Early Childhood
The early childhood program at Green Hedges School adheres to the Montessori philosophy of education. Montessori is a three-year program, with children entering school after their third birthday and continuing through their fifth year of age. Children can enter at age four and five successfully, depending on their ability to interact positively with others, their degree of self-control, their listening skills, and their willingness to learn.
As a three-year-old student, the child, through carefully prepared lessons, develops the necessary order and life skills to enable him or her to demonstrate independence in the care of self and of the environment. During this time, language skills continue to develop rapidly, with children demonstrating increased vocabulary and more complex sentence structure. Letter sounds are gradually and sequentially introduced. Rote counting and numeral recognition are also introduced. Fine and gross motor skills develop throughout the child’s Montessori experience. At the same time the child’s senses—seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling—are developed and refined. Through the completion of a variety of puzzle maps, the child develops visual perception as well as a sense of geography.
As a four-year old in the Montessori environment the child continues to expand and study in more depth all areas of the curriculum. Through the use of the language materials a sound foundation in the phonetic alphabet is developed. This foundation enables most children, at five years of age, to embark on the road to reading naturally. The child recognizes and sequences numerals, usually to twenty and generally far beyond.
The Full Day Montessori child expands upon the previously learned material, adding the ability to decode phonetic words, develop a sight vocabulary, and read sentences and short stories. The language curriculum includes contractions, end punctuation and parts of speech—the noun and verb. Math is explored more deeply. Through the didactic math materials, the child completes addition, multiplication, subtraction, and some division problems. The child is also introduced to the analog clock.
The Full Day and Half Day Montessori children experience French, music, physical education, and library class on a weekly basis. They also have the opportunity for creative expression as they complete a variety of art lessons.
Throughout the Montessori years, the child is developing the social skills necessary to interact in a positive manner with adults and peers. The child learns to follow directions and continues to develop the self-control, order, concentration, and independence necessary to become a lifetime learner. These skills come together during the child’s third year of Montessori enabling him or her to enter the first grade well grounded in all areas of the curriculum with the self-esteem and self-confidence to undertake most any academic challenge.
