Academics
Academics is more than the ABCs and 123s in a Montessori School. Academics include skills for life, including organization, calendaring, narration & note-taking, self-advocacy and self-reward. Education, as Dr. Maria Montessori explained, is a way of life. At Hand In Hand Christian Montessori, we strive the bring the “best” to our learners. Here’s how…
NIDO – Our Infant & Toddler Day Care program provides only the best for the smallest, starting at 12 weeks and going through 36 months.
Family Programs – Since we value parents as their children’s first educators, we seek to engage parents in the education process with their young children in either Family Preschool (ages 2-4 year old’s) and Musikgarten (ages 0-24 months; siblings of enrolled Family Preschool students).
Children’s House Programs – Preschool and Kindergarten – In preschool and kindergarten our motto is “only the best for the smallest.” Attention to the tiniest detail, glass materials, beautiful art work, calm and quiet spaces and order with beauty are all hallmarks of the 3-6 year old environments.
3-Day Homeschool Academy – Our elementary homeschool academy is the best of both educational worlds. We intentionally have married two educational models together in homeschooling and academy to provide a unique educational mix. Allowing children to be in a consistent classroom for 80 days of the school year, and homeschooling with parents for 100 days, this program has proven to be a successful education model for many students.
5-Day Private Academy – Our full time private academy incorporates best educational practices drawing not only from the Montesori method, but other educational models such as classical. With the Montessori method, materials, and grace and courtesy as our leading compass and roadmap, we continue to look for today’s constructivist practices that can be incorporated to create an atmosphere of relevance and excellence for our students. Students have purposeful work today and are prepared for tomorrow.
CREO (Jr/Sr High) – Our CREO program is committed to integrating education across the major disciplines, classical subjects, and practical life skills. For adolescent education, we see the unique call of the gospel of Jesus as central to a life of continued learning, growth and social transformation.
Christian Montessori Education offers unique learning environments for multi-ages of children, birth through eighteen years of age. Each Learning Environment houses specialized learning materials maintained by trained teachers and assistants who guide the children through discovery and hands-on learning practices, along with grace with courtesy and practical life. Each room has materials which teach core subjects of faith, language, and mathematics; cultural subjects of history, geography and science. The Elementary and CREO rooms also offer specialist subjects such as Music, Art, STEM & Physical Education. Family Events and Going Out Field Trips are also included in the yearly academic program.
Hand In Hand also emphasizes these Montessori pedagogical principles that ensure a deeper kind of academic learning (according to Maren Schmidt, M.Ed in her book Understanding Montessori, p.35),
- Knowledge of human tendencies
- Awareness of sensitive periods
- Special prepared environments
- Limitations of materials
- Teacher is link between child and environment
- Freedom of choice within boundaries
- Auto-education and self-construction
- Whole to parts; concrete to abstract
- Working with hand “to touch is to know”
- Isolating the difficulty
- Observation of child at work
- Repetition through variety
- Indirect preparedness of responsibility, respect and resourcefulness
What makes Christian Montessori Academics so different from other models? Watch this informative video from a Montessori dad who explains the main reason for the “light in the eyes” of Montessori children.