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Tag: Toddlers

Re-Enrollment for 2022-23

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

We are happy and honored that you have entrusted us with your child’s education and look forward to continuing that relationship for the next academic year.

Re-enrollment for 2022-2023 is now open!

Every family should have received an email from enroll@mcsslc.com on 12/15/2021 called Enrollment for Returning Student explaining how to complete the re-enrollment process for the 2022-23 school year. The email was sent to the same parent/guardian who filled out the application & enrollment forms previously.

Open enrollment for new families begins January 14, 2022. We wish to preserve our current families’ spaces by enrolling your children first. Re-enrollment needs to be completed by January 14, 2022. After this date, spaces will be opened to new families and your child’s placement will no longer be guaranteed.

Save the Date/s

​Unable to attend? Don’t worry, recordings were made of these meetings and are available for watching at your convenience. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If your child is eligible to move into a new program next fall, please consider attending the pertinent informational meeting about that transition. Parents of rising students will receive an email invitation to a virtual meeting for the following date/s:

  • Entering Lower and Upper Elementary 12/2/21, 6:30-7:30pm
  • Entering Early Childhood 12/9/21, 6:30-7:30pm
  • Entering Toddlers 12/15/21, 6:30-7:30pm

Enrollment details to note for 2022-2023 include the following:

  • The tuition increase this year is 6% school wide.
  • If you are considering the Extended Day option, we would encourage you to sign up sooner rather than later. Staffing is based on those who have selected this option during enrollment and we cannot always guarantee space for later schedule changes.
  • Registration and enrollment for Summer Camp 2023 will be conducted in late fall 2022.

If your child will not be returning for the 2022-2023 year, please email enroll@mcsslc.com to indicate your decision. Alternatively, log into FACTS Family Portal and click Apply/Enroll -> Enrollment / Re-enrollment and click the button “Will Not Enroll.”

If your family has elected not to return to MCS next year, we recommend that you wait to relay that information to your child until closer to the end of the academic year. It has been our experience that children who are told in advance of such a change often lose their focus for the balance of the year, and begin the process of separation long before the change is imminent.

We understand that educational decisions are the result of a thoughtful, intentional process and we appreciate our families taking the time when they are considering re-enrollment for another school year. Do not hesitate to contact the Director of Admissions, Ramira Alamilla, at enroll@mcsslc.com if you have any questions or need assistance in this process.

Parenting Connection – Letting Toddlers Help

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One of the key tenets for the Toddler department at MCS is to foster independence. There are many ways that we help guide our students through their exploration and discovery of their environment. Toddlers love to learn by doing even when it does not look as clean and concise as we might like it to. This article from Psychology Today speaks to the idea of letting our toddlers help in a variety of ways to grow their sense of independence.

 

An MCS Family shares their story

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

An MCS family recently shared their story about their new baby who was diagnosed with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID). Their story is unique as Calla is the first of the approximately 61,000 newborns screened for SCID so far in Utah to have a positive test result. Calla, sister to Tatum, has been in isolation at Primary Children’s Hospital since a few days after her birth and is awaiting a bone marrow transplant.
Logan and Jody, parents to Calla and Tatum, have been advocates and supporters of MCS even while their sweet new baby is staying the the hospital. They even recently spent the evening volunteering at the Halloween Carnival. We want to offer our love and support to Tatum, Logan, Jody and especially Calla. Their story is touching…Read more here, here  and here about SCID and about Calla’s upcoming transplant.
We hope that the surgery goes smoothly and that Calla is able to come home to her family soon.  The family feels blessed that Calla has remained healthy up to this point and we wish them all the best.  This is a great opportunity for us to teach our students the importance of good hygiene and care of self!
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A brief word to the MCS community from Logan and Jody:
We are very lucky that Calla’s illness was caught so early and we are holding our breath as we await her bone marrow transplant.  They found a 10/10 match for Calla through the National Bone Marrow Program, and we are incredibly thankful that somewhere out there an anonymous donor agreed to help save Calla’s life.  We’d like to encourage anyone who is willing to sign up for bone marrow registry at BeTheMatch.org.  We knew little about bone marrow donation before all of this started, and we were surprised to learn that the process is quite easy: initially you’ll just send a cheek swab, and after that there is a ~1/500 chance over your lifetime that you’ll be called up to donate and save someone’s life!
Register at BeTheMatch.org.
Once Calla has received her transplant and the family is settled they hope to organize a drive for potential volunteers and we will share further information about that as it becomes available.

Toddler Montessori…What are the benefits?

