ACE Montessori Enriched Home Preschool, Cobourg
---- Where Independence and Character are Nurtured----
The Montessori Method
The Montessori Method, created and developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is unique to education.
The Method focuses on the development of the whole child-- their social, emotional, cognitive and physical development.
Unconscious to Conscious Child
Dr. Montessori believed that children were highly absorbent from birth to six years old. During this period, it was then essential to foster an environment that was prime for learning. The child, from birth to three years old, is an unconscious learner. The child is taking in all that is around him or her and those impressions will help to shape his or her view of the world. All these impressions, both positive and negative, are kept within their unconscious memory called the ‘mneme’.
As the child grows from three to six years old, the impressions that are stored within the mneme become more solidified and consolidated. Therefore, the child, from three to six, is in a conscious state and is driven to create him or herself in the environment. It is during this time of growth and development that the child is ready to take steps towards independence and follow his or her vital urges, the horme, and then later the will. This is called a ‘constructivist perfectionist’, where the child learns to perfect different skills during his or her sensitive periods.
The Sensitive Periods
The Sensitive Periods are short phases of time when a child is highly focussed on learning, repeating and mastering a specific skill before setting his or her sights on a new task.
The six Sensitive Periods are:
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Language,
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Order,
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Refinement of Senses,
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Small Objects,
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Movement
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Grace and Courtesy.
A Quote by Dr. Maria Montessori:
“ Within the child there is a unique potentiality for using these objects for his growth, since it is during the sensitive period that he makes his psychic adjustments like that of being able to adapt himself to his environment or to move about with ever increasing ease and precision.”
(Secret 42)
