Montessori Academy

“Education is not something which the teacher does, but is the natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words but by virtue of experience in which the child acts on his/her environment…. we must offer the child the help he/she needs, and be at his/her service so that he does not have to walk alone.” —Maria Montessori

To offer the child the help they need, is to carefully prepare an environment for each of them. This must be an environment in which each child is free to choose their own work. In a Montessori classroom there is a hum of activity. Children work individually or in groups. Different activities include pouring water, mixing colors, washing doll clothes or dishes, mopping floors, watering plants, building towers, feeling textures, matching weights, painting, cutting, pasting, learning numbers and letters, labeling, counting, measuring, reading ….and discovering.

The room is bright and well ordered. Children feel comfortable and confident when they know where things belong. The furniture is child size, lightweight and portable. Everything is scaled to match the physical abilities of small children. All the equipment invites children to use their hands for learning.

The core of the Montessori approach to pre-school education is individuality. More important than any of the countless ways in which children are alike, are the ways in which each is different. A child must and will develop in his/her own unique way.

The school environment is carefully prepared with exclusive concern for the well being of young children and with the goal of fostering the joy of learning in each child.

Understanding teachers gently guide and evaluate each child’s own unique progress as a free human being. This is the essence of the Montessori philosophy as practiced at the Montessori Academy.