Primary
The Primary level serves children between the ages of 2½ and 6-plus years. The overall goal of a Montessori class is to provide an environment that meets the needs and tendencies of the child at this stage of their development.
By encouraging exploration, independence, personalized education, and freedom within limits, the child is called to work within the learning environment to “unfold” their potential at their own pace. The pace of the young child is respected with the understanding that the particular learning path of each child cannot be hurried. With an authentic learning environment that fosters such independence and freedom, the young child acquires the ability to problem solve and develop a better understanding of self, while balancing time within a consistent and predictable place.
At Post Oak’s Montessori Journey night, I experienced something of what it would be like to be four years old in that room—allowed to choose the work that most interests me, do it without interruption, move at a pace that suits me. I imagined this being my daughter’s experience. Then I flashed forward to a vision of the woman that experience would help shape: someone deeply in touch with her own interests and motivations; someone relatively unencumbered by the opinions—good or bad—of others; a person who knows how to make her own choices and pursue them with focused intensity.Lana Rigsby