Years ago, I was looking through schools to enrol my daughter who was three at the time. I wanted the best educational setting for her. That was the time that I came across Montessori Schools. As much as I read and researched about it, I was even more amazed by the philosophy of Montessori pedagogy and I was even more convinced that Montessori schools are the environment that I want my daughter to start her journey of learning. Finally, I enrolled her in the Children’s House program of a Montessori School. I observed my child every day from behind the window to see what she was doing in the school. It was an amazing experience to witness how she was developing physically, emotionally, socially and academically in an environment that met all her needs and nurtured her to achieve her full potential.
I was motivated by this joy, and my love for working with children to take the teacher training course at Toronto Montessori Institute. After graduation, I worked at Toronto Montessori schools. I taught at the same school for many years.
As a teacher, I felt great joy teaching children, and seeing their faces brighten up with every new concept they were learning and mastering. To help all the children in my class to the best of my abilities, I completed several different workshops at Seneca College to learn how to teach and work with autistic children. Additionally, I’ve also completed the Orton-Gillingham training course to work with dyslexic children, and children who have difficulty with reading.
It was around 2011 that I started to think of opening my own school and deliver my service of working with children in a more dynamic way. It was September 2012 that Pine Lake Montessori School started with two classrooms of 15 toddlers and 20 students in Children’s House class. As I was overwhelmed with the number of students interested in joining our school, another Children’s House class was added to our school in the second year of operating PLMS.
As the number of requests for a Montessori elementary program raised by the families of our current students as well as the community, we started to plan for a lower elementary program in 2015. I was thrilled with the whole process as my vision for Pine Lake Montessori School always was to offer services for children with a wider range of age groups and helping them to experience a well balanced program based on Montessori pedagogy that will help them to achieve their full potential. As preparation for this program I returned back to Toronto Montessori Institute to complete the Montessori Elementary program and I was graduated in June 2016. I also visited many other Montessori schools internationally and locally to prepare the best possible program for Elementary years. Now we are excited to announce that we will be launching the start of our first Lower Elementary class (grades 1-3) on September 2018.
Dr. Maria Montessori was certainly a visionary ahead of her time. Educational research today reinforces the importance of movement and learning. Schools are recognizing the value of holistic approaches to education including hands on, self-directed learning – the education method and principals Dr. Montessori developed.
My goal is to share Dr. Montessori’s vision and empower children to reach their utmost potential as life-long learners who are confident, caring, and positive contributors to our global community.
As a parent, you can be totally confident when choosing Pine Lake Montessori School. I will do my best to provide an education for your children that will prepare them for today’s realities and tomorrow’s challenges.
Please feel free to request a virtual meeting if you would like to know more about the program.
We look forward to meeting you and answering any questions that you might have.