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Many working parents are looking for a safe and healthy environment for their very young children. Options for child care are limitless and varied in what they have to offer a young child.  However, current research shows us that the most crucial part of a child’s development happens in the unconcscious absorbent mind, from 0-3 years old.  That being said, why wouldn’t any nurturing parent want the most prepared and beneficial environment for their child?  This article, Montessori Infant-Toddler Programs; The Best Beginning, from The Montessori Way will help you determine if a Montessori Toddler program is the best fit for your child.
“This is a time of great sensitivity to language, spatial relationships, music, art, social graces and so much more. If, during this time, the mind is stimulated by the child’s exposure to a rich environment, the brain will literally develop a much stronger and lasting ability to learn and accomplish.”  Read more...

Now Enrolling Toddlers 18 months to 3 years. Read Below Why Early Education is so Beneficial!

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

Toddler students from MCS practice Yoga.
Current research and various studies support Maria Montessori’s approach to Early Education. She discovered that children 0-6 years old were in an absorbent mind, where children absorb information from their environment with little to no effort. Montessori wrote and spoke about “Sensitive Periods”, which are periods in a person’s development when they are more responsive to certain stimuli and quicker to learn particular skills. She also taught us that when these crucial stages are missed (which she referred to as “dropped stitches”, learning becomes a more difficult process.  For example, children who are exposed to a second language in their first six years have an advantage over people who learn a second language later in life, when the sensistive period for language development has passed.
Simply put, a child’s early years lay the foundation for all that is to come. In recent years, researchers have learned that the human brain develops the vast majority of its neurons, and is at its most receptive to learning, between birth and three years of age. In fact, the intake of new information is critical to the formation of active neural pathways (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).
MCS Toddlers do scrubbing work.
The Toddler Montessori environment is carefully designed to meet the children’s needs in this critical stage of development.  Exploration of their environment through the five senses coupled with a rich socially prepared environment with children of different ages and abilities allows Toddlers the opportunity to develop the following:
  • meaningful relationships, mutual understanding, and approprite social skills
  • values and ethics
  • motor skills
  • creativity & imagination
  • self correction and overcoming fear of making mistakes
  • self expression through arts, music, dance, building and exploration of materials
  • ability to process emotions and life events in a safe and loving environment
  • cooperation
  • development of language
  • independence
  • control of body
  • sense of order
Montessori Community School is currently accepting applications for our Toddler program.  Toddler enrollment is limited to the beginning of the academic school year, August, and January.  Contact us for a tour now! 

Busy Times at MCS

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With the end of the school year drawing near, the energy of our student body is increasing. However, our teachers have Montessori Community School buzzing with activities, field trips, and End of Year Ceremonies.
This week, MCS has been celebrating our teachers through Teacher Appreciation Week. Truly, we can not express enough gratitude and thanks for our teachers here at MCS. Their dedication, love, support, and passion toward each child is awe-inspiring. We feel so blessed and grateful for their devotion to each student and Montessori Community School. How our teachers can keep the energy up, continue to plan such wonderful, educational activities, and coordinate so many beautiful ceremonies is a wonder.
To our fabulous teachers, we say, Thank you, thank you, thank you.   

 

Courage

Written by Montessori Admin on . Posted in Blog.

by Edward Fidellow

It is amazing to observe the breadth of accomplishment that a Montessori environment fosters. Courage is not traditionally thought of as an educational outcome but then again Montessori is not traditional. For children, courage is the ability to try new things even if I am afraid. And as they mature courage becomes the ability to do what is right and to do what is good.

For a child everything is new. That is the reality of childhood. The awesome task and purpose of childhood is to create the adult. Life takes courage to navigate and to become a fully functioning independent adult. And it is this kind of courage that must be nurtured and practiced for it to become a practical virtue.

We tend to identify courage with physical courage – running into a burning building, pulling people out of rivers etc. However, real life every day common courage demonstrates itself in intellectual, emotional and spiritual settings. The courage to do what is right, to do what is good for others, to use our gifts, talents and opportunities well and wisely is the kind of courage practiced and displayed in a Montessori environment.

We well understand that the opposite of courage is fear. But for a child fear doesn’t yet have a definition. It is represented by an indistinct but palpable feeling of unease. For a child fear is “defined” by the unknown, the unfamiliar. (That is why Montessori children love and are so at home in their environments because of its constant sameness and familiarity.)

