Little Hands Montessori Kindergarten

Little Hands Montessori Kindergarten run a full Montessori Programme to unlock the genius in every child, so he is able to discover his potential and limitless capabilities. Through exploration and discovery, the child can experience and marvel at the world with all his senses.

The programme is both individualized and social. We recognize unique and personal talents, at the same time value the social grouping and interaction of our children.Our school promotes holistic learning. Emphasis is placed not just in the child’s intellectual but also the physical, emotional and social development.

At Little Hands Montessori, we aim to provide each child with the right tools to become happy, independent, creative and responsible individuals who can contribute significantly to society.

We use the Montessori Method to achieve these aims as we strongly believe this encompasses what we want to achieve in every child. This paired with our reading and performing arts programmes gives the children a well rounded education and a fantastic balance between work and play.

Our philosophy centers around children – developing their awareness and capacity to learn. We encourage and build each child up to appreciate the relationships (family, friends and society) around them, and how to deal with them confidently.The Montessori Method can only by fully applied once a rapport has built up with the child, family and the teachers at the school. We feel that the school can be an extension of your home – a place where skills and values can be taught through love and consistency.

The school understands the uniqueness of each family. We encourage parents and caregivers to work together with the directresses so that we may help bring out the special gifts within each child.

For the development of independence and concentration, every child has to be able to use the Practical Life Exercises. These are mainly activities that we would normally take for granted. By perfecting these skills, the child will be able to do more for himself. By using his hands and manipulating his environment, he is unlocking his intelligence and enabling its development. The activities are progressive, gradually challenging the child’s abilities according to his level of development. The mastery of these skills will eventually be needed in other areas of class work such as projects and art & craft, and for a general confidence in the child to be able to care of himself.

When using the sensorial equipment, the child learns basic concepts like size, colour and dimension.

Because the activities are both didactic and progressively more challenging, the child can learn at his own pace, moving forward only when he is ready. He is free to choose his activity and is thus able to move efficiently around the classroom.

The sensorial equipment builds a foundation for mathematics and language as it presents the various math concepts in concrete form. The child that has gained experience with the materials is also constantly interacting with the environment, and thus, communicating with the others around him and building up a vocabulary that will be vital for formal lessons later.

Sensory experience is important for the child to form his own understanding of the world.through the senses, the child is able to gain a firmer footing in reality and so begin to desire to know more about his world.

The Math section is a follow up from the Practical Life Exercises and Sensorial sections where foundations in mathematics have been set. The materials require concrete manipulation and also follow a precise sequence. The first few exercises teach the concept of one-to-one correspondence and conservation. Once that has been mastered, the materials go on to introduce the concept of number. Numerous activities can be designed around the materials, and the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplicaton and division) are enjoyed with concrete manipulation.

The preparation for language in this curriculum comes in the form of developmental activities in the other curriculum areas of Practical Life, Sensorial, Art, and Music & Movement, and through games, songs, and rhymes. These activities concentrate on developing listening, speaking, decoding, writing and reading: factors essential for acquiring language.

The materials follow the same basic principles: being progressive, moving from concrete to abstract, and the child is free to develop at his own pace. Since the child is taught the letter sounds phonetically, he is given the advantage of making the discovery of reading for himself.

Little Hands Montessori Kindergarten is an English teaching preschool with Mandarin as a second language. Mandarin is taught every day in all classes from 2-6 years of age. Class length and difficulty age appropriate.

With the younger children we use a lot of singing, games, dancing and interactive play. As the children language skills, motor skills and speech develop we introduce conversational mandarin, writing, simple spelling tests, Han Yu Pin Yin and reading.