The Magic of the Third Year
A universal aspect of an authentic Montessori Primary Classroom is the 3-year cycle, a mixed age group of children ages 3 - 6 years of age; children experiencing the same developmental needs, growth, and milestones.
The first year of the primary classroom (the 3-year old child) is easing into the second half of the 1st Plane of Development. This child is still absorbing their environment with great intensity. While they have grown tremendously in physical independence, they are not yet masters of controlling their impulses.
By the second year, the child has gained confidence and understanding of their place in their world, entering the second year with assurance and a sense of certainty. Building on the foundations, the child can independently direct their day much more consistently. Lessons and works become a bit more involved.
The third year of the primary classroom is the culmination of all the foundational works, the confidence that has been gained and built, and the lessons that have been given.
This third year is, quite frankly, magic. Looking at those three years one can see the children arriving as Explorers, curiously and sometimes cautiously exploring the environment as they gain skills and confidence. They come back their second year as Experimenters, practicing those skills, gaining understanding. The ending that magical last year as Experts. The third-year child is ready to put those foundations to use and become the classroom leader, both academically and socially. We witness self-confidence emerge together with good work habits that have cultivated through fostering curiosity and love of learning by offering real self-directed learning which puts the child in a position of readiness.
How does this third year compare to traditional kindergarten?
What we offer in the Montessori environment is continued individualized lessons based on each child’s specific and unique needs, the opportunity for each child to experience leadership in an environment they have grown up in, continued support in developing the child’s inner drive to learn and discover, fostering independence through the opportunity to direct their own day, time and support to spend as much time as necessary with challenging skills until true understanding and skill is achieved, the freedom to move at their own pace whether that is spending a bit of extra time mastering a skill or the ability to move forward to the next skill.
This third year is a rite of passage for the children.
It is a wonderful time for the child to experience the coming together of all the skills learned: physical, cognitive, social, and emotional. By the end of the third year, the child emerges self-confident, self-aware, and ready to continue to take on challenges, because he/she has become comfortable with the notion of work, concentration, and accomplishment.