Little Oaks Montessori at Petaluma, CA

July 14, 2011 - PRLog -- We are pleased that you are inquiring about our Montessori programs for young child(ren). Your investment of time and resources in Montessori for your child will pay off in ways that will last through their lifetime(s).


Montessori Education
Dr. Maria Montessori was a medical professor, and the first woman physician in Italy, when she devised and presented her unique curriculum in 1907 for young children, so that they could have a wide array of concrete opportunities to develop their ability to focus, to engage their curiosity freely, and yet learn in authentic ways that would allow them to make more sense of the world. The authorities did not believe in her work; she dared them to come observe as she implemented her curriculum with the poorest children in Rome, so no one could say that children brought home advantages with them. It was 15 years before she relented and allowed herself to branch out so that others could provide Montessori for a variety of children

This kind of sense-making is what provides children with the understandings they need to put ideas together-- to comprehend the world, beginning with practical activities, activities that enable them to participate more authentically at school and within their families. Therefore, we offer children curriculum materials that allow them to conduct actual activities and synthesize what they learn. These are the basis of all later academic activities. This kind of preparation is unique to Montessori education

In other words, they have real tools, not make-believe tools, for cooking, for creating, for building, etc. Therefore, the activities truly satisfy young minds, and help them to answer their perennial question, "Why?" and "How?" not merely What? Or Who?

What makes Montessori education further unique, when compared to traditional early childhood education, is that the curricular activities are purposely integrated so that a child has many more chances to gain language, to learn to focus, to develop spatial concepts, science and cultural ideas, and develop firm hand-eye coordination skills. It is no accident, therefore, that Montessori materials cross over all curricular areas. Teachers plan carefully so that the classroom and all the activities in it present this integration.

Since Dr. Maria Montessori first envisioned education for young children, so they could develop their capacities rather than being misjudged as miniature adults, her ideas have been put to use in more than 94 countries around the world. Because the concepts also reflect the attitudes of the culture and the perspectives of the teachers who implement the concepts, no two Montessori schools are alike, nor should they be. This means that you have much to gain by visiting programs and discerning for yourself what you see in action. In general, however, every Montessori school believes in the sanctity of a child's experience and treats children's learning as the primary reason for the school's being

Choice
Montessori is based on teachers' offering children both a constant set of materials children can count on as well as an ever-changing array of well-conceived activities, designed to meet children's need to predict, affect, and extend their world. Children need to make choices that enable them to play out sequences and to learn the relationship between what they see and what they do. This is known as cause and effect, and forms the basis for a healthy curiosity. Children who are offered choices that are beyond their years, or who have too few choices because adults always make their choices for them will seek out and expect others to follow complex rituals they create around bedtime, meals, and their playtimes-and will learn to be helpless. However, when they do have healthy choices, such as they have in a Montessori classroom, they have less need for such rituals, and thus less need to make unhealthy demands on their parents to follow their rituals. We find they are happier, have no need for the famous tantrums that seem to haunt some children and their families. Choice comes with responsibility, however.

Our Approach to Montessori
Our approach includes the traditional Montessori array of materials, along with an array of additional enrichment activities, such as drama, dance, sign language, music (both instrumental and vocal). Altogether, besides working on their own with choices they make, our day provides children with a significant amount of time also to learn in small groups, to learn as members of a community through various Circle Times, so they socialize and to learn about friendship authentically.

Therefore, in addition to Montessori materials and activities, children also have time daily to learn Spanish, enjoy toys, paint, take part in dramatic play, dig in the sand, learn dulcimer and guitar, dance, play ball, paint murals, and imagine with story-time, yoga, and singing.

Montessori Curriculum
Montessori Education is a complex set of concepts and activities-and it is a set. That means that we have much to show you about how the concepts work, because telling can only touch the surface. If you wish, you may read any one or more of the many books written by Dr. Montessori or by others about Montessori Education, most of which are available in libraries and bookstores.

Diversity
One of the hallmarks of Montessori Education is an authentic respect for diversity, whether cultural, biological, religious, regional, or personal. One key feature of diversity is that it is rooted in commonality. We are different, in part because we are all human beings. As one child put it, we have different noses because we all have noses! We are pleased that we have had children in our school who also speak French, German, Bulgarian, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, Indian dialects, Urdu, Polish, Farsi, Chinese, Tagalog, Spanish, and Hungarian, as well as English.

Quality
We are delighted to report that Little Oaks was chosen in the Sonoma Union Independent Readers' Poll for 1998 as the Best PreSchool in Petaluma when the Independent was still offering voting on preschools. That only means that we have continued to strive for parents' confidence in offering a quality program for families.

Structure
We have designed the classroom so that it offers what children need to stay attentive and help each other, with a structure that supports rather than stifled them, so they learn and share those experiences together. Montessori Education is structured, but without the stifling structure. That is, the teachers set up the rooms so they enable children to freely choose from within their developing interests and abilities, and the teachers regularly and frequently adjust the environment and the materials to reflect the changing needs of the children.

Many parents and others who have yet to visit an array of Montessori schools may think of the program as being restricted, but it is just the opposite, because children are guided, not pushed toward their potential. That is the reason that observers see little or no contention among children-because they learn to become absorbed in the wide range of choices rather than become entangled in unproductive interactions. We redirect children who are still learning to make such choices, so they come to value their ability to make decisions that are age-appropriate. In the background their teachers have made decisions about the larger program that serves as the scaffold for their specific, daily activities.



Location Information

Little Oaks Montessori
715 Petaluma Blvd. North · Petaluma, CA 94952

Phone: (707) 763-3235
Fax: (707) 763-1873
Website: http://www.littleoakspetaluma.com
Lic: 490111404

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Montessori Education is a complex set of concepts and activities-and it is a set. That means that we have much to show you about how the concepts work, because telling can only touch the surface. If you wish, you may read any one or more of the many books written by Dr. Montessori or by others about Montessori Education, most of which are available in libraries and bookstores.