Authentic Montessori
Elementary Program
Ages 6-12
Rhyme and Reason Academy aims to cultivate a joyous learning environment, where students are eager to learn, are driven to discover what they love in life, and cultivate a habit of excellence.
Academic Excellence
Through individual lessons with the teacher and their own independent work, children acquire a deep understanding of each subject that goes beyond shallowly memorizing facts for an upcoming test.
Each area of the curriculum comes with scientifically designed learning materials that appeal to the child’s interests and abilities. These materials develop the continuous practice of thinking for oneself, a skill that they keep for their entire life.
Responsibility
The Montessori Elementary classroom gives children meaningful autonomy over their work, and with this freedom comes responsibility.
Neither left adrift to have “all day recess”, nor micromanaged by adults and school bells. Children are taught to organize and manage their time, work, and records.
Love of Learning
Our goal is to cultivate avid, joyful, independent learners, by supporting a child’s natural curiosity and motivation to learn.
Children are given the space to make mistakes and learn from them, without fear. This encourages children to experiment, and find answers to all of those “why?’ questions they keep asking.
Respect for the Individual
At the root of The Montessori Method is a deep respect for the individual.
This respect comes from the knowledge that children are in the process of creating the adult they will become. We know this growth happens a small bit every day and each child will take a slightly different path
We follow the child’s interests and give them the space to move at their own pace- whether fast or slow.
Mixed-Age Classrooms
Multi-age groupings of children provide a dynamic mix of children with different expertise, experiences, and personalities. Children learn to cooperate and collaborate with each other and are given the opportunity to learn from each other.
Read more about mixed-age classrooms on the blog.
Lower Elementary
Ages: 6-9
Montessori elementary classes harness the young child’s natural curiosity, imagination and burgeoning social skills. The teacher tells epic stories (“The Great Lessons“) that give a framework to integrate all of human knowledge around. Throughout the child’s six years of elementary, every new piece of information is connected to the greater whole, so that the child has a useful body of knowledge, not a mass of “random facts.”
The curriculum is unapologetically academic, offering rigorous study in mathematics, geometry, physical science, biology, grammar, history, reading, art appreciation, music, and art production. More than this, the children learn to create meaningful relationships, how to work together, how to make and execute a plan and more. In a Montessori Elementary classroom, the whole child is educated.
The prepared environment offers the child more than the curriculum requires. Individuals and small groups dive passionately into topics that interest them, researching, writing reports, making posters, and completing detailed projects, which they then present to the whole class. In this way the children create a culture of work and knowledge, sharing their discoveries and learning from each other.
The Three-Year Cycle
Montessori classrooms are a three year cycle. We give your child the space to move through the curriculum at their own pace over the course of three years, moving faster through some subjects, and slower through others. Through frequent, informal assessment, the teacher ensures that the children meet or exceed national standards by the end of each three-year cycle.
To ensure the complete curricular scope and sequence is met, and that children are ready for the next phase of their academic journey, they must complete the three-year cycle.
Upper Elementary
Ages: 9-12
The elementary child asks of the adult, “Teach me to think for myself,” and it is at the culmination of the entire elementary program that the child achieves this.
In upper elementary subject areas expand from lower elementary to include western history, sentence diagramming, greek and latin roots, astronomy, geology and more. All areas of study in the lower elementary program are continuously built upon, bringing abstract thinking, new depth, and integrations to familiar material.
By the end of their sixth year, the child will move completely away from the Montessori materials and be able to work abstractly with pencil and paper alone. This is possible because of the deep understanding that comes from years of hands-on learning, which enabled them to create mental models of complex concepts.
Education for life
If you think Rhyme and Reason Academy would be a good fit for you and your family, then let’s start a conversation!
What Will My Child Learn in a Montessori Elementary Classroom?
Every child has an individualized lesson plan that ensures all areas of the curriculum are covered. Time is precious and finite within the classroom, so we focus our efforts on subject areas that are the most valuable.
Click on each subject area to learn more.
