Early Learning Goals in the Montessori Classroom

The first six years of life are of paramount importance in terms of learning. During this period, children show remarkable abilities to learn almost effortlessly as they virtually “absorb” information from their environment. In an atmosphere which allows children to be children and doesn't push them into activities they are not developmentally ready for, children will preserve their natural desire for learning and be able to maximize their potentials, whatever they may be.

At Rose House Montessori we do not push children: we give each child time and many opportunities to learn how to do things without even realising that this is what they are doing. Such indirect preparation helps our children to achieve to their utmost potential in all areas of the curriculum when they are ready. Recognizing, sorting, and matching geometric shapes, for example, are all essential skills to sharpen the mathematical mind. If a child is practicing using tweezers, he is strengthening his writing fingers. Experience in Montessori schools all over the world shows, that it is not how early a child begins to write and read that is important, but how much he loves language and how thoroughly he grasps the skills that build up to literacy that truly matter.

Step by step each child will be introduced to hands-on activities which cover all the principles, themes and aspects of the Early Learning Goals set out by the Government Department of Education (DCFS, 2008) (please click on the Rose House icon to read more about each area):

• Personal,social and emotional development
• Communication, language and literacy
• Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
• Knowledge and understanding of the world
• Physical development
• Creative development

Natural desire for learning

Our teachers create a safe, caring, orderly and beautiful classroom which presents a wide range of inviting and interesting activities for each child. Our classroom is carefully prepared to cater for the individual needs of all the children as they pass through their different stages of development.

Through a managed combination of "freedom of choice" and "sensitively directed learning", the children are helped to gain independence as well as learning to be part of the community. As she notices an interest arise in a child, the teacher will carefully guide the child towards actvities which will fulfill the child's natural desire for learning.