Preschool & Kindergarten Program
A Love for Learning (3 – 6 years)
“The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when man’s intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed.”
— Dr. Maria Montessori
Preschool matters—not just a little, but in a life-changing way. Montessori education has helped children flourish for over 100 years. Today, authentic Montessori schools like Paché guide students to grow into caring, considerate and graceful members of society with a lifelong love of learning. The Montessori Primary program is built upon three pillars - the student, the teacher, and the environment - as an aid to life during the period of development when a child transitions from unconsciously absorbing their environment to becoming conscious absorbers.
The Prepared Environment
We call our Primary program, Children’s House, as it is an environment built for the children and it is theirs to care for. It is a sacred space designed with their growing needs carefully accounted for with a variety of learning materials built to refine the senses, develop a concrete understanding of abstract academic lessons like arithmetic and language, while also aiding the child’s journey to independence through built-in control of error. By feeling secure, safe and confident in their Children’s House, students are able to explore and learn at their own pace and on their own terms - a radical difference from a traditional preschool environment where students are all expected to do the same things at the same time.
"So the first thing his education demands is the provision of an environment in which he can develop the powers given to him by nature. This does not mean just to amuse him and let him do as he likes. But it does mean that we have to adjust our minds to doing a work of collaboration with nature, to being obedient to one of her laws, the law which decrees that development comes from environmental experience."
-Dr. Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind
Children’s House welcomes students from two-and-a-half to six years old, which includes their Kindergarten year, together in one classroom community. This mixed-age cohort guides and learns from each other through observing others working or receiving a lesson, helping or teaching one another with something they themselves have already mastered. This approach encourages community, collaboration, leadership, empathy and so many other important virtues that are carried throughout one’s life.
Classroom Guides (Teachers)
"She must acquire moral alertness which has not hitherto been demanded by any other system, and this is revealed in her tranquility, patience, charity, and humility. Not words, but virtues, are her main qualifications."
-Dr. Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child
Providing thoughtful, individual guidance to each child, our teachers are referred to as Montessori Guides. Paché’s group of passionate educators have completed an accredited Montessori training program, participate in ongoing professional development workshops, attend the annual Montessori refresher course and have Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees in education. Each classroom has a Lead and Associate Guide who work together to role-model, observe and connect the child to the environment so learning happens organically and spontaneously rather than handed from adult to child.
The classroom team of educators observes each student closely to truly get to know their needs, desires, and true self. Through these constant observations a guide is able to introduce a child to the right material or work at the right time - carefully chosen to not be too easy nor too difficult.
Within the Children’s House environment, the guide’s purpose is an aid to life, respecting the independence of every child. Dr. Montessori said it simply from the perspective of a child, “..everything you do for me, you take away from me”. At this age, children’s brains are forming neurological pathways during every single interaction and experience. To intervene and remove the child’s opportunity for self-construction literally inhibits the brain’s ability to form the building blocks of human development.
“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist.”
― Dr. Maria Montessori
The Primary Child
Children are immensely capable beings who deserve dignity, respect, and trust. With the environment carefully and purposefully prepared to serve their needs and guides who nurture and aid their development, children joyfully engage in self-directed learning with the guides’ loving support. Equipped with trust and autonomy, children build a true sense of self while understanding their place in society. It is the child who constructs themselves at the center of learning and growing.
“Scientific observation then has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment.”
― Dr. Maria Montessori, Education For A New World
We invite you and your family to join us during an upcoming event or group tour to learn more about our Children’s House community and school. We look forward to getting to know your family!
