Curriculum for Children's House

The 3-6 year old level

"Children's House" is the special Montessori term for 3-6 year old classes because the carefully prepared environment for these children includes so much more than just class work. It is, in fact, a small version of the world, a world scaled down to the child's age and ability level. Work in the Children's House includes everything from nose-blowing lessons to multiplication…buttoning to the meaning of the word "verb" …dishwashing to square dancing…singing to yoga.

The Children's House is full of special Montessori materials: scientifically thought-out and hands-on objects made especially for each of the curriculum areas. The "Directress" (which is the special Montessori term for 'teacher'), carefully and thoughtfully gives the children lessons and in the use of the materials. She also models exceptional behavior and guides the children throughout their school day. But the children don't just learn what's in the lessons. They are encouraged to explore subjects widely, pursuing work deeply in the areas that catch their interest.

By nature, children from the ages of 3 to 6 are hard at work developing their sensory and motor abilities. The Montessori materials are perfectly keyed to these needs. They provide more than a hundred ways in which children can refine their sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell and movements, large and small. All this is done at the same time as children are learning about reading, mathematics, geography, history and science, as well as the arts. Through the beauty of the ingeniously attractive materials and activities, the children use their minds and bodies in ways which prepare them for more concentrated study in later years. The keys to learning - focus and concentration - are built from the very first lessons.

For instance, an early lesson on pouring rice with small glass pitchers is not just a fine motor activity, but also pre-reading preparation. It trains the eyes in left to right tracking, and the body in careful movement. Unorganized movement causes the child to drop and break items, letting the child know how to move to succeed the next time. Concrete skills, self-mastery and self-direction are built as well.

Also, in working with the materials, the children take things apart, put them back together, and think about what they do. This gives them practice in the highest thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. It leads to mature questioning, research and true creativity when they put things back together in new ways. The youngest children in the environment catch the enthusiasm of the older ones as they make their discoveries and reach toward the more sophisticated materials, all the while enjoying their own pursuits and "games."

The fact that the Montessori materials are laid out on the shelves according to their difficulty from left to right, allows each child to track his or her progress in terms of what shelves have been mastered. This is a clear and simple way for the children to know "what is next," as well as for the directress to follow what the child has mastered. Children demonstrate their mastery of a curriculum area by how they use the materials. They become models for other children "because they are experts." All these features of the Montessori materials and curriculum layout help develop self-direction and self-monitoring, important work habits for future success.

Likewise, the organization of the materials helps reveal the wonder of having the older ones together with the younger. The children actually begin to track each other's progress. They help and encourage each other by giving lessons and modeling responsible behavior. All three age levels benefit from the community atmosphere, strong curriculum expectations and values of the Children's House.

The "prepared environment" offers the child work in Practical Life, Sensorial Exploration, Mathematics, Science, Geography, Writing, Art, Movement, Dramatics, and Music. At the same time, the child is guided in an especially important area known as "Grace and Courtesy" which consists of lessons in manners, leadership, and concrete methods of cooperation.

Each child interacts with the curriculum areas according to his or her comfort and challenge level, progressing at his or her own rate. And all of this is laid on a foundation that begins the first day of school at age 3.

Outwardly, the Children's House Kindergarten level is distinguished only by the lengthened work period, called "Extended Day," i.e. a full school day from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM. But inwardly, pride, skill, mastery and self-direction become a substantial part of the student's experience of school. Reading takes shape into "research," Math evolves into math facts, money games, calculator use, and recording the cubing and squaring works. In Geography, the child develops familiarity with the physical and cultural attributes of every continent on the earth, while in Science, he or she progresses to the study of zoology, botany, and the physical sciences.

Similar to the old-fashioned "one room schoolhouse," the children learn from each other, support each other and work toward self-creation, under the gentle, guidance of the Directress. To symbolize this, we use a triangle with each angle representing one of the following: the Student, the Directress, and the Environment. Each side of the triangle is just as important as the other two, and lends toward a stable, democratic, environment that is authoritative rather than authoritarian. This is the very stuff of getting along in society itself.