Toddler Program - 18 months to 3 years

The Montessori environment is NOT your typical preschool program. It is ideally designed to provide a home-like area with specially constructed and tested furniture, materials and activities for a busy, active, verbally developing toddler.

Our toddler guides and assistants are specifically trained to meet the needs of their students.  We are a facility that enjoys educating and allowing our assistants to become certified and lead future classrooms. We are a stepping stone for many assistants as they go off and teach in a local school district, lead a class of their own or simply enjoy their position as is.  We take great pride knowing our assistants have familiarized themselves with the Montessori curriculum and philosophy, methods of discipline, classroom management and instruction. 
​
​The teachers are specifically trained and mentored for this age group and the curriculum is constructed to anticipate and meet the sensitive periods of life. While providing a structured, familiar environment, the needs of individual children are met.  The structure of the curriculum is based on four developmental areas:

Sensory and Perception - Young children absorb the world through the five senses and a rich environment is prepared for the child to explore. Water, textures, sounds, etc. are explored through feeling, listening, pouring, and constructing. 

Physical and Motor - The movement area includes large motor activities such as platform climbing, tumbling, and materials for eye-hand coordination, dexterity, digging, pulling, constructing, etc.  Gross and fine motor skills develop rapidly at this age.  Areas are arranged where children use materials to aid the development of large muscles, balance, coordination, equilibrium and strength.  Another area has materials, which help children develop and refine small muscles and hand-eye coordination.  Toddlers use these skills to develop the pincer grasp, flexibility, dexterity, and visual discrimination.

Self-Help Skills - The Practical Life area includes materials necessary for real life activities and tasks familiar to children in the home.  These activities help them care for themselves and their room.  They wash tables, dust, sweep, mop, wash mirrors, wash clothes, hang clothes out to dry, fold and put away.  They also set the tables, serve the snack, and wash up afterwards. 

Language - This area includes not only books (poetry, fiction and non-fiction), but art and music activities.  The children have daily opportunities for stories, poems, rhymes, songs, and games. An appreciation of literature is fostered.  Toddlers are extremely sensitive to language development. The construction of vocabulary and sentence structure is part of every aspect of the classroom from snack to manipulating a piece of material to group activities. Specific language materials help the children increase and enrich their vocabularies.  Adults speak softly, clearly, and precisely, using correct grammar and sentence structures.

Cultural Program - Every November we celebrate Cultural Day where each classroom concentrates on one specific country.  During the month they learn new songs, vocabulary, projects, traditions and the culture of the country.  On our final day, before Fall Break, we invite all of the families out to have a cultural feast based upon the country they studied.  The families, students and staff have a great time hearing their children sing new songs, games and enjoying delicious foods.