Diverse Ages
Ages 2-6 all in one place
"In Montessori schools, multi-age groupings enable younger children to learn from older children and experience new challenges through observation. Older children reinforce their own learning by teaching concepts they have already mastered, while developing leadership skills and serving as role models. Because each student’s work is individual, children progress at their own pace; there is cooperation rather than competition between the ages. This arrangement mirrors the real world, in which individuals work and socialize with people of all ages and dispositions."
We help our kids help each other.
At Dandy Lions Outdoor School, we know the most effective teacher is going to be other children. We embrace this, and create opportunities for the children to watch, learn, and teach each other.
How we build a collaborative classroom outdoors:
Our approach is child-led, and play-based. Our time in unstructured play is crucial in skill sharing. The younger kids naturally mimic the older kids, and we help make the older kids aware of these moments so they can step in and be the expert and teach the other all they know. This provides two opportunities: the older child gains a sense of empowerment in being the expert, and the younger child gains another who is connected and invested in them. Sometimes, we will even find the younger child becomes the expert-which is usually when they are sharing something they feel passionately about (which created their above normal skill level). As you might imagine, these moments are pivotal in their continuing with that vocation or hobby. The result of all of this sharing is the children become quite accustomed to giving, and receiving, important information from other children.