For parents who are tired of a lack of options when it comes to their children’s education, an excellent alternative for preschool that teaches your child a love of learning and how to explore their world is through a Montessori program. Montessori is a hands-on, self-paced approach that allows young students to discover new skills and pursue their interests so that their education is fueled by their insatiable desire to improve and learn more.

The top 3 benefits for your child receiving a Montessori education are that they can work at their own pace without having to rush through a difficult subject or have to wait for others, learning in a mixed aged group classroom, and having their education being guided by their own interests. In a world of standardized tests and boring worksheets, feeding a young student’s excitement for education will set your child up to be a lifelong learner.

Self-paced

Worrying about whether your child will be behind in school and scrutinizing over every assignment or task can cause stress for you and your student. When your child learned to walk, you could have compared them to other babies around the same age and worried and fretted every day until your child walked without your hand holding their chubby, baby fingers. But one day they walked and any worry you may have had is now forgotten. Children learn differently and not always in the same time frame as others, and that is perfectly normal and healthy. Allowing your child to slowly work through a subject so that they fully understand it, not only will give them the boost of confidence of struggling through a hard thing and finding success, but they will also have a firmer foundation to stand upon when an added complexity is built on top of the skill they have just mastered.

Mixed-age classrooms

Typically, in a public school setting, students stay with their own age groups. This makes sense when there is one teacher teaching from the front of a classroom of 25+ students and all are expected to learn the same thing in a finite time period. But in a Montessori education, a classroom built of students within a three year age span provides built-in helpers from the older students, examples of how to behave and how the classroom functions, and the encouragement to help younger students. While one student works to master a skill, they can see an older student taking that same skill and adding to it.

Directed by interest

Even adults learn easier and more willingly when they have an interest in it. In a Montessori classroom, your child will not be confined to a chair. There will be many stations for your child to explore. They will be able to try out different practical skills until they find what really makes their eyes light up. They may hang out at this station for a while until they fully master it before moving on. This is not only okay but completely encouraged.

A Montessori classroom is a guided education powered by the individual interests of the students so that the love of learning is cultivated and well tended. If you would like to observe a Montessori program in action, contact one of the many campuses of Fountainhead Montessori School today!