The Montessori method was created by Maria Montessori in the early 1900's. Dr. Montessori discovered that children teach themselves and each other. Her research led her to design a "prepared environment" where children choose from a number of developmentally appropriate activities.

Montessori emphasizes doing, rather than just sitting and listening. Children learn at their own pace, making learning an exciting process of discovery, and leading to concentration, motivation, self-discipline and a love of learning itself. Children are free to move about the room to pick different activities, in any subject--math, language, science, history, geography, art, music, etc.

Teachers are versed in all subjects, and trained to direct and oversee all the kids doing different activities at once. A Montessori teacher recognizes a child's readiness to learn, and is a guide to him or her as the student pursues in interest or passion. The teacher uses individual or small-group lessons and a prepared environment to fuel the students' learning.

The program puts children in broader age brackets, according to learning styles and interests. Children ages 3-6 are focused on the concrete ideas of the world right in front of them, so they learn well together.

Around age 6, a child will start thinking about more abstract ideas (like "how did someone figure out that the sun is 93,000,000 miles away...?"). We watch for this jump in thinking, and then move them into the age 6-9 group. Children 9-12 also match up well for their learning style. For every student, our teachers are attentive to each child, facilitating her or his interests and learning needs.

Discovery Academy is a fully-accredited private elementary school. We comply with all requirements set by the federal, state and local governments for elementary education.

Does it work...? Not only are our students typically happy and well-behaved, they often read, write and calculate beyond what conventional wisdom says would even be interesting to them.