Marlin Academy Childcare
Dun Laoghaire

Marlin Academy Childcare is excited to announce the future launch of our Junior Group, a brand-new programme specially tailored for our youngest learners and designed to foster essential early development skills. This group will focus on foundational social, emotional, and cognitive growth through guided play, sensory activities, and age-appropriate exploration within a nurturing environment. While the official opening date is currently To Be Confirmed (TBC), we are diligently working to prepare this dedicated space. Please stay connected with us for updates regarding the launch date and priority enrolment information for this exciting addition!

The Montessori method focuses on providing hands-on, self-directed learning experiences. Activities are typically grouped into categories that help the child develop key skills for independence, intellectual growth, and sensory refinement.

Here is a range of activities commonly found in a Montessori environment:

1. Practical Life Exercises

These activities build independence, coordination, concentration, and a sense of responsibility by mimicking daily adult tasks:
- Care of Self: Dressing frames (practicing zips, buttons, laces, and buckles), washing hands, polishing shoes, and food preparation (slicing fruit, spreading butter).
- Care of the Environment: Sweeping the floor with a child-sized broom, watering plants, polishing silver/brass, and washing a table or dishes.
- Control of Movement: Carrying a tray, pouring water or dry goods from one pitcher to another without spilling, and walking carefully around a line on the floor (The Silence Game).
- Grace and Courtesy: Learning polite social manners like greeting others, making introductions, and asking for help.

2. Sensorial Exercises

These materials are designed to isolate and refine each of the five senses, helping children categorize and understand the world around them:
- Visual Discrimination: The Pink Tower (cubes increasing in size), the Brown Stairs (prisms increasing in thickness), and Color Tablets (matching and grading colors).
- Tactile (Touch): Touch Boards and Fabric Boxes (matching different textures like rough, smooth, soft, and coarse).
- Auditory (Hearing): Sound Cylinders (shaking to match pairs that make the same sound).
- Olfactory & Gustatory (Smell & Taste): Smelling Bottles and Tasting Jars (identifying and matching different scents and tastes).

3. Language Activities

These focus on developing vocabulary, reading, and writing skills through hands-on materials:
- Phonics & Reading: Sandpaper Letters (tracing the letter while sounding it out), the Movable Alphabet (forming words using cut-out letters), and reading short phonics booklets.
- Vocabulary: Using Nomenclature Cards (picture and label cards for matching and identifying objects/concepts like parts of a plant).

4. Mathematics Activities

These use concrete materials to introduce abstract mathematical concepts:
- Counting & Quantity: The Number Rods (rods of varying lengths representing numbers 1-10) and Spindle Boxes (associating the written numeral with the correct quantity of spindles).
- Decimal System: Introducing the concept of units, tens, hundreds, and thousands using Bead Materials (small golden beads).

5. Culture and Geography

These activities expand the child’s understanding of the world, science, and art:
- Geography: Using Puzzle Maps of the world, continents, and countries.
- Botany/Zoology: Sorting and classifying animals or plants using classification cards and models.
- Art: Painting, drawing, and cutting activities using real, child-sized tools.