Curriculum & Standards
At Dandelion Learning Collaborative, we emphasize learning for the whole child and honoring the gifts of learning in childhood. As Dr. Montessori advised, we “follow the child, but follow them as a leader.” This means that it is our responsibility to recognize and provide learning opportunities in all areas, not just academics.
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Our Curriculum
We name and organize our curriculum into the following categories: personal development, literacy, math, science, nature, social studies, and community, and both follow and lead children as they develop their own mastery in each area.
We have yet to meet two children who share the same natural learning paths in all academic areas. Acknowledging that, it is our responsibility to notice and provide pathways for all children to engage in academic learning across all areas. To achieve this, our teachers “set the room” with resources and lessons aligned with K-8 Common Core and NC State Curriculum Standards for mathematics, literacy, language, science, and social studies. We also guide children to best-fit and next-step materials and lessons. Teachers and children work together to document their plans and progress in journals and electronic portfolios.
The Montessori Spiral Curriculum
The spiral curriculum is an educational approach where students repeatedly revisit core topics over time. Humans naturally find and build upon their experiences across a lifetime and this approach matches human nature. Understanding this, we provide concrete materials, support abstraction and application, and continue to develop and reinforce the acquisition of deeper, lasting knowledge over-time.
Conventional grade-level curriculum approaches push and pull kids with the same chronological ages and grade-level assignments through common academic skills at the same time. This may seem to make sense when asking them to participate in common standardized assessments, but it does not work with what we know for sure about normal child development and learning. This is learning by force, and it has only a temporary, superficial effect.
Consider your own experience. Try to recall your own academic learning in a conventional setting, what do you still remember that someone “made you” learn? What do you still remember that you wanted to and were ready to learn about?
Each child is ready for learning at their own pace, and we make sure that our room and our educators are ready to notice and meet them where and when “they are at “in all areas.
Language Curriculum
In many self-directed environments, you will notice an “unschooling” lean, especially in the areas of literacy. Often, families are assured that given ample access to text, “children will naturally develop reading and writing on their own.” While we know this can be true for individuals, we are also trained and certified teachers, equipped with extensive knowledge and tools, which tell us there are more effective approaches that do not interfere with children’s liberty when it comes to reading and writing.
When preparing for language and literacy instruction and opportunities, we consult both the Montessori Progression and the NC DCPI and Common Core State Standards. We find tremendous overlap between the “how to teach” presented by Dr. Montessori and the “what to teach” outlined in the NCDPI and Common Core Standards, and that children are naturally motivated to acquire and apply literacy skills. Our approach is multi-sensory, phonics-based, and encourages children to write and with tools like the Montessori sandpaper letters and Moveable Alphabet, as well as other hands-on tools, as they learn to read and decode. Beyond these initial building blocks to reading, we guide children to develop vocabulary, literacy concepts, and continue to write themselves as they read authentic texts and apply reading skills across all academic areas.
Mathematics Curriculum
In writing our Spiral Curriculum, preparing Menus and Works for children, and evaluating levels, we consult both Montessori Progressions and the Standards developed by the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics – both describe math progression in multi-age bands and refer to common tools and concepts repeatedly. Our content includes counting and cardinality, the base-ten and decimal systems, algebraic thinking, geometry, data and statistics, percentages and ratios, as well as practical applications of math in real life and within other subject areas including science, arts, and nature.
In our schoolhouse, you will find iconic Montessori math tools such as the Golden Beads for understanding of base ten, Checkerboard, and Decinominal Beads for building understanding of value. You’ll also find practical tools such as a scale, rulers, and protractors ready with ideas for application and contemporary hand-on-materials and games, carefully selected to match our learning goals.
To ensure that students have bridges to conventional schools, should they choose to, we also consult the NCDPI and Common Core State Standards to ensure that all mathematics topics are appropriately addressed. With all of this in mind, we leverage Montessori and conventional hands-on materials, prepare our room with multiple tasks at different entry points, provide support and guidance for all students, and create open-ended tasks that are adaptable to all learners.
Science & Cosmic Education Curriculum
Science, for us, is a place for action! It is also connected to linguistic and mathematical understanding. We conduct experiments and explore the environment around us. and invest in record-keeping, data, and scientific methods.
