Children’s House

The Children's House classroom is designed to fill the needs of children during their formative years of development.   The formative years are from birth to six and it is when children are developing their character including social skills, self esteem, and executive function. 

Children’s House is a mixed age classroom with children ages 3-6. Because of the mixed ages, the children are naturally learning, motivating, and helping each other. The children are self-directed in the classroom and find works that interest them, complete them, get the work ready for the next friend, and return the work to the shelf.  The children can choose to work alone, or with a friend.  The teachers are often called guides in the classroom because they are not at the center of the child's learning, the child is.  The guide will observe a child’s readiness and interests and give lessons accordingly.

Our classroom is divided into 9 areas, including: practical life, art, sensorial, science, geography, math, and language. Traditional Montessori doesn’t include role play and blocks; however, with current brain research we know these areas are crucial during the formative years and have these added areas in our classroom. 

Children’s House Schedule 

(A typical day in the Children’s House classroom)

8:30AM-8:45AM Drop Off
Greet children, sign in, take attendance, children put away backpacks, lunch, water bottle, wash hands, and choose their work

8:45-10:45 Work Cycle
Children have free choice in the classroom in all areas; as well as to work alone or together.
Small group and individual lessons are given to children based on readiness and interest.

10:45AM-10:55AM Circle
We sing a circle song, do movement, sing seasonal songs & songs of interest, do our calendar, show a grace and courtesy lesson, and sometimes read a short book or share important news.

10:55AM-11:00AM Transition To Outside

11:00AM-12:00PM Outdoor Play
Children have free choice with role play, sand play, bikes & scooters, open ended materials, soccer,  gaga ball….

12:00PM-12:30PM Lunch
Children come in, wash hands, get their lunch & find a spot to eat.

12:30PM-2:00PM Rest Time (3 & 4 years)
Children clean up their lunch then go to their nap mats; after 30 minutes, if some children have not fallen asleep, they can get up and choose a quiet work.

12:30PM-1:15PM Kindergarten Meeting
Yoga, meditation, chapter book, & small group lessons in literacy or math.

1:15PM-2:15PM Afternoon Work Cycle
Children have free choice in every subject area, kindergartners will choose either math or language each work cycle (if they chose math in the morning, they will choose a language in the afternoon).

2:15PM-3:00PM Outside Time
Depending on the needs of the children that day, they may have high energy and need to get outside sooner, or have deep concentration and want to continue in the classroom.

2:55PM Clean Up For Dismissal
We gather in a group and sing our goodbye song, or a song of choice to end the day!