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The Montessori Method of Education is the basis of our curriculum and was founded by Dr. Maria Montessori. She believed that the child’s most crucial development stage is in the first 6 years of his/her life. During this period, the child has "An Absorbent Mind", taking in like a sponge the things that surrounds the child .
Dr Maria Montessori believed that a child’s ability to learn is a natural process, and each child should learn by “doing” and not simply by "listening". Her philosophy stands out from those of other Early Childhood teaching theories in her belief in the Environment as the teacher.
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The Absorbent Mind
Sensorial
The Montessori-sensorial curriculum uses specially designed Montessori materials to refine their senses of seeing, hearing, touching & smelling.
Sensorial exercises develop skills in thinking, judging, concentrating, comparing and sequencing. As the child works with the Montessori materials, they also develop new vocabulary relating to the activities and experience. The child learns to separate and classify forms, colours, textures, tastes and smells. This helps the child with skills needed later for reading, writing and Mathematics.
Cultural
The cultural education is to help the child develop his/her own personality, adapt to his/her own culture, and become an independent, useful member of his/her society.
Montessori cultural materials provide individual activities, which helps the child to acquire knowledge in the areas of cultural awareness and appreciation, biology (botany and zoology), geography, history and science.
Practical life
The Montessori Practical Life is the first in the series of Montessori education in Montessori schools. The child learns skills for daily practical living. Such preschool activities provide the foundation for coordination of movement, independence and a sense of order, concentration, and a care for himself/herself and the environment.
The process of learning the Montessori Practical Life skills is divided into clear isolated progressive steps. Without much verbal explanations, the child observes the well-defined and calculated movements and catches on with accurate imitation.
Language
The Montessori-Language Curriculum is quite different from a traditional preschool curriculum. Here the child learns the sounds of letters in a systematic, progressive way and then blends the letters to form a word. Every word is identifiable with an object so the child can feel, understand and match the abstract word to a concrete object.
The Montessori-Language program is graded by colour coding. Each level/colour builds on the previous one to provide a wide range of vocabulary. Sentence building with picture cards is also used besides reading books.
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At Little Oaks, we offer a bilingual (English and Mandarin) program.
Mathematics
The Montessori-Mathematics Curriculum is very practical and hands-on. The system incorporates the fundamental philosophy of learning through the manipulation of concrete materials before moving on to abstract concepts.
Before a child enters the Math program proper in a Montessori school, he/she already has been introduced to pre Mathematics skills through practical life and Montessori-Sensorial activities.
Enrichment
For more information on the additional programmes offered at the school, please visit Enrichment Programmes.