Educational Programs

Our Montessori school creates a carefully crafted prepared environment where every element of the curriculum, the materials, and the classroom is designed to engage the young learner. The materials respond to the developmental needs of our children while building basic concepts and skills. Much of the work is self-correcting, freeing the teacher to carefully observe and keep detailed records of the progress made by the children. SWMA classrooms are places that feel like home and facilitate cooperative learning and integrated curriculum.
Consistent with Montessori practice, each SWMA classroom includes a multiage grouping of children. The three-year age span in each class provides a family like grouping where learning can take place naturally. More experienced children share what they have learned while reinforcing their own learning. Each classroom presents a prepared environment with materials and activities designed for all the levels of learning within that age group. 

SWMA Programs

South Walton Montessori Academy offers the following programs

• Toddler - ages 14 months – 3, Ms Jessica
• Early Childhood - ages 3-6, Ms Tricia
• Lower Elementary - ages 6-9, Ms Catherine
• Upper Elementary - ages 9-12, Mr David

Four classrooms and an administrative office are housed within a temporary learning facility on the north side of Rosemary Beach. Plans for building the new learning facility are taking shape. Our campus includes three large buildings with large outdoor decking, two playgrounds and gardens.

SWMA classrooms consist of children mixed in ages within a 3-year development span. Mixing ages enables the older, more socially advanced and capable children to become role models for the younger ones. A feeling of community develops as younger children are aided by older ones and as older children learn nurturance and leadership through their experiences with younger children. In a mixed-age classroom, children can choose friendships based on common interest, not just age.

“The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult.”
Maria Montessori

Curriculum

Each classroom presents a prepared environment with materials and activities designed for all the levels of learning within that age group. The Montessori-based curriculum embraces the full development of the youngster, addressing all aspects (physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual) of the whole child. The curriculum is carefully structured and subject areas are joined together for integrative learning. Students become actively engaged in their studies as they develop self-discipline and an internal sense of purpose and motivation. The classroom extends out of doors where children learn about the natural environment (explore nature, tend gardens and birdfeeders, measure rainfall, etc.), play freely with friends, and participate in community events.

Main areas of curriculum include:

• Practical Life: care of self and the environment
• Sensorial: the understanding of shapes and relationships across senses
• Math: from simple arithmetic and geometry and moves up to algebra and advanced geometry
• Language: reading, writing, grammar, spelling, and self-expression
• Cultural Subjects: science, geology, geography, astronomy, history, zoology, botany, biology, chemistry, and physics

Other areas of curriculum essential to the education of the whole child include movement and physical education, music and drama programs, art programs, foreign language studies, science exploration, and social experiences. Many of these activities are included within classroom programs on a regular basis, while some are offered as extracurricular classes during the course of the school year.

“To consider the school as a place where instruction is given is one point of view. But to consider the school as a preparation for life is another. In the latter case the school must satisfy all the needs of life”.
Maria Montessori