Choosing a kindergarten where to entrust your child for so many hours in a day can be a difficult decision and we hope that the following references will help you as you choose a preschool for your child.
Parent Involvement
We maintain an "open door" policy. All parents are welcome to be at the school at all times. As a family-run kindergarten, we keenly feel the need to build a community for families, and we do our best to make everyone feel welcome and comfortable here.
We do several things in order to ensure ongoing communication:
- Parents are involved in parent-teacher meetings twice a year, or more often if need be
- Information about the child's day is shared at pick-up either personally or through a written daily report
- We publish a weekly newsletter that hangs on our community board and is e‑mailed to parents
- Although the teachers' focus during the day is on the children and they may not be available to answer the phone, the school's administrative coordinator is also on hand to answer calls
- We also organize Montessori workshops, picnics and get-togethers throughout the year so that our families can meet with each other in an easy setting
Children at Play
When children feel good they are active, curious and ready to engage themselves in play.
When you come to visit us, make sure to watch the children already here. They are very happy and active and feel very much at home.
Although the classroom does not have any of the traditional toys that you may expect to see in a preschool, you will see energetic children working hard at playing because the materials they are working with allow their imaginations to run free.
Multi-Age Classes
Our Casa Class ranges from 3 — 6 years old. In an environment such as this, it naturally happens that older students help the younger ones, and the younger ones learn from the older. Having mixed ages is like having more teachers in one class.
Our Toddler Group is above the Casa Class, and we make sure that both groups spend time together, so that the young ones feel comfortable with everyone at the preschool. This also gives them the chance to get accustomed with the teachers & children they will inevitably be joining.
Mixing ages also helps us provide our kids with a natural "extended family" atmosphere.
Celebrate Diversity
As an international preschool, we are able to expose our children to a wealth of different backgrounds, lifestyles and abilities. This diversity helps us teach them that there are "many right ways to live, many right ways to solve problems and many right ways to look at the world".
At Maple Tree Montessori, we want our children to explore, and to teach them that there is more than one solution to anything. We can show them a variety of lifestyles, making sure that we respect them all. Some of the ways that we accomplish this are by: learning about family beliefs, sharing personal and cultural traditions, or giving back to the local residents through community service.
We also include both women and men in our staff, and these nurturing women and men provide healthy role models to the children and families in our community.
Vision
Don't we all have a dream for ourselves??
A good child care facility needs the kind of people who will act as a unifying force and pull the program together to make it cohesive.
We have a vision of the kind of child care we want to provide and we are filled with the enthusiasm & perseverance to accomplish this.
We are living our dream, and we hope to continue year after year with your support. Let our dream inspire your children!!
