When we moved to Alliston Ontario a year ago we knew no one.
Alliston is a small town with a lot of character and a deep rooted love for potatoes. It has just the right amount of rural for us but I could still access everything I needed on my bike. This move was just as much for us as it was for Kade. At 2 and a half he lacked the social skills most children his age had acquired simply because he didn't have access to his peers. Moving into town gave us the opportunity to meet other youngest and we just so happened to move in right next to the Montessori school.
On the morning of our home inspection we got to meet the neighbors while they played outside in the yard. I asked if they ran a day care from their home and was flabbergasted to hear that it was a Montessori school! I had known that the other Montessori school in town had closed but had heard that one of the teachers had continued the school from her home. What are the odds that we would have moved in beside it!?!
Some many thinks about our move to Alliston seemed fated but none more the moving in next door to the Montessori Family School.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Why Montessori?
It's a great question and one I get asked almost every time I mention that my son goes to Montessori school. For my family, the answer is simple....my mother-in-law!
Let me explain...when I met my mother in law she had recently retired from her life long career as a Montessori school principle. In the '80s she moved from Toronto to a rural community and was unsatisfied with the quality of the schools in the area. She wanted a school that would allow young minds to grow, that would focus on nature and health and provide many different kinds of children with a high quality education. When she didn't find it in her community, she opened her own school and like everything she does, she devoted herself fully to it. Both of her sons went there. And when her children out grow the school she built for them, she stayed. She spent every summer painting every wall, she brought every student into her office to make candles for Christmas, she made her school a home. I was never able to visit but I see it in my partner and know that the years he spent there made him into the person I now love!
When we found out we were pregnant, my mother in law offered to help us pay for Kade's schooling. To her, the years he will spend in Montessori school are more important then any other part of his education and the more I learn about the program, the more I have to agree.
I am learning, along with my son, everything there is to know about Maria Montessori and the schools she designed. The more we learn, the more I want to share with others and that is what I hope this blog will become. My community needs these schools and so does yours! We are just lucky we moved in right next door to Alliston's Montessori school....but more about that tomorrow!
Let me explain...when I met my mother in law she had recently retired from her life long career as a Montessori school principle. In the '80s she moved from Toronto to a rural community and was unsatisfied with the quality of the schools in the area. She wanted a school that would allow young minds to grow, that would focus on nature and health and provide many different kinds of children with a high quality education. When she didn't find it in her community, she opened her own school and like everything she does, she devoted herself fully to it. Both of her sons went there. And when her children out grow the school she built for them, she stayed. She spent every summer painting every wall, she brought every student into her office to make candles for Christmas, she made her school a home. I was never able to visit but I see it in my partner and know that the years he spent there made him into the person I now love!
When we found out we were pregnant, my mother in law offered to help us pay for Kade's schooling. To her, the years he will spend in Montessori school are more important then any other part of his education and the more I learn about the program, the more I have to agree.
I am learning, along with my son, everything there is to know about Maria Montessori and the schools she designed. The more we learn, the more I want to share with others and that is what I hope this blog will become. My community needs these schools and so does yours! We are just lucky we moved in right next door to Alliston's Montessori school....but more about that tomorrow!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)