The famous Corniche, Emirates Palace Hotel, Luxury Resorts, Breathtaking Mosques, and other adventurous landmarks that are a favorite among many travelers characterize this wonderful capital city of UAE. About 145 km away from the grand city of Dubai, Abu Dhabi is much calmer and a great place to bring up your child. In the last decade, because of a rise in the ex-pat population, the city has taken positive measures to provide international children a great education system that complies with the global standards. Some of the best schools are Indian International Schools that cater to students from all nationalities. These schools have created unique Montessori school curriculums that are holistic and global in their approach.
Montessori school curriculum in Indian International schools
Why is Montessori such a sought-after curriculum for young preschool children? Well, there are many reasons why and the foremost reason is that it is not based on books. Rather, it is a hands-on and experiential learning method that is much more effective. Children retain information in the right manner and they also pick up other key skills that help them to be more successful.
Reading inside Montessori school classrooms
There are various tools and techniques that are used inside a Montessori classroom to help children learn to write and read. Children are first taught the sounds of each letter by using the Phonics method. And they gave them stimulating materials like Sand-paper, for tracing their letters and numbers. This sensory method of learning is much more effective than the rote-learning method.
There are movable alphabet cards that help them to build small words like cat, dog, mat, etc. They also learn to differentiate between vowels and consonants which are smartly segregated into different colored tiles and cards.
They use figurines and pictures of objects to understand their pronunciations that begin with unique blends and letters. Rhyme cards and sentence-building cards are used to help children improve their vocabulary.
Using Phonics to instigate faster reading.
Phonics is a very effective way to help children pick up their reading skills faster. The use of sounds enables children to break even complex words and spell them in the right way. Phonics is an important tool that develops reading fluency. And children are much more likely to recognize words faster than compared to other teaching methods. Phonics reading also builds a child’s patience and concentration and allows them to improve upon their confidence levels.
Indian International schools and their unique Montessori Pedagogy
The rise of technology integration has enabled top schools to provide smart classrooms and virtual learning platforms. These are engaging and fun for young children. There are interesting alphabet and number games and apps that help children to further pick up language and numeracy skills easily.
An opportunity to learn through self correction.
This is a very important Montessori school feature that enables children to correct themselves through constant practice instead of the teacher interfering and correcting the child. This enables children to retain their concepts easily. And since they use materials like sand, paper cards, moving alphabets, and other tools, they can very easily redo their work without erasing anything. There are also other activities like stringing beads and metal inserts. It helps them improve their pencil grasp and touch, eye-hand coordination, and visual-spatial perception.
Individualized to the learning needs of each child.
Since there are so many tools and materials of different difficulty levels the teacher can create a child-centered learning curriculum. And slowly help bridge the gap between a child who is beginning slower than her peer group. And they stage even this process in such a way that children don’t feel the pressure of complex concepts instead they learn at their own pace and enjoy the learning process too.
Conclusion
A Montessori school can be the best thing to happen to your child. When children are more confident in their basic reading and writing skills, very often the transition to higher grades is very smooth hence allowing the child to enjoy the wonderful years of childhood without the fear of failing or without the anxiety of being ridiculed by her teachers. Montessori teachers understand the importance of respecting children and giving them the freedom to explore without any fear or apprehension. Therefore, you, as a parent can rest assured that your child will be in good hands in an Indian International School in Abu Dhabi
