Methods
Our program is designed to meet all the developmental needs of Our innovative, bilingual curriculum is merged from the teachings of Dr. Maria Montessori and those of Dr. Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. These two distinct methods of teaching are designed to meet all the developmental needs of young children and allow for an inclusive classroom setting which addresses the various areas of a child's development.
Montessori
Montessori is one of the fastest-growing and most popular forms of education used in North America today. It was founded in the early 1900's in Italy by Maria Montessori, a physician and educator who achieved worldwide recognition for her educational program centered around the child's inner desire to learn.
The basic idea of Montessori education is that unseen within every child is carrying the person the child will become. In order to develop his/her physical and intellectual powers and personality to the fullest, the child must have freedom…a freedom, with limits, achieved through order, which leads eventually to self-discipline. The world of the child is full of sights and sounds, which at first appear chaotic. From this chaos, the child gradually learns to create order and distinguish among the impressions that assail his senses, slowly but surely gaining mastery of himself and his environment.
Dr. Montessori developed teaching materials, each designed to give the child a new life experience and develop a specific educational concept. The method uses hands-on material that enables young children to develop attention span, concentration and hand and eye coordination while also learning language skills such as reading and writing along with math concepts, geography and science.
The Montessori Method aims to develop and refine the skills and the five senses of a child. The five areas of activity of the Montessori pedagogy are:
- Practical life activities (learning to tie shoes, dressing, cleaning, tidying, preparing snacks, set the table, etc.).
- Sensory activities (activities that appeal to the senses such as recognizing similarities and differences, and making decisions based on sensory characteristics).
- Mathematics
- Language activities
- Geography
- Botany
Dr. Montessori recognized that very young children go through periods of sensitivity in particular areas during which they learn more easily than at any other time in their lives. Between the ages of 2-6, children have an extraordinary capacity to learn from their surroundings. Dr. Montessori called this "the absorbent mind". At Maison Kinder, we honor "the absorbent mind" by giving children the type of environment they need to flourish!
| Intelligence | Examples | Discussion |
|---|---|---|
| Bodily-kinesthetic | Dancers, athletes, surgeons, crafts people | The ability to use one's physical body well. |
| Interpersonal | Sales people, teachers, clinicians, politicians, religious leaders | The ability to sense other's feelings and be in tune with others. |
| Linguistic | Poets, writers, orators, communicators | The ability to communicate well, perhaps both orally and in writing, perhaps in several languages. |
| Musical | Poets, writers, orators, communicators | The ability to learn, perform, and compose music. |
| Naturalistic | Biologists, naturalists | The ability to understand different species, recognize patterns in nature, classify natural objects. |