Lighthouse Montessori Academy Mission and Vision
Lighthouse Montessori Academy
We nourish and enlighten the minds, hearts and bodies of children through work in the areas of practical life, sensorial development, math, language, and social studies in English, Spanish, Chinese, and American Sign Language.
Welcome!Lighthouse Montessori Academy is glad to open its doors to the public on Monday June 1, 2015!
Our mission is to assist individuals in their pursuit of light, truth, and understanding. We seek to fire the child's innate light--to enlighten their understanding, nourish the heart, and sharpen the skills. That assistance should provide a period of intensive learning in a stimulating setting where they may access learning opportunities in in their own individual approach. The full realization of human potential is pursued.
Our method is a principled education, Montessori style. Our number one principle/rule is respect for the self, respect for others, and respect for their environment. Through this overriding principle of respect, we also promote other principles such as creativity, endurance, compassion, and joy. Children love to learn, to feel, observe, and experience. When they are placed in a prepared environment, with special materials developed by experts, available in shelves their size and just for them, they feel confident. They can know that within the parameters of respect, they are welcome to touch, feel, and try things out. Children's understanding and love of learning skyrockets.
All subject areas (math language, science, history, geography) are integrated and presented through an integrated approach that brings separate stands of the curriculum together. For example, while studying a map of South America, we may read a book about children in Peru, hold a bowl made of a coconut shell, play and dance to a South American drum, learn the classification of animals. We might sit around a mat made out of Llama, Alpaca and Rabbit. We will feel each texture and compare. We may then examine and build a pyramid. We might write a sign. We might grind some corn with rocks, and make hand made tortillas. The study of pyramids is a natural bridge to geometry for the shape, to geology through the materials of the rock, and to history.
A child grinds Indian corn with a "metate," on a sand-rock like those used by natives of Utah.
Here she is considering whether or not to eat that cricket, one of the primary sources of protein for many native peoples.
Language immersion. Maria Montessori, the inspired genius who founded the century old, world-renowned Montessori method, pointed out in her book the Absorbent Mind, that children ages 10 months to age 6 years, go through a "sensitive period" for language acquisition. A sensitive period is the time when the brain and the body of the child is primed to learn to a level of mastery, and almost effortlessly. Do you plan to send your child to the Wasatch Elementary Chinese Immersion Program? That program starts when the child is at least six. By immersing him or her in Chinese during the sensitive period of language, before age 6, your child may be better prepared to be immersed for it in elementary school. That is the reason everyone encourages parents to read, explain things, and converse with young children in their mother language (English for most). And that is also the reason why Maria Montessori pointed out that children at this age are at a prime time to learn other languages. For example, it is common for European children to speak four languages fluently. This is often the case when one parent's mother language is A, the mother's language is B, they live in country C, and they go to a school where they speak D. They key factor is to have a person who constantly speaks the language they represent.
Being multilingual is fabulous in the globalized society of this world! Just ask Maraly (who is herself multilingual speaking Spanish (her mother language), English (her Academic language), Italian, Portuguese (her languages for her European Studies Major at BYU, a bit of sign language, and now learning Chinese....oh and Legalese if that counts as a language because of her Juris Doctor degree...LOL). But don't worry, she will refrain from all languages, and will speak Spanish to the kids. If you have questions on being exposed to multiple languages, please contact Maraly Frandsen. Durign a teleconference with Ray Graham, PhD, an emeritus BYU linguist, he verified vehemently that "exposing a child to multiple languages in no way harms the child acquisition of another language. The child may forget it after the exposure is over, but because of that early exposure, when the child is exposed again, even as an adult, the acquisition of that language at that time will be much better in quality, and much easier." Dr. Graham himself grew up in Texas when, during first grade, he played soccer during recess with Spanish speaking children. You may also find many reputable journal articles written by linguists and doctors online. The most beneficial activity for your child will be for you to read and talk to him in your mother language.
Here a student is delighted to pose for a picture of her work. She spelled with the movable alphabet (alfabeto móvil), then drew and hand-wrote, words in Spanish that start with "E" such as "elefante, escritorio, estambre."
At Lighthouse Academy children will be immersed in Spanish, Chinese and English. Maestra Maraly will speak her native language to the children, Spanish. Jiaoshi Alex, our native Chinese teacher, from mainland China, will play games with us in Chinese.
Unit Studies. Each month our focus changes in what we call "Unit Studies." This year our focus has been on the sciences. Currently, during the month of May we are focusing on Botany, the study of plants. We are pressing flowers, sprouting beans, reading Jack and the Beanstalk. During our practical life, we are spooning tiny pumpkins, pressing flowers. For science we are collecting leaves, and classifying them. For language we are tracing leaf shapes (pencil grasp, fine motor skills used in writing), and children who are interested may make a leaf booklet. For science we are working on the parts of the leaf, parts of the flower, and parts of the trees puzzles.
This year we covered zoology, anatomy, astronomy, geography, among others.
Child posing for her work after having completed the puzzle of the human body bones. She is wearing a brain hat, used in a game to learn the functions of each area of the brain.
Mixed ages. Our target audience are children ages 3 to 8. Montessori recommends a mixed age, and mixed ability, class. That way the younger children are motivate to follow the example of the older children. The older children are given an opportunity to mentor and care for the younger children. One child may be just learning the parts of the tree, while the other may be writing their own story about a ladybug who lives in a flower (through writing, learning spelling, capitalization and punctuation). The next might be making a watercolor of a Lilly. This is, children in that magical time of nurture and growth when they learn the value of love and work, right and wrong (core phase).
Authentic Materials. We use authentic materials. We use Montessori materials in our classroom. We also have a collection of culture cases from around the world with authentic materials. And even when we use non-Montessori and non-ethnic materials, such as magnetic tiles for geometry, we make sure our materials follow the age-tested Montessori principles of self-correction, good quality, and beauty.
Class size. We envision a nurturing environment where each child can feel confident in their engagements with the wonders of nature, letters, math, cultures, languages and science. For this reason, we currently plan to limit our sessions to a morning session, with a class size capped at 10 children, and we will only be open to the public three days per week.
Our history. We have been operating privately for two years. We are glad to now open our doors to the public starting on June 1, 2015. We will keep class size small.
Our future. During the month of June our topic will be Physical Science and during the month of July Music. August will be birds and bird adaptations. The next academic year 2015-2016 we will be going through the Story of the World with monthly unit studies. Examples include, Egyptian ancient civilization and Africa, the Origin of science and the Greeks, the foundation of America, American Expansion, The Renaissance and Europe, The Conquest of America through Mexico and South America, Australia and the Island of the Sea, and Antartica. In each of these we will learn about great people in history such as Leonardo DaVinci, George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Hellen Keller, etc, their motivation and the principles they espoused. We will learn about geography, botany, and practical life from each. We might get fancy and have a meal preparation class that includes a local recipe, and perhaps even a end of unit celebration with our own presentation and performances (I already have lined up Native American dancers and music performers from BYU for our North American Unit). If you have connections or would like to make a presentation, please contact us!
Our Morning Class, our only class, will be held on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30 am to 11:30 am.
Contact us today!
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