Dear Montessori House Families:

First, thanks for the feedback many of you provided me regarding our decision to keep The Montessori House open, even as Bergen County public schools close and move on-line.  Let me say again: parents are best positioned to decide what’s best for their children, and with the Covid-19 situation constantly evolving, we understand the need to re-evaluate every day.

Today we participated in a webinar hosted by the NJ Dept of Children and Families  — Office of Licensing (OOL), and the NJ Department of Health (DoH).  There appeared to be over 500 participants from childcare centers (CCC) across the state.  (CCCs include any facility that provides care for children up through Kindergarten, from in-home daycare to schools like The Montessori House, and we are licensed by the OOL.)

Here were our key “take-aways” from the call, most of which came in the Questions & Answer portion of the webinar:

On the call, DoH Commissioner Persichilli informed us that (as of March 12) there were 29 presumptive cases of Covid-19 in New Jersey and, sadly, one death.  Also that Governor Murphy has recommended canceling any public event of 250 people or more. The Commissioner emphasized the need for contingency planning and vigilance regarding staff and students who exhibit symptoms of respiratory infection, and the need to practice good hygiene (hand-washing and cleaning).

From both the call and the written guidance provided by OOL on March 12, it is clear that no official authority (not Federal, not State, not Local) is requiring, or even recommending, that childcare centers close.  (And, given the threshold of 250 to cancel public events, we note that the size of most public schools is in the hundreds or thousands, whereas most CCCs most often have many fewer than 100 students, including The Montessori House.  The risk profile and the trade-offs are different for CCCs vs K-12 schools.)  To date, local health officials have not provided particular guidance for CCCs in our area, and no communication about closing CCCs.

In fact the guidance from OOL, both for their contracted providers and for licensed centers (like The Montessori House), indicates that they’ll take actions to help CCCs keep their doors open.  Specifically:

D. Licensing and Regulatory Guidelines
During the State of Emergency related to the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus, DCF acknowledges that flexibility around regular licensing and regulatory guidelines may be warranted and necessary, so long as such flexibility does not jeopardize the safety or wellness of children being served by the program.

In the interest of preserving operations at licensed and contracted programs that may be experiencing hardship due to meeting staffing levels, remediation timelines and other challenges exasperated by a public health emergency, issues will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine if a licensing or regulatory waiver may be appropriate.

All the centers on the call want to do the right thing.  But all are challenged with balancing the needs of families for childcare with the risks to students, staff, and families posed by Covid-19, and further challenged with the changing circumstance every day.  (DoH Commissioner Persichilli said that the situation is changing by the hour!).

As Director, I face these challenges deciding the best path forward for The Montessori House, and the impact on all the families who rely on us — families of both students and staff.  Right now, you can expect us to have our doors open on Monday, and to receive an update if the situation changes.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay happy!

— Ms. Maria Morningstar, Director, The Montessori House School

With the ever-evolving story of the Covid-19 pandemic, including tonight’s Bergen County-wide closure of public schools, I’ve had many conversations with parents, staff and friends regarding the best path for The Montessori House School at this time.  As always, we want to do what’s best for our students, their families, and our staff.

First, we plan to keep the school open.  We’ll continue to do so until circumstances dictate otherwise.  For many families, having childcare available during the work day is essential, and we aim to meet this need. Our parents work in a wide variety of professions and occupations, some of which are required to respond to critical needs in our communities, such as health care professionals.  Our mission is to make available to families a safe, wholesome, and developmentally beneficial environment for their young children, and we would fail in this mission if we closed before required to do so.

As with weather emergencies, if we can safely keep The Montessori House open, we do so.

However, if parents feel it’s in their child’s best interest, they should not hesitate to decide stay home.  

