Montessori is an educational pedagogy that focuses on the individual child and his needs. The concepts behind the pedagogy were consolidated by Dr. Maria Montessori in the beginning of the 20th century. Her concepts in regards to teaching children based on their needs and personal interest lead to the Montessori educational method of today. There are five areas of learning in a Montessori class:
In this section of work, the child finds materials and Exercises of his every day life from pouring water from a jug to a glass, or learning how to tie a shoelace. These activities help the child to properly take care of himself so that he may feel as though he is independent and does not have to rely on an adult for his basic needs.
Activities in this section allow the child to refine each of his senses. He will become a child who can appreciate color or texture differences, organize his thoughts and objects in his environment and who has a refined sense of pitch from the music he may hear around him.
The child is taught language through a specific progression of lessons where he first becomes aware of the different sounds in a word. The child then learns the language phonetically until the point where he is taught the different “rules” in a given language and the exceptions to those rules he will need to know in order to spell and read fluently.
The child first learns to count from 1-10 through the understanding of the concept that those numbers represent a specific amount. Through each material, the child will learn addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and truly understand what each one means in their deeper sense. Through this method of teaching, Montessori offers the child a strong and solid foundation in the understanding of mathematics.
The Indirect aims is Montessori cultural education is to help the child develop his own personality, adapt to his own culture, and become an independent, useful member of his community. Montessori cultural materials provide individual and group activities, which help the child to acquire knowledge in the areas of cultural, biology (botany and zoology), geography, history and science.
At IQRA International School's (IIS) Montessori, the balanced approach in curriculum designing, focuses not only on the students’ physical and mental grooming, but also on their spiritual uplifting. The activity-based methodology emphasizes creativity along with tarbiyyah as the main feature of IIS Montessori.
The students begin their day with the remembrance of Allah. Arabic starts right from CASA, so that children are able to practice it by the time they reach the higher classes. It is essential for every Muslim, to be able to recite the Qur’an in the perfect manner, hence students of Montessori learn Tajweed and memorize daily duas of our Prophet (s.a.w).
The Montessori approach, which nurtures the natural instincts of a child in cultivating the child’s own desire to learn, harmoniously blends with the Islamic view of a child’s fitrah. Masha-Allah! Now enhanced with our Iqra integration plan, Islamic studies (Tawhid & Aqidah, Ibadah, Iqra’, Hafazan, Hadeeth, Adab & Akhlaq, Fiqh, Seerah, Quranic Arabic/Arabic Language) are integrated into the whole curriculum so our little children may understand the relevance of religion in their daily lives while feeling that it’s super duper cool indeed to be good humans! Insha-Allah!
