The emotional stability, physical refinement and intellectual capabilities, which are characteristic of the three-year old, aid his transition from the Toddler to the Primary environment. Still very much a sensorial learner, the Primary child usually makes his transition joyfully, for there is much in this program to stimulate the senses.
Now capable of a greater degree of inhibition of movement and intake of sensory stimuli, the Primary child requires an environment which includes expanded academic curriculum areas and many new practical life and sensory exercises. The child of three is able to deal with more freedom, if it is coupled with concurrent responsibilities. He works well independently and in groups. As the child is now able to care for his own physical needs and handle successfully larger groups of peers, the directress’ task becomes easier and the ratio in this program becomes correspondingly higher.
The Primary child has begun to make great advances toward abstract thinking. As the directress is freed from the constant supervision of his physical needs, she may direct her attention toward the academic curriculum, which further develops the child’s abstraction skills. In the child-sized Primary environment, a broad diversity of both academic and practical skills is presented to support not only the intellectual but the spiritual self. The three-year old through first grade curriculum includes domestic and foreign language, mathematics, reading, writing, science, and geography as well as sensorial and cultural lessons.
Extracurricular activities allow each child’s creativity to come alive through art, music, Spanish, and Creative Movement. Self-reliance and confidence are promoted through the acquisition of practical skills in dressing, hygiene, housekeeping, and food preparation.
In this ordered, tranquil and harmonious environment, the child may satisfy his love of order, work and silence. Through profound spontaneous concentration his mind can construct itself. The child learns respect for the objects which surround him, as the knowledge of them fix his attention. He finds within himself the power to act from real choice and not merely from curiosity. Obedience, independence, initiative, self-discipline and joy are the crowning characteristics which he develops in the Primary program.
