Maria Montessori Center
Classes
Learn about some of the educational offerings we have available for your child.
Preschool/Extended Day Kindergarten
The Maria Montessori Center preschool/kindergarten has a well-balanced program designed to assist a child's growth into a healthy, intelligent and very interesting person. Each child learns at an individual pace. Lessons and activities are presented in large and small groups or in an individual setting. The Montessori philosophy also respects children teaching one another and learning from them.
Multi-age and multi-grade classes allow younger children to grow at an individual pace, not according to a group's pace. Classrooms contain both preschool and kindergarten children (ages 2 1/2 to 6), thereby enhancing the opportunity for older children to re-enforce their own skills and knowledge by teaching younger children.
The core curriculum is a fine balance between freedom of movement, choice and responsible activity. Each subject is interwoven into the other subjects with emphasis on the positive, social, emotional, physical and academic growth of a child.
Attractive child-size materials, neatly arranged on shelves and ready for work, assist the child to concentrate, grow in confidence, become more responsible for her/his own activities, and achieve a more mature level of independence with regard to learning.
The preschool curriculum falls into three main categories: 1) Practical Use Activities. 2) The Sensorial Materials. 3) The Academic and Cultural Materials. The total of these includes the exercises of daily life, arts and crafts, education of the senses, vocabulary enrichment, writing, reading, grammar and work study, total reading via sentence analysis, counting, the four arithmetical operations, geometry, botany, zoology, geography, the physical sciences, music, poetry, folk dancing, and exercising. Manners, grace and courtesy lessons infiltrate every aspect of the daily classes.
Children become easily attached to a comfortable center outside the home environment especially if it is attractive, safe, friendly, and stimulating. The Montessori environment serves as a bridge between the family life and the child's cultural society. It is the child's first society while she/he grasps onto many of the essentials of the home.
The child who first enters the Montessori environment already carries within a briefly tested, unsophisticated, yet experientially valid set of social rules, ideas, beliefs, games, vocabulary, numbers, scientific principles, and so forth. The years between 2 1/2 and 6 can be devoted to the constructive ‘civilization' of the child -- freeing her/him through the acquisition of good manners and habits to establish an identity in the cultural milieu. Every child possesses the seeds of development that will enable her/him to fully realize much of the potential she/he can become. The Maria Montessori Center, believing that children can learn at an early age, assists both the child and parents in this enriching and exciting activity.
Extended Day Kindergarten Program
This program is for the child who has been enrolled for two years in the first part of the cycle. With a foundation that has already been constructed and cultivated by the child herself/himself, the child is now, during the course of a full day, able to work on longer projects, expand and lengthen the powers of concentration, stretch her/his potential academic abilities, enjoy the companionship of old friends, and benefit from the fruits of previously learned skills by advancing with greater ease, pleasure and pride.
The administrator must approve each child's enrollment in the extended day kindergarten program in writing. This is a program meant for children who are physically, emotionally, socially and academically capable of handling the longer hours and the special learning.
Elementary (6-12 Years)
The elementary Montessori curriculum is founded on the fact that nearly all the children enter from the Montessori kindergarten full-day program. Each child continues to learn at an individual pace. One-on-one, small and large group presentations and individually guided research are the usual teaching methods. In the Montessori classroom, children teaching children is a common occurrence because they can learn from one another and deepen their own knowledge. Homework is given on a specific need and skill basis.
The elementary curriculum includes research skills, writing, reading, grammar study, art, music, Carl Orff Shulwerk, mathematics, geometry, algebra, botany, zoology, chemistry, the physical sciences, geography, history, and grace and courtesy lessons. Core subjects are tested in the springtime. There are two mandatory parent teacher conferences and an annual student report card for each academic year. Subjects are non-graded.
Since the classrooms are composed of multi-age and multi-grade units, the younger children can grow at a faster pace by being included in higher-level presentations. Simultaneously, older children re-enforce their knowledge by teaching and guiding the younger children. The groups of children contain either Grades One through Three or Grades Four through Six.
The elementary school emphasizes the academic, emotional and social development of the child. While children learn job responsibility and the limits of freedom best in the natural family setting of the home, the school supports and expands on these essential needs of children within the classroom and the daily student world.
Maria Montessori Center
32450 W. Thirteen Mile Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
248-851-9695
