Introduction to Montessori
Claire’s Montessori has worked with the Montessori Foundation to ensure that the Programs in the school follow authentic Montessori guidelines and practices.
The Montessori Foundation is an organization committed to the advancement of Montessori education around the world. In the video below, the Montessori foundation has been featured in an episode of the National Education Report, hosted by well-known commentator, Hugh Downs, for National Public television in the United States. The show briefly intrudes Montessori education and the work of the Montessori Foundation.
We are an International Montessori Council Member.
Maria Montessori | Founder of Montessori Method
In 1896, Dr. Maria Montessori became the first female physician in Italy. She would soon after shift her focus from her medicine practice to her desire to improve her understanding of the learning process of children
Shortly after the turn of the century, she founded Casa dei Bambini, or “Children’s House.” It was here that the now famous Montessori Method developed, based upon Montessori’s clinical observations of children and the ease at which they naturally learned by absorbing knowledge and manipulation of materials in their environment.
Montessori found that children have a profound ability to teach themselves, and dedicated her life-long work to the pursuit of educational reform and teacher training.
Dr. Maria Montessori believed that the years from 2½ to 6 are the most crucial in a child’s development. She recognized that young children possess a remarkable ability to absorb the world around them and referred to this ability as “The Absorbent Mind.”
Claire’s Montessori encourages this quality in children to foster physical, social and intellectual independence and to support children’s mastery of self and environment. The environment is rich and beautiful allowing children to choose activities in all areas of the curriculum while also developing a sense of responsibility to the entire community of children with which they share the classroom.
Claire’s Montessori features the following:
- A prepared classroom environment that fosters children’s discovery of learning.
- Individual and small group lessons that encourage children to trust in their ability to learn which results in a self-confident, independent learner.
- Students are consistently nurtured by their teachers, assistants and staff.
- Placing children in a multi-age setting where they usually work individually.
- Opportunities to work in small groups, thus fostering peer learning and mentoring.
