Joy in learning
MARÍA MONTESSORI
Montessori Rayhue
We are a nursery and pre-school with an open door policy, that follows the principles and philosophy of María Montessori.
For more than 30 years we have been promoting the joy of learning, creativity, freedom, tenderness and diversity in children aged 1 to 6 years.
About Us
The Rayhue Montessori nursery and pre- School was founded in 1988 by Elena Young, Sarita Domínguez and Lulú de Heeckeren, who were later joined by Mónica Miranda, teachers who graduated from the Catholic University of Chile, specializing in Montessori education.
Our team is comprised of university educated nursery school teachers who have specialized in the Montessori Method; some of them have earned post-graduate degrees.
Our guides are trained in respecting each child as unique, conducting them in their learning, and attending to them individually and collectively. We seek to provide children the right help when they need it, offering Montessori instructional material for all areas of development.
Nursery school teachers’ instructors and official internship center of Catholic University of Chile.
Montessori Method
María Montessori considered that an environment was necessary in which children would find the appropriate elements and activities to satisfy and stimulate all aspects of their development.
This environment strengthens all areas, such as the sciences, mathematics, language, art, practical living and the senses among others. Yet at the same time, living peacefully with others, developing self-esteem, habits of order, perseverance, concentration, a love for work, autonomy, leadership and a taste for learning are equally important in the educational foundation.
Children are guided by adults, who conduct different activities, pose challenges and require work on an ongoing basis.
Montessori materials are used according to particular aptitudes of the child for learning, which María Montessori identified as the “absorbing mind.” It can be compared to a sponge that absorbs information from the organized environment.
The method is congruent with current scientific findings, especially neuroscience, which say that from 0 to 4 years of age, humans form fundamental cerebral structures on which their future intellectual and emotional progress will be sustained.
Each child is born with a genetic intellectual potential and only in this period can it be augmented through neuronal connections. A child can only make these connections properly in a prepared, stimulating environment where the child can interact with other children, touch, see and experiment with different materials.
The environment constitutes the basis for motivation and creativity that will allow a developing child to improve his cognitive, affective and emotional capacities.
The integration of children of different ages and the inclusion of children with different skills and needs is an essential part of the Montessori methodology.
Parents
It is a great joy and, at the same time, an enormous responsibility for us to be co-educators of your children with you in the pre-school stage. This is the most important stage in the development of human beings.
We are particularly interested in making parents participants in this stage of the nursery and preschool activities while simultaneously keeping them constantly informed of those activities. This is the reason why we invite you during the whole year to visit us in order to observe your children while they are working in their classrooms.
We have English teachers who instruct the children twice a week during the school day.
Admission
Children and parents are invited during the whole year to visit us in order to experience how to work in a Montessori’s environment, prior to enrollment.
Photo Gallery
We invite you to relive the different activities that we have developed in our nursery and preschool. We will be storing here the pictures of the special moments that we have shared.
Gabriel García Márquez
“I was lucky that they opened a Montessori School in Aracataca in those years whose teachers stimulated the five senses through practical exercises. It was playing at being alive. I learned to appreciate smell, whose power of nostalgic evocation is overwhelming. The palate, which I refined to the point where I have described in my books beverages that taste like a window, breads that taste like a trunk, teas that taste like mass. In theory, it is difficult to understand, but those who have experienced it comprehend immediately. I do not believe there is a better method than Montessori to sensitize children to the beauties of the world and to awaken in them a curiosity about the secrets of life.”