Eight Tips On Sustaining Montessori …

Montessori preschool students aged three to Kindergarten have been following a specific routine for months. While your kids are home, here are routines to implement to keep the momentum going until they return to school. 

Preschool Schedule and Routines

At La Jolla Montessori School, the school day looks like this:

• Three hours of morning projects focused on your child’s interests (includes a mid-morning snack, outdoors and garden time)
• Playground time
• Lunchtime preparation, meal, and clean-up 
• Afternoon projects continue for two hours (or child naps) to conclude the school day.

Home-Based Schedule and Routines

How can we re-create and sustain our children’s day while they’re home? 

By continuing—as best we can—to follow their orderly routines.

So, here are eight tips:

1. Ensure that your child has his or her own child-sized workspace or spaces; whether that’s in their bedroom or the family living room or kitchen.
2. Prep their daily projects like at school
   After talking with your La Jolla Montessori School teacher, you can download subjects your child likes via our:
   a) Epic program and,
   b) Children’s Library, and
   c) Open Library
   That’s how to work with your children via Zoom Circle Time. It’s free and can be accessed on multiple platforms.
3. Use your backyard as a teaching space
   Use trees, gardens, plants, soil and insects as extensions of how all life interacts to mesh with projects and lessons. Your backyard is a core fixture of the natural world in which our kids live.
4. Follow lunchtime protocols
   The value of the lunchtime meal is critical because you and your child are interacting in positive behaviors via preparing the meal; preparing the table; pouring milk and water; sitting down together to enjoy the meal; cleaning-up after the meal; and putting everything away.
5. Playground time
   Bike riding, ball playing, climbing and getting dirty is fun! (Except for mom or dad who has to wash those clothes!) Create natural boundaries in your backyard for play purposes while creating unstructured, free play time that allows imaginations to soar. Or, use this new-found time to learn something new and do it together.
   An outdoor ping pong table, for example, may raise family free time together to a new standard.
6. Nap time
7. Afternoon projects
   Your teacher will be able to help you continue on this positive path.
8. Preparing for Dinner, Family Time and BedTime

Routines should continue as usual.
Shampoo, Rinse and Repeat!
That means we’ll do it again tomorrow!

Summary

This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend significant family time together can be interwoven with Montessori preschool routines, academics, and social development to keep moving forward. Let’s use it now!

La Jolla Montessori School, a private school in La Jolla, CA is located two minutes west from the intersection of I-5 and La Jolla Village Drive. Today you have the option of taking either a private physical or virtual tour of our campus!