Eager Kids Montessori
Igniting the spark within
Eager Kids Montessori
Eager Kids Montessori supports children in becoming confident, compassionate, happy, calm, purposeful, free and independent. We hope to enthuse children about life and learning, as well as, encourage them to share their ideas confidently and openly. At Eager Kids Montessori, we offer the entire Montessori curriculum and also, Hindi as a second language.
Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavour always to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence. – Dr Maria Montessori
Our Vision at Eager Kids Montessori
Our vision is a world where – people are developed to their fullest potential, live peacefully together, respect and care for one another, and contribute to the world.
Our Mission at Eager Kids Montessori
Our mission is to provide a prepared environment meeting the needs of children from 3 to 6 years of age. We truly believe that the Montessori philosophy is a dynamic and complete approach to educating children.
The Montessori Triangle Δ
The 3 supporting pillars of Eager Kids Montessori preschool
The Prepared Environment
In our schools the environment itself teaches the children. The teacher only puts the child in direct contact with the environment, showing him how to use various things.
– Dr Maria Montessori
The environment is the child’s space. It also encompasses social contact with other children and the rules of the school. Characteristics of a prepared environment are:
- Accessibility, beauty, order, simplicity and reality.
- Freedom to move around within a few guidelines that enable them to work either individually or in a group.
- Specifically designed materials with built-in control of error.
- Mixed age group – Children get the opportunity to work with peers of different levels of skills and accomplishments to be better able to adjust to real life later.
- 3-hour work cycle – Montessori observed many children over many years and plotted graphs of their work patterns. She concluded that children need at least 3 hours of uninterrupted work time to reach their highest concentration level.
The Child
A child who has become master of his acts through long and repeated exercises, and who has been encouraged by the pleasant and interesting activities in which he has been engaged, is a child filled with health and joy and remarkable for his calmness and discipline.
– Dr Maria Montessori
Montessori wrote about each child having an “inner guide”. What she meant was that natural child development pushes the child to want to master certain things at certain times. All children strive for independence. All children want to master academic concepts, such as number work and language. All children are driven by curiosity about the world.
Each child is an individual and is encouraged or hampered by her individual circumstances. It is the role of our education to give her a place that is entirely hers. It is set up to fulfil her developmental needs and provide her with encouragement and space to grow according to her potential.
The Guide
We must realise the truth of our new mission. This is what I want to impress upon you. Do not transmit merely knowledge, but take care of this life which has the possibility of bettering all life. It is a great thing to do, yet so simple.
-Dr Maria Montessori
The guide in our classroom is often found sitting on the floor working with a child or a small group of children.
The guide is responsible for presenting the material to every child once or more than once. Later, the child can freely choose it unaided. The guide knows all the material available in the classroom and is ready to present it to the child at any time. Her role is to observe the children objectively and to connect them to the material appropriate to their developmental needs.
She is a protector of their concentration, doing all she can not to let others interrupt the child at work. She maintains the materials and the environment in their optimal working condition.
The Montessori (3-6) Prepared Environment
The areas in the prepared environment of Eager Kids Montessori preschool
Practical Life
If teaching is to be effective with young children, it must assist them to advance on the way to independence. It must initiate them into those kinds of activities, which they can perform themselves. We must help them to learn how to walk without assistance, to run, to go up and down the stairs, to pick up fallen objects, to dress and undress, to wash themselves, to express their needs, and to attempt to satisfy their desires through their own efforts. All this is part of an education for independence.
– Dr Maria Montessori
Practical Life exercises aid the child’s natural interest in real life activities. They help develop physical coordination, care of self and care of environment. They are instrumental in the normalisation of the child. The activities include, scooping, pouring, buttoning etc.
Sensorial
The senses are gateways to intelligence. There is nothing in the intellect, which was not first in the senses.
– Aristotle
Using the five basic senses, i.e., visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory and olfactory senses, together with additional senses, like baric (sense of weight), thermic (sense of temperature) and stereognostic sense (sense of shape and size of an object by holding it with hands), the child explores all the dimensions of an object.
These materials allow for individual work and repetition, and help children classify their sensorial impressions in an organised, orderly and scientific manner. The Sensorial materials lays the foundation for future language and mathematical work.
Language
There is nothing more mysterious than the underlying reality that to do anything, men must come together in agreement and to that they must use language, this most abstract instrument.
– Dr Maria Montessori
The Montessori language curriculum is based on phonics and is introduced with the understanding that experience precedes language development and spoken language is the foundation for written language. Reading is the next step of language development as it requires the child to decode another person’s written expression and is a much more complex cognitive function.
We also offer Hindi as another language which the child starts in the same way as English; spoken followed by written and finally, reading.
Math
The child’s mind is not prepared for number by certain preliminary ideas given in haste by the teacher, but has been prepared for it by a process of formation, by a slow building up of itself.
– Dr Maria Montessori
Human beings develop a mathematical mind naturally. It is the way they culturally adapt to a place and time. Just like in Language, in Math, we introduce concrete experiences before abstract mathematics.
The Math materials are very comprehensive and go from concrete to abstract very slowly and deliberately. The Decimal system is introduced using the ‘Golden Bead’ material. Once children are comfortable making concrete calculations, they proceed to abstract mental calculations. We include mathematics in our work with children because mathematical exploration supports human development.