With that in mind, here are several principles, policies and procedures, we plan to follow in the coming weeks and months:

• If we can provide a safe environment for children (adequate staff and supplies), we will remain open on our normal schedule.  This applies to the regular school day, after-school classes, and after care.
• Our aim is to isolate our students and staff during their time at school.  From the morning through school, after-school classes, and after-care, we will put in place isolation practices that keep unnecessary vectors of contamination (people and goods) out of the classroom/playground environment.
• Only staff and students will be permitted in the classrooms and on the playground.  Until further notice, we will curtail prospective parent classroom tours, and curtail classroom visits by family members, including parent visits for in-school birthday celebrations and the current Kindergarten presentations.  We will, however, permit staff members to bring to the classroom their own school-age children, if necessary to keep our doors open.
• At arrival and dismissal we ask parents and caregivers to keep in mind public health recommendations regarding social distancing.  In other words, keep distance from one another while waiting to drop-off or pick up students.  And please keep our staff healthy by having caregivers and siblings keep their distance: our staff will provide hugs or handshakes only to current students.
• We ask families and staff to be hyper-vigilant with regard to their own health, and to err on the side of caution if they show any symptoms of respiratory infection, including fever, cough, congestion, or shortness of breath.  In other words, please do not come to school if you have such symptoms, and please follow public health advice regarding medical care and Covid-19 testing.
• Similarly, if members of your household visit CDC Level 3 or Level 4 regions (currently China, Iran, South Korea and all countries in Europe except the United Kingdom), or if you have visitors from such regions, please consider isolation for 14 days before anyone from your household comes to school.
• I will work with our Nutrition Committee (Snack Volunteers) to implement guidelines to safeguard our school-provided snacks from risk of contamination.
• We always work diligently to teach students proper hygiene.  We are now extra vigilant with respect to frequent, proper hand-washing with soap and water, and proper covering when sneezing or coughing (into the elbow).  Hand sanitizer is far less effective than hand-washing, and we use it very little.
• We’ve reviewed all our cleaning products to ensure they are EPA-designated disinfectants, and that they are effective against corona viruses generally (N.B., no available disinfectant has been tested specifically for effectiveness against Covid-19).
• For students who bring lunch to school, we ask families to take extra care to disinfect lunchboxes daily (inside and out).  As a reminder, our standard practice already prohibits food sharing among students.
• As much as our staff absolutely appreciates the gifts of food some parents bring us, to assure isolation we’ll refuse such gifts.

Like so much in these uncertain times, it seems uncomfortable and out of character for The Montessori House community to have to change its ways as outlined above (can you image me, Ms. Maria, not hugging a former student! or not welcoming a parent gift of sweets!).  I hope this storm will pass soon, and we’ll be able to return to most of our familiar ways.  But, in the interest of keeping the doors open for the benefit of our entire school community, these steps make sense.

The Montessori House School in Tenafly, NJ is accepting applications for all our programs for September 2020.

UPDATE Covid-19: The Montessori House School is closed.  However, we are available by phone, text and email to address your need for early childhood education and answer you questions.  We continue to accept applications and make placements for September 2020 and for our summer camp.

Please call or text us at 201-816-8343 or email us at admissions@themontessorihouse.com.  We’re available to answer your questions, accept your application, and complete your child’s placement and enrollment.

Summary of our enrollment process: 

We take applications throughout the year.  We’re now in a period of rolling admissions for September 2020.

We have full-day and half-day Montessori programs openings available for children born after October 15, 2013 and before May 1, 2018 including:

• For ages 5 & 6 years old: our mixed age Montessori Kindergarten program (full-day, half-day)
• For ages 30 months to 4 years old: our mixed age Montessori Pre-Primary program (full-day or half-day)

To be considered for placement, families submit a paid application (download here) and visit the school for a tour.

You can find our 2020-21 tution rates here.   But do come visit, to find out why The Montessori House is so special and a great value!

We offer tours most school days.  Tours are most informative  when the classroom is filled with students and teachers.  Consequently, we prefer to conduct tours when classes are in session.  A personal, private tour  usually take about 45 minutes, with a generous amount of time in one or two classrooms — depending on your child’s age, we will show you the program they would enter initially, but also show you the programs available in future years.

Note, if you have childcare available, you may prefer to schedule a time to visit without your child.  In our experience, visiting parents get the most from their time observing in our classrooms when they don’t have to also keep an eye on a toddler.   But, if that’s not convenient for you, we want you to visit and are happy to have your child accompany you tor a tour.

We generally schedule tours to start between 9:00 and 10:15 in the morning, or around 1:00 in the afternoon.  You may schedule a personal tour by texting/calling us at 201-816-8343.  Or, we’ll contact you: e-mail us at admissions@themontessorihouse.com with your phone number and your child’s birth date, and we’ll reach out to schedule a visit.

