Journey Montessori Academy

A love letter to Journey Montessori:

Sixteen years ago, when I first started Journey Montessori, my goal was to provide a beautiful, authentic, and hands-on approach to educate my own children, as well as those in the community. I wanted to create a space that would invite children’s curiosity, and encourage natural learning. What I didn’t imagine was that the one who would learn the most from the school, was me! The growth and rewards of owning this school have far exceeded my expectations. It has truly been an honor and a privilege to provide a quality educational experience for so many children and families. I am thankful for all of the days I was able to spend inside the walls of our utopia, learning and loving with the children. Of course, I could not have done it alone!

To my husband, Chris:
Thank you for believing in my dream, and for helping to make it a reality. Thank you for being the business mind behind the scenes. Thank you for putting together all the furniture, fixing all the broken things, and, of course, grilling all the hot dogs at our yearly cookout. Thank you for helping me shop for special items for the school each and every time we travel. Thank you for listening to my daily stories of how exciting it was at school today when a child had a lightbulb moment, and I had the chance to witness their success. Thank you for learning all their names, and for sharing in my excitement!

To my children, Hannah and Nate:
In many ways you grew up in this school, and I’m so thankful you had that experience. Nate, first as a student, and both of you during every day off from your own school. You always happily joined me at Journey to spend time with the children, always helping me and the children succeed. You both also have volunteered much of your time at school, even well beyond the years that you needed childcare yourselves, just so that you could share in the love at school. Nate, thank you for mulching the yard, doing the maintenance work, and power washing all the things! Hannah, thank you for helping with crafts, and reading with the children. I can’t go without thanking you both for your patience during your childhood as you knew I could never drive by the school without stopping “to do one quick thing.”

To my assistants;
Heather 2008-2009,
Elaine 2009-2010,
Sheila 2010-2016,
Kari 2016-2018,
Lori 2018-2024, and
our beloved Science teacher, Sheryl 2014-2024:
Thank you for bringing your joy, your patience, and your talents to our beautiful school. Thank you for supporting me and the children, for reading my mind, and keeping two steps ahead to help our classroom run efficiently. Thank you for helping me to process the good days, and those with its challenges. Thank you for being my friend and confidant, and for praying with me each morning. Thank you for sharing lunch with me under our amazing tree, and laughing with me and the children every day. I treasure our time together! Thank you for your support, your friendship, and for being my right hand.

To my music teacher, Ms. Amy 2008-2024:
Thank you for sharing your love of music with the children at Journey. Thank you for embracing our philosophy and for enhancing our program each and every week. Thank you for preparing the children for signing The National Anthem for so many years at The Knights game. You helped provide an unforgettable experience for the families at Journey.

To the families:
Thank you for choosing Journey Montessori as your child’s preschool home. Thank you for your support of me and our program. Thank you for sending me all of your children, and for creating the community that is the Journey families. Thank you for telling your friends about our school. Word of mouth has been our only form of advertising, and was the biggest compliment when you sent us your friends. Also, thank you for staying in touch with me, and for continuing to share your children’s successes with me over the years. It means so much when you think to reach out to me so that I can celebrate them in their next phase.

To the children:
Although most of you will grow up and never remember my name, or your days in preschool, I will always remember you, and how much joy and love you brought into my life. Spending my days with young children helps to slow down the world, remember what’s important, and get a glimpse of the beauty of humanity that others may miss. I hope that you will appreciate the foundation you received, and that your first school experience was one that helped you develop a love of learning. I hope you’ll always be curious about the world, appreciate its beauty, and take time to enjoy the simplest parts of life like watching a butterfly, or making homemade lemonade.

Now, to the next “Journey,” may it be just as fulfilling and fruitful. May God continue to lead me in using my spiritual gifts for His Glory. I’m taking all the happy memories with me from Journey Montessori.

With extreme gratitude,
Laura

❤️ Ms. Lori Appreciation Post! ❤️

I have had the pleasure of having Lori Jewell as my assistant at Journey Montessori for the past 6 years. Lori had many years of teaching experience in both traditional and Montessori classrooms before coming to Journey. She is a phenomenal teacher who has helped me to grow as an educator myself.

I have loved collaborating with her over the years to make our classroom the absolute best! She is organized, thorough, and hard working. Lori gives beautiful, detail oriented lessons to the children, and sets them up for success by helping them grow in their independence. She has incredible patience and a joyful personality. We have had an absolute blast teaching together over the years! We laugh together everyday, and love our time being with the children in this setting.

