler who sets their table, eats snack and clears their table; to the primary student who scrubs the table to prepare it for snack then eagerly dives into subtraction with the decimal system; the lower elementary child who is communicating with his classmates to problem solve a disagreement between students; the upper elementary students who are cubing the binomial (check it out on our Facebook page), all of these are examples of the children’s growth in a Montessori community. These outcomes are produced when we honor and respect the integrity of the Montessori system.
Sincerely,
Susie