Based on her studies of the children's learning, Dr. Montessori noted that most children do not learn from memorizing what they hear from their teachers or read in a book, but from concrete experience and direct interaction with their environment. Montessori materials are designed to facilitate concrete learning in every area of the curriculum. Curriculum The Montessori curriculum in organized into a mosaic of integrated studies, in contrast with the traditional model in which the curriculum is compartmentalized into separate subjects which are tested discreetly. Our course of study implements a thematic approach that ties the various disciplines of the curriculum together into studies of the physical universe, the natural world and human experience. Never again will the human mind so effortlessly take in what surrounds it.
Most work is self-correcting, inviting repetition.
Three focal points are care of self, care of the environment, and care of others. The children enjoy freedom within well-defined limits. Maria Montessori's view on the learning child sees not so much the task of filling the mind with information, but rather of construction of the mind through activity according to inner directives and urges. At age 3-6, in the Montessori classroom, concrete movement and physical interaction with objects are still building abstract mental processes. Computers offer a level of abstraction that is of little use to these children.