Fund Classroom Tools and Equipment

Montessori Method is ruled by 5 basic concepts:

1. Child-Directed Work – What may at first seem overly ordered and disciplined for such tiny children, is actually the look and sound of children deciding the direction of their own steps. We want to fuel that inner flame that directs the child’s work towards joyful accomplishment, not douse it with an adult’s agenda of the day.
2. Structured Environment – Parents know that a well-timed distraction with toys or keys might save the family from a bored toddler’s noisy outburst in a crowded restaurant. In contrast, the classroom activities, while they are engaging and entertaining, are designed for instruction, not diversion. Thus there are rules to the game, ways of engaging with the classroom, the materials, and one another, that support the child already on the path from young explorer to engaged citizen.
3. Uninterrupted Work Periods – Put simply, a child on her own path needs her own time to follow it during “sensitive periods” when her excitement for that subject is at its fullest. In a Montessori classroom, you will see teacher/directors giving very specific instructions for proper use of the Montessori Materials. Everything in this “children’s world” is designed to present one challenge at-a-time to increase the child’s chances of making joyful discoveries.
4. Mixed-Age Classrooms – As with any good team, individual children lend their experience and expertise while naturally learning to question one another. As developing citizens, children learn both to ask and to answer questions, which helps both children along the personal path of discovery and creates an empowered atmosphere of community stewardship.
5. Properly Trained Teacher/Trainers – Echoing Maria Montessori, it takes a carefully trained adult to re-engage a disconnected child without upsetting the internal exploration already in progress. It takes careful observation, a conscious commitment to “follow the child” and the personality to establish a constructive – not just instructive – rapport with the children. As Montessori herself said, “Without a doubt, we have in the past been the unconscious opressors of this new human seed which bursts forth pure and charged with energy.”

Monte Vista Montessori is dedicated to encourage the love for learning through the this method.