Our Programs

PRIMARY

Mornings 5 Days per week: 8:15-1:00
Extended Day (5 year olds, or 3rd year): 1:00-3:00

Primary (also known as the Children’s House) is a community of children from three to six years who live and learn together in a prepared environment. This environment offers choices of individual activities that aid in what Maria Montessori called the child’s work of “self construction.”

The rich classroom environment fosters developing leadership skills as the older, more experienced students mentor and help the younger ones. The curriculum and prepared environment encourage responsibility, accountability, cooperation and critical thinking skills.

Our AMI certified teacher helps the children learn about the world they live in. Concepts are learned at the child’s own pace, using hands-on sensorial exploration of the unique Montessori materials. Sequential lessons in the different curriculum areas are presented to each child when appropriate for their individual development.

Academic concepts are learned through work with the unique Montessori materials. There are five main integrated areas of study: practical life, sensorial, language, math, cultural studies/geography.

ELEMENTARY

8:15-3:00 5 Days per week

The Montessori Elementary curriculum is designed as an integrated whole serving the needs of children from age 6 to 12. The continuity of the curriculum allows individual children to move through the various subject areas at the pace that is best for them, building confidence and genuine self-esteem based on proven performance. The activities that follow the structured presentations given by the teacher include work choices that appeal to the full range of learning styles. Because the curriculum engages the children’s deep interest and meets their need to learn through exploration in a variety of learning styles and rates, classroom assignments and extra school work assigned specifically to be done at home become unnecessary. The children work spontaneously on their interests both at home and at school.

In the Lower Elementary years (6-9), the children work more concretely, with more reliance on the Montessori materials. As the ability to think abstractly matures in the Upper Elementary years (9-12), the sequences of lessons lead more and more into work on paper and into self-initiated research projects. The Montessori materials then become tools which the children can use to refresh their memories of earlier work or to explore creatively some advanced extension of an earlier study. For example, the material that younger children use to learn the rudiments of arithmetic are reinterpreted to learn algebra and extended to learn arithmetic in non-decimal bases.

As the child’s mind, will, and self-discipline mature it becomes possible for the child to undertake ambitious projects requiring the integration of knowledge from across the curriculum and well-developed collaboration skills. The Teacher then becomes more and more a consultant to the children, helping them organize and find resources to meet both the requirements of local curriculum standards and the challenges of their self-initiated projects.

The Montessori Elementary curriculum takes an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to enable children to make sense of their world. The Elementary child’s question, “I wonder why …” is answered by interactive lessons in botany, zoology, physics, mathematics, language, history, and geography.

MCHF has a mixed aged Elementary classroom with children ages 6 to 12. Children make the transition from the Primary classroom either in September or in some cases when they are 6 and the Teachers feel they are ready to spend more time with work in the Elementary classroom. MCHF has a rich history or children who have not attended the Primary program but have joined the Elementary community from another school or program.

After School Program

MCHF has various options for working parents ranging from part time to full time. Starting at 1:00 or 3:00 and ending at 3:00 or 5:00. MCHF rents special space from Franktown UMC for the use of our After School Programs. Young children nap after having a full Montessori morning. After 3:00 both groups enjoy outdoor play, games, crafts and indoor play.

Summer Camp

MCHF offers an 8 week Summer Camp for Primary aged children (3-6). Parents can enroll in all weeks or individual weeks. The classroom is not full of Montessori Materials as during the school year however many of the concepts like structured work cycles and purposeful hands on activities are.

Our Summer Camp is open to children who do not attend MCHF during the school year. Each year the dates are different. Please contact the office for more details.

Depending on enrollment and need sometimes MCHF offers Elementary aged (6-12) Camp. Contact the school if you are interested.

NEW PROGRAM Fall 2023
TODDLER