Our Science curriculum also spirals, offering k-8 content aligned and beyond NC standards to include botany, health, weather systems, astronomy, ecology, chemistry, biology, geology, zoology, and physics. We use informational text sources, collect and record data, integrate Montessori’s Cosmic Education (a story-based approach that emphasizes the interconnectedness of human experiences and academic knowledge), and focus on shared topics and exploration within our STEAM project labs.
Geography & History Curriculum
Social studies is where we consider how humans interact with our world and with each other. Self-directed learners in our schoolhouse explore human geography, history, and social interactions using tools such as Montessori Map Puzzles, Atlases, informational texts, stories, and cartography assignments and projects. In Social Studies learning, we use research, story, discussion, and application to learn about our history, our geography from those who share our experiences and well as with and from those who have experiences unlike our own.
Art, Music & Movement Curriculum
Art, Music, and Movement are integrated into all of our days and all of our work. We encourage and provide both open and structured learning opportunities, with instruction in process and product art (drawing, painting, and sculpture), movement (yoga, dances, and outdoor games), as well as music theory and experiences that align with study in Social Studies, Literacy, the Sciences, and Community programs.
Peace Education Curriculum
Peace Education is a traditional element of a Montessori education and, we believe, a critical part of self-directed learning environments like ours. It includes conflict resolution, emotional literacy, community service, self-care, and efforts towards understanding diversity and inclusion. You’ll notice evidence of Peace Education in our daily practices as well as in the Kids for Peace club’s efforts!
While conventional settings often rely heavily on rewards and punishments, control, and rule enforcement, placing responsibility for recognizing right and wrong and exercising control in the hands of adults, a true Montessori setting like ours will avoid these practices and instead provide freedom within clear limits, actively model grace and courtesy, provide peace education, foster self-regulation, and allow natural consequences.
This shift, we believe, is what makes all learning, both academic and personal, meaningful to students themselves at the Schoolhouse. In a place that recognizes and practices peace education, all learning belongs to the learner – not the teacher, not the institution – and that occurs when everyone is afforded the same autonomy, comfort, belonging, and accountability.
You’ll notice that our expectations and routines are developed with children and clearly displayed and referenced throughout our days. Redirection or support for a child may look like co-regulation, taking a break, a cue to apply a learned strategy, or a direction back to the plan or next steps. Guidance is always applied first, and adult force or direct control is used only when needed to ensure safety.
This gives children supported opportunities to develop their own self-discipline, discernment, responsibility, and skills for navigating the full-spectrum of harmony and conflict both for themselves and with the people around them.
While Peace Education practices are embedded in all that we do at the Schoolhouse, they are also highlighted in our efforts with our local Kids for Peace club. Kids for Peace club teachings, meetings, and actions are embedded in our weekly menus as well as Montessori Schoolhouse and STEAM Project Labs. We also share community projects each season, with an Annual Food Drive for the Tri-Area Food Pantry each fall, sponsoring a Local Family for Winter Holidays, visiting Seniors and throwing a Fundraiser Dance for Valentine’s Day, a Spring Stream Cleanup, and Summer Homeschool Field Day.
Lower Elementary (ages 6-9) vs. Upper Elementary (ages 9-12)
Our programs are designed to support children in what Dr. Montessori defined as the “Second Plane of Development,” a period during which “no longer learn simply by absorbing, but by reasoning and imagining.” Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson, Freud, and Steiner, with some variation, reached similar conclusions. Children in this age range shift from following adults to thinking critically about the world around them.
Children in the Second Plane begin to question fairness and beliefs, recognize their impact on the world around them, and develop their own discernment. Adults willing to work with this shift no longer act as judges or authorities; they become “companions in thinking,” guiding children as they advance and strengthening the skills of the adults they will become.
To do this effectively, teachers must create and maintain an environment in which children have access to content and tools that are a good match for their academic and personal development, children’s voices are heard and engaged (even when they’re not right – yet), clear boundaries are set and shared, and autonomy and ideas are respected.
Teachers observe and think critically themselves, allowing time and space for children to make mistakes and revise, consider their impact, and adjust their thinking and approach.
