Around the age of three, a child begins to move from the “unconscious absorbent mind ”to the “conscious absorbent mind”. Children at this age have developed a solid command of their native language and their fine and gross motor skills are becoming well developed.

 

The 3-6 program begins with a clean, well-equipped aesthetically pleasing environment full of age-appropriate materials from which the children are free to choose. All of the lessons are self-correcting in order to promote independence. The environment has child-sized furniture to make the room easily accessible and comfortable for the child.

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The Guides in our 3-6 program are trained to work with the individual child, to recognize periods of readiness, to demonstrate correct usage of materials and to give guidance where needed. The classroom Guides respect and protect the children. Guides knows when to step in to set limits or lend a helping hand. Guides support, nurture, and allow children to learn through their activity.

 

Characteristics of a Primary Child (3-6):

• Ability to absorb customs, language, and knowledge directly from the environment

• The desire to learn by doing, moving, touching, manipulating and exploring

• Need for order and routine

• Drive to master and perfect the movement of their bodies

• Quest for independence

• Fascination with the customs of their culture

• Need to learn from concrete experience first before learning in the abstract

 

Primary Goals:

• Love of Learning

• Self-confidence

• Solid academic foundation

• Respect for all living things

• Respect and care for the classroom environment

• Respect for the community

• Respectful Conflict Resolution

• Care of self

• Independence

• Ability to make responsible choices

 

Curriculum/Areas of Study:

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• Practical Life-Basic, Useful, Purposeful Way of Living

  • Pouring, Folding, Carrying, Care & Maintenance of the Classroom, Hygiene, Grace & Courtesy, Control of Movement

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• Sensorial –Aids the child in refining all of their senses

  • Purpose – to acquire clear conscious information in order to make a classification in the environment. This leads to the organizing of the child’s intelligence, which leads to the adaptation of their environment.

    • Visual – Learns how to visually discriminate difference and likenesses between objects

    • Tactile – Learns through touch

    • Baric – Learns to feel the difference of pressure or weight of different/same objects

    • Thermic – Learns to refine the sense of temperature

    • Auditory – Learns to discriminate sounds

    • Olfactory – Learns to distinguish between different and similar scents

    • Gustatory – Learns to distinguish between different and similar tastes

    • Stereognostic – Learns to feel objects and make recognitions based upon what they feel

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• Mathematics

  • Ready to learn the language of mathematics

    • Numeration through quantities and symbols

  • Begin to learn arithmetic concepts through concrete experiments

  • Learns the decimal system

  • Begin the abstraction of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and possibly division and fractions

 

• Language

  • Learns articulation

  • Learns to communicate feelings in well-formed sentences

  • Learns to write thoughts and feelings skillfully

  • Learns to read

  • Learns to be the master of their own words

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• Additional Subjects

  • Grace & Courtesy

  • Cultural Enrichment – Learns to appreciate various cultures and foreign traditions

  • Geography – Learns Continents, Countries, Bodies of Water, Types of Land Masses, & Origins of Animals

  • Science – Learns Botany and Parts of Animals

  • History – Learns timelines, calendars, and seasons

  • Art 

  • Music

  • Foreign Language 

 

• Gross & Fine motor skill development​