Is a Montessori preschool the right environment for your child?

Italian orphan children practicing every day life skills under Maria Montessori's model

The Montessori approach is often described as an “education for life.”  The environment is designed to facilitate the development of the child’s independence and sense of personal empowerment.  Children touch and manipulate everything in their environment.  In a sense the mind is hand made, because through movement and touch, the child explores, manipulates and builds up a storehouse of impressions about the physical world.

Child joyfully experiments with pink tower blocks

Children learn by doing, and this requires movement and spontaneous investigation.  The Montessori preschool allows children freedom to move about, working alone or with others at will.  They may select any activity and work as long as they wish.  Many activities are designed to draw the child’s attention to the sensory properties of objects within the environment: size, shape, color, texture, weight, smell, sound, etc., gradually learning to pay attention to small details in things around them and beginning to observe and appreciate the environment.  This is a key in helping a child discover how to learn.