Hilltop Montessori School is thrilled to add a toddler program to our offerings.
A Montessori toddler program welcomes children from when they are stably walking. Children remain in the toddler environment until they are ready to enter the Primary Program, which is generally between two and a half and three years old.
The environment for the toddler level provides children with experiences that help them develop in key areas: gross and fine motor skills, sensory perception, foundations of language, and order.
Through specially selected and arranged materials, children develop the ability to distinguish between different textures, sounds, and other stimuli. The foundations are laid for recognizing the difference between, for instance, different instruments based on the sound they make.
Children have the opportunity to learn how to take off and put on their own shoes, manipulate buttons and snaps, and put on their own coat.
Oral exercises help children develop their language skills. For some children this can be very basic foundations in sound formation, while for others the work will be in expanding vocabulary, improving conversational skills, and general communication.
Matching activities help open up the mind’s powers of abstraction — as in matching a real item like a carrot or turnip to a photograph of that item.
Gross and fine movement develop along with the child’s sense of order in the practical life area. The children take part in preparing a shared snack. They also participate in maintaining the environment with child-sized brooms, cleaning cloths, washing basins, and the like.
Children who need it receive assistance with toilet training.
The Toddler environment in a Montessori school really lays the foundations for a well-developed person.
This short video from a Montessori school in Baltimore gives a glimpse into what a Toddler Program looks like.
At Hilltop Montessori School we remain committed to AMI training for all of our guides. Our guide and assistant will begin this year with the Orientation training through the Southwest Institute of Montessori Studies — the same organization through which Noelle, Lucy, and Tom received their training.
Rebekah, who is Tom’s assistant in Elementary, has previous experience establishing a Montessori Toddler program. She already has the Orientation training for Toddler, and she is actively helping to set up our Toddler Program and prepare the women who will be the guide and assistant in our Toddler Program.
Our Toddler Program will be limited to ten children. The Program will run from 8:45 to 10:45 Monday through Thursday, beginning on Wednesday, September 4. It will follow the same academic year schedule as our other programs. Tuition is $2,500 per child.
Spaces are filling up! Fill out the inquiry form to start your journey with us!