CITYGATE MONTESSORI PRESCHOOL & KINDERGARTEN

Read, Read, Read!!!

2012-03-08T11:10:00.002-05:00

Set a good foundation for learning: READ to your child! "Some children enter their sensitive period for learning academic skills at an early age and others will not show the slightest interest until they are older. With the right approach YOU can increase the odds that your child will WANT to learn to read, write and work with numbers. Start by reading aloud!" And start with the #1 Book that is filled with Bible stories of wonderful heroes--make sure that Book is beautifully illustrated. Add other selections that will continue to whet the appetite for the love of reading. "As one grandmother said, "No matter how tight our budget was over the years, we always made money available for good books." Read to your child every day, not only at bedtime but whenever you can. Pay attention to their favorites and try to maintain your enthusiasm when you are expected to read them over and over. Children are absorbing those stories into themselves by repetition."

(borrowed: How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way, by Tim Seldin, President of the Montessori Foundation)

Coming up: Spring break along with the area schools: April 2-6, 2012

Congratulations to Ms. Tamie for receiving certification for 3-6 from the North American Montessori Center! We are so proud of you.

OPEN HOUSE: Tuesday, March 20, 6-8 p.m.

2012-03-01T11:43:00.003-05:00

Open House is Tuesday, March 20 (first day of spring!) for the CityGate Montessori(6-8 p.m.). Please help us advertise. Tell your family and friends that there are openings in the most economical Montessori in the area AND the registration is only $20 for the month of March! ($40 for April, $60 for May, $80 for June and $100 thereafter.) Applications available online or request from Teresa. (www.citygatemontessori.org)

Needed: We could use some low, wooden, small tables. If you have low, older coffee or end tables or children's play tables and you would like to donate them to the Montessori we would love it! email teresa@oasiswired.org. Thank you!

Continue to pray for our Lily! How we miss her in school! We know how she loves monkeys so our final day together, we "monkey'd" around all morning! We decorated monkey pages with special messages for Lily, we played "monkey in the middle" in the large muscle room, we played "monkey bingo" and we ate monkey bread! What fun! Lily also loves Disney and Cinderella so if you wish to purchase a small ":play in the hospital bed" item for her during her lengthy separation from us, please give them to a leader or bring them with you to school and we will see that it is delivered to her from YOU!

The letter "O" has been fun as we looked at oval, octopus, ostrich (what a unique bird!), oreos, ox, oboe, owl, ocean. We even glued "o's" on our big "O" and made an octogon out of pretzels and small wood sticks. Enjoy our poem by Mary E. Wilkins called "The Ostrich"

The ostrich is a silly bird,

With scarcely any mind,

He often runs so very fast,

He leaves himself behind.

And when he gets there,

He has to stand

And hang about all night,

Without a blessed thing to do

Until he comes in sight.

We have pictures of the winter fun that we had posted on our Facebook page. Be sure to check them out.

February Fun and Open House!

2012-02-23T07:58:00.000-05:00

There are more Montessori materials on our shelves that ever before. This week we have thoroughly enjoyed the moveable alphabet and we were introduced to the brown stairs. The brown stairs sparked a renewed interest in our pink tower and we even tried some extensions with the pink tower and the our geometric solids. We are also enjoying our very own alphabet books in which we glue pictures that we have found in magazines that will match the page's alphabet letter. And that is what we have done on a "short" week (Monday was President's Day.)

Thank you to those who are helping us by cutting out magazine pictures for our alphabet books! There is still time to help us with more pictures because we will be continuing our Alphabet Books through the end of the school year.

Did you know you can produce a Montessori environment in your homei? One place to start is"discipline" but be sure not to equate that word just with "punish." Make just a few family ground rules!

Treat everyone with respect.

If you use something, put it back correctly when you are done.

If you break or spill something, clean it up.

Tell the truth and don't be afraid to admit when you make a mistake.

OPEN HOUSE: Tuesday, March 20 6-8 p.m. we will have an open house of the CityGate Montessorii. Be sure to pass the word to your family and friends of this no-obligation opportunity to just check us out!

February: "H"earts, "V"alentines and "L"ove!

