Our Method.

Mountain Willow Montessori follows the philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori. As she did, we believe that within each child is the seed of unlimited potential that guides the child into adulthood. We emphasize individualized education as opposed to strict curricular education. In addition, you will find us using many types of curricula to meet the needs of each child enrolled.

Each child is educated at his or her own rate of development. Our focus is to continually stimulate the child through an enriched environment with activities that promote experimentation at every developmental level. In essence, we offer the world on a silver platter knowing that the innate curiosity of humanity will spring the child toward action, experimentation, and learning. We also actively promote the innate desire to be independent. Independence is what drives humanity to explore, experiment, and create their world.

These goals of nurturing curiosity and independence are balanced with our goals of responsibility and self-discipline. Defined limits and expectations are set through curriculum standards as well as through student codes of conduct and discipline. These become more apparent as the child progresses from infancy to primary ages. Please refer any questions you have in these areas to your child's Lead Guide or Program Director. Generally stated, each child is offered opportunities to expand within the context of respect for themselves, the environment, and the people with which he/she shares the world. These concepts are the core of Dr. Montessori's philosophy of education.

To support the personalized education of the child, we emphasize mixed-age groups. Within our classrooms, the child can be enriched both cognitively and socially at the level that is comfortable for him/her. Each community has its own physical, social, psychological, and cognitive goals. These goals overlap due to the fact that human development does not completely follow a sequential pattern, nor does it proceed at the same rate for each child. Therefore, our curriculum for the different community levels is a guide for that development. A child may well move into the next foundation level during a school year and the necessary curriculum changes will be met.

Through partnership with our families, we work to implement a Montessori curriculum that is authentic and honors the values and culture that come with our students from their homes. We want to know everything we can about how our students live outside of MWM so that we can bring as much of that into the classroom as is possible.

MWM’s goals are directly related to our Mission, Vision, and Core Values. We encourage parents to learn about our programs and philosophy, and to become active participants in every child's education.