Literacy for Dominican-Haitian Youth in the Batey

This spring, Yspaniola won the first Montessori award from The Dream Project and Cigar Country. This award consists of the provision of equipment, furniture and materials, as well as support and training for two years for the installation of a Montessori classroom. This will allow us to receive training in the Montessori Method and apply it in our preschool classrooms.

This award will help Yspaniola boost our early childhood education initiatives. This was our first year working with 3-year-olds who started in our pre-kindergarten classes, because we understand the importance of early childhood education and have had great results.

For example, now that the school year has ended, most of our children can say their first and last name (55%), name parts of the body and count objects from 1 to 5 (73%), they can also recognize weather conditions ( 55%) and eat by themselves with a spoon and wash their hands (82%).

We are excited about this expansion project, because it will help our students to continue advancing with a new methodology and in a renovated space.

As a first step, some members of Yspaniola visited the Dream Project facilities on May 11 and 12 to make the first observations of the Montessori Method. The purpose of this visit was to learn how the classrooms are organized and thus prepare ourselves to make these changes in our space at the end of this month and beginning of September.

We have already collected our space and although it looks sad and empty without children or furniture, we are preparing with great enthusiasm for the next school year. What a thrill! The remodel of our preschool is starting soon!

Links:

• Winning the Montessori Prize (Monthly Newsletter)