Children’s House
Mississippi Valley Montessori School offers half-day, through lunch and full-day options. All options are five days a week so children can develop independence, confidence, and responsibility toward the community of children and their Children’s House. Five days a week also provides ample time (without the interruptions of adult life) for children to explore and learn with hands and minds in an environment specifically designed for their developmental needs.
MVMS offers flexible options to fit your family’s needs.
Half Day Options
Morning Half Day Program (8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.)
Children arrive between 8:20-8:30 and greet their friends and teachers. Throughout the morning, children choose work that they have been presented in the areas of practical life, sensorial learning, mathematics, and language, as well as in art, music, geography, and biology. The guide presents new activities to the children individually or in small groups. The children also teach other children work that they know. Each morning is a buzz of purposeful activity and social interaction as children work with energy, concentration, and joy.
Children learn to cooperate, help others, and resolve conflicts. Children also choose restful activities (such reading a book, talking to friends, or having a snack) as they feel the need. At the end of the morning cycle, the children do their classroom jobs (making sure their environment in back in order and clean) and they may hold a large group collective with their guide. At 11:30, the morning children leave for the day.
Lunch and Play (11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.)
Children who stay through lunch or for the full day spend until 11:30 in the Children’s House (see morning half-day program for details), working and helping create a community of learners and helpers. Following their morning work cycle, children go outdoors to play in our beautiful backyard to play until 12:20. While outdoors they can engage in variety of open ended play including bikes, sledding, digging in our sand pit and pretend play.
At 12:20, children return to their classrooms to eat with the teachers. Lunch is leisurely, a time for conversation at small tables. We encourage you to provide low-processed and a variety of foods, something appetizing and healthy (see our guidelines on lunch). After lunch, they wash their dishes and clean up. Children enrolled in Lunch and Play leave for the day at 1:00.
Full Day Options
Full Day Program Napping (8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
Some children still need a nap when they start the program, and some others occasionally need to rest in the afternoon. Sleep is paramount for a child’s optimal development. The nap program is a time of routines, in which the child gets the comfort of stories and light music before napping, but it is flexible enough to include children who may need to rest occasionally after a busy morning. At 1:30, children who take naps do so in the room adjoining the lunchroom.
Full Day Program Second Work Cycle (8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
Non-Napping children ages spend afternoons having a second work cycle in our Children’s house delving more deeply into their work. Incorporated into this part of the day is substantial time in our outdoor natural surroundings. We are fortunate to have a beautiful yard with a big garden, raised beds and a greenhouse for the children to tend to. We have a wooded area and pond as well. Our proximity to Dodge Nature Center affords us the opportunity to hike on their property and take advantage of the farm animals, trails, pond docks, rapture center, reptile rescue center, and woods.
