The best way to discover the Montessori Way is to experience it yourself. Bluebonnet Montessori of Lakeway.
For almost 103 years, families like yours and mine, all around the world, have sought schools that would teach their children to think for themselves, to think outside the box, to think and care about others, and to believe in themselves and their ability to accomplish great things.
“For them, for me, and now for you, Montessori was the answer. Bluebonnet Montessori School of Lakeway is right here, in the heart of the Lake Travis community, right here for you and your children to discover and experience the Montessori values,” said Silvia Smith, owner and Director Bluebonnet Montessori School of Lakeway. “These values transcend any one culture or religion, values that are universal and timeless: kindness, peace, truth, honor, integrity, responsibility, community, and respect.”
Smith said interested parents should give the school a call and visit.
“It is a great way to discover the children’s insatiable thirst for knowledge and the teacher’s infectious enthusiasm for learning and discovering new horizons,” Smith said. “The children’s days are filled with adventure inside the classrooms and in the backyards under the generous shade of the live oaks.”
When asked what she liked best about school, one seven-year-old child noted that it was the things she hadn’t learned yet. Such is the way for many Montessori students.
“There are no limits for the Bluebonnet Montessori children in their journey of discovery,” Smith said.
The discovery of the learning process is in plain sight for all who visit the school. It isn’t uncommon to see a three-year-old holding a colored pencil tight as she is learning to write her name. Another student may be sounding out with passion and conviction — “c” – “a” – “ t” = “cat.”
Across the room, another child is walking through a labyrinth he’s built with long red wooden rods.
Whether finishing a landforms booklet, or researching the life cycle of a platypus, or learning to joyfully skip-counting by tens, the school holds a treasure trove of learning experiences.
Part of the learning experience is an exercise in community service.
“Life is filled with discovery and adventure each and every day whether the children are working at their school or working for the community,” Smith said. “Our Ambassadors for a Cure team was a top ten team at the Race for Cure out of 20,000 registered teams and raised almost $7,000 for free mammogram’s and breast cancer research.
“We held fundraisers to help a young teacher with cancer and collected toys and clothing to send to children in Afghanistan,” Smith said. “The Bluebonnet children sang International Winter Holidays songs at Hill Country Galleria Winter Season festival and warmed the hearts of the elderly at The Summit with a Valentine’s concert. We believe in and promote Reuse, Reduce and Recycle and participate in Cartridges for Kids.”
Bluebonnet Montessori School of Lakeway offers preschool, primary and elementary education for children ages two and a half to 10 years old and serves a culturally and socioeconomically diverse student body in a unique, child-centered environment.
“We are dedicated to the creation of the nurturing environment which will ultimately provide children with education for life that nurtures children’s imagination and appreciation of the timeless universal values of peace, truth, honor, responsibility, community and respect,” Smith said. “But most of all we respect each and every child’s uniqueness and individuality. We believe in our children and inspire them to achieve academic excellence, love of learning, joy of discovery and self-worthiness.”
Smith is fond of quoting Maria Montessori, who founded the educational philosophy.
“The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to age six,” Montessori said. “For that is the time when man’s intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed. But not only his intelligence, the full totality of his psychic powers. At no other age has the child greater need of an intelligent help, and any obstacle that impedes his creative work will lessen the chance he has of achieving perfection.”
“When Barbara Walters asked Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google.com, if the fact that their parents were college professors was a factor behind their success, they said no, that it was their going to a Montessori school where they learned to be self-directed and self-starters,” Smith said. “They said that Montessori education allowed them to learn to think for themselves and gave them freedom to pursue their own interests.”
Learn more about the school at www.bluebonnetmontessori.com or call 266-6626.