With a various curriculum, Montessori Kindergarten of Bucharest helps children to develop their personality in a complex way, following at the same time the guidelines left by Dr. Montessori, as they are expressed by the Association Montessori International (AMI). The Montessori method encourages the child's natural impulse to let himself absorbed and learn from what surrounds him.
Based on her observations, Dr. Maria Montessori has developed specific materials, techniques and curricular areas that help each child reach their full potential.
Thus, in our kindergarten there are 5 curricular areas specific to Montessori education: practical life, sensory, mathematics, language, science and cultural activities.
Practical life includes those activities that are performed in daily life, so that both the person and the environment in which he lives and works, to be maintained in decent conditions.
The purpose of the exercises in practical life is to help children become independent, self-confident, orderly, and to teach them to focus. The exercises cover 4 areas: caring for the environment in which they work, caring for themselves, developing social relationships, coordination and harmony of movements.
The purpose of sensorial exercises is to help children develop their 5 senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch. Thus, the child is exposed to distinct sensory materials during the sensory periods specific to each age. With the help of sensorial exercises, the child can distinguish, order, classify and describe sensory impressions related to length, height, temperature, weight, color, inclination, smell etc.
Dr. Montessori viewed mathematics as a natural mental process that begins at a concrete level and progresses to an abstract level. Thus, the Montessori mathematical material is also concrete, solid. Each exercise is created around specific experiences that form the basis for the future development of abstract mathematical thinking.
In a child's life there is a specific period in which he, naturally and spontaneously, is able to develop his language unconsciously. Using Montessori material, the educator indirectly helps the child to enrich and perfect his language. Language exercises help children learn to read, write and become aware of the meaning of words.
An important element in the development of the child's personality is the actual contact with reality and his ability to get involved in this reality. The freedom that the child enjoys in the specially created environment allows him to experiment, to observe and manipulate, to explore, to perceive, to discover and to classify.
When Maria Montessori talks about natural sciences, she does not refer only to the knowledge of natural phenomena, but rather to an inner relationship with nature. Through art lessons, the child learns about his culture. Within this curricular area, children benefit from lessons about history, geography, biology, art, music etc.