Victory Heights Montessori School

Come and join our little community! School year and Summer Camp enrollments are now available.

Victory Heights Montessori is a licensed and insured in-home daycare located in North Seattle. We value the unique path each individual child takes on their journey through life. Our program is led by an AMS-certified Montessori educator with over 15 years of experience.

We accept WCCC, CCAP, and Best Starts for Kids subsidies. For more information or to schedule a tour, please visit our website, or feel free to message us: www.victoryheightsmontessori.com

The Benefits of a Multi-Aged Classroom

When stepping into a Montessori classroom, you'll notice a wide age range, typically spanning 2-3 years. Maria Montessori observed that mixed-aged environments carried several benefits to the child's learning:

1. Cooperative Learning: Younger learners develop skills by observing older learners. Older students already know how to navigate the environment, including self-care skills (cleaning up after themselves, dressing to go outside, serving themselves lunch, etc.). By watching what the older students are doing, younger learners naturally adapt to the classroom routines. Vise-versa, older children learn leadership skills by guiding and assisting younger children in their learning.

2. Developing Relationships: Spending 3 years together has the ability of creating strong bonds, not only amongst the children, but with the educator as well. As a Montessori educator, being able to get to know a child and their family very well over the course of 3 years in an invaluable gift. The child needs stability and consistency of care, and what better way to provide that by having the same caregiver year-to-year.

3. A Home Away From Home: Combining both the development of close bonds, and multi-aged learning creates a Home Away From Home. Rather than entering into a brand new environment at the start of every school year, the child returns to a familiar place, to familiar faces. A Montessori classroom isn't simply a learning environment -- it is meant to mimic a welcoming home.

A Montessori educator's training prepares them for a broad range of development. They have the knowledge and tools to guide young children through the most formidable years of their lives. It is precious to get to spend 3 extraordinary years with the same group of children as they grow and learn new skills.

How do child-led environments, like Montessori classrooms, support neurodivergent students?

When following the child, Montessori educators individualize lesson plans according to both the child's interests and development. We understand and honor that each child takes their own path through life, and there is no "one-size fits all" model of education that truly respects a child's unique journey.

Educators work diligently and tirelessly in meeting each child where they are, but the goal is to be as hands-off as possible. Having clear and consistent boundaries can help the child feel assured and safe. But then giving the child complete freedom without those boundaries is empowering for them.

Concrete materials and experiences also help those children who need sensory feedback in their learning. It's not every day that a child can both count and hold 1000 objects!

We meet the pace of the individual child. No faster, no slower.

I'm about to say something very, very controversial: I want to challenge the phrase "work period". This is because the phrase "work period" suggests that the only meaningful activity a child does at school is "work". It is in my opinion that this term, adopted by Dr. Montessori, is outdated and inaccurate. While other early learning pedagogies use "play" as the key to a child's learning, many Montessori classrooms still hold onto the archaic idea that the child's "play" is "work".

The children in a Montessori environment, just like in any other child-led learning environment, are playing. The didatic/Montessori materials are games that the children play, and it's through their interactions with their environment (including adults and peers), that they learn new skills.

Let's be more accurate and respectful of the child's experiences. They are playing, and play is just as (if not more) valuable than "work".

“An adult environment is not a suitable environment for children, but rather an aggregate of obstacles that strengthen their defenses, warp their attitudes, and expose them to adult suggestions.”
Montessori classrooms are child-centered and child-led in order to develop a child’s sense of autonomy.

Dr Montessori wrote in ‘The Discovery of the Child’, “An adult environment is not a suitable environment for children, but rather an aggregate of obstacles that strengthen their defenses, warp their attitudes, and expose them to adult suggestions.” (pg. 109)

This does not mean the child gets to do whatever they like, without any rules or guidelines. On the contrary, the Montessori educator should work diligently to reinforce developmentally-appropriate rules and guidelines for the environment. A child may not climb on a table, but they can be invited to go outside and climb a tree. A child who pours water on the floor is shown how to wipe it up with a clean towel. Rather than restricting the child’s intrinsic need to explore and experiment, we give them alternatives and solutions so that they may continue exercising freedom in the environment.

Sit back. Observe your child. What are they communicating to you?

“And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.” – Dr. Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind (1949)

School year and Summer Camp enrollments are now available! We have current openings for 4- or 5-day schedules.

