Les Enfants School

Montessori education provides a safe nurturing environment while promoting the physical social emotional and cognitive growth of each child.

Dr. Montessori believed that no human being is educated solely by another person. They must do it for themselves as well or it will never be done. A truly educated individual continues learning long after the hours and years he spends in the classroom because he is motivated from within by a natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Dr. Montessori therefore felt the goal of early childhood education should not be to fill the child with the facts from a pre-selected course of studies but rather to cultivate his own natural desire to learn.

Children between the ages of 2 and 6 have a unique aptitude for learning which is identified as the “absorbent mind”. Since the child retains the ability to learn by absorbing until almost seven years old Dr. Montessori theorized that their experience could be enriched by a classroom where they could handle materials that would demonstrate basic educational information to them. Over sixty years of history have shown that a young child can learn to read write and calculate in the same natural way that he learns to walk and talk.

The hand is the chief teacher of the child. In order to learn there must be concentration. The best way a child can concentrate is by fixing his attention on some task he is performing with his hands. All the equipment in a Montessori classroom allows the child to reinforce his casual impression by inviting him to use his hands for learning.

The most important period of life is not the age of university level studies but rather the first period of life from birth to age 6. For that is the time when mans intelligence his greatest implement is being formed. But not only his intelligence the full totality of his psychic (mental) powersAt no other stage has the child greater need of intelligent help and any obstacle that impedes his creative work will lessen the chance he has of achieving perfection.

A child who has studied in a Montessori environment for a minimum of three years is by far more independent disciplined and brighter than those children who have been placed in a traditional teaching environment. The Montessori child is more aware of the environment and more intellectual. A child who starts early in a Montessori environment has the opportunity to be fully developed in the areas necessary to succeed in life.

If parents were less protective of an early education for their children and place them early on in an enriched environment in lieu of home care the differences would be quickly apparent. [The child is endowed with unknown powers which can guide them to a radiant future]. If what we really want is a new world then education must take as its aim the development of these hidden possibilities.

In conclusion we must always remember that the first 6 years are the most important in the whole span of human development.

Child Ages:

2 years - 6 years

Licenses & Accreditations:

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Preschool:

Yes