Dr. Maria Montessori, Italy’s first female physician, developed her philosophy of child growth through careful observation of children. Through the years she experimented with different teaching material and educational methods. Using the child as her text book she, set about developing her own philosophies and educational equipment.

In 1906 she founded a children’s school in Rome and the educational system she developed there spread throughout the world. Dr .Montessori believed that from birth to the age of six years the child has an “absorbent mind” that endows him/her with a great capacity for disciplined work and a voracious appetite for learning.

Dr. Montessori proved that the years from three through six are a particularly “sensitive” period, and if the school promotes these “sensitive” periods the child’s mind will develop from within. Many of these sensitive desires completely disappear by the time the child reaches the traditional school age of six.

The Learning Environment & The Child
In the Montessori classroom the child progresses individually in classes that span a three year range. The principal role of the Montessori teacher is that of "facilitator", exploring each child's interests and level of understanding and promoting his own inquisitiveness and natural desire to learn and grow. Independence, self-reliance and positive self-esteem are natural outgrowths of this kind of learning environment.

There are four major areas of work in a Montessori classroom:

1. PRACTICAL LIFE

These activities help to develop small-motor skills, encourage a sense of orderliness, increase attention span, and promote independence and self-confidence. The exercises, which focus on the child's learning to care for his/herself and his environment, also promote good manners and an awareness of the larger social environment of the classroom.

2. SENSORIAL

These activities involve classifying and organizing along sensory dimensions such as size, shape, color and senses. Manipulating these "didactic" materials helps the child to develop thinking and reasoning skills as well as a comprehension of language and math abstractions.

3. MATH

The manipulation of concrete materials helps the youngster to "see" the logic of our mathematical system and to develop computation skills utilizing a multi-sensory approach. Introducing mathematical concepts in a progressive fashion, with numerous opportunities for practice and reinforcement, helps the young student to learn about numbers in a way which parallels the child's own maturational capabilities.

4. LANGUAGE

Through the use of sandpaper letters and metal insets, the child gradually works his way towards what Dr. Montessori called the "explosion into writing." In a Montessori environment, writing, or the construction of words with moveable letters, nearly always precedes reading. Language is taught phonetically, enabling the child to "unlock the code" and to sound-out new words. The individual presentation of language materials in a Montessori classroom allows the teacher to take advantage of each child's greatest period of interest and the youngster to move at an individual pace.