Montessori Casa Program
CWS provides a fully equipped Montessori Casa prepared environment, and an authentic Montessori program for students who are three through six years of age.
The Environment
Casa comes from the term Casa dei Bambini which means "Children’s House". This carefully prepared environment encompasses so much more than classroom work. It is a world scaled down to the child’s size and stage of development. The Casa is full of Montessori materials; scientifically thought-out and hands-on objects made especially for each of the curriculum areas. The areas are Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Math and Logic, Music and Movement, and Cultural, which include the visual arts. At the same time, the child is guided in an especially important area known as Grace & Courtesy that consists of lessons in manners, etiquette, cooperation, conflict resolution and leadership. The child also receives instruction in French daily and physical education weekly. The class size is small allowing ample individual attention.
Dr. Montessori recognized the need for the child to mix with other children and to extend his/her abilities within a prepared environment, where he/she can examine and explore his/her surroundings at his/her own pace. The different age levels benefit from the community atmosphere. They have the opportunity to lead and learn from others. The older child learns through teaching the younger child. The younger child is inspired to do more advanced work by having older children working in the same environment. The children help and encourage each other and model responsible behaviour. The children work toward self-creation, under the gentle guidance of the director.
Sensitive Periods
Dr. Montessori often used the term ‘sensitive period’ which she adopted from biologists working on animal instinct. In the child these are periods of intense fascination for learning a particular characteristic or skill. It is easier for the child to learn a particular skill during the corresponding sensitive period than any other time in his/her life. Once the sensitive period has passed, it will be much more difficult for the child to learn the skill.
Practical Life
The practical life exercises are designed to teach children life skills. Children are instinctively drawn to want to carry out the activities that they see adults performing, and Dr. Montessori saw that it would be possible for the child to do this in a specially prepared environment where he/she could do things for him/herself. In the prepared environment all the utensils, materials and furniture would be of the right proportions for your child, so that they could use them efficiently and effectively. By acquisition of new skills your child
develops dexterity, improves their hand-eye coordination and develops spatial awareness. Your child is free to work through their cycle of activity at their own pace without interruption. The movements are left to right, which trains the eyes for the left to right tracking of reading. The activities help your child in developing their independence, lengthening their span of concentration, show him/her how to care for their environment, and assist in developing their social awareness.
Sensorial
By nature, the child develops sensory and motor abilities. Materials perfectly keyed to the child’s sensitive periods can refine their sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell and movements, large and small. Through the beauty and ingeniously attractive sensorial materials and activities, the children use their minds and bodies in ways to prepare themselves for concentrated study in later years. The keys to learning – focus and concentration are built from very first lessons. Also in working with the materials, the children take things apart, put them back together, and think about what they do. This gives them practice in the highest thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. It leads to mature questioning, research and true creativity. Language is clarified and vocabulary is sharpened. The sensorial material is really a key to the world and is the basis for abstraction.
Language
Language has four main aspects: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In Montessori education reading is taught by the ‘phonetic’ method. ‘Phonetic’ means ‘by sound’ and our whole system of teaching reading is based on teaching the child the sounds made by each letter of the alphabet. This is done first of all by a piece of apparatus called ‘the sandpaper letters’. We later teach one sound for groups of two or more letters, that is, phonograms. From working with the sandpaper letters and other materials, the child learns to print and write, spell and read. By working with the language materials, the child develops an awareness of sentence structure and the many rules, and exceptions to rules, of the English language. The child increases his/her vocabulary and expands his/her ability to verbalize in all areas of the classroom.
Math and Logic
The Montessori apparatus for teaching the child concepts of math and logic is true to the principles underlying all the Montessori material. The child builds his/her knowledge on what he/she already knows, and systematic progress is made from the concrete towards the abstract. This is particularly important for the effective acquisition of an understanding of mathematical concepts. Traditional teaching methods tend only to teach how to manipulate numbers and formulae to arrive at correct answers in the abstract without ensuring that the child internalize the concepts and patterns that govern how numbers behave. As a result adults are often intimidated by work with numbers, and are stumped when faced with problems for which they cannot remember the solution they once learned by rote. Their capacity for thinking freely in a mathematical way has been severely limited by the inadequacies of their own mathematical education. By allowing the child to discover patterns and rules for him/herself through handling the apparatus, and progressing gradually from the manipulation of concrete objects to the symbolic representation of number on paper, Montessori education lays the foundation for a more comprehensive and perceptive awareness of the relevance of number in our environment and leads to a true enjoyment of math.
Cultural
Cultural subjects, in Montessori terms, are the areas of knowledge which enrich the child’s understanding of all aspects of the world he/she lives in, and under this heading are included the various branches of science, history and geography. As a result of the work done with both zoology and botany the child develops an affinity with the life forms that he/she encounters in his/her environment, and learns to treat them with the wonder and respect that will lead ultimately to a more complete understanding of the ecological balance of life on the planet as a whole. Geography is predominantly global, with particular emphasis on the continents. Children have a great interest in other children with different cultures from themselves. The presentation of history also reflects a global, planetary approach that constantly inter-relates with the other cultural subjects.
Health and Physical Education
Students participate in a variety of games and exercises to develop fundamental movement skills such as locomotion, manipulation and balance. The games and exercises are selected to develop confidence and skills in a co-operative rather than a competitive atmosphere. Sportsmanship is at the heart of this program. Students are introduced to nutrition, personal safety and growth and development.
French
French is presented in a fun and enthusiastic way to help the child develop a positive outlook on learning the language. The teacher provides an exciting and challenging program where the students learn through hands-on exercises, song and games, as well as a variety of activities. The children practice their skills during conversations with the directress and their friends throughout the day.
Music
Music is a natural and integral part of classroom life. The children learn through participating in activities in singing, movement, complex rhythms, listening and instrumentation. The orchestra and instruments are introduced. The children enjoy such pieces as Prokofiev’s "Peter and the Wolf " and Saint-Saens’ “The Carnival of the Animals.” The program is presented by a Montessori teacher with music training.
Visual Arts
Artwork and artistic appreciation in the environment encourage the child to view many aspects of the objective or real world around him/her. The child is given the opportunity to express him/herself and experiment with real tools and high quality materials. The child is introduced to artists and artistic styles through classroom materials and activities. The program is guided by a Montessori teacher who is also a visual artist.
Discipline and Freedom
It is not possible to implement a system of structured freedom without developing the discipline necessary to observe and respect the limits of freedom. Generally speaking, discipline is of two kinds: imposed on the individual from the outside, or imposed from oneself. The Montessori philosophy is directed towards developing in the child stability, self-confidence and self-awareness, which lead directly to the growth of self-control, self-discipline and self-respect. A self-disciplined, self-motivated, responsible child has very little need of a discipline imposed on him/her by others, and a child in whom these potentials are developed and enhanced will grow up to be a responsible adult and a valuable member of the community. It is a slow, cumulative process, and this is why the limits of freedom and the role of the teacher in defining these limits are much more apparent in the case of a
child of three than for a child, say, of six. By conveying the limits to freedom simply, gently, firmly and consistently to the three-year old, the teacher is paving the way for his/her development of independence. The peer group itself exerts an influence on the child. The children in the group generally observe the rules of friendship, the ‘give’ and ‘take’ attitudes and rules of cooperation while noting how to approach others, how to express care and affection and how to control aggressive behaviour.
