Kinder Haus Main Campus

When a parent walks into the Preschool community in Mandeville, you are greeted by one of our loving Montessori certified teachers.  Calm and serene colors are evident in the classroom and everything is designed with the two-year-old child in mind. Our room meets the children’s needs for calmness, beauty, security, order and learning. In this “Prepared Environment”, the child can easily focus on the shelves that are prepared with activities designed to meet the child’s interests and budding competencies. These activities encompass vocabulary building; sensorial stimulations with sound, touch, smell and sight and practice with eye/hand coordination. 

The preschool child’s days are filled with love and encouragement. At circle time they learn not only to sing songs but they also learn to sign some of the words in their daily songs. Story time, art activities, cooking and outside play are usually a part of the preschool child’s day. The children participate in table cleaning along with learning to sweep and wipe spills.  Social skills are emphasized daily as is verbalizing their wants, needs, likes and dislikes. Great attention is given to helping the children identify their feelings and express them appropriately.

Many modern neuroscientists have come to the same conclusion as Dr. Montessori, that it is in the first three years of life the brain absorbs more information than at any other time.  We know that your preschool-age child will greatly benefit from the loving, encouraging environment that is prepared just for your child’s needs and absorbent mind. 

With the knowledge that the first three years of life are so important to brain development, the Bridge classroom is designed to provide the three-year-old with sensorial development of visual discrimination of size, shape and colors, sound discrimination, language development and introduction to mathematics. The classrooms have areas for art expression and daily living skills (pouring, spooning, cleaning). While there is much intellectual stimulation, our emphasis is always on nurture of each child’s uniqueness. Singing, signing, stories, music and movement are part of the child’s days. Social skills continue to be developed, as is the ongoing acquisition of verbal skills.

Great emphasis is placed on recognizing, respecting and appropriately expressing feelings. Our practical life skills are refined as children learn grace and courtesy manners during lunch.  Children learn to push their chairs back under the table and to scrape their plates and help clean the classroom. Friends are a great part of the children’s days. Outside play provides many opportunities for developing gross motor skills and for social interaction too. We recognize the importance and privilege we have in the loving nurture of these precious children. Hugs, smiles and love are a part of every child’s days. 

With bright, open classrooms appearing to invite the outside in from windows overlooking the beautiful front yard, children in the Primary class are in a prepared learning environment designed to meet their individual needs and to assure them the opportunity to reach their full potential.  The shelves in the Primary class are lined with works that are progressive, moving from simple to complex and concrete to abstract.  All the work is designed around the developmental needs as well as the interests of the individual child.  Math, Language, Sensorial, Practical Life, Science, Geography and The Arts are all part of the Primary program.

In the multi-age 3- 5 year old Primary program the young child has the opportunity to look to the older child for social and academic guidance; the older child has the opportunity to develop a high level of self-esteem and a greater sense of responsibility.  This provides the basis for a high sense of community within the classroom and among the children as individuals.  The development of the child, mentally, physically, socially and emotionally, is enhanced by the multi-age status of the classroom.  With a great emphasis on the lessons of Grace and Courtesy, the child learns respect for their peers, for their environment and for the world in which they live. Each year provides a unique opportunity for the child to advance so that they are ready to meet all the challenges of Kindergarten.

The Primary child is exposed to exercises that employ movement, manipulatives and free choice (within limits).  In the Montessori class free choice means the child may choose work on which they have had a lesson; work that they use properly and return to the shelf.  From following these guidelines, the child develops a sense of personal responsibility. They develop a sense of independence by learning, through Practical Life activities, how to wash, clean and dry the work as necessary, sweep the floor, scrub the table, mop, bake, sew on a button, etc.  They learn how to use words with peers when they are angry or hurt. At the conclusion of the Primary program the child is well on their way to becoming a good citizen of the world, of reaching their full potential as a human being and most importantly for becoming a life-long learner.