Meet Our Partner, Mariposa Montessori School

                                          7809 Brodie Lane, Austin, TX  78749

                                                  (512) 428-4280

Enrolling now for Summer 2008.  View program descriptions and registration and fees at www.mariposamontessori.com.

Open enrollment for Fall 2008-2009 school year now occuring in the Nido (infants 8 - 17 weeks), Young Children's Community (17mos-3 years), Children's House (3-6 years).

Developed by pediatrician Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Montessori education embraces the fact that children are natural learners. Montessori Schools offer an environment that fosters children’s natural love of learning. The classrooms are filled with child-sized furniture and class work that is age and developmentally appropriate and uniquely stimulating and motivating to the child.

Mariposa Montessori School is founded by Whitney Falcon, an American Montessori Society certified infant/toddler guide (teacher).
Falcon is completely dedicated to the Montessori Method of education. She yearns to make Montessori education available to as many children as possible because in her eyes, “It just makes sense to me to treat children with high esteem and to start them off with a solid foundation of who they are and what they can do educationally and intellectually. I firmly believe that there is no better way to work with children.” Falcon doesn’t see her role as a Montessori educator as a job, but feels that it’s her calling, what she was put on this earth to do.

Falcon has been involved with Montessori education for 15 years. She initially started as an assistant to trained guides and as a substitute, but the more time she spent working in true Montessori environments, the more she came to love the philosophy. After 10 years of assisting, Falcon enrolled at the Center for Montessori Teacher Training in New York and earned her infant/toddler guide certification from the very instructor who opened the first toddler Montessori classroom in the United States.

Working at suboptimal schools has been a constant frustration for Falcon. Her heart has been broken many times after signing on with a “Montessori school” only later to find that it’s really a glorified daycare. In December 2006, she decided to open a Montessori school that would be true to Maria Montessori’s original philosophy-an environment that caters to the children with child-sized tables and chair and materials that foster coordination, independence and self esteem all the while instilling in the children a thirst for learning and exploring self-paced educational development. The campus would be peaceful inside and out with gardens and play areas designed to stimulate the imagination as well as a respect for nature and surroundings. To further accomplish this goal, the curriculum at Mariposa Montessori will include Spanish language classes, music classes and movement classes.

The school is named Mariposa (butterfly in Spanish) Montessori because the butterfly is a symbol of freedom and imagination and the aim of this school is to enable the children to soar far and wide as they learn. Falcon herself has emerged from her cocoon prepared, fully mature and ready to take the next step as a Montessorian.

For more information about Mariposa Montessori School, visit www.mariposamontessori.com, e-mail info@mariposamontessori.com or call 512-428-4280.