4 WEEKS OF FUN-FILLED LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Date- 23rd April to 19th May 2012.
Age- 2yrs to 13 yrs.
Timing : 9:30am to 3:00pm.

Art and Craft
Tie and Dye
Dramatics
Interactive Music
Modern Dance
Communication Skills
A Splash pool!! Cook outs!!!

&

A Special Show!!

Admissions Open !! Hurry and contact us at  9248487318 or 9246558768

 Email – info@ankurmontessori.com

You are invited to attend an interactive discussion with Dr Gouri Reddy, child psychologist, Niloufer Hospital. The purpose of this discussion is to address your questions regarding any general or specific behaviour of your child.

Date: 10th March 2012 (Saturday)

Time: 9:30 am

Place: Ankur-A Montessori House of Children

We request you to send your queries in advance (not later than Thursday, 8th March 2012).

Thanks.

Ankur Team

This method’s sole purpose is to develop young minds and help them work at their own pace.

Dr Maria Montessori was born in Italy and later went on to become a well-known educator. Her philosophy of education- which bears her name and her methods of educating – is in use today, both in public as well as private schools. Dr. Montessori was an extraordinarily gifted and a different child. She attended medical school, much against the wishes of her father and society, and went on to become the first lady doctor in Italy.

Being the member of a Psychiatric clinic, Dr. Montessori had to visit prisons to study the medical difficulties face by the female inmates, serving their sentences in them along with their children. The children of these women prisoners were weak and suffered from malnutrition, both due to deprivation of proper diet as well as absolute lack of intellectual development.

During one of her visits to the prison, Dr. Montessori noticed a frail, unhealthy and malnourished child observing a dried piece of grain on the floor instead of eating it. This incident was what made Dr. Montessori think about educating children with ‘special needs’ or those the society considered ‘uneducable.’

Another such instance involved the children of the labourers in a poor neighborhood. They were considered a nuisance and a hindrance to the peace and tranquility of that area and became a cause of difficulty for the labourers who could not attend to their daily work.

Dr. Montessori, in order to help these labourers, started a child care center in an old building in the poor neighborhood. She focused on teaching the children ways to develop their skills at their own pace. This resulted in happier children and tension free parents who could attend to their daily work without having to bother about them.

These two incidents made Dr. Montessori to believe that a healthy environment played a major role in child development. The success she had these occasions led her to starting a school for children, which she called ‘Casa dei bambini’ or ‘house of children.’

Later, she went on to devote a lot to the care and the education of mentally challenged children and put her educational theories to test. Her first notable success was when the so called ‘defective’ children, she worked with, not only passed but had above average scores, an achievement described as the first Montessori Miracle. Montessori ‘s response to their success was, “If mentally disabled children could be brought to the level of normal children then why not extend the method to study the potential of normal children?”

The main Principle of Montessori Method is called ‘Self Development’ or enabling the child to develop in the path of learning at the speed he wishes to go in. It has been reported and observed that this method of teaching has helped children learn to read and write much faster as compared to other methods since the Montessori method concentrates on quality rather than quantity.

The success of this method sparked a world-wide interest in Montessori Method of education and the opening of many houses of children.

In 1939, Dr. Maria Montessori reached India with her only son Mario, sparking the beginning of her special relationship with India.  She made Adyar, Chennai her home and with the help of her son conducted sixteen batches of lessons called the Indian Montessori Training courses.

Dr. Montessori lived the remaining years of her life in Netherlands where the headquarters of the AMI or the Association Montessori Internationale are now located.

 A humble homage paid to the greatest Montessorian ever known in the field of Education, by Jayalakshmi Sandeep.

A vibrant personality, Usha  was a qualified AMI Montessorian and Special educator.

She had been one of the first persons to sow the seed (idea ) of Ankur (seedling), a long time ago. She was always encouraging, cheerful and one of the positive forces in the growth of Ankur.

She will always be a part of Ankur.

Specific to music, the children learn about rhythm and timing, pitch (whether the notes are high or low), tempo (how fast and slow the musicis), and dynamics (how loud or soft the music is .  These are the elements that make up the tunes or melodies of the songs they sing, although they may not call them these names!

These elements are discussed with the children in basic terms, however it is not expected that they will necessarily remember or understand them all.  The aim is simply to introduce the words and the concepts through ‘doing’ them in the songs.

Aside from absorbing the basic musical concepts, the music class reinforces and assists in the development of the skills and knowledge the children learn in their daily work activities in the school.

For example, through the class the children: -

• Build on their listening skills
• Further develop their concentration and memory
• Improve their co-ordination and exercise their bodies
• Learn to work together as a group, participate in groups, and gain confidence in themselves
• Strengthen their knowledge of body parts (and their relative positions)
• Reinforce what they have learnt about animals, their sounds, homes behaviours and growth
• Reinforce what they have learnt about the natural world, such as trees, seeds, flowers
• Reinforce counting skills
• Expand their cultural exposure (songs contain language and concepts that can be culturally specific)
• Improve their English language skills (listening, speaking and comprehension)

More than all of this, the music class is about everybody (BOTH the teachers and the children) having fun together.

to
ANKUR OPEN HOUSE DAY

on
Sunday 5th February 2012

between 10:00am and 12:30 pm

at
Ankur- A Montessori House Of children,
414 Mansarovar Villas
Near Trimulgherry RTC Colony,
Hashmatpet,
Secunderabad-500009.

Phone:+91 924 8487318 / +91 924 6558768.
Email:info@ankurmontessori.com

1. Multi-aged environments:  Children are grouped  in multi -aged groups spanning from two and a half to six years of age into” environments “. ( Sounds a little different from the usual term “classrooms” ; a major difference by itself. This encourages co- operation , minimizes competition , and provides opportunities for indirect learning for juniors as they observe older peers or seniors. Terms like “ Juniors and seniors” no way remotely used in traditional schools. It sounds very sweet to hear the little ones use terms like juniors and seniors which helps to build self-confidence in students who serve as role models and provide long term child/adult relationships.
2. Educational materials are concrete to aid the child to learn – order to discriminate physical dimensions, provide opportunities to teach responsibility, co-ordination and inter-dependence and to indirectly prepare for complex and abstract concepts.
3. Each child initially responds to an inner urge to develop both knowledge and build identity through spontaneous activity which charts the course for individualized  lessons.

Following are some of the key differences between Montessori and traditional teaching methods:

In short a child who goes to a Montessori House of Children walks in with a smile on the face and the eagerness to explore new concepts.