Toddler – 18 months to 2 1/2 years
“Help me do it myself.”
Maria Montessori
The Toddler House is a safe and nurturing environment where children ages 18 months to 2 1/2 years old have the freedom and ability to move and explore within an atmosphere of special understanding, support and respect.
Activities in the Toddler Montessori Program incorporate self-help skills that lead the children to independence, encourage concentration and build self-esteem. These Practical Life activities involve grace and courtesy, care of the person, care of the environment, and control of movement. Toddlers practice dressing themselves, washing clothes, sweeping the floor, pouring and sharing snack.
Sensorial activities indoors and outdoors follow the toddlers’ urge to use their five senses and explore everything around them with increasing refinement. Children order and identify objects, learn to discriminate carefully, and use appropriate vocabulary to describe their experiences.
The Montessori Program appropriately accommodates the toddler’s sensitive period for Language by offering attractive and creative activities that help them build their growing vocabulary and involve receptive and expressive language.
Children experiment daily with creative art activities through a wide variety of media such as finger paint, watercolors, clay, chalk, pastels, collage, chunky pencils, etc… The process of experimentation is emphasized over the end result, which encourages creativity and self-expression. Toddlers love music; during circle time, they listen, sing, and move to many types of popular and classical music. Action songs and finger-plays help them gain control of their voices and bodies.