This is how the reasoning mind, confidence, and self-discipline are developed. The teacher’s work at this stage is quiet but essential. It is applying our own critical thinking, evaluation, discernment, and trust in the children as adults; so, the children can develop their own.
Alignment with NC Standard Course of Study
When preparing our Spiral Curriculum and classroom, we consult both Montessori Progressions and the NC DCPI and Common Core State Standards. We find tremendous overlap between the “how to teach” presented by Dr. Montessori and the “what to teach” outlined in the NCDPI and Common Core Standards. In our experience and research, we also understand that grade-level progressions as described by State Standards are flexible and can be adjusted to match each child’s unique mastery of skills. With this in mind, we prepare our room and instruction with materials, tools, and texts for kindergarten to eighth grade learning in all subject areas as defined by the state – but give all students access to best-match learning experiences, regardless of age or grade level.
To ensure that students have bridges to conventional schools, should they choose to, we also consult the NCDPI and Common Core State Standards to ensure that all topics are appropriately addressed. With all of this in mind, we prepare our room with multiple tasks at different entry points, provide support and guidance for all students, and create open-ended tasks that are adaptable to all learners.
How we assess learning (without grades)
We don’t give grades. We agree with scholars such as Alfie Kohn and Peter Gray, and, of course, Dr. Maria Montessori in opposing the use of grades in childhood. Grades have been demonstrated to decrease motivation, reduce deep thinking, shift power to evaluators, induce shame and cheating, increase comparison and cynicism, and disconnect love/self from performance. Anecdotally, we have witnessed these things happen in conventional classrooms – and see them not happening in our Schoolhouse. Think back to your own experience: do you also find this to be true? When have you been meaningfully motivated to learn or explore by grades? When have grades been a misrepresentation of your personal self?
Instead of grades and report cards, we provide lots of observation and support, create portfolio records, notice progress and offer next steps, and celebrate everyone’s interest and personal best. We are also trained in and have tools for reading running records, phonics evaluation, and math inventories across grades and reading levels.
Although we don’t give report cards, we are happy to assist with creating homeschool transcripts, portfolios, and/or assessment records for students who may be enrolling in other programs and/or middle or high schools in the future.
Standardized Testing
We don’t participate in common standardized assessments together. While, as homeschoolers, we are required to participate in these tests, we are not required to report their outcomes to the state, or to our children for that matter. Instead, these tests are selected by and completed in individual homeschools.
We are happy to work with families and support them with selecting tests and interpreting the information that they yield.
We do not teach academics in “lock-step,” as you would when preparing a class to take a common assessment. Instead, we provide access to high-quality learning materials and experiences at a pace that is personalized for each child. We find that even without being taught “to it,” children show consistent growth when they participate in annual state-required assessments of reading, spelling, English grammar, and mathematics.
We do not offer in-house state assessments but are happy to work with families and support them in selecting tests that match their homeschool learning goals and in interpreting the information that they yield. We are also trained in and have tools for reading running records, phonics evaluation, and math inventories across grades and reading levels, and are happy to provide these services upon request.
We believe that all children learn best at their own pace and leverage the diversity of our group and setting to provide dynamic instruction to meet all kids “where they are at.” In our setting, children with learning differences, and children who are academically gifted are able to find materials and peers for learning skills that may not be in a single-grade level classroom otherwise. Our teachers are also trained in providing both interventions and extensions when children show that they may be helpful or needed.
We teach all concepts first concretely, then abstractly. Before calling on children to memorize facts, we give them opportunities to observe patterns. Montessori as well as other hands-on materials are used to illustrate how the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of numbers can be seen. We notice that children often naturally begin to internalize and repeat these patterns – especially when tasked with recording what they notice in writing and sharing conversations and games with peers.
Montessori described the hand as the “instrument of intelligence,” and we recognize that writing is a uniquely human skill that fosters cognitive development as well as integration of multiple academic skills. Our approach to handwriting includes not only writing itself but also general fine and gross motor work of the hands, incorporating work with clay, paint, and sandpaper letters, as well as Montessori’s moveable alphabet, tablets, and both print and cursive instruction.
