Portland Montessori Academy in Portland, TN

Childcare Description

Portland Montessori Academy is the only school of its kind in the Portland, Tennessee area. Although Montessori education has been successfully implemented around the world for over 100 years, many people are unfamiliar with its philosophy and methodology.
Montessori education was founded in 1907 by Dr. Maria Montessori, the first woman in Italy to become a physician. She based her education methods on scientific observation of children's learning processes. Dr. Montessori designed the "prepared environment," in which children could choose from a number of developmentally-appropriate activities.
Montessori emphasizes learning through all five senses, not just by listening, watching, or reading. Montessori classes are designed to help all children reach their fullest potential at their individual pace. Montessori classes place children in multi-age groups. Multi-age grouping allows each child to work at their own pace. Thus, in our preschool program, we often have four-year-olds who are reading books, along with new five-year-olds who are learning beginning letter sounds. Children who need extra time to master a skill are given the time and attention they need, and do not move on to the next level until mastery is complete. Therefore, advanced students are not being held back and bored while waiting for their peers to catch up; children who struggle in a particular area are not presented with material for which they are unprepared.
Children in a Montessori classroom are offered liberty within limits. For instance, they are free to choose a Math lesson for which they have been prepared. A preschool student will have several lessons designed to teach Math at the various levels, such as learning numerals 0-10 and matching them to amounts, adding/subtracting to 10 (or, for more advanced students, to 20), and so on. The child is free to choose any Math lesson at their level. The same is true in other areas, such as language. Within reasonable limits, (s)he is free to move about, talk quietly, and choose his/her work. A child may not interfere with another student's lessons; however, children often choose to work in groups of two or three.
The Montessori materials are designed to be self-correcting, giving the children immediate feedback. The child, therefore, is able to see their mistakes and correct them. This is known as the "control of error" in Montessori materials. Most of our children are reading and doing simple adding and subtracting before they reach Kindergarten.
Most of the children who leave our program to enter public school are advanced compared to their peers. Therefore, many public schoolteachers in the area choose to enroll their preschoolers here.
The school-age students who were struggling in public school have made significant gains in our program, students who made average grades in public school have excelled, and advanced students have far exceeded grade level expectations.

View profile on Mom Trusted: Portland Montessori Academy in Portland, TN

Accept vouchers

Yes

Inspection URL

n/a

Special Needs

Please contact us for more information.

Operating hours

7:00 AM - 5:30 PM