The joy of learning is evident to all parents; there is always jubilation over a child's first spoken word.

The Montessori preschool classroom emphasizes spoken language as the foundation for all linguistic expression. Throughout the entire Montessori environment, the child:

• Hears and uses precise vocabulary for all the activities.
• Is encouraged to converse with peers and staff.
• Is taught to read phonetically as the child is ready.

The concrete materials, from the sandpaper letters to the beginning of sentence analysis, allow the child to take small, logical, sequential steps to independent, fluent reading. Language work leads into cultural subjects, extending the child's vocabulary and working with the child’s fascination of his or her environment.

The arts are not treated as specialty subjects in Montessori. Instead, art and music activities are viewed as:

• Integral forms of self-expression
• Complementary enhancements to the children’s ongoing explorations
• Vocabulary enrichments.

The materials for art and music are integrated into the prepared environment as part of the day-to-day activities of the children.

As every parent knows, the preschool child wants to be with adults, to take part in the activities of daily adult life. The Montessori Practical Life materials allow him to do just that. When a child enters the preschool at three years of age, the Practical Life area provides the link between home and school.

In the classroom, with child-sized tools that actually work, a young child is able to perform the same activities he has seen adults do:

• Polishing
• Scrubbing
• Pouring
• Sweeping
• (and many others)

The pace is unhurried, and an adult is nearby to help if needed, but not to interfere.

These exercises correspond to a child's sensitive period for refinement of movement and coordination as well as his/her growing sense of independence. "I can do it myself" is the motto the young child, and Montessori encourages and fosters this independence.

The world is color, size, dimension, shape, form, sound, touch, taste, and smell. In order to continue her creative task of development, a child needs to satisfy and express the impressions she has already received.

The Sensorial Montessori materials are specifically designed to use the child's senses to:

• Clarify, classify, and comprehend the world
• Teach multi-sensually
• Educate the senses

By appealing directly to the young child's active sensory antennae, learning is a natural result of the child's desire to explore.

The vibrant conversations in the classroom lead to the formal teaching of reading. Reading is taught phonetically, following the natural sequence of oral language acquisition. The child progresses from spelling words to constructing sentences.

The formal structured reading curriculum is supported by:

• Storytelling
• Poetry
• Reading
• Singing

A joy and desire to understand the written word is thus fostered.

Preschool-aged children have naturally mathematical minds. They have the capacity to reason, to calculate, and to estimate. They are intensely conscious of quantity, counting pebbles on the beach or cookies for dessert.

The concrete Montessori Mathematical materials allow these sensorial explorers to begin their mathematical journey from the concrete to the abstract through:

• Manipulation
• Experimentation
• Invention

The Mathematics materials build on each other in increasing complexity so that the child using them will experience the thrill of discovery for himself or herself as part of a natural progression.

The work of classification and language are extended in the Cultural area. Materials are available to enable scientific exploration of:

• Biology
• Geography
• History
• Physical/Earth Science

We have a "cosmic" approach which allows maps, flags, booklets, and models of land and water formation to be used by the children to explore the world’s continents, oceans, peoples, and customs, thus leading to an appreciation of the human family with its rich variety.

Preschool-aged children have curious minds. They yearn to understand how the world around them works.

The Montessori science curriculum allows these young scholars to begin their scienctific journey from biology to chemistry through:

• Animal grouping
• Weather
• Human body
• Parts of a plant
• Nutrition
• Space and solar systems
• Rocks/minerals
• Simple experiments

The science curriculum builds on each other in increasing complexity so that the child using them will experience the thrill of discovery for themselves.