Dr. Maria Montessori believed that children start learning the day they are born. The age from birth to age 3 is characterized by Montessori as the unconscious learning of the “absorbent mind,” meaning that a child’s mind is like a sponge, busily soaking in everything from the environment. During the first three years of life, Dr. Montessori observed that children go through the sensitive periods for language, order, movement, and attraction to small objects. During a sensitive period, children experience a special sensitivity to a particular impulse or activity. The task of the teacher, according to Montessori, is to observe the child’s pattern of development and to provide what is necessary to meet the child’s needs.

Our toddler classroom is rich with materials that help your child grow their vocabulary and communication abilities. Many materials offer constant opportunity for active conversation to build their verbal skills. Around the age of two, children’s speech development experiences an explosion of words, soon followed by sentences. Early language materials and oral exercises like storytelling and reading aloud support the toddler’s need to be immersed in language. We nurture listening skills and opportunities for expressive speech through exposure to songs, conversation, books, rhyming, puzzles, naming objects (animals, fruits, things in the classroom, etc.), and beginning sound games. Auditory discrimination is learned through loud/quiet, same/different sounds, and books with rhymes and repetitive phrases.

Toddlers are in the sensorimotor stage of learning until two years of age. They are using all of their senses to discover the world around them, and purposeful movement is critical to their cognitive development. Toddlers will seek out the smallest objects in the classroom and are fascinated with the tiniest of details. Your child’s daily experiences build the neural connections needed for a solid foundation for learning. The Montessori environment is designed to encourage the exploration and freedom your child needs to build these connections.

Young children need to move, and our toddler classroom welcomes and encourages gross motor movement. Classroom equipment such as the stairs, ramp, slide, balance beam, and trampoline, as well as music and movement and free play all help your child grow stronger and more balanced and coordinated. Fine motor development of hands and fingers is fostered through many different and engaging activities, such as pouring, spooning, opening and closing, bead-stringing, and water activities.