Preschool / Child Care Center in St. Louis Park, MN

Arise And Shine Montessori:
Arise and Shine Montessori in St. Louis Park in Hennepin County provides daycare and education for preschoolers and kindergarteners for children ages 33 months to kindergarten, and before and afterschool care for kids up through to third grade. St. Louis Park is a suburb immediately west of Minneapolis. The school is licensed under Hennepin County Rule 3 as a group family day care and carries liability insurance for the safety of your child. Our setting gives your child the benefits of a Minneapolis day care setting and the familiarity and comfort of a home, while still delivering benefits of a Minneapolis Montessori child care center in a rich indoor learning environment.

Montessori Preschool / Childcare Programs:
- Daycare & education programs for preschoolers & kindergarteners for children ages 33 months to kindergarten age
- Full & half day kindergarten programs available
- Before & afterschool care programs for kids up through to third grade.
- The normal hours of our Minneapolis preschool are Monday through 8:15 am until 3:20 pm.
- Our Minneapolis daycare component assists with the extended schedule opening at 7:45 am and continuing childcare until 6pm.
-  A full complement of Montessori materials is available to the children as is an abundance of other hands-on experiential activities to facilitate their learning.

Montessori Curriculum:

* Language:  
Our "ALL KINDERGARTNERS ARE GUARANTEED TO READ" promise is based on over 15 years of experience and success. We have had fantastic results even with children who have English as their second language. We have also had great success in preparing students going to Park Spanish Immersion School with a strong English foundation. 

We use a graduated reading program that takes children from the beginnings of phonemic awareness to becoming strong and confident readers. The basic sequence is as follows:

- Awareness and recognition of the basic 26 sounds of the alphabet
- Recognition of and matching of those sounds to letters
- Blending and Segmenting Games for 3-letter word reading preparation.
- Reading 3-letter words
- Reading Simple Short Sentences with 3-letter words.
- Blending and Segmenting Games for 4-letter word reading preparation.
- Reading 4-letter words
- Reading Simple Short Sentences with 4-letter words.
- Silent Final e words and longer phonetic words for word and sentence reading.
- Introduction of phonograms such as "ch" "sh" and "th" for word and sentence reading.

* Practical Life:  
As in every area of the curriculum, each child works at his own level of ability and understanding, so no one is left behind or left unchallenged. At our Minneapolis childcare centre, we approach mathematics in an orderly sequence that takes children from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract. Children use a variety of hands on games and learning activities to first understand the concept of one through ten as a quantity.

Practical Life activities build the foundation of our Minneapolis preschool program and include many tasks the child sees as part of the daily routine. These include sorting objects, pouring liquids, preparing foods, fastening clothes, washing dishes, dusting and sweeping.

* Sensorial:  
The sensorial materials of our Minneapolis preschool are specially designed to develop and refine perceptual abilities. They also teach children the basic scientific abilities of observation, sorting (classification), grading and comparison.

Sensorial activities are foundational to all areas of learning.  Our Minneapolis child care has materials to help children refine and develop all 5 senses.  Pictured at left, a child is matching and grading sound cylinders by shaking them and listening to the distinctive sounds that they make.

* Science & Culture:  
In our classroom, we introduce and explore sciences and cultural studies. The monthly themes include a variety of stories, songs, field trips, flashcards, art projects and other resources to help us in these areas. Our job is to plant the seeds of interest and recognition as the foundation for later learning.

Additionally:
- Park Spanish Immersion:  Arise and Shine Montessori is the ideal place for families seeking to enroll their child at Park Spanish Immersion School.
- Programs for physical / neurological enhancement.
- We use Glenn Doman exercises of creeping, crawling and rolling at our Minneapolis preschool; The children doing these mat exercises not only benefit from the gross motor movement, but also from the stimulation they are giving their brains.
- We use a number of the techniques and recommended exercises from the Handle® Institute to enhance children's neurological development.
- Our Minneapolis preschool uses Glenn Doman's “Bits of Intelligence,” which are scientifically upgraded flashcards.
- Music programs
- Brain Gym
- Social Skills
- Field Trips
- Cultural Explorations