Beyond basic VPK
Cynthia Thomas
What every 4-year-old child could learn
Imagine a program that opens up the world to your child right in his or her classroom! The opportunity to learn to read, work with numbers into the thousands using hands-on Montessori materials and explore the world through learning about continents, countries and states. This is just a small example of our VPK classrooms. Imagine the classroom where geography comes alive through cultural celebrations and studies of landforms. And don’t forget geometry. Can you see your child knowing the different kinds of triangles as he or she heads for kindergarten? All of this and more is possible through choosing our Montessori groups VPK programs, which provide these opportunities on a daily basis.
Children at this age love to learn, and when considering a VPK program, these questions must be asked:
- Will the program you choose nurture the love of learning or shut it down?
- Will the program you choose keep your child’s skills the same as all the other children in the classroom, or allow your child to excel to his or her intellectual ability?
Montessori’s programs provide individual, academic learning experiences. No child is held back waiting for the other children to catch up. It’s a class were young children learn from other children. The 4-year-old always wants to do what the older children are doing; that is the advantage of the multi-year age grouping in the 3-6 classroom. The love of learning and self-discipline is an outcome of the Montessori education.
Montessori is a proven model for over 100 years. It’s a method you can trust, one that doesn’t have to be reinvented — because it works.
As a parent, you will want to choose a program that will unleash your child’s full potential and light his or her path of learning as the child begins the quest for knowledge. We welcome you to tour the school and imagine your child experiencing learning the Montessori way.
Why Montessori for VPK?
Comparison of expected outcomes of 4-year-old programs:
| MONTESSORI | TRADITIONAL |
|
Reading Blends sounds into three-letter words Writes a sentence with movable alphabet |
Recognizes some letter sounds Writes name |
|
Math Add and subtract (units, tens, hundreds, thousands) County by 1s to 100, multiply and divide |
Identifies numbers 1-15 Counts by 1s to 31 with help |
|
Geometry Identifies shapes and all kind of triangles (Isosceles, quadrilateral, scalene, etc.) |
Identifies circle, triangle and square |
VPK standards can be found at http://www.floridaearlylearning.com/vpk/florida_standards_for_four-year-olds.aspx
Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards
http://flbt5.floridaearlylearning.com/BT5_Uploads/ListofStandardsandBenchmarks.pdf
Cynthia Thomas founded her first Montessori school in Brevard County in 1983. She now operates five schools throughout Florida. She discovered Montessori’s unique approach when her children attended a school in Hawaii. She received her masters in education specializing in Montessori from
Charminade University in Hawaii.
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