Elementary I Program (Grades 1-3)
We are incredibly excited to announce our newest program, Montessori Elementary I (E1) for grades one through three. This is a three year program that children will begin upon completing a Montessori Casa program and work through until they are nine years of age.
Enrollment Requirements
To enroll in the Lower Elementary Program your child must:
- Be at least 6 years of age on or before September 15 (unless graduating early from MSM’s Casa program.)
- Have successfully completed three years in a Montessori Casa/primary program.
Lower elementary follows regular MSM hours, running Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 3:15 PM. Additionally, there is extra before school and after school care available.
“This [childhood] is the time of great powers and deep mysteries: the human being develops like a seed hidden in the earth that germinates and grows to become a spike of wheat. ”
While Montessori is most commonly associated with the early childhood stage, Maria Montessori scientifically developed methods of education for the human throughout his development. She identified four planes of development, each with their own unique purpose and needs. Lower elementary covers the beginning of the Childhood plane when the child is most eager to learn. This is a period of intense learning and joyous discovery.
“Knowledge can be best given where there is eagerness to learn, so this is the period [6-12 years of age] when the seed of everything can be sown, the child’s mind being like a fertile field, ready to receive what will germinate into culture.
But if neglected during this period, or frustrated in its vital needs, the mind of the child becomes artificially dulled, henceforth to resist imparted knowledge.
Interest will no longer be there if the seed be sown too late, but at six years of age all items of culture are received enthusiastically, and later these seeds will expand and grow.”