What Is a Montessori School?
What comes to your mind when you think of a typical classroom, probably the first thing that comes to your mind is desks and chairs occupied by children, and the children are concentrating on a teacher explaining at the blackboard. But, do you know that Montessori classrooms look completely different than normal classrooms. There you will find students of age group 2 to 6 years old engaged in different activities according to their interests, with the teacher observing, sometimes aiding a child in his or her endeavor.
What is a Montessori School?
The most basic thing is, Montessori education focuses on child-centric learning. In Montessori education, students are encouraged to be the leaders of their own study, finding the activities that make the student’s study interesting, with the teacher serving as a guide to their learning.
Much of the Montessori experience is hands-on. In any Montessori classroom, you may find a group of children working on a puzzle while another group undertakes a days-long art project, while another child reads quietly by themselves. Children are encouraged to go at their own pace, work collaboratively and individually, and spend time working on projects they enjoy.
The Montessori approach considers the development of the whole child — physical, social, emotional, cognitive.
What should Look for in a Montessori school?
The students have their own pace and interest to study. Every child has their own way to make themselves busy. Following are the things you should look for in a Montessori school.
1. Mixed-ages.
“Real Montessori schools have children of different ages in the same classroom,” though students tend to all be 2 years to 6 years old. “The idea here is that children learn at different paces in different areas: Where one child might learn to read at 4 years old, another might explode into reading at late 5. Why push one or hold another back based on some average at which children are ‘supposed to read? Children also tend to learn a lot from more mature peers, which is not possible in single-age classrooms.”
2. Choose their Work
“Real Montessori schools will have a significant chunk of time in the day dedicated to children working on materials of their choosing,” This is the “freedom” part of the equation, but it’s considered “within limits” because the activities are chosen from structured options that the teacher purposefully selects beforehand.
“For children,” “this ‘work period’ is usually two hours. For 2–6 year-olds, it’s usually about three hours. This can seem unbelievable to teachers and parents who haven’t been in a Montessori environment, as in ‘No way my child would focus for that long!’ But the reality is that if children are given work to do that is meaningful and engaging, from washing a table at 3 years old to doing multiplication at 5 years old — and if they are allowed to choose to do that work of their own volition — then they have impressive sustained focus.”
Set up in 2005, Floretz Academy is one of the best and oldest Montessori Schools in South East Bangalore. Floretz has 2 Schools — one in HSR Layout and the other in Kasavanahalli, off Sarjapur Road. Both the schools are registered with the Government of Karnataka and are accredited and recognized by the Indian Montessori Centre.
The School offers Montessori education for children from the age group of 2–6 years and post-school care and Daycare center for children from the age group of 2–12 years. There are various programs after school including IOTA Accelerated Math Program (1st to 8th Standards), Music (Carnatic vocals), Dance (Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Contemporary), Art & Craft, and Karate classes.