"Practical life skills are of great interest to young children."
Children love the manipulative materials and explore many varied activities. These range from practical life and social-emotional skills to phonetic spelling and learning the decimal system. Full day and half-day programs are available.
Children’s House offers program options for children ages 3-6 (preschool through kindergarten):
Morning (8:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.)
Full Day (8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.)
Both 3 day and 5 day programs are available. Before-school care starting at 7:30 a.m. and after-school care continuing until 5:00 p.m. is available to enrolled students.
Our program provides your child with the foundation for a life of creative learning. Children develop and refine a sense of order by engaging in activities ranging from sorting to phonetic spelling to simple mathematical operations.The day begins with line time, an opportunity for children to sing together or do large muscle movement exercises. This also is a time for sharing news or watching presentations of new materials. After line time, children have “work time,” engaging in activities on their own or in small groups.
After work time, the children have playtime outside – in all kinds of weather. We believe the fresh air and sunshine is vital; they just need to be dressed for it! After play time, the children come back to line to end their morning as a large group. We say goodbye to those that go home and begin preparation for lunch as a group – an activity which includes clean-up done by the children themselves as part of their “practical living” education.
After lunch, it’s time for a story and a nap for children ages 3-4. Children over three who no longer nap enjoy the story and 30 minutes of “quiet time,” before joining the older children and continue their work from the morning.
Children ages 5-6 do not nap. They stay with the group for story time, followed by a 30 minute “quiet time.” They then begin their “extended day,” which allows for increased breadth and depth in the children’s exploration of the curriculum. This is the time of day reserved for advanced math, reading, geography, natural science and special projects, and introduces the use of more advanced materials as the year continues. Emphasis is also placed on the recording of learned information, so children spend lots of time writing and drawing. Children continue these works for the afternoon, stopping at 3:00 to get ready to go home.
We believe that full-day Montessori education at the kindergarten level (age 5-6) is an important culmination of the mental and intellectual tasks the child has begun in Children’s House. In this final year of Children’s House, the Extended Day program provides an opportunity to solidify your child’s experiences, and lays the groundwork for what is yet to come in Montessori elementary.