The Del Ray Montessori School is a non-profit Montessori School located in the quaint Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, we are associated and recognized by AMI/USA (Association Montessori International). Founded in 2011, we serve children ages 18 months through age 12 and their families in the DC metropolitan area.
The best way to experience the Montessori approach is to visit DRMS and see us in action. Until then, below are some core concepts of what makes Montessori and DRMS unique.
It’s scientific with proof of concept
Dr. Maria Montessori, the first woman in Italy to become a physician, based her educational methods on scientific observation of children’s learning processes. Guided by her discovery that children teach themselves , Dr. Montessori designed a “prepared environment” in which children could freely choose from a number of developmentally appropriate activities, which they could explore and manipulate independently and would eventually lead to the acquisition of a skill or concept. Now, over a century after Maria Montessori’s first Casa dei Bambini (“Children’s House”) in Rome, which was developed to serve the poorest in Rome, Montessori education is found all over the world, spanning ages from birth through adolescence. In fact, it’s the only educational method practiced in all continents, with the exception of Antarctica.
It serves the individual, unique child
The Montessori method follows the needs of the individual child based on their own individual stage of development. Though children generally reach milestones around the same age, children learn and absorb at different stages and in different ways, with joy and perseverance. The highly qualified and AMI-trained teachers and support staff guides this craving for learning and ignites excitement for new materials and lessons.
Overview of the Stages of Development
Birth to Six Years
From birth until six years old, children possess a once-in-a-lifetime ability to simply absorb information effortlessly, which Dr. Montessori coined as the “absorbent mind.” Children in this developmental plane have an innate and intense desire to move their bodies freely, to acquire language and communication skills, and to make their own choices, striving for independence. The Absorbent Mind allows children to take in information unconsciously, effortlessly, and without judgment.
Age Twelve to Eighteen Years
As children move into the phase of adolescence, they develop what Montessori called a “Social Consciousness.” During this time, the adolescent develops a sense of self-awareness and a concern for their societal role in life. Children are not in their academic prime during this phase, but rather, are developmentally ready to learn skills for individual human living, to spend time discovering themselves and exploring their creative or artistic side. During this phase, the individual takes all of the insatiable knowledge gathered and puts it into practice in meaningful ways.
Age Six to Twelve
Children aged 6-12 years are curious, imaginative, and social and have entered into a new phase of development transitioning from concrete to abstract thinking; a growing interest in socialization; creative and imaginative thinking; and an interest in fairness, social justice and compassion. This is an exciting phase as children have an insatiable interest in learning knowledge in all subject areas.
Age Eighteen to Twenty-Four
From 18-24 years, young adults expand on their self-discovery to make a life of their own, developing personal responsibility and contributing to the universe around them.
Overall - for all planes of development
A facet of Montessori pedagogy that separates it from conventional education is that it addresses not just the academic needs of the child, but also the emotional and social needs. All of our environments allows children to move at their own pace, pursuing a certain subject, new lessons, and challenging materials that meet their interests at every developmental phase.
Building Responsibility and Independence
At DRMS, children have the opportunity to choose their own work, creating a sense of responsibility due to their developing independence. For up to three hours, DRMS children get to focus on what interests them most – moving freely from one lesson to the next as they complete each activity. This is what is called the uninterrupted work period. This is a key distinguishable characteristic of a Montessori education, and is crucial to developing concentration and building a foundation for a children’s love of learning.
Concentration to Overcome Failure
Montessori communities minimize the interruption of children working to allow each child to focus and enjoy their own successes. This is done not only through an uninterrupted work cycle, but also through “following the child”, which means for faculty to take on more of a role of an observer, watching to see when children need new lessons and allowing them to embrace, accept, and overcome failure with these lessons without unnecessary intervention. Preparing a child for failure is preparing them for life, and it builds resilience to learn from our failures and find successes and improvements along the way.
Building resilience is accomplished through the carefully designed Montessori materials in our classrooms. Montessori materials were created to be self-correcting; when a child going through a Montessori lesson makes a mistake, they get immediate, impersonal feedback directly from the materials, which let them know that something is not working. When they then discover how to correct themselves, a number of rewarding outcomes happen: the triumph is theirs, their concentration has not been interrupted, and they will learn that setbacks are actually steps to success.
Grace and Courtesy (i.e. Manners)
Lessons in Grace and Courtesy, otherwise known as “manners,”are an integral part of the Montessori curriculum, beginning with the youngest of our children. These lessons focus on learning about and accepting cultural norms, while being conscientious of differing cultures and understanding how to respond and interact respectfully and courteously to others. Montessori education's universal goal is to bring about peace in the world through better education.
When you come to visit us, you will see the results of this work through the politeness of our students, often having one of our three year olds introducing themselves to you and offering you a cup of tea. You are also likely to have doors held for you and to hear "please" and "thank you" consistently from students who are unusually young, in our society, to be expected to behave in this fashion.
These are also results that go unseen, with all of our environments dedicated to guiding respectful and mutually agreeable conflict resolution among students. When tensions or disagreements occur, children work together to work out their differences, with guidance from faculty.
All students in our school, including the youngest members of our comments in the YCC, are supported in conflict resolution and are provided a curriculum focusing on peaceful relationships and interactions. Students are taught to respect each other's personal and work space. This creates an early awareness of others' bodily autonomy and the importance of consent in social situations.
Mixed Age Communities Empowering Leadership and Learning
Montessori classrooms are comprised of students with different ages who are in the same plane of development. This mixed-aged environment has a number of advantages:
Montessori faculty has an opportunity to get to know each student over the course of several years.
Faculty have a much larger curriculum to present a child who is devouring one subject at a rapid rate, giving students a substantive opportunity to learn at an accelerated pace.
Montessori classrooms provide the incredible opportunity for students to learn from and teach their classmates.
Younger children absorb the lessons older children are completing, often generating excitement for them to complete these lessons themselves.
Older children have the opportunity to build leadership skills, and as they watch younger children working, they have a chance to reinforce their expertise on concepts they have already learned by teaching or helping the younger children.
Returning children experience an established culture within the classroom and are already familiar with their teacher, current classmates and materials. This allows the classroom to easily absorb and welcome new children to the class, minimizing the adjustment period and building a strong community within the entire class.
Engaging and Carefully Prepared Environments
Montessori observed that students are more likely to engage with their work in a prepared environment created to suit their needs, and that this prepared environment worked best when it was both home-like and beautiful to students.
Our classroom environments are purposely and thoughtfully prepared with a focus on the child’s age and abilities of each individual child in the classroom. We provide an orderly, organized and aesthetically pleasing environment that entices curiosity to learn more through the use of hands-on Montessori materials and activities. The tools and furniture available allow children access to everything they need for learning activities, food preparation and clean up, encouraging and establishing independence and responsibility. In addition, gross-motor movement is encouraged as we have implemented an indoor movement program for each classroom that allows the children to self-select activities that will provide them the movement necessary to stay involved and engaged in activity throughout the morning and afternoon. These self-guided movement breaks have allowed children the freedom and opportunity to move their bodies in order to exert energy and move their bodies as needed while indoors.
