Primary
A three year experience with the child exploding freely a wealth of learning and discovery materials designed to satisfy the child's need to see, hear, touch, taste, sort, count, record, understand and master what he discovers about himself and his environment. The years between three and six are the years in which the children learn rules of human behavior most easily. The years can be constructively devoted to cultivating children, freeing them through the acquisition of good manners and habits, to take their place in society.
In the Montessori classroom, the child chooses from activities which are structured around various developmental areas rather than according to an arbitrary timetable. The classroom is carefully organized so that the child can select from a variety of learning materials designed to match his or her developmental needs, personal interest and individual abilities. Some of these areas are math, language, practical life, sensorial, art, music, motor control, sense of order, geography, botany and other social and natural sciences. The child's inborn curiosity and open mind, the interaction of children of varying ages working together in a common and interesting environment and the non-directive role of the adults in the classroom who serve as resource persons and examples are all basic riches of the Montessori classroom.
"Knowledge can best be given when there is an eagerness to learn, so this is the period when the seed of everything can be sown, the child's mind being like a fertile field, ready to receive what will germinate into knowledge" Maria Montessori