“To assist a child is to provide him with an environment that will enable him to develop freely” - Maria Montessori
Ages 3 months to 3 years
Maximum class size: 13
1:4 teacher/student ratio
“The environment must be rich in motives that lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences” - Maria Montessori
Ages 2.5 to 6 years
Maximum class size: 24
1:12 teacher/student ratio
Ages 3 months to 2 years
Class Size: Maximum of 13 children
Adult/Child Ratio: 1:4
Monday through Thursday 8:15 am to 5:15 pm
Fridays 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Le Nido at Studio Montessori is a prepared environment for children ages 3 months to 2 years. The first three years of life are the most fundamental in the development of human beings and their potential. It is a period when the core of personality, social skills, and human values are developed. An understanding of the child's development allows Montessori environments to meet the needs of the infant and foster a sense of belonging and independence and English language acquisition enables children to feel able and capable.
The environment supports and nurtures children as they learn more about their world; it’s a place where children are respected for who they are and are given the freedom to explore their interests and develop at their own pace. The environment, filled with soft furnishings and cozy rugs, child-sized furniture, accessible shelving, and carefully prepared materials, is designed to encourage independence, movement, and serves as a calm and inviting space for babies to explore.
Our curriculum goals are that around the age of 2.5 years, the child has sufficiently developed language skills to express themselves, physically independent enough to dress, undress, and toilet independently, the psychological maturity to concentrate while working on an activity with several sequenced steps, control disruptive impulses, and respond with prosocial behaviors in most social situations. Specific curriculum elements include toilet learning, snack preparation, dressing and undressing, psychomotor development (gross and fine motor), artistic expression, song and music, language and literature, as well as social emotional skills development.
Ages 2 years to 5 years 9 months
Maximum Class size: 30 children
Adult/Child Ratio: 1:12
Monday thru Thursday 8:15am to 5:15pm
Fridays 9am to 4pm
Having created the foundations of their personality, children around the age of 2 or 2.5 years arrive in the Maternelle environment ready to develop and perfect their abilities. They learn best through real-life activities that support independence and self-efficacy; manipulation of objects to provide concrete sensorial experience; and open-ended exploration leading to the refinement of their movements, sensory perceptions, language and the development of their intellect. All members of this expanded community of 3 to 6-year-olds thrive through opportunities to follow their own interest, freely choose their own activities, develop their capacity for concentration, and engage at their own pace their emerging powers of reason, imagination, and sociability.
Materials and activities are designed to support self-directed discovery and learning, and so are a perfect match for this developmental stage. They are organized around Practical Life activities that develop both independence and social skills through self care and care of the environment; Sensorial activities that refine sensory perception; the development of Spoken Language, Writing and Reading skills in both French and English; and Mathematical activities that develop fundamental mathematical concepts; as well as activities that reflect upon our human understanding of geography, history, biology, science, music, and the arts. The trained adult guides the children along this journey, helping them become well-adapted individuals, ready to take a positive, prosocial place in their world.
