A little bit about our school. Sprouting Minds Montessori School (SMMS) opened in 2017 and moved to our new beautiful, wooded campus on Mill Road at the end of 2020. We are a school filled with passionate teachers, who all believe in the beauty of childhood and everything it has to offer. We like to think of our school as a community of families who all have the same goal- quality life experiences and education. A large portion of our staff are also parents to students at SMMS, including our founder and Head of School, Sammie Trent. We have three multi-age classrooms with programs for children between the ages of newborn to 12 years old.

SMMS is a member of both the American Montessori Society (AMS) and the International Montessori Council (IMC) which means that as a school we are committed to being as authentic to the Montessori philosophy as possible.

All of our classroom teachers at SMMS are required to be in the process of obtaining or have already obtained their MACTE Montessori Teacher Credential, which is a master’s level of education. MACTE (Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education) is the highest international standard setting accrediting body for Montessori teacher education. Our certified teachers have over 1,000+ hours of training specifically on the Montessori method, the philosophy, early childhood development and the Montessori materials themselves. In addition, they have over 1,000 hours of hands on practicum work prior to receiving their certification.

Our classrooms are open and bright, items are placed at child height so that they may independently work on things for themselves. This includes practical life work where they are working on skills that are useful for the rest of their lives, as well as preparing them for other academic work. We also have a variety of works in our classroom for students to refine their senses, mathematics and language. You can clearly see in our classrooms a value for cultural and cosmic work where we study other cultures, locations and experiences from around the world. Our students are no strangers to real tools and breakable objects, and we provide them with appropriate safety lessons and guidance to be able to safely and effectively use those items.

Our school has quite an affinity with nature. On top of our regular classroom activities, we believe strongly that students learn the most about nature, the environment and the workings of the world by being in nature. Students are outside during all seasons and weather, and all have outdoor time daily. Additionally we have a “Forest Friday” with all of our students which involves a full morning outside with campfire, cooking, real tools, real nature learning and more!