Child Care Lutwyche

What is Montessori?

Montessori is a nurturing process of educating children. Dr. Maria Montessori believed that a child learns best within a social environment that encourages individuality.

The child in a Montessori class is allowed to develop at their own pace intellectually. What is made available to the child are the keys and a road map to the exploration of the world. The child is shown a basic concept and is guided to build on that idea. Arranging groups of objects from left to right, top to bottom, large to small, concrete to abstract, forms a pattern that children carry over naturally to reading, writing, and calculating. These are not haphazard events; each skill is developed to interlock with another. The child learns each segment at their own pace, and moves on to the next as each one is mastered.

In response to the often asked question: Is this a classroom where children do anything they like? The child responded--

"I don't know if we do as we like, but I know that we like what we do."
Maria Montessori, "The Secret of Childhood"

Our program closely follows the principles of Dr. Montessori, keeping in mind that her original idea was that school is an extension of the home in preparation for life. It has worked in every culture throughout the world, with children from every level of intellectual ability and economic background.

We provide an extensive all-day Montessori program that answers many problems of today. The children are taught everyday tasks of dressing, cleaning, and other purposeful activities. They are shown the logic of the activities so they can relate existing knowledge to new situations, and, in this way, the children learn to learn. The environment is one of well-designed teaching tools and materials. An agenda, prepared in advance, establishing a solid teaching philosophy that knows where it is going.

Some famous people who attended Montessori school as children are:

Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google
Sergey Brin, Co-Founder of Google
Peter Drucker, Management Guru
Prince William and Prince Harry, English Royal Family
George Clooney, Academy Award-winning actor
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon
Anne Frank, famous diarist from World War II
Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian painter and Architect
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia
Will Wright, designer of The Sims
Katherine Graham, former owner-editor of the Washington Post. “The Montessori method—learning by doing— once again became my stock in trade…” from Personal History by Katharine Graham
Sean Combs, Sean ‘P.Diddy’ (formerly known as Puffy) Combs, RAP mega-star
Julia Child, famous chef, star of many TV cooking shows and author of numerous cookbooks
Helen Hunt, Academy Award-winning actress
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize winner for Literature
Joshua Bell, American violinist, owner of Stradivarius violin
Lea Salonga, multi-awarded Filipino-American singer and Broadway actress
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, former editor, former first lady (John F. Kennedy)
Berry Brazelton, noted paediatrician and author
Kami Cotler, actress (youngest child on long-running series The Waltons)
Melissa and Sarah Gilbert, actors