CHILDREN’S HOUSE

Students at Mariposa Montessori from three through six years of age enjoy the benefits of a three-year curriculum designed specifically for them. The Montessori early childhood classroom, or Children’s House, is an environment designed to meet the needs of the children. Children need real work to prepare them for real life. "Never do for a child what he can do for himself," Maria Montessori once stated.

The heart of the classroom and curriculum for the first year students is in the practical life and sensorial materials. In working with these materials, guided by the trained Montessori instructor, the students develop their motor skills, master sequential activities, and literally develop their brains through working with their senses. Social skills are important throughout the three years, and begin to blossom when the three-year olds learn what it means to be part of a community.

The second-year and third-year children build upon each previous year becoming leaders and mentors to the younger children. Children learn readily from one another, and the younger ones thrive under the tutelage of the five and six year olds. It is in the second and third years that the children are given more academic lessons.Montessori taught us to move from the concrete to the abstract. For example, we enrich the vocabulary of the young child before asking them to decode the symbols of written language. We allow the child to hold 1000 beads in their hands before understanding that a numeral represents a quantity.

Graduates of the Mariposa Montessori Children’s Houses go on to our elementary program with all the tools they need to succeed. Their confidence and self-reliance set them apart from other students. Their problem-solving skills and their integrity serve them well as they move forward in life. We invite you to schedule an observation in one of our children’s houses to see the Montessori philosophy in action.