Choosing a Montessori School – What Foreign Language and Enrichment Programs Are Offered?
Young children are developing language skills rapidly, and they quickly absorb whatever they hear. They can understand new words in different languages at an incredibly fast rate. They can also easily develop the ability to recreate the accents and sounds of various languages. Children can pronounce words and sounds that require such things as rolling the tongue or guttural sounds that can be hard to replicate when you are learning a second language as an adult.
In a Montessori environment, Spanish is introduced as a second language at an imperative time, when a child is in a sensitive period of language. We adhere to the philosophy of Dr. Montessori, that “No child can learn to perfection as many languages as he hears spoken about him.” The primary goal in a bilingual program should be to help the child develop conversational skills. When choosing the perfect Montessori school, you should ask if a bilingual program is in place so that your child can take advantage of this opportune time for picking up a second language.
In addition, you should consider other enrichment programs that are available, which will also fulfill a child’s natural hunger for knowledge. Most Montessori schools offer a variety of enrichment programs for children. A diverse and effective Montessori program often includes opportunities for enrichment such as:
- Comprehensive Spanish program
- Art – A good program offers activities with oil pastels, color chalk, markers, pains, collages, origami, and drawing techniques, and lessons in “Art Appreciation.”
- Music – You can help your child improve learning skills and memory, as well as enhance social skills, through enrolling them in music enrichment.
- Movement – Yoga, dance, and more
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