Most of our new families have not experienced a Montessori school before, so this is the first out of a four-part blog series to show you with pictures and short descriptors what each level is like at Sunrise Montessori! We are starting our series with Nido, which means nest in Italian (Dr. Maria Montessori, who created the Montessori curriculum and philosophy, was Italian).
In a traditional Montessori school, there are four age groups: Nido (infants), Bambini (older infants up to 18 months), Pre-Primary (18 – 36 months) and Primary (2.8 – 5 years). Two of our rooms are Nido, two are Bambini, five are Pre-Primary and six are Primary along with an after school/summer camp program for elementary students. Sunrise Montessori is a big school with a small school feel. Other typical child care centers and Montessori schools of our size have up to 6 floaters to help support the children and teachers. We currently have 10 and are interviewing to add another. Why almost double? So we can have three floaters assigned to our four baby rooms. This allows our babies to get to know them better and vice versa, creating a less stressful environment for infants who have stranger anxiety.
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For the Nido room, we follow individual schedules for each child provided by the parents. With so much growth happening at these stages, individual feeding and sleeping schedules are important to ensure each infant is comfortable and their needs are being met. As you would expect, our babies in the Doves and Ducklings classrooms explore their world by watching what’s going on around them, listening to their teachers speak, and touching with their hands and mouth. As they evolve and master new concepts, they gravitate towards new skill development, from manipulating objects to movement.
The quality of our childrens’ experience at our school is paramount in all that we do. The State allows up to 10 babies with two caregivers. At Sunrise, we have our own ratios. In our Nido classroom, we practice a ratio of up to 8 babies with two teachers. Our four Nido teachers are also mothers. 🙂 We find this helps immensely in the quality of care given and received.
Our Doves and Ducklings participate in art projects and discover what different crafts feel like. This month’s big art project in the Ducklings’ classroom was painting a turkey for Mom and Dad…with their feet!
Our babies get outside, too! Wagon rides happen at least once a day. Fresh air and Vitamin D are important! So are seeing leaves fall and feeling the wind on their faces.
Feeding time is always a treat! From snuggles with one of their teachers to eating lunch all by themselves with friends, food is a happy constant. Gotta keep those tummies full so they have the fuel to learn and grow!
Of course, you can’t have a baby room without diapers. Our teachers change their babies’ diapers about every two hours. Diapering may be seen by others as a negative, but we see it as an opportunity to give our babies a sense of security and a feeling of being cared for. Chattering with our babies as they get our full attention makes this time special, too.
After a busy morning, nap time is a chance to download all of their new experiences and grow! Each baby has their own crib and crib sheets are replaced daily. Soft music and tummy rubs calm our babies into slumber. Each baby sleeps as much as they need since each baby’s schedule is customized just for them and with all the change going on in their little bodies and minds, we adjust often.
After they wake up, more fun is to be had with different sensory materials that we regularly rotate in and out of the classroom. We don’t ever want our babies getting bored.
And no day is complete without a story! Language is spoken consistently throughout the day to help our babies develop their speaking skills and reading a book is not only fun to listen to, it’s filled with interesting pictures and vibrant colors! We also use sign language with them so that we can learn what they need or want.
We hope you enjoyed this little tour of our Nido program! Next week’s post…Bambini!
