Via The Herald Republican:
The Metropolitan School District of Steuben County’s Montessori Early Learning Center is now enrolling 3-5-year-olds for 2022-2023 preschool.
Open houses are scheduled for the coming weeks for interested families and community members.
The open house dates are Tuesday, May 12 and May 24. All open houses are from 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Entry for the open houses is at door No. 5 at Carlin Park Elementary School on Williams Street at Mechanic Street in Angola.
For more information and pre-registration link visit: bit.ly/msdelc.
The Early Learning Center opened this past fall.
Located in the Carlin Park Elementary building, the Early Learning Center is the Metropolitan School District of Steuben County’s new pre-kindergarten program that utilizes the Montessori method, an approach that focuses on providing a learning environment that cultivates a desire to learn and complements the natural stages of child development.
“Typically, everything in the Montessori environment is designed to meet a very specific purpose. So you won’t find anything in our classrooms that isn’t purposeful for learning,” ELC Director Jami Hubbard said for a story that published in November. “Even in the traditional sense, Montessori is filled with more academic pieces. Lots of focus on literacy and language and math, sciences, all of those things.”
Hubbard is also an instructor at the center and leads one of the classrooms, where her children roam the classroom to engage their interests with a variety of different educational activities that cover not only basic reading and math but also other life skills, such as teamwork and plant care.
“They have freedom to choose what they work on during the day,” Hubbard said. “We call it freedom within limits. They’re able to decide what they work on, and then there’s specific criteria. So, if they misuse the materials or they’re damaging or disrespectful, then that material becomes closed and they can try again tomorrow.”
For inquiries or to schedule a tour contact Hubbard via email jhubbard@msdsc.us or call 665-9777.
The school district is in the process of updating the facilities at Carlin Park, partly to better accommodate the Montessori school. Part of the project, which is being advertised for bidders in today’s edition, calls for construction of four toilet rooms for pre-school aged children.