We urge families interested in entering September 2020 to act now: schedule a school visit and submit an application .

For more information please contact us text/call us at 201-816-8343.

Some of you may have met Montessori House parent Mitchell Schorr at arrival or dismissal.  Mitchell is an artist and he and his wife are parents of a current student and an alum who graduated Kindergarten last June. Mitchell has done numerous art projects with the children at school.

Mitchell’s inviting Montessori House parents and friends to a gallery opening of his work this week at Galerie Mourlot.

We recently saw some of Mitchell’s work in the print gallery of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in connection with their exhibit of rock’n’roll instruments: Play It Loud.  We loved it all!

Food!  Glorious Food!

A year-end Montessori House tradition has the graduating Kindergarten/1st Grade students bring a favorite food to the All-School Party following their graduation ceremony.  Each K/1st student brings 15 to 20 servings of their favorite food — the school provides plates, napkins, drinks, and additional refreshments.

We’ve asked the K/1st families to let us know what food their graduates have chosen.  Here’s a sneak peek that we’ll keep updated as families report in:

• White pasta and
  Fruit platter with colorful fruits
• Korean rice cake (Dukbokgi)
• Fruit and veggie platter
  Cookies (from la promenade)
  Drink -maybe lemonade
• Jab Chea will include (glass Noodle, spinach, onion, mushroom, beef, carrot)
• Empanadas (from Noches de Colombia)
• Chocolate chip pancakes
  Cranberry apple juice
• Chicken nuggets and cookies
• Chicken nuggets (Baumgarts)
• Baked ziti and bagels

Friday, January 7th, 9 a.m. Graduation, 10 a.m. All-School Party

After our exclusive enrollment period for Montessori House families, now accepting enrollments for all children in our new-for-2019 Summer Program.

S+Camp (pronounced “scamp“) =

School + Camp at The Montessori House

• Your choose your weeks: available 8 weeks starting Monday, June 10th through Friday August 2nd
• Monday-Friday: from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM (No Camp July 4th)
• After Care available 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM
• Ages 3 years to 8 years as of October 15, 2019

Click here for details, rates, and on-line registration. (Early Bird Discount for registration and payment by May 31).

Questions? email:office@themontessorihouse.com or call/txt 201-816-8343

We invite all our families to join us at The Montessori House International Festival in May.  This includes families at school now, and families starting next school year (2019-20).

Here are some of the many ways you and your family can participate (remember, the more families, the better):

•  Booths:  School families create “booths” representing countries of their choice.  “Booths” can feature food, games, customs, clothing, and/or interesting facts from cultures around the world.  But don’t let the word “booth” scare you; some of our most popular booths in the past have involved simple presentations, easy activities for the children, or foods from the represented country.  Families can make booths themselves or join with other families.
• Food:  We ask that all families that attend bring an ethnic dish of their choice.  This gives The Montessori House families yet another way to experience the great diversity that makes up our school.
• Other volunteer opportunities:  The day of the Festival, we’ll need help decorating the playground, setting up food tables and chairs, coordinating the food contributions as they arrive, and cleaning up when the festival ends.

What’s next? 

It’s time to start organizing the Festival.  Our families will receive a regular stream of emails with updates and volunteer opportunities.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a “Montessori Mafia” showed up in an extensive study about creative business executives.  This Montessori Mafia includes Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, videogame pioneer Will Wright, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, not to mention Julia Child and rapper Sean “P.Diddy” Combs.

Is there something going on here?  Is there something about the Montessori approach that nurtures creativity and inventiveness?

By the end of kindergarten, among 5-year-olds, “Montessori students proved to be significantly better prepared for elementary school in reading and math skills than the non-Montessori children,” according to research published in Science.  “They also tested better on “executive function,” the ability to adapt to changing and more complex problems, an indicator of future school and life success.”

Montessori methods go against the grain.This quote from  Harvard Business Review captures the difference: “When I got too old for my Montessori school, and went to traditional school, I felt like I’d been sent to the Gulag:  I have to sit in this desk?  All day? We’re going to divide the day into hour-long chunks?  Am I on Candid Camera? Am I Job?”