Primary and Elementary

Center Grove Montessori School was founded in 2007 to provide children a nurturing, child-centered environment. True to the Montessori principals the child is engaged in meaningful learning.

We serve families in the Indianapolis, Greenwood, Center Grove, Whiteland, Franklin, Bargersville and Mooresville areas.

Students at Center Grove Montessori benefit from small classes, which are guided by teachers who are Montessori certified. Our school is a community of  families who believe in the Montessori philosophy of educating children.

Primary: 2 1/2–6

• Half-day Primary program (Preschool and Kindergarten) is from 9 am to 12 pm
• Full-day Primary (Preschool and Kindergarten) is from 8:30 am to 3 pm
• Before Care is from 7:30 to 8:30 am and After Care is from 3 to 6:00 pm

Children of this age possess what Dr. Montessori called the Absorbent Mind. This type of mind has the unique and transitory ability to absorb all aspects physical, mental and spiritual of the environment. As an aid to the child’s self-construction, individual work is encouraged.

Practical Life exercises instill care for themselves, and for others. The activities include tasks children see as part of the daily life in their home washing and ironing, doing the dishes, arranging flowers, etc. Through these and other activities, children develop muscular coordination, enabling movement and the exploration of their surroundings. They learn to work at a task from beginning to end, and develop their will, their self-discipline and their capacity for total concentration.

Sensorial Materials are tools for development. They do this by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, listening, and exploring the physical properties of their environment.

Language is vital to human existence. The environment provides rich and precise language.

“When the children come into the classroom at around three years of age, they are given in the simplest way possible the opportunity to enrich the language they have acquired during their small lifetime and to use it intelligently, with precision and beauty, becoming aware of its properties not by being taught, but by being allowed to discover and explore these properties themselves. If not harassed, they will learn to write, and as a natural consequence to read, never remembering the day they could not write or read in the same way that they do not remember that once upon a time they could not walk.”

Geography, History, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Art and Music are presented as extensions of the sensorial and language activities. Children learn about other cultures and this allows their innate respect and love for their environment to flourish, creating a sense of solidarity with the global human family. Experiences with nature inspire a reverence for all life. History is presented to the children through art and an intelligent music program.

Children learn and understand mathematical concepts by working with concrete materials, providing the child with traditional mathematical principles and a structured scope for abstract reasoning.

Click here for admission information.

Is your child ready for preschool?

Elementary: 6–12

• Elementary program is from 8:15 am to 3:15 pm
• Before Care is from 7:30 to 8:15 am and After Care is from 3:15 to 6:00 pm

Integration of the arts, sciences, geography, history, and language that evokes the native imagination and abstraction of the elementary child.

Presentation of the language of zoology, botany, anthropology, geography, geology, etc., exposing the child to accurate, organized information and respecting the child’s intelligence and interests.

The use of timelines, pictures, charts, and other visual aids to provide a linguistic and visual overview of the first principles of each discipline.

A mathematics curriculum presented with concrete materials that simultaneously reveal arithmetic, geometric, and algebraic correlations. Emphasis on open-ended research and in-depth study using primary and secondary sources (no textbooks or worksheets) as well as other materials.

Montessori-trained adults who are “enlightened generalists” (teachers who are able to integrate the teaching of all subjects, not as isolated disciplines, but as part of a whole intellectual tradition).

As in the preschool, the materials are a means to an end. They are intended to evoke the imagination, to aid abstraction, to generate a world view about human purpose. The child works within a philosophical system asking questions about the origins of the universe, the nature of life, people and their differences, and so on. On a factual basis, interdisciplinary studies combine geological, biological, and anthropological science in the study of natural history and world ecology.

The program is made up of connective narratives that provide an inspiring overview as the organizing, integrating “Great Lessons.” Great Lessons span the history of the universe from the big bang theory of the origin of the solar system, earth, and life forms to the emergence of human cultures and the rise of civilization. Aided by impressionistic charts and timelines, the child’s study of detail in reference to the Great Lessons leads to awe and respect for the totality of knowledge.

Studies are integrated not only in terms of subject matter but in terms of moral learning as well, resulting in respect for life, moral empathy, and a fundamental belief in progress, the contribution of the individual, the universality of the human condition, and the meaning of true justice.

Click here for admission information.
The Indiana Montessori Community School in Whiteland has a Secondary Program (6-18). For more information, please visit their website.