Casa Montessori DeLand

"A holistic childhood education promoting the respect of nature and community"

Our Mission
To build competence and intellectual curiosity by engaging the whole child in a natural environment of respect, cooperative learning and discovery.


Our Technique
We allow each child to experience the excitement of learning by their own choice rather than being forced. This allows them to perfect all their natural tools for learning, so that their ability will be at a maximum for future learning situations. Montessori materials have this dual long-range purpose in addition to their immediate purpose of giving specific information to the child.

The Role of the Teacher
In a Montessori classroom there is no front of the room and no teacher’s desk as a focal point of attention because the stimulation for learning comes from the total environment.  Dr. Montessori always referred to the teacher as a “directress”, and her role differs considerably from that of a traditional teacher.  She is, first of all, a very keen observer of the individual interests and needs of each child, and her daily work proceeds from her observations rather than from a prepared curriculum.  She demonstrates the correct use of materials as they are individually chosen by the children.  She carefully watches the progress of each child and keeps a record of his work with the materials.  She is trained to recognize periods of readiness.  Sometimes she must divert a child who chooses material which is beyond his ability; at other times she must encourage a child who is hesitant.  Whenever a child makes a mistake, she refrains, if possible, from intervening and allows him to discover his own error through further manipulation of the self-correcting material.  This procedure follows Dr. Montessori’s principle that a child learns through experience.