Our day is scheduled to provide the children with group time, individual time, active time and quiet time. By encouraging them to choose their own activities and assuming responsibility for their own decision, we are helping them make positive choices and to follow through with those choices. By teaching them respect for other people and their environment, we are fostering good citizens and pleasant people to have in our homes and community. By enriching their lives through exposure to geography and shapes and tastes, etc. The four general areas of a Montessori classroom, Practical Life or Everyday Living, Sensorial, Math and Language interact to provide a child with a rich and rewarding preschool experience.
Many activities fall into more than one area and no area is complete without the others.
Young children are learning so much that any activity provides them with some new knowledge or reinforces something they have previously learned. Practical Life activities include water activities, food preparation, care of person, care of environment, etc. These activities encourage independence by helping the child to care for himself and his environment, to develop self control and to learn consideration for others. Pouring, scooping, carrying trays carefully, washing dishes, hanging up a jacket, learning to zip, bread cutting all strengthen a child's muscles, lengthen his attention span and give him independence. By identifying concepts of taste, size, shape, color, texture, etc., a new dimension is added to everything he sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels.