The Montessori Association of New Zealand has prepared a guide for parents who are looking into Montessori Education for their children. Please follow the link to find a copy of it.  We have also summarised some of the important parts for you to access easily.
http://bit.ly/2meWmFI

Choosing Montessori?
It is good to be fully informed before choosing a school for your child. Montessori is a philosophy and you find it is implemented differently in every school. You can read more about the Montessori philosophy in our resources section. Many parents want to know if the school they are looking at follows the Montessori philosophy in a true manner.

At South Wellington Montessori School, we pride ourselves on providing an authentic Montessori learning environment. If you would like to come and observe a class in action, please get in contact with us to arrange a time.

Montessori for 2-6 year
When deciding if Montessori is for your child and family there are some key differences to expect. Entering a preschool classroom, you will find a mixed age range of children.

At South Wellington Montessori School children can start at age 2 years old (depending on their readiness). When observing our classroom in action not only will you see children who are doing their own work but also older children helping younger children. We refer to the classroom activities the children do as work. Work in Montessori is an activity the child has chosen to do. These activities have a purpose to help with the development of the child. We offer a wide range of activities for the children to take part in. This includes practical life activities, studies in the area of zoology, geography, language and maths, as well as outdoor work. In a Montessori classroom, children freely choose their activities, they are deeply engaged in their work. This happens during the morning hours, and is called the three hour work cycle.

At South Wellington Montessori School we offer an extended curriculum. Within this the children will use their gained knowledge from the classroom and be able to translate it to the world they live in. We do this by introducing a topic each term. The topic we choose comes from what the children display an interest in the term before. To then learn about this chosen topic we introduce arts, crafts and drama, books and songs to teach the children.

Some of these topics have an ongoing effect, such as our study on the garden. We now have an outdoor garden which we can see grow and use the food it produces. In this study, we looked into the life cycle of a butterfly. We now have swan plants in our garden and continue to see the life process of the butterfly from egg to the time it hatches from the chrysalis.