Victory Heights Montessori is a small, licensed, in-home program located in North Seattle. We value the unique path each individual child takes on their journey through life. Our program is led by an AMS-certified Montessori educator with over 15 years of experience.

We accept WCCC and Best Starts for Kids subsidies. For more information or to schedule a tour, please visit our website, or feel free to message us: www.victoryheightsmontessori.com

Finding Order in 'Chaos'

Young children have a strong desire for predictability and order in their lives. Their shoes need to be placed a certain way on the shoe rack, their trains should be lined up just so against the wall, their food on their plate shouldn’t be touching…this need for orderliness is powerful, and when that order is disrupted, it can result in big, loud feelings.

Maria Montessori wrote:

“Language is not the only thing the child is forming at this age. Among the others there is [their] sense of order. This is by no means something superficial or transient, as often supposed but it springs from a real need. While [they are] passing through a phase of active construction of [their] psyche the child often feels the deepest impulse to bring order into what, according to his logic, is in a state of confusion.” – Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind
When a young child is still developing communication skills, whilst also going through their Sensitive Period for Order, we may notice their frustrations and objections being expressed more frequently. A carrot touching their mac-and-cheese on their plate might result in crying and refusal to eat, or forgetting their favorite stuffed animal at the park may bring about loud protests.

It’s important to keep in mind that their actions are out of their control. Instead of scolding or lecturing, try to understand their perspective. “You’re upset that your carrot got some mac-and-cheese on it. I’ll wipe it off, and put your carrots into a separate bowl.” “We forgot your stuffy at the park, but it’s too late to go back now because it’s dark outside. Let’s pick out a different stuffy, and we can go back tomorrow to look for your other one.”

A calm, levelled response to their “state of confusion” is great modeling behavior for them to learn how to respond in the future should something like this happen again. Showing the child that there is always a solution to a problem prevents further escalation of their frustration, while acknowledging their thoughts and feelings.

[ID: A young child with dark hair and dark blue sweater sits on a wooden floor. There are 2 white mats laid side-by-side in front of him, and he is sorting long red rods (a Montessori material) from shortest to longest.]

Do you ever notice children like to read the same books over and over again? Or sing the same song, or watch the same show? Maybe there’s a park they particularly enjoy going to, but if you try to take them to a different park, they refuse. Repetition and routine facilitate a young child’s intrinsic way of learning. They provide predictability, familiarity, and safety. Sometimes, a child may become deeply engrossed in one particular activity and repeat it over and over again. Maria Montessori wrote:

“To have learned something for the child is only a point of departure. When he has learned the meaning of an exercise, then he begins to enjoy repeating it, and he does repeat it an infinite number of times, with the most evident satisfaction.” – The Montessori Method (1912)

When a young child is in the midst of learning a new skill and wants to repeat an activity, my policy is to let them be. It can be tempting for us, as adults, to try and direct a child towards something new or different, but by imposing our own ideas of what young children should be learning, not only are we disrespecting the child’s autonomy, but we’re also interrupting their concentration. In order to truly follow the child, giving them space for repetition is essential.

Even in the early 20th century, there was a movement to steer away from strictly academic learning in early childhood education. Dr. Montessori put it clearly:

“Not all children of the same age are at the same point in this matter of reading and writing. We not only do not force a child, but we do not even invite him, or in any way attempt to coax him to do that which he does not wish to do. So it sometimes happens that certain children, not having spontaneously presented themselves for these lessons, are left in peace, and do not know how to read or write.

If the old-time method, which tyrannized over the will of the child and destroyed his spontaneity, does not believe in making a knowledge of written language obligatory before the age of six, much less do we!” – Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method (1912)

Childhood shouldn't be rushed. Young humans learn intrinsically through their interactions with the world around them. Reading, math, science...all irrelevant if the child does not joyfully engage in those activities.

Montessori education often reminds us, the adults, to observe and follow each individual child's interests and development. It can be hard to resist the urge to step in and interrupt a young child's activity! But so much can be learned simply by pausing and reflecting.

Victory Heights Montessori School is a small, licensed in-home daycare located in North Seattle. Our program focuses on the development of the whole child. Come join us for the school year and summer camp! 4-day and 5-day spots available. We accept WCCC and Best Start for Kids subsidies!