ABOUT OUR SCHOOL
ABOUT OUR SCHOOL
Welcome to Chrismont Montessori Academy! We are state licensed and certified from preschool through grade 6, serving children 3 through 12 years of age. Chrismont began in 1986, located in the First United Methodist Church in Belmar (with which we are not affiliated).
We offer foreign language, art and music. Everyone involved at the school knows each individual child by name. Parents are frequent visitors and presenters in our class.
Communication between home and school is done on a formal basis with conferences twice a year as well as informal, daily face-to-face interaction between parent, child and teachers. The children become relaxed and secure in a consistent, stable environment at school.
Montessori classrooms are structured in three-year age groupings. At Chrismont we have children ages 3 to 6 in our Primary Classroom, and ages 6 to 9 and 9 to 12 in our Elementary Program. This methodology creates an open learning situation where children can grow at their own rate, benefiting from older children's example. We get to know each child and their unique learning style so we can best serve their needs.
Dr. Maria Montessori established a philosophy of education by observing children. She devised a method based on direct interaction between the child and an enriched, "prepared environment." She found that children go through "Sensitive Periods," times when they are irresistibly drawn to experience and perfect certain skills, such as language, sensory growth or sense of order. Because of these sensitive periods, your child will learn more than at any other time of his/her life. Physical growth, social adaptability, emotional stability as well as cognitive abilities are developing. We follow Maria Montessori's Philosophy of educating the "whole child." Children learn by using their senses. They need "hands-on" opportunities to investigate and experiment with their environment. They have a unique "Absorbent Mind," they take in information unconsciously. Process is what is important to them, the doing, not the end product.
At Chrismont Academy, we offer your child a concrete foundation for learning. What children are exposed to in these early years makes a dramatic impact on their future. They see learning as an exciting, enjoyable activity. They become self assured, independent thinkers. "Education for Life" is Montessori's goal.
