Curriculum
At Allen Montessori Academy, we strive to provide a safe and loving environment for every child, along with a well-rounded Montessori education. As we prepare the child for the society of today, our world continues to change and we must too.
AMA not only offers an excellent Montessori education, we have carefully integrated circle time, books, music, art and yoga along with various experiences into a meaningful yearly theme. For example, as the school year starts, we focus on the child and his/hers immediate world and expand to give the child the greater picture of the universe and our solar system. Child should love what they are learning. Our curriculum enables us to go deeper into the subjects that
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Montessori Philosophy:
Children learn more by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, and exploring than just listening. Children teach themselves. A child's inner need: "Help me to do it by myself |
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children show a particular interest in. As we prepare the environment where the child can teach himself and develop self-discipline. The classroom becomes a small community or a "Children's House" where children share love and ownership of the environment and spontaneously take responsibility for its care. This instills the desire to learn.
"We learn from the children how to teach from the heart."
Teachers must love the time spent with children. Our Curriculum is a work of love, which evolves from years of classroom experience.
SOME OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MONTESSORI AND TRADITIONAL KINDERGARTENS
The goal of both Montessori and traditional kindergartens is the same: to provide learning experiences for the child. The biggest differences lie in the kind of learning experiences each school provides and the methods they use to accomplish this goal.
Montessori educators believe both differences are important because they help shape what a child learns, their work habits, and their future attitudes toward themselves.
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MONTESSORI |
TRADITIONAL |
- Emphasis on cognitive development
- Teacher-pupil ratio of 1 to 13
- Teachers have unobtrusive role in
Classroom.
- Many individual instructions
- Mixed age grouping
- Grouping encourages children to
teach and help each other.
- Child chooses own work
- Child discovers own concepts from
self-teaching materials
- Child works as long as they wish
on chosen project
- Child sets their own learning pace
- Child spots own errors from feed-
back of material
- Child reinforces own learning by
repetition of work and internal
feelings of success.
- Organized program for learning care
of self and environment (cleaning
surroundings, etc.)
- Child can work where he chooses,
move around and talk at will (yet not
disturb the work of others)
up to parents
work is voluntary.
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- Emphasis on social development
- Teacher-pupil ratio of about
1 to 23 controller of discipline
- Teacher is center of classroom as
Environment and method encourage
self-discipline
- Teacher acts as primary enforce
- Mainly group instruction
- Same age grouping
- Teacher does most teaching
- Curriculum is structured for child
- Child is guided by concepts of teacher
- Child generally allotted specific time for work
- Instruction pace usually set by group norm
- If work is corrected, errors are usually corrected by teacher
- Learning is reinforced externally by repetition, rewards and punishment
- Few material for sensory
development
- No organized program for
self care instruction, left primarily group
- Child usually assigned own chair required to participate, sit still and and listen during group lessons.
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