The Moonstone Method

Moonstone Preschool is based on the Moonstone Method, which is a unique approach to early education developed by Sandy Robin, founder of Moonstone Preschool. Key to this method is an arts-based curriculum that utilizes a dynamic teaching technique referred to as a thematic approach, which is designed to engage and stimulate all students through their “intelligence profile”.

Moonstone is grounded in the progressive educational philosophy that the basis of learning is through personal experience. The students thrive in an environment where they can experience and interact with the curriculum, and through the curriculum, and with each other. A preschool is an important place to acquire knowledge, but also a place to learn how to live. i

Moonstone’s thematic approach, uses a central theme to unite the various intelligences and instructional approaches. The theme is designed to be open-ended enough to allow the children to explore it through their different intelligences and see their friends and teachers approaching it differently. This works to engage each student through their learning strengths and draws them in using their other intelligences as they explore the theme. All teachers utilize the same theme. This offers variety in perspectives, teaching styles and materials used. Moonstone’s thematic approach is designed to reinforce critical thinking and communication through questioning, discussions and activities .ii

The underpinning of the Moonstone Method – the theory of Multiple Intelligence (MI) – is the importance of understanding the variety of ways in which children learn. Gardner says that MI documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways. Per this theory, we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, and the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, and to understand other individuals, ourselves and nature. Where individuals differ is in the strength of these intelligences – the so-called profile of intelligences – and in the ways in which such intelligences are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains. iii

At Moonstone, we emphasize the importance of art in the cognitive development of the child. Art allows for multiple answers to every question, which teaches children to create meaning from experience and stimulates imagination. The arts are the our entry to the Multiple Intelligences and are a cognitive process as well as an aesthetic one. iv The core of the Moonstone Method is the use of a unifying theme, explored through the arts and engaging multiple intelligences, to teach children to think for themselves and inspire a love of learning. Our Motto is: “Education through the Arts.”

i John Dewey
ii Sandy Robin
iii Howard Gardner
iv Elliot Eisner