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New Montessori offering a non-traditional education for 3-5 year olds

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Grayson (center) and Wyatt (right) enjoy hearing the various sounds produced by the wooden Montessori shakers, as Addison builds a tower in the background. The object of the shakers is to match the sounds from a red one to those emitted from a blue one. Both boys did well identifying the matching sounds.

Addison, Wyatt and Grayson collaborated in a tower-building exercise in the Montessori classroom at Crossing Rivers Health Child Care last week. (Photo by Correne Martin)

The students in Montessori play with the various materials.

Kristi Shaffer reads to the kids in the Montessori program during circle time.

By Correne Martin

Crossing Rivers Health Child Care is offering an alternative, non-traditional choice of education for 3-5 year olds in the Prairie du Chien area this fall. Its new Montessori program is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning of practical skills and collaborative play. The unorthodox approach also emphasizes learning through all five senses.

“Every child is recognized as individual and unique. Through Montessori, they can enjoy freedom within limits. It’s very different from preschool where every kid does the same thing,” said Mari Beth Valley, Crossing Rivers child care director. “Expectations at school are so much more than they used to be. This model lines up more with the Wisconsin early learning standards. It helps prepare them for school and sets them up to be successful.”

“Play is a child’s work in the Montessori classroom. They choose what work to do or what material to work with,” added Kristi Shaffer, Crossing Rivers instructor who obtained her Montessori teaching certificate in 2015. “They model everyday, adult actions and life skills.”

Maria Montessori, born in 1870, was the first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree in the fields of psychiatry, education and anthropology. According to The International Montessori Index, she believed children should be educated in a natural, free environment that is continually adapted in order for the child to fulfill his or her potential.

The website explains: “The child’s choice, practical work, care of others and the environment, and above all the high levels of concentration reached when work is respected and not interrupted, reveal a human being that is superior not only academically, but emotionally and spiritually, a child who cares deeply about other people and the world, and who works to discover a unique and individual way to contribute.”

Typically, different age groups are mixed in a Montessori classroom. The core values, Shaffer said, include practical work/life skills, language, science and nature, math, sensory and music.

“The life skills and sensory and music are huge parts of the approach, and then the other parts blend in naturally,” she noted.

There’s also a focus on allowing them to be problem solvers, critical thinkers, collaborators and good time managers, Valley pointed out.

A common Montessori session would be about three hours long and begin with a greeting and short presentation, or circle time. This is the time in which the children are introduced to an activity or workspace and shown how to use the materials or perform the task. Next, they are free to interact and learn at their own pace, with materials they’ve been exposed to, making their own decisions individually and in groups of two or three, depending on the space (designated by a rug, pillow, table, etc.). The only time the teacher steps in is to assist a struggling child, to explain expectations, to calmly discipline, or to redirect the children. At the end of the period, the group gathers for circle time once again and is dismissed.

“The beginning and end are meant to be short, to make room for more work time,” Shaffer said. “The idea is that the teacher interacts when she needs to. The kids are supposed to move about the room as if the teacher doesn’t exist. She’s basically the adult guiding them through their ‘jobs.’ There’s complete trust and respect, a sense of community, a sense of belonging. You plan things without a template, and then you adjust to chaos.”

Shaffer said that, while she’s observing, she takes notes and documents each child’s progress and creativity. As they develop, she puts out more challenging materials. Because the children enjoy their work, they remember what they learn.

She continued that, in Montessori, enhancing the five senses is part of the learning method too. “Feeling the letter ‘A’ in their hands, tasting an apple, feeling blocks on their face” are all examples.

“Also, it’s real-life work over play and real-life work materials over toys,” Shaffer said. “The children wash their own dishes, pour their own water, use things like child-sized butter knives and scoops for snacks—they learn by doing. They are taught to leave the room as they found it. They fold things and put them away.”

Interested parents with children who will be ages 3-5 by Sept. 1 are encouraged to contact Mari Beth at 357-2093 or Kristi at 357-2095. Children need not be from the Prairie du Chien School District to enroll. There is an enrollment fee and monthly cost associated with the Crossing Rivers Montessori program.

There is also a free open house on Wednesday, April 6, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., at Crossing Rivers Health Child Care, 426 N. Beaumont Rd. Appointments are encouraged. The public is welcome.

Currently, four children are participating in Montessori locally. In the fall, Valley hopes to have 8 to 10.

“I’m excited for it. It’s something new,” Shaffer stated. “I just want to see happy-go-lucky kids who have respect.”

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