The importance of early childhood education is beyond question. From birth, children instinctively reach out and explore the world around them using all five senses. In the early 1900’s Dr. Maria Montessori, Italy’s first female physician, founded her method of education on this understanding of how children learn and created an intriguing set of mostly sensorial materials that are still used in Montessori classrooms today.
Montessori is designed to take advantage of children’s sensitive years, between birth and 6 years of age, when they can almost effortlessly absorb information from an enriched environment. The Montessori approach is child centred, but adult and teacher guided. Children learn at their own, individual pace and according to their own choice of activities under the guidance of qualified Montessori teachers.
There are four main areas in the pre-school program: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language and Mathematics. Considerable emphasis is also placed on Creative Arts, Music, Science, Geography and Cultural Studies. Classes are arranged in three-year age groups, forming ‘families’ in which the older children spontaneously share their knowledge with the younger ones. The main purpose of a Montessori Education is to help every child develop essential skills already within them and to ensure inert talents are nurtured in order to achieve his or her full potential.