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About "Mi Escuelita Montessori" of BozemanAbout Martha I. Wallace (professional)About the Montessori systemAbout Martha I. Wallace (personal)
About "Mi Escuelita Montessori" of Bozeman
"Mi Escuelita Montessori" is now open and accepting students. We are a bilingual (English / Spanish) Montessori school for ages 3 to 6, conveniently located between Bozeman and Belgrade.
We are located in a quiet semi-rural subdivision on a two-acre lot with about 1000 square feet of classroom space and a fully fenced outdoor play area of 2500 square feet.The Montessori approach to early childhood education emphasizes a stimulating, prepared environment which offers order, beauty, and didactic materials to help children achieve their true nature: Peaceful, self-confident, happy, and motivated to learn.
Early exposure to a second language is very important for a child's mental development, and Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the Western hemisphere.
“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
About Martha I. Wallace (professional)
Martha Wallace is a native Spanish speaker.
She has her B.A. degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio and her Masters degree from Valley City State University in North Dakota.
She studied Montessori teaching at the Caspari Montessori Institute (MSI) -- formerly located in Livingston, MT and now located in Boise, ID.
She is certified as a Montessori teacher for ages 3 to 6 by the Pan American Montessori Society.
In addition to being a certified Montessori teacher, she is also certified as a public school teacher in Montana. Prior to opening "Mi Escuelita Montessori," she had worked for three years teaching Spanish to grades 7 - 12 in a Montana High School / Middle School.
In the years 2014-15, she worked as the English teacher at at a Montessori school in Mexico.
Everything you say to your child is absorbed, catalogued and remembered – Maria MontessoriWhat are the principles of a Montessori education?
There are three important principles of the Montessori method:
1. One is to make use of a prepared environment according to the child's age so that the child develops his potential for self realization. The environment of the Montessori classroom fits the child's needs; the working materials and tools used in the classroom are proportioned for the size of the child. The importance of a good environment is to provide better physical and cognitive development of the child.
2. Another principle of the Montessori system is the attitude of the teacher in the classroom. The teacher is a guide who helps the child to do his own activity by himself and intervenes only when the child requires it.
3. The third principle is the respect for the child's personality.
Isn't Montessori education very permissive?
No, this is a myth. The children have freedom, but only within well-defined limits. In a Montessori classroom, the child has freedom to pick which lesson he wants to work with, but only if he is using the lesson in a constructive and educational manner.
Aren't 3 to 6 year olds too young to learn a second language?
No, the ideal age to learn one or more languages is from birth to 6 years old. Scientific research indicates that early exposure to a second language may actually cause changes in the child's brain -- increased density of gray matter and more neuronal connections -- that enhance the child's intellectual capacity in all mental areas, including seemingly unrelated fields such as mathematics and music.
Why Spanish?
Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the Western hemisphere and the third most widely spoken language in the world, after English and Mandarin. It is also a Romance language and linguistically related to other very important, widely spoken languages such as French, Portuguese and Italian.
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” – Fred Rogers
About Dr. Maria Montessori
Who was Dr. Maria Montessori?
Maria Montessori, the woman who changed the way the world thinks about early childhood education and first demonstrated the levels that children are capable of rising to when treated with with love, patience, respect and freedom, was born in 1870 in Italy and died in Holland in 1952.She studied medicine at the University of Rome, and, in 1896, become the first woman in Italy to receive the degree of Doctor in Medicine. She also received an honorary Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam late in her life.
After receiving her M.D. in 1896, she worked as an assistant doctor at the Psychiatric Clinic in the University of Rome. She became interested in the children who were classified as mentally retarded, and quickly discovered that the apparent mental deficiency of these children was frequently a consequence of poor pedagogical practices. She was the founder of scientific pedagogy in Italy, and formed a group of teachers to observe and educate "feeble-minded" [sic] children. She had such spectacular success that many of her supposedly retarded pupils learned to read and write and were able to compete favorably with normal children in public examinations. “Whilst everyone was admiring my 'idiots,' I was searching for the reasons which could keep the healthy and happy children of the ordinary schools on so low a plane that they could be equaled in tests of intelligence by my unfortunate pupils,” she later commented.
Dr. Montessori became convinced that the same methods used with the less-intelligent children such as careful observation, teaching them twelve or more hours a day, making notes and charts, comparing, analyzing, and preparing new materials and lessons for the next day, could be applied to ordinary children in order to develop and set free their personalities in a better and more productive way. In 1907, she was invited to become the Director of the first Casa de Bambini in a working-class district of Rome. This "Children's House" for poor children (socially, economically, and intellectually disadvantaged, but mentally normal) became the prototype of the ultimate Montessori approach to education, emphasizing scientifically-designed educational materials and lessons, child-sized furniture, practical activities, a well-organized environment, and self-discipline.
“The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.” — Dr. Maria Montessori (The Absorbent Mind)
About Martha I. Wallace (personal)
Martha was born and raised in Mexico City. She moved to the United States in 1995 and is now a US citizen.
She has lived in Bozeman since 2006, along with her husband and three children.
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