Our AMI teachers carefully observe their children in the Primary environment, identifying their interests and abilities and developing personalized learning plans tailored to each child’s needs. They guide the learning, introducing new lessons and levels of difficulty as appropriate. The teacher offers the encouragement, time, and tools needed to allow children’s natural curiosities to drive learning, and provides choices that help them learn, grow, and succeed.

After participating in a demonstration of a material from a teacher, your child is free to choose activities and to work on their own or with a partner for as long as they wish. Since there is usually only one of each material, your child will develop patience and self-control as they wait for a material to become available.

The Primary Program curriculum follows a 3-year sequence. Because the teacher guides your child through learning at their own pace, their individualized learning plan may exceed the concepts they would be taught in a classroom environment in which all children learn the same concept at the same time.

As children move forward,  they develop the ability to concentrate and make decisions, along with developing self-control, courtesy, and a sense of community responsibility.

In Montessori schools, academic growth is seen as just one part of children’s healthy development. The method nurtures their social, emotional, and physical growth, ensuring that they are, as Dr. Maria Montessori put it, “treading always in the paths of joy and love.”