Christian School of Northwest Houston
A Montessori Environment
ABOUT CSNWH
CSNWH is a year round school, with academic opportunities from mid-August through May and a Summer Program from June through mid-August.
CSNWH originally opened its doors in 1976, as a Mother's Day Out Program. In 1990, the school grew to facilitate the growth of our community to provide education for students 18 months through the fifth grade.
In 2012, after prayer and research, the school integrated the Montessori Philosophy. CSNWH created an enviroment filled with "hands on" material, therefore, enhancing the innate ability of the child to learn. Dr. Maria Montessori emphasized that the hand is the chief teacher of the child. Her observations proved that the best way a child concentrates is by placing his attention on a task he is performing with his hands.
Elementary students, in contrast to the Montessori three to six year program, accomplish a great deal of mental work. The integrated studies of mathematics, language, science, history and geography encourage all levels to see the critical relationship of all subjects among all aspects of life. Students learn to set individual goals to manage time, organize projects, and to use a variety of resources. Students develop self-esteem and self-confidence as they experience success in the goals they have set.
Why Montessori....
The beauty of Montessori is the emphasis placed on observation as to how the child sees and learns from the environment that surrounds him. Take a few minutes and observe your children when they do not know you are observing them and see what you learn about how they learn; you will appreciate these moments and will make every effort to create and nurture these environments. Other wonderful points are order and asthetics; a balance that will allow us to appreciate the beauty and complexity of God’s creation.
The Montessori pedagogy also incorporates the philosophy of having mixed ages together which gives a younger child a series of models for imitation, and the older one an opportunity to reinforce their own knowledge by helping the younger ones. Grace and courtesy is fostered through such opportunities.
Through observations and parent conferences, parents and teachers work jointly to create a path of learning to help foster tomorrow's leaders.
Below are the five areas of a Montessori environment;
Practical Life: Color-coded items and their location on the shelf help categorize the materials and develop a sense of order needed for everyday living for the child. Tasks that cultivate skills include pouring, scooping, wiping, transfer of dry and liquid materials, moving around carefully, moving things to appropriate locations, taking care of oneself, maintain one’s surroundings, and interacting appropriately with others.
Sensorial: Aristotle said, “There is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the senses…” Sensorial activities focus on the development of sensory perception with the use of materials that have been developed to amplify all intelligences.
Language: Language lessons continue throughout the day in all curriculum areas and in all activities to assist with vocabulary development, the progression into reading, the development of writing, and composition.
Cultural: Activities will explore topics that include history, maps, nomenclature (vocabulary) and classification of zoology, botany, science experiments, and appreciation of art and music.
Math: With the use of concrete materials, skills for sequencing, recognition, quantity of numbers, addition, multiplication, subtraction, division, odd and even numbers, fractions, mental math (problem solving), and more are acquired.
O U T R E A C H
We are an outreach of the Northwest Church of Christ. Through this effort, we are fullfilling Jesus's command..."Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation". - Mark 16:15
Students learn of God's word through Bible studies, prayer, and song. Character education is cultivated with an emphasis on the Fruit of the Spirit.
We are the Prayer Warriors.