Children's Village Montessori (Preschool & Kindergarten- DuPont, WA)

Public Schools moved to all day Kindergarten, but parents still have a choice.

Children’s Village Montessori has a comprehensive and sophisticated kindergarten program.  Children learn about language arts, math, science, botany, zoology, geography, engineering, practical life, sensorial, music, art, theatre, cooking, sewing and gardening among other things.  

Why should I consider enrolling my child in Kindergarten at Children’s Village Montessori?

This student is practicing reading and writing consonant-vowel-consonant words using the moveable alphabet and picture cards. The moveable alphabet is a wooden box divided into components containing the lower case letters of the alphabet. It is truly a ‘moveable’ alphabet as children are able to move the letters around to build words.

Every year thousands of parents whose children are about to move up to kindergarten face a common dilemma: Do they enroll their child in a Montessori program or do they send their child to a more traditional kindergarten program? Although there are plenty of issues that factor into this important decision, most Montessori administrators, educators, and parents will agree that perhaps the most compelling factor for most parents has to do with basic economics. Simply put, their child can attend a local public school all-day kindergarten program for free.

Although each family must make this decision on their own, we offer a number of thoughts which should be considered when deciding where to send your child for their kindergarten year:

1. If your child is in a well-balanced program (socially, emotionally and academically), they don’t need an all-day program and studies show they will benefit from more free play outside of school hours.
2. The Primary Montessori curriculum is much more sophisticated than that found in most kindergartens.
3. Montessori math is based on the European tradition of unified mathematics. Montessori introduces young children to basic geometry and other sophisticated concepts as early as kindergarten.
4. In many Montessori schools, five year olds are beginning to read the Junior Great Books; kindergartners in other schools may be learning to recognize letters and numbers.
5. Even in kindergarten, Montessori children are studying cultural geography and beginning to grow into global citizens.
6. In Montessori, five year olds work with intriguing learning materials, like the Trinomial Cube.
7. With the Land and Water Forms, he’ll learn about lakes, islands, isthmuses, straits, capes, archipelagos, peninsulas, and other geological forms.
8. In art, she’ll learn about Picasso and Renoir.
9. The kindergarten year, is the time when many of the earlier lessons come together and become permanent part of the young child’s understanding. An excellent example is the early introduction to addition with large numbers through the Bank Game. When children leave Montessori at age five, many of the still forming concepts evaporate, just as a child living overseas will learn to speak two languages, but may quickly lose the second language if his family moves back home.
10. As five year olds, Montessori children normally go on to still more fascinating lessons and more advanced Montessori materials, such as the Stamp game (a math work that reaches a higher intellectual level).
11. The Montessori curriculum is carefully structured and integrated to demonstrate the connections among the different subject areas. Every class teaches critical thinking, composition, and research. History lessons link architecture, the arts, and science.
12. In Montessori schools, learning is not focused on rote drill and memorization. Our goal is to develop students who really understand their schoolwork.
13. Montessori students learn through hands-on experience, investigation, and research. They become actively engaged in their studies, rather than passively waiting to be spoon-fed.
14. Montessori is consciously designed to recognize and address different learning styles, helping students learn to study most effectively.
15. Montessori challenges and set high expectations for all students.
16. If your child goes on to another school, he will spend the first half of the year just getting used to the new educational approach.
17. In Montessori, your child can continue to progress at her own pace. 
18. Your child has waited for a long time to be one of the leaders of her class. The kindergartners are looked up to as role models for the younger students, and most children eagerly await their opportunity to play this role.
19. As a kindergartener, your child has many opportunities to teach the younger children lessons that he learned when he was their age. Research proves that this experience has powerful benefits for both tutor and tutoree.
20. Kindergarteners have a real sense of running their classroom community.
21. Students develop self-discipline and an internal sense of purpose and motivation.
22. Students learn to care about others through community service in the classroom environment.
23. Students in Montessori schools are not afraid of making mistakes because they have learned how to self-correct; they see them as natural steps in the learning process.
24. Students learn to collaborate and work together in learning and on major projects. They strive for their personal best.
25. Having spent one or two years together, your child’s teachers know her very, very well. They can address her strengths and areas that are presenting challenges in a safe, supportive classroom setting.
26. In Montessori, your child has been treated with a deep respect as a unique individual. The school has been equally concerned for his intellectual, social, and emotional development, which is often not possible in the traditional classroom.
27. Montessori schools are warm and supportive communities of students, teachers, and parents. Children can’t easily slip through the cracks because the teachers are following each child’s individual academic and social-emotional growth.
28. Montessori consciously teaches children to be kind and peaceful.

Now project your child into the future and ask yourself how the Montessori classroom might help shape your child to become the teenager, and later the adult, you envisioned for your child’s future.

Information consolidated from the Montessori Foundation and other sources.

Other Helpful Links

Montessori Builds Inovators (Harvard Business Review)

Does it work? What research says about Montessori and Student Outcomes.