Openings for 18 months to 6 years.
Come see us for yourself! Please fill out the form below to learn more
Montessori at the Old Schoolhouse
Montessori at the Old Schoolhouse is a diverse and engaging educational partnership of parents, teachers, children and community. Our school was founded in the Fall of 2004 by sisters Anna and Josephine Salvatico, who bring to it over 20 years experience each teaching toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners with the Montessori approach. At the schoolhouse, we nurture a child’s love of learning and sense of responsibility, using child-centered philosophies, curriculum and materials to develop the intellectual, physical, moral, artistic, emotional, and academic excellence inherent in each child. Over the course of the year, our children grow in a Montessori environment to become self-assured, independent, vibrant students who love to learn. We encourage the parents of both prospective and enrolled students to visit! Contact us to set up a time.
“Imagine a place where your child is always greeted warmly and made to feel welcome with a parent-communication experience that keeps you informed and confident that your child has fallen in love with learning.”
Location
Montessori at the Old Schoolhouse is located on the rolling hills of the founders’ family farm in Tivoli, NY (at the corner of 9 and West Kerley Corners). The building is based on the old one-room schoolhouse originally located in Gallatin that now stands at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. Our school was designed and equipped according to the Montessori principles of order, simplicity, and beauty, yet it also reflects the personality and philosophy of our teachers. The classrooms — the upstairs ones for primary students, the downstairs ones for toddler students — are brightly decorated, clean, child-sized and child-centered. The classroom materials the children work with are all natural. And the rural setting inspires the curriculum to include gardening, nature walks, and the occasional feeding of our sheep and goats.
557 West Kerley Corners Road Tivoli, NY 12583
About Montessori at the Old Schoolhouse
Class Schedules
During the school year, we offer half day-classes from 8:30 to 11:30 am for students aged 18 months to 6 years, either three, four, or five days a week. The 3-day program is either Mon-Wed or Wed-Fri; the 4-day program is Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri; the 5-day program is Mon-Fri. (Depending on enrollment, we may be able to customize a schedule.)
Students aged 3 to 6 years are upstairs in the primary classroom, where maximum enrollment is 21 students. Your child must be within the 3 to 6 span by September in order to enroll in the primary program. Students aged 18 months to 3 years are in the downstairs classroom, where there’s a maximum enrollment of 10 students.
Our Curriculum
Profound respect for each child is the basis for our curriculum. We focus on the development of each child’s potential at his or her own pace. Our Montessori teachers are specially trained to observe each child and design lessons based on his or her individual abilities and interests. Careful preparation by the teachers frees the children for self-directed learning, putting them in control of their environment and making it possible for them to pursue their individual interests and needs, as they relate to these six main areas of learning: practical life (everyday skills), sensorial (working with shapes, weights, textures), science & geography, math & language, art & music, and the prepared environment (working with the curriculum on display of their own accord and at their own pace). Our well-rounded curriculum also includes cooking, crafts, peace and diversity studies, outdoor education, Spanish with LanguageLive Academy™️, Handwriting Without Tears™️, and Zoophonics™️.
A Typical Day
When you enter our school, you will immediately sense a difference. The classrooms are orderly, bright, child-sized and child-centered. Small-scale furniture and shelves are the rule with no adult furniture present. To appreciate how the children interact with the environment and each other you must see the class in “action,” so we invite parents of both prospective and enrolled students to plan a visit.
At the beginning of each session, the children hang up their possessions on their own hook and change into indoor shoes. The children then go to a “work” of their own choosing and the work cycle begins. During the morning, we have a gathering where new material is introduced, with the teacher demonstrating when and how each item can be used and where it can be found in the classroom. Afterwards, the child may choose that activity or another — using it as fully as possible while also being encouraged to explore with it — and then return it to its own assigned place. If a child is hungry, there are always healthy snacks available. And if the weather is cooperating, we end the morning outside on the playground.
On one day, there might be a music lesson; on another, a Spanish lesson. A special guest might visit to teach yoga or hand out free toothbrushes after a talk about dental care. In the fall, we might take a field trip to a pumpkin patch. If a special Parent’s Brunch is coming up, the children will make artistic gifts to honor the visit. And if it’s a child’s birthday, we invite the parents to participate in a Walk Around the Sun ceremony (the child makes one revolution around a symbolic sun for every year they’ve been on Earth).
Educational Goals
By using the traditional Montessori approach, we aim to achieve these goals with each child and her or his family:
- Enter into a partnership with parents in the education of their children.
- Encourage the self-motivation and self-discipline that lead to a life-long pursuit of knowledge.
- Lead the child to mastery of precisely identified intellectual, social and physical skills.
- Encourage mindful focusing to attain positive solutions.
- Help children develop a positive self-image.
- Instill a sense of belonging and foster a peaceful community.
- Develop open minds and hearts, as well as compassion and respect for others that will allow the child to become a productive member of society.
- Instill in each child a sense of duty and personal responsibility for the world in which we live .
- Balance self-reliance and independence with the skills of cooperation.
- Spark in our children imagination, wonder, humor and joy.
Hear it from our parents!
Our daughter has spent three years at Montessori at the Old Schoolhouse, including summers, and she’s thrived there. I love that the small class size ensures each child gets individual attention, that the school is situated on a working farm with animals, and that the teachers are flexible, straightforward, and open to feedback. Plus, they occasionally offer parents an affordable date-night drop-off!
Lorelei & Joey
Parent
Montessori at the Old School House is an incredibly warm, kind, and welcoming place. Our daughter is very shy and sensitive and we weren’t sure how she’d adjust to a pre-school program. But from her first day there she loved all the teachers and talked about them constantly at home. We really like the program and enjoyed the creative ways that Josephine and Anna get the parents involved, like the “Walk Around the Sun” tradition for each child’s birthday.
Emma & Rob
Parent
Come see Our School for yourself! Fill out the form above to book a school tour or learn more!