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  • Choosing Montessori for Kindergarten

    • February 4, 2017
    • Posted By : Montessori School of Silicon Valley Staff
    • 0 Comment

    Montessori Kindergarten: The value of the 3rd year Montessori Classroom

    Your family has been in a Montessori school for some time now.  Your child loves her teachers, the school is warm, friendly – everyone feels secure and at home.

    The Montessori school is purposely designed to provide this experience.

    Given that many children spend as much time in our classrooms as they do at home, this is so important.

    …for Kindergarten?

    Before you know it, your little one is turning 5 and the time has come to start thinking about “school” – without the “pre-“.

    You are now faced with an important decision regarding the next path on your child’s educational journey.

    “We have to leave at some point, isn’t Kindergarten a good time for transition?”

    Kindergarten is a very special time for the Montessori child.

    As a 3rd year Montessori student, children have had the benefit of of two years in the Montessori classroom.  Their teachers know them well and will understand the child’s emotional development and learning style.

    These teachers will have created a strong bond with your now 5-year old.

    Montessori Kindergarten brings it all together

    There is so much that comes together across all the core areas of learning in the last year a Montessori child is in the Primary classroom.

    Since their 1st year in the classroom, the Montessori child looks up to the older kids.  Kindergarten kids are their heroes, who knew everything, who took care of them, who did the big wonderful exciting work.

    And now, your 5 year old has a turn to be the leader to the younger kids, accelerating his/her own development by assisting the and being a role model to the younger children.

    There truly is magic in Montessori Kindergarten experience!

     “It is in this third year . . . 
      there will be an explosion of learning”
                                   -Dr. Maria Montessori

     

    The 3rd year Montessori student

    Once they begin Montessori Kindergarten, your 5 year-old has been and will continue to develop critical skills in all areas of learning:

    • Repetition with the materials has led to perfection of skills
    • Completion of cycle using large hands on materials to desk-top writing and math booklets
    • Developed ability to concentrate and focus on jobs for extended periods
    • Practiced patience when working with materials
    • Able to follow a lengthy sequence and complete cycle of challenging work
    • Gained problem solving skills from resolving situations independent of adult intervention
    • Learned to make positive independent choices
    • Understand the value of constructive, purposeful work

    Because the work is individualized, there is no competition, teasing or bullying.

    Everyone is, has always been doing exactly what work is right for them

    Character Development in the Montessori Kindergarten Community

    While the acceleration in academic development is of course a great benefit of the third year of the Montessori Primary cycle, consider that in addition your 5 year-old will acquire many positive traits that will be of life long benefit including leadership, social, and problem solving skills.

    “What matters most in a child’s development … is not how much information we can stuff into her brain in the first few years of life. What matters, instead, is whether we are able to help her develop a very different set of qualities, a list that includes persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence. Economists refer to these as noncognitive skills, psychologists call them personality traits, and the rest of us often think of them as character.”

    Wall Street Journal, Essay by Paul Tough, Sept 7th, 2012

    Wrapping it up

    Hopefully this post helps you as you consider Montessori Kindergarten for your child!

    Watch for next week’s blog where we will further examine the experience of a 5 year-old as the leader of – and the benefit to all of the students in – a Montessori Primary Classroom.

    Until next time,

    -Colleen
    “Children First, Always.”