The Crux of Montessori Education
A piece of work, freely chosen, done by the hands, with real objects, accompanied by mental concentration
A piece of work…
It is through appropriate work and activities that the character of the child is transformed. Work influences his development in the same way that food revives the vigor of a starving man. We observe that a child occupied with matters that awaken his interest seems to blossom, to expand, evincing undreamed of character traits; his abilities give him great satisfaction, and he smiles with a sweet and joyous smile.
(San Remo Lectures, p. 28)
Adult’s look at work as something they have to do to make a living but children need work to construct themselves. It is their life. They are wrapped up fully in the work of developing their minds and their bodies.
… freely chosen…
It does not mean children are free to choose anything or do anything. Freedom is to choose activities that support human tendencies, from an environment that is prepared carefully, to allow free choice within developmentally appropriate limits. No-one can make another person develop. The development of the child is not dependent on adult’s instruction and is allowed to follow the natural rhythm of life.
The child has the capacity to educate himself, not in typical schools with their exact syllabuses where children must be obedient, but at a school where he is not controlled, does not have to compete, but can work with enthusiasm according to natural laws.
(The 1946 London Lectures)
… done by the hands…
…the hand moves aimlessly; the mind wanders about far from reality…these separate energies, finding nothing to satisfy them, give rise to numberless combinations of deviations.
(The Absorbent Mind)
The hands are one of the precious gifts humans have that aid their progress and help develop their intellect. They are the instruments of the mind that center it to work on developing the human being, without the deviations that are commonly found and thought as normal.
… with real objects…
Real objects facilitate the child to pay attention on the work he chooses. The child who has to carry a glass pitcher of water, cannot just walk without focusing on the material in his hands.
Can the external world be transmitted from the television screen? Can all the dimensions necessary to the knowledge (and mastery) of reality be perceived through television? Can time, space, landscape and context reach the person watching the screen in the dark of a room? In a world in which many important natural experiences are made difficult (or impossible) for children, television reduces even more the direct relationship with reality.
– Silvana Quattrocchi Montanaro
… accompanied by concentration…
…the essential thing is for the task to arouse such an interest that it engages the child’s whole personality. (The Absorbent Mind)
It is important to distinguish concentration from occupation. Concentration occurs when the above criteria are satisfied, otherwise the child is just occupied. Occupation becomes a useful tool for the adults in the child’s life but it does not help with the self-construction of the child. When a child is interested in an activity, he tends to repeat it. Repetition then leads to concentration.
Why Montessori?
Eager Kids Montessori parents on how Montessori made a difference to their child
Eager Kids is the best choice we ever made. The teachers are passionate about Montessori teaching and they also focus on educating the parents to provide a similar environment for the kids at home. They care for, respect and deeply connect with every child and are always ready to answer any queries that we have about them. The teachers, parents and kids together feel like one community.
Our child has loved going to school every single day and talks about his teachers and friends with so much love. We are amazed to see the amount and diversity of his learnings within these two years including geography, maths and crafts like origami. His curiosity was always encouraged and his talents and interests have grown many folds.
At EKM, everything is about quality. The amount of thought and effort that goes behind everything they do/choose for the kids (including the gifts) is well evident. Our only regret is discovering the school a bit late. Every child deserves to be in a school like EKM.
You all have been great mentors and guides. Tharunika is so fortunate to have been placed in Eager kids Montessori. You all have amazed and inspired her daily. Never in her three years of schooling she felt bored. She wanted to go to school even during holidays and she learnt many practical lessons which are much needed in our day to day life. Everyday was a new experience for her. Tharunika is so bonded with all of you and her friends that she will miss all the fun. You have not only guided the children but also the parents in every step.
Our sincere and heart-felt “Thank you” to Anjum for giving us all the support and guidance and for being a wonderful teacher. We are truly inspired with your ideas and methodology.
Teachers Vidya, Alaka – Thank you for being a truly outstanding Teachers. We wish you from the bottom of our hearts a great success in all your future endeavours and inspire and train many children.
I sent my daughter Priyangi Das to Eager Kids Montessori. The school provides major focus on the overall development of children and gives attention to the education front as well as to extra-curricular activity.
Priyangi enjoys going to school everyday and there was not a single day when she had said that she did not want to go to school. If you want your children to learn and enjoy the process, send them to Eager Kids Montessori!
Eager Kids Montessori is the best place to start early education for children. Our son had a wonderful experience in his learning journey.
It is the place where Montessori method of teaching and learning is implemented to the core. We saw amazing changes in our son’s personality. This is the school where he was transformed completely. He has become more independent, focused and has built the ability to decide for himself. He has become more observant and his teachers have helped him to develop leadership qualities as well.
Thank you to the Eager Kids team. You will be forever remembered for laying a strong foundation in our child’s life.
My daughter attended Eager Kids Montessori (EKM) for all four of her kindergarten years. It has been a cherished and joyous journey throughout for her and a pleasant eye-opener for me. Apart from building skills in varying subjects, they are, most importantly, developing an earnest and positive attitude to learning, questioning and learning some more. This is a much needed trait in the age of distraction we live in today. I sincerely thank Anjum and her team of teachers who have worked hard to inculcate the true culture of Montessori at EKM and the wonderful job they are doing.
Gift your child a Montessori education today!
Lodestar Montessori
Explore our sister school, Lodestar Montessori, situated not far from Eager Kids Montessori, offering the Montessori program for children 3-12 years of age. If your child meets the eligibility criteria, progression to Montessori Elementary will be seamless.