For the child conscious fear starts from the unknown – the dog, the dark, strangers and then becomes attached to the inability (and frustration) of not being able to handle and control the environment – bringing it back to sameness. (Perfectionist children come to this earlier than others.) Then this fear attaches itself to the perceived rejection that comes from disapproval. The child, unconsciously thinks, that if I only do what is absolutely safe or what receives guaranteed adult approval I don’t have any reason to fear or face disapproval.

One of the hardest concepts for a new Montessori teacher to understand (and embrace) is that of not correcting children in the middle of their work. (This is particularly difficult for perfectionists and controllers.) Unless the child is damaging the material or endangering others or himself or being rude you let them continue. There are two outcomes to not correcting the child in the midst of the work. One, the child discovers his own mistake and corrects it which produces a sense of accomplishment and control. The second outcome is far more subtle. Because you are not corrected at every turn, you do not freeze up; you do not constantly look over your shoulder; you are not waiting for the next shoe to drop. You gain breathing room to make mistakes – that’s how we learn. In this way mistakes do not become the end of the universe or the world as we know it. The child is willing to try something new (which is an act of courage) without being weighed down with the fear of failure or reproof.

scaled

Not being corrected (all of the time) is the strange and unique Montessori training ground for courage. In trying something new the child gets to practice courage every day. Eventually, the child becomes use to trying new things without the overpowering fear of failure. The child learns to work his way through mistakes which becomes a normal part of life and the learning process – which is a significant part of adult life.

Life requires courage to live fully. The Montessori classroom provides daily opportunities to develop and practice courage.

Children of Ethiopia Education Fund

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The Children of Ethiopia Education Fund, or COEEF, is a Utah-based organization that provides crucial access to materials, uniforms and an absolutely vital private education to many children in Ethiopia. Fiercely dedicated to the protection and instruction of young girls, COEEF provides a new kind of life in an otherwise perilous, sexist, underprivileged and poverty-driven region of the world. We share the mission of this organization as we mark our 6th year of support to such a pivotal duty of the world’s edification. COEEF takes its place in the school within our Service Learning Program, a program designed to give our students a channel to ignite character, build trust and connect with others through acts of true service.

COEEF was created by a local SLC couple: Norm and Ruthann Perdue, when they traveled to the country with a humanitarian mission. During their service, they learned of the great educational disparity in the upbringing of an Ethiopian child: with classrooms crowded, unfinished and ill-prepared. At the time, less than half of all Ethiopian citizens were able to read, and only half of all Ethiopian children had the opportunity to attend school. The two saw an immediate need for assistance, and they began working on a plan to improve these conditions.

While in Ethiopia, they learned of a child, 12 year old Kidest, whose father had died and whose mother had abandoned her shortly after, unable to manage under the strain of raising her alone. Kidest had been adopted by her grandmother, who managed to send her to a private school, the “Ethiopian Adventist College” with the mere wage that was paid to a hard-labor employee of the school. When Ruthann and Norm became aware of this situation, they connected with Kidest’s grandmother and found her bereft in her struggle to finance her granddaughter’s education. In her old age, she suffered physical fatigue, and she expressed that she did not know how much longer she could go on working to support Kidest in her pursuit of higher education.

This sadness would soon turn to joy, as after hearing her story, Norm and Ruthann decided that they would share some of the burden. They made a request to the school and discovered that for a donation of two-hundred dollars, they would be able to finance the girl’s yearly tuition, supplies and school uniform. This act of generosity would make them the first sponsors of the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund. When they returned to their home in Salt Lake City, they shared their story with everyone who would listen; and by 2001, they had convinced enough of their associates to become involved that they would return to Ethiopia to enroll 30 children in private education institutions. Shortly following this exceptional milestone, COEEF appointed a board of directors and was officially incorporated as a non-profit organization.

Participation and arranged donations in support of the COEEF service program are available to all MCS parents, students and volunteers. Our school is responsible for the education of 7 young girls and we seek to make the greatest contribution we are able to this established purpose. By raising money during our Annual Spring FunRun, our students help us finance this commitment, and everyone is able to share in the excitement of giving an immeasurable gift.

It is said, “Educate a woman and you will educate a nation.” We are proud to be continued sponsors of COEEF and we intend to remain loyal in our stewardship.

* At this time, COEEF is collecting school supplies materials for the children they support in Ethiopia. If you or your child are interested in donating to this season’s care package, please drop off your donation at our front office and their delivery will be arranged to COEEF headquarters before humanitarian representatives travel to Ethiopia in early October. If you are interested in making a personal donation to COEEF, or becoming a child’s sponsor, we recognize you and invite you to visit the COEEF website to arrange for your own stewardship.