The rooms
Montessori is how the guides teach: materials a child handles, work a child chooses, and long stretches of time to finish it. What follows is what each room works on.
A long morning work cycle, with children choosing from the shelf
Number, place value and fractions worked out with beads and wooden materials
Reading and writing, from moveable letters to first reports
Big stories told aloud that open history, life science and geography
Small lessons with a guide, then work chosen and finished alone or with a friend
A child moves to the upper room when the guides and the family agree it is time. Visits to the upper room come first.
Research that starts with a question and ends in a written report
Fractions, geometry and the first steps of algebra, with materials and then on paper
Trips out into the town and the mountains, planned and booked by the children
History along long timelines, from the first life to the present day
Reading groups and a weekly writing workshop
In its last stretch, children begin spending a morning at a time in the adolescent program.
Mornings of reading, writing, math and science around a long project
Afternoons on the land and in the workshop, with the garden's harvest at a market stand
A written proposal and a presentation to families for each long project
A weekly seminar on a book the whole group has read
A trip into the mountains each season, planned by the group
The program ends with a presentation to families at the close of eighth grade, and the guides help each family think through what comes next.
Sample levels.
Classes
Every room keeps the same core day. Early arrival and extended days are there for the families who need them, and each is billed apart.
Grades 1 to 3
Mornings are the work cycle. Afternoons turn to art, music and the garden.
Grades 4 to 6
Going-out trips are planned by the children and fall on core days.
Grades 7 and 8
Wednesday is a land day, in the garden and the workshop.
Sample programs.
Younger students
A morning in the lower room looks quiet and busy at once. A guide gives a short lesson to two or three children at a low table while the others are across the room with a bead chain, a map puzzle or a book.
Materials live on open shelves, in reach of every child
Children choose their work and keep a plan of what they finished
Lessons are short and given to a few children at a time
Older students
Mornings are for academic work around a long project. Afternoons are for the land and the workshop, where the group builds, plants and sells what it grows. Families are invited to hear each project's presentation.
A written proposal before every long project
A weekly seminar on a book the whole group has read
Wednesday is a land day, in the garden and the workshop
Families
A school like this works when parents and guides know one another.
Sit at the edge of a room and watch the work cycle. Current families may observe too, a few times a year.
Each family meets its child's guide twice a year to read the report together.
Families come on a few Saturdays to prepare the beds in spring and put them to bed in the fall.
Tell us your child's age at a visit, and a guide will show you the room.