the vILLAGE MONTESSORI difference
“Montessori is an education for independence, preparing not just for school, but for life.” - Maria Montessori
why choose us?
Village Montessori is meant to feel like a cozy home, not a vast institution. (It started in our owner's home.) If you're looking for a small setting where your child will experience opportunities to practice independence, grace and courtesy and learn Christian values alongside the best academic tag team in Fort Mill, SC, you're in the right place!
The Tag Team: Montessori + Science of Reading (SOR)
Benefits of Montessori
The many benefits of the philosophy include a hands-on, child-directed approach, fostering independence, focused attention on one work at a time, work cycle completion, mixed-age classrooms (primary ages 3-6), leadership development and building a community of learners, turn-taking, respecting self, others and the environment, developing self-discipline that comes from within, and fostering confidence in learning so that your child can develop emotionally and socially to propel them through their educational journey.
*Fine motor development & emotional development: in this digital age we are finding many children who join VMPS are lacking in these two areas and we attribute this to screens. Screens offer zero fine motor practice and interpersonal problem-solving or self-entertainment practice. They also negatively affect development in other areas like oral language and over-use can lead to childhood myopia. It is for these reasons we do not allow children to use screens in the classroom and encourage parents to limit or eliminate screen time at home, especially for children under age 3.
Science of Reading (SOR)
Only at VMPS will your child receive explicit instruction in all five areas of reading development within the structure of SOR. Reading development is a critical element of early childhood education because our country is in a reading crisis. Our literary specialist oversees this program along with our owner.
To address the crisis, SC and NC will be more aligned with SOR in 2024-2025. Since our states are mandating SOR-instruction and teacher training, our preschools should be following suit. VMPS was an early adopter of SOR in 2020 thanks to our literacy specialist and owner's vision for offering the strongest reading program known to man.
Give your child a head start with our exclusive methodology of SOR+Montessori. We use the Montessori materials to reinforce the hands-on learning aspect of SOR to help children learn to read the way the brain wants to learn.
Global Enrichment Classes
VMPS welcomes families and staff from many different regions of the world. We are known for celebrating a ‘continent a month’ where we teach children about other cultures, people and countries through our enrichment classes. Weekly classes include art, “veggiecation” and music - all of which are informed by the continent theme. Countries currently represented in our staff and student body are India, China, Romania, Kosovo, Russia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Germany, Italy and more!
Christian Values
Our leadership team leads with Christian values in their everyday interactions with children, staff and families. Values are not just words or what we believe, they are actions. We are involved in our churches and communities; we care about not only meeting our families’ needs, but making them raving fans. We take constructive criticism to heart and then take action. We are committed to improving our processes and developing our team members as professionals in the early childhood education field as well as in our personal lives.
Finally, we desire a family feel amongst our staff and student families. Because we have this family mindset, it enables our entire team to work together to prepare children for their next classroom or grade level and most importantly, to develop in them a love for learning so that they become confident and respectful learners by the time they graduate from our program.
Our Mission Statement
Our mission to develop productive, independent, and respectful lifelong learners. Rooted in holism, our philosophy aims to foster cognitive, spiritual, emotional, social and physical development to prepare children for school and for life.
Our Core Values
Simply put, our core values are love and integrity. We will always strive to handle matters lovingly, and we will always strive to be truthful and pure-hearted in word and deed.
At Village Montessori We Strive To:
- Earn parents’ trust and confidence that their child is safe and happy
- Respect the child and his or her place of development
- Foster grace and courtesy, independence and love for one another
- Develop a love of learning and a sense of confidence in each child about their abilities