Characteristics of the Montessori and

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The main aspect of child centered kindergarten is nurturing. Child centered kindergarten is education that involves the entire child by considering all of the child's needs. Concerns for the child's physical, cognitive, and social development are combined with the child’s interest and learning style needs. Instruction is organized based off these factors. The focus is on the process of learning rather than what is learned. Three key principles that child-centered kindergarten honor are (1) each job follow the unique development pattern (2) Young children learn best from first-hand experiences with people and materials (3) play is extremely important in the child's total development. Frequent activities in well-developed kindergarten programs are experimenting, exploring, discovering, trying out, restructuring, speaking, and listening. The Montessori approach is an educational philosophy where children are given considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities. They can move from one activity to another of their choice. In the Montessori approach, the teacher acts as a facilitator rather than a director. The teacher shows the child how to perform intellectual activities and demonstrate ways to explore curriculum materials. Teachers offer help at the child's request. The Montessori program encourages independent problem-solving skills and the development of cognitive skills but lacks social interaction between the teachers and peers. Project Head Start is a program designed to give children from low income families an opportunity to gain skills and experiences important for school success. Some advantages of early head start education programs are positive influence on language and cognitive development, larger vocabulary, better oral comprehension, and better averages in literacy and math. Advantages of early intervention education programs are
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