Hearts and Hands Montessori, Inc.

Maria Montessori discovered that it was the humble tasks of every day living that most appealed to young children.  It is important to respect children’s natural desires and physical development.

            Through practice of movement, children’s immature muscles are strengthened, coordination develops greatly, and the child gains confidence.  Practical Life Exercises also teach care for self and care for the environment.  The Montessori materials are structured to help the child satisfy his need for meaningful activity.

            Other benefits: gaining self control through practicing silence, building strong character and refining social skills through exercises of Grace and Courtesy.

            Practical Life Exercises are appealing to the child because they present precise, ordered lessons that are purposeful to everyday life that the child can use and grow on.

“A child’s work is to create the man he will become.  An adult works to perfect the environment, but a child works to perfect himself.”

 Maria Montessori

          It has been discovered that infants, even before they are born have the ability to hear and recognize the voices spoken near the womb.  By the age of ten months children start to connect meaning with the spoken language.  By two years of age most children begin talking.

            This avenue is called the Development of Language because the lessons given are guided by the child’s developmental needs and are ordered as so:

1. Vocabulary:  Assists with the mechanical factor of language, hearing and then speaking, while expanding the vocabulary, opening the mind to further exploration of the environment surrounding the child.
2. Phonemic awareness:  Ear training games, such as rhyming and beginning sound isolation, are played to help the child’s ear develop an acute awareness of the many different sounds of our language.
3. Alphabet and Metal Insets:  After sounds are introduced, they are associated with their symbol; associating letters with their corresponding sounds.  To be able to write a child must recognize the shape and he must develop the muscular skill necessary for using the pencil with control.  The hand is indirectly preparing for writing, and the child develops visual discrimination in preparation for reading through lessons in all avenues of the Montessori classroom.
4. Short Vowels (building, writing, reading):  At first the focus is not reading, but hearing the sounds and forming words with our Movable Alphabet, then reading.
5. Sentences (useful words, building, matching, writing):  Useful words are words that are not phonetic but are used to make a sentence complete, such as "the".  When ready, the child builds, writes, then reads!
6. Long Vowels and Phonograms:  When the child has mastered short vowels, we can move on to long vowel words and other phonograms such as blends ("cl"), consonant diagraphs ("sh") and murmuring dipthongs ("er").
7. General Reading: Including reading labels and beginner reader books.
8. Cultural Subjects:  We add language to many of our Sensorial lessons, such as Parts of The Flower or Horse, Countries, and lessons in the classroom.  Reading opens the door to discovering more of the world we live in.

“I say development, not teaching, for the mother does not

teach her child language.

 It develops naturally, like a spontaneous creation.”

Maria Montessori

The senses are the pathways to your mind, from environment to the individual.  Maria Montessori was the first to introduce "education of the senses" into school curriculum and bring attention to their vital role in the child’s natural growth.  At three years of age, children begin to make sense of their world.  To assist the child’s development, the Sensorial materials isolate stimuli in order to help the child make sense of his impressions.

            The Sensorial materials are concrete forms of specific abstract ideas.  Each of the materials isolates one defining quality, such as color, weight, shape, texture, size, sound and smell.  The materials are designed to emphasize one particular quality by eliminating or minimizing other differences.

            These materials are introduced in a particular way to teach a specific concept.  The child then works with the material independently experiencing this concept.  Later, variations can be introduced by a teacher, as well as the freedom to experiment with the material independently.

            The Sensorial Avenue is the foundation for intellectual development, indirectly preparing the child for math and sciences, all the while heightening awareness of the world through refining the senses.

“There is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses.”

Aristotle

            Our construction of knowledge is done with two tools: 1) Word-language, and 2) Number-language.  Numbers are symbols that help us think, just as words do.  Maria Montessori observed that young children have a natural desire to count and measure.  Many things in our society are based on mathematics—such as construction, music and economics—this is because our brains have a natural tendency to quantify, discriminate and relate. 

            At home numbers can be introduced as they naturally arise.  When the child himself starts using numbers, this signals the child is ready for instruction. 

            Instruction at the beginning is based on very concrete objects.  Before moving on to more abstract ideas the child must understand that numbers designate quantity, they are an actual progression, and the continual progression is of One.

            Mathematics in the classroom is first introduced in these three steps: 1) Numbers One to Ten, 2) The Decimal System, 3) Teens and Tens.  Then mathematical practice and extensions are introduced with two more steps: 4) Work with the colored beads, and 5) Memorization of the Four Operations. 

            When introduced in these steps at an appropriate age, mathematics can be fascinating, rather than mysterious.  How wonderful it is to give children the opportunity of grasping a concrete understanding of mathematics!

"If human intelligence is allowed to develop naturally,

 it will turn to counting and measuring."

Pascal

   Yoga with Ms. Laura  

 from Montana Kids Yoga

Rhythm Work with Partners

*We also offer weekly enrichment classes in Foreign Language and Health Enhancement.