Schedule
8:30-11:45am
“The greatest gifts we can give our children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.”
“Play is the work of the child.”
-Dr. Maria Montessori
The toddler program is designed to help toddler master skills through play. The toddler program focuses on language, practical life skills, sensorial, art and music, science, mathematics, and cultural studies/peace.
Toddlers are naturally curious, so the teacher prepares the toddler’s environment to encourage independence and cultivate a love of learning, a desire for exploration, and a mastery of the work.
Language
Toddlers are sponges for language. From 18 months to three years old, the child goes from a non-verbal being to a child who not only carries on conversations but gets their opinions known. To encourage language, we speak using pronounced syllables and open-ended sentences. “Would you prefer an apple or a banana for snack?” This encourages the child to give a response, not just point to what they desire. At first, the child may use a simplified word for banana – “baba”, for example. As the teacher and/or parent continues to use the correct word, the child learns the sounds and before long is also using the correct word. Children feel a true sense of pride as they are understood and can make themselves understood. Reading out loud and repeating rhymes is another way to expose the children to language. Respectful, simple two-way conversation is how children learn by listening and responding. As adults, we need to slow down and give the child the time to respond, at least 10 seconds between request and response.
Practical Life
Toddlers are, by nature, inquisitive little creatures. They want to understand how things are done and how they can do them by themselves. We want to encourage the child to become independent. This is accomplished with care of the environment: sweeping, wiping up spills with size-appropriate towels, cleaning the table after snack, pouring water from a small pitcher to a glass, washing windows, and taking care of the plants. Many practical life skills encourage the children to cross the midline of their body – a crucial skill in a child’s development. Another of the most important life skills we teach our toddlers is pulling up and down pants, which is why we do all of our diaper changes standing up. These shifts are the beginning of toileting – a huge part of our curriculum. Toileting is approached with calm respect.
Sensorial
Children, from birth, are organizing and forming an understanding of sensory input. A breeze on their face, water touching their toes, and so many new sounds. The toddler continues to refine and integrate sensory input: the child will explore the visual sorting of shapes; how things feel rough, or smooth, warm or cold; smells of the season; they will feel different textures of food and flowers, clays and doughs.
Art/Music and movement
The art curriculum focuses on not only fine motor skills but also gross motor skills. As a group, the toddlers make large murals using paintsticks. This is a twofold work as they are refining their fine motor skills holding the paint stick, and as they are standing to do art work they are crossing the midline using both sides of their brain and body at once. The toddler works with clays and doughs to strengthen their hand muscles which will be necessary for writing.
The music curriculum is the singing of songs and rhymes the teachers do on a daily basis. The music teacher comes to visit us once a week for a deeper exploration of sounds, beats, musical instruments, and movement.
Science/mathematics
Science is in so much of a toddler’s life. Toddlers are constantly observing the surrounding nature with birds, leaves, plants, bugs, worms and lizards. Toddlers are also aware of water and its properties and what will float or sink. Science is at the core of some of the doughs we make, mixing water with cornstarch to make oobleck, a non-Newtonian liquid/solid. We count how many spoonfuls of flour make a cup, we count the number of birds we see or how many friends are in our class today. Children have an internal concept of time that is reinforced with the routine of the day.
Cultural studies/peace
Peace making and conflict resolution are a daily part of our Montessori curriculum. Toddlers are emotional beings. We encourage all emotions and help our children to understand emotions by checking in with friends and giving them the language to understand emotions. We explore other cultures with books and matching works.
The toddler room and its curriculum is a created and maintained safe space of wonder and learning. We are a “yes” zone where the environment is changed to fit the behavior for an appropriate use of the works. An example: toddlers like to throw. It’s not ok to throw wooden blocks, so we have bean bags to throw into baskets. This satisfies the natural need of the toddler to throw whilst respecting the environment and other friends.
Please email admin@mdsch.org to schedule a school visit. An interview of a prospective student can be scheduled once MDS has received an application.