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Arcadia Montessori School provides Montessori education for children 18 months to 6 years of age.
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Maria Montessori, founder of the Montessori system, was born in Italy in 1870. In 1894 she received the first medical degree ever granted to a woman in her country. She became very interested in the educational processes of very young children and developed a method of training to acquire significant motor skills as well as skills in reading, writing and arithmetic.
It is our mission to create a safe, happy school for children to grow and learn as well as develop manners, respect and a life long love of learning.
Dr. Montessori believed that each child passes through certain periods which she referred to as "Sensitive Periods," in which he has intense interest in certain objects and experiences in his environment. It is in this period that a child most easily learns and acquires particular abilities.
She felt there were Sensitive periods for control of movement, refinement of the senses, order, numbers, reading and vocabulary development. All occur before the age of six. Once the Sensitive period had passed, the child could still learn, but not with the rapidity, ease and comprehension he has at the height of this natural curiosity.
It is this peak time in each individual child that should be utilized for the optimum growth and development "into the adult he is to become." Self-development, self-discipline, self-assurance and self-realization are the keynotes in the Montessori system.
The materials and content that Maria Montessori developed are divided into four main categories. PRACTICAL LIFE is designed to assist the child in developing neuromuscular coordination and independence. SENSORIAL EXERCISES are used in the program to assist in the refinement of the senses, preparation of the mathematical mind, and development of hand-eye coordination. DEVELOPMENT OF READING begins at the age of three with the Sandpaper Letters to teach consonant and short vowel sounds and continues through long vowel patterns and other phonetic rules. It includes a multitude of reading activities and experiences leading to independent readers at an early age. DEVELOPMENT OF MATH begins with number rods at age four and continues with all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) in the decimal system, mastering basic arithmetic facts, fractions, skip counting, square root, "checkerboard" (long) multiplication and beginning geometry. Arcadia Montessori follows these four basic patterns of growth. Also included in the course are introduction to history with the History Time Line and introduction to geography with geography forms and puzzle maps.
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