Montessori Preschool in Miami and Coral Gables Area Offers Child Care Services, and Free Before and After School Care

Gables Montessori is the only Montessori preschool in the Miami and Coral Gables area that offers childcare services before and after school to accommodate the needs of the parents. We provide a Montessori bi-lingual program dedicated to the education of Preschool children, ages 3-6 and an early education Toddler program for children ages 18 months to 3 years, in a prepared environment of learning and discovery according to the teachings of Dr. Maria Montessori. We provide Mandarin (Chinese) language classes as part of our regular curriculum. We use ESOL strategies to facilitate learning for speakers of other languages. We are proud to have a number of children from other countries that are quickly learning to speak English and Spanish.

Both of our Preschool and Toddler Programs have fully equipped Montessori environments. The curriculum is individualized and designed to help the child grow at their own pace, gain self-confidence, independence, develop physically and socially, as well as promote academic achievement.

All of our Directresses are certified by the American Montessori Society for the level of programs that they direct. Gables Montessori School is a Full Member of the American Montessori Society.

The Montessori curriculum

The Montessori curriculum is based on the scientific method and follows the preschool child’s inherent sensitivity to absorb knowledge from the prepared environment through the manipulation of precise didactic materials. The teacher acts as a directress, the dynamic link that connects the child with the materials. The lessons are presented one on one in a developmentally appropriate sequential order over a span of 3 years. Through critical observation and evaluation, and responding to individual needs, the teacher is able to motivate the child in attaining fullest learning potential.

The Montessori curriculum promotes heightened confidence and self-esteem, self-direction and independence, enhances both social and emotional development, and affords a cognitive and sensor motor preparation for future academic excellence. The child is empowered to learn. It educates the whole child.

The Montessori curriculum includes practical life, phonics-based language and vocabulary training, mathematics, science, sensorial training, geography and cultural studies, gardening, art, music and movement. By utilizing concrete representations of abstract concepts, the child is better equipped for problem solving and critical thinking processes. The learning environment is specifically designed to meet the children’s needs and abilities. They are challenged in developmentally appropriate ways, each working at their own pace, in a supportive and nurturing environment. The Preschool and Toddler mixed age groups enable the children to learn from one another, take responsibility and respect each other’s abilities. There is cooperative learning and active role modeling. The children are free to explore and discover in a prepared environment…to develop a sense of order, purpose, process, completion and success

At the Preschool level

At the Preschool level, the hands on approach includes practical life applications such as going to the bathroom without help, preparing snacks and pouring drinks, washing dishes, buttoning, lacing, zipping, tying shoes, greeting a person, and cleaning up after themselves.

The phonics-based language and vocabulary training includes many skills and tools, such as grammar symbols, key letter combinations, writing insets, sandpaper letters, moveable alphabet., and matching sounds with pictures.

Sensorial training includes skills and tools to enhance concentration, sense of order, and sensory impressions such as sound boxes, touch boards, secret box, geometric cabinet, baric tablets, pink tower and fabric box. These tools are used to promote dexterity, visual discrimination, and auditory distinction, gradations of texture, temperature, color and weight.

Mathematics at the preschool level includes counting, memory games, geometric solids, money, binomial cube, separating, time, number rods, golden bead bars and squares for discerning decimal quantities of 1, 10, 100, and 1000, measurement, comparing, spindle boxes and trinomial cube.

Geography includes land and water globes, puzzle maps, flags, landform cards, and cardboard control charts.

Science includes botany, biology, and gardening. Other subjects include cultural studies, art, music and movement.