The “Absorbent Mind” is the way Maria Montessori describes our “Toddler” class. She compares the toddler’s mind to a sponge because the children literally absorb information from the environment. The Bilingual Montessori School of Sharon environment emphasizes both materials and activities scaled to the children’s size and abilities, and where they can see the world using their five senses as tools. The toddler is not concerned about academic pursuits; he is rather focused on his own world. Our environment gives them the opportunity to have hands-on experience with their world.

The toddler’s main interest is to discover and explore the world around him. Our program encourages their sense of discovery by giving them opportunities to develop movement, and activities to develop their independence. We establish a safe and colorful environment with a variety of educational materials to help them happily develop their individuality.

This is the age the toddlers begin to express their thoughts and building their character. Our program strongly focuses on the four main areas Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, and Math to guide the children toward the work they choose. The toddlers develop a sense of independence and use the following to enhance their language skills and social development: reading, music, dancing, water play, climbing, and cooking. We also respect the toddler’s independence as we introduce self-directed activities that include drawing, painting, and individual work that will help them develop and sustain their creativity.

The toddler’s development is based on their own curiosity and readiness. Our program includes “plenty of fun” as one of the bases of teaching them. We provide the parents a notebook in which we describe the children’s daily activities, care, and progress to help follow this important stage in their life and to help to cross the bridge to preschool.