Lori, thank you for all you have done for me and the children at Journey Montessori. Although our teaching “journey” may be over, I look forward to remaining friends for life!

Water Day! ☀️💦😎

Water Day! Everyone’s favorite day of the year. One of last year’s students has been asking for this day since September. Glad we had such a great day for it! ☀️ 💦 😎

Our amazing science teacher, Ms. Sheryl, brought Stan the snake into school for a final visit before being passed off to his new owner. Stan has been helping teach the children at Journey for 13 years about animal habitats. After the lesson, each child had the chance to interact with Stan. They could choose to look at him, touch him with one finger, or hold him! This year we had a large number of children who chose to hold him. I love how the children (and the teachers 😁) learn how to not to fear snakes. Thank you, Stan, and Ms. Sheryl!

What a joy it was to welcome two Journey Montessori alumni back to school today to give a presentation about their recent trip to Africa. Alex and Olivia shared all about their epic adventure with the children at Journey as part of our continent study of Africa. As a teacher, it is so rewarding to watch your former students grow into such well spoken and knowledgeable adolescents. It was such fun welcoming them “home” to our school. The photos and details they shared of their trip were incredible. 🌍🦓🐘🐆🦒🦛🦍

I love our Valentine’s Day traditions at school! We request that the children make their own cards to distribute to their friends. Making valentines is such a great authentic language activity for children. They love writing their name, and that of their friends. They enjoy adding stickers, paint, and glitter to make them extra special. We also work all month on reading and recognizing each child’s name so they can each “mail” their cards to each other appropriately. Each child works one on one with a teacher to complete this task. They are so proud of their special cards, and love giving them to others. We find that this gives the children ownership , and therefore allows for a meaningful experience for the child. When the cards are purchased, printed, or written by the parents, the child doesn’t have the experience of owning it and sharing in this fun and special learning opportunity. 💌

After mailing our cards, we enjoyed a fun game of Pass the Heart, Valentine Four Corners, and of course, Freeze Dance. Those games are always a hit!

We don’t allow any candy, but we did enjoy a beautiful treat of chocolate covered strawberries with our lunch. Pair that with gorgeous day with outdoor lunch, and I’d say it was a perfect day! 💖

We had a FANTASTIC class today from Movement, Mindfulness and Me Family Yoga ! Dawn led a beautiful, age appropriate practice, that kept our littles active and engaged. She used animal movements and a story to teach poses and breath work. The children loved the experience! It was the perfect complement to our study of the human body. 🧘🏽‍♀️ 🧘 ☮️

BOOK GIVEAWAY!
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It seems like yesterday that I was going to preschool to read books about diabetes and explain how my son's friends could become his fantastic T1D diabetes helpers!
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This week’s show brought back a lot of great memories.
www.diabetes-connections.com
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Laura Self has a daughter just a little older than Benny; Hannah will be starting her senior year of college. Hannah was diagnosed at age eight and Laura always wanted a way to explain diabetes to her friends, without scaring anyone. She’s a preschool teacher and she used her skills to write Sweetie, The Story of a Girl Diagnosed with Type One Diabetes.
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We're giving away two copies of Sweetie! Just comment below with your best advice about explaining T1D to kids. If you don't have any advice, that's okay! Just comment with your child's age now and age at diagnosis.
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Contest closes 8/5/23. Winner will be selected at random.
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Laura and I talk about how to best explain diabetes to younger children, but we also spent a lot of time talking about our almost-all-grown-up kids. Both Benny and Hannah have been fortunate enough to spend time abroad and both are very independent. We shared a bit about our parenting decisions and about how we still worry!
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Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

We had a very special program today for our last day of Animal Camp. Ms. Alex from Exotic Encounters came to visit along with:

Casper, a rat snake from Texas
Zilla, a plated lizard from Africa
Shrek, a toad from South America
Darwin, a Tenrec from Madagascar
Quinn, a hedgehog from Africa
Newton, a kinkajou from South America

It was an amazing presentation. The children learned so much and were so excited to meet all of these exotic animals.

Dinosaur Day 🦕🦖 with Ed's Dinosaurs Live

We enjoyed a very special Muffins for Moms celebration this morning. The children baked the muffins yesterday (banana and blueberry), prepared special gifts and interviews (that I forgot to get pictures of 😕), set the tables, and performed some beautiful songs for their moms. It was a beautiful morning, and I am so proud of all of their hard work! 💐