2012-02-09T06:57:00.003-05:00

February is such an exciting month. This month we are looking at the letters H, V and L. We are tracing our sandpaper letters and are bringing out our movable alphabet. This is a large box with compartments containing letters that's organized much like an old fashioned printer's box of metal type. We have cut Hearts, stamped Hearts and eaten Hearts. We even tackled an obstacle course to keep our Healthy Heart. We have munched on Healthy carrots and pea pods and glued good and not- so- good foods on our classroom chart as we looked at Vegetables. Valentines are, of course, the highlight and we have already played postman and are getting quite proficient at recognizing even our friends' names! We will be using shiny pennies to "purchase" real stamps as we come up to our Valentine celebration on Monday. On Monday we will have our greatest Valentine ever! The children will bring in their Valentines for their friends and we will be looking at letter "L" with our itsy bitsy "L" book, sipping Lemonade and maybe even lick a Lollipop. Our parents are going to be so excited when they see our special Valentine to them created with our Hands.

We will be honoring our Presidents along with the area school districts. There will be no school on Monday, February 20. This month is ZERO registration for the CityGate Montessori! This is the best time to register your 2 and a half year old through Kindergarten for a wonderful learning experience, Montessori style!

Our enrollment fee of $100 is FREE through February, $20 through March, $40 through April, $60 through May, $80 through June and full price thereafter. Enrollment forms are downloadable on our website at www.citygatemontessori.com.

Moveable Alphabet

2012-01-26T10:50:00.001-05:00

We have been having fun with lettters for several months now and are ready for our MOVABLE ALPHABET. This is a large box with compartments containing letters, organized much like an old fashioned printer's box of metal type. Now that we have begun to recognize several letters and their sounds with our sandpaper letters, we can begin to compose words by selecting a small object or picture and then laying out the word with the moveable letters. This phonetic approach has long been recognized by educators as the single most effective way to teach children how to read and write.

Doesn't this sound like the kind of preschool you would like to see your child/grandchild enrolled in? Fall registrations are beginning! Our enrollment fee of $100 is FREE through February, $20 through March, $40 through April, $60 through May, $80 through June and $100 thereafter. Enrollment forms are downloadable on our website www.citygatemontessori.com.

Winter Wonders

2012-01-12T11:12:00.002-05:00

You would be surprised to see how exciting the letter "W" can be. We took 'white" and "winter" to the max and enjoyed finger fun with shaving cream and cutting Ms. Lynn's homemade marshmallow into stars and dropping them into yummy cocoa for a delicious winter snack. CityGate Montessori preschool and kindergarten is truly the best place to be on a cold, January morning!

We are excited about the beautiful and massive world our great God has created. With our pointy finger wand, we locate all the continents on our large wall mural and are really enjoying how easy it is to the name the continents with our fun song.

We traded out our 30# of rice for 50# of bird seed in our water table and enjoy our friends as we scoop, sift and funnel to our hearts' content. We are becoming pretty handy with our brooms and dust pans needed to take care of our "overplay."

Now is the time to schedule a tour if you are a parent of a child two and a half through kindergarten looking for a quality education for your child. Email teresa@oasiswired.org.

Welcome 2012!

2012-01-02T16:45:00.002-05:00

Today we returned to our classroom with our books about winter and fun books about the snow. Our transferring project sat neatly in a snowflake bowl and our art work of snow was ready and we were ready to welcome our children. To our surprise, God also was preparing our morning also! A fresh coating of snow put on a great display and we were excited just to watch it swirl around outside our Montessori window. With our surprise letter sack with the letter "Q" items inside, like queen, quarter, quart and quail inside laying neatly on our shelf, we opened our Bibles for the story for the morning and began to read about the Israelites desiring meat. What was that meat He provided? Quail! God knew our letter for the morning was a "Q." Even the teachers were pleasantly surprised!

How fun it was to learn about God's wonderful creation, the World! We checked out our water and land on our globe and began to learn our continents on our beautiful world puzzle. We even sang a new "Continent" song. What a busy first Montessori morning of 2012!

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!

2011-12-21T22:25:00.002-05:00

What a special time we had enjoying the Jewish culture's celebration of Hanukkah! In the morning, we found our room beautifully decorated with three menorahs, signs and table dressing of Hanukkah centerpieces and napkins. After enjoying our Bible story out of the #1 Book, we built a small tabernacle with our blocks and learned how the enemy had taken the temple and destroyed our Jewish friends Torah but God helped them overcome the enemy and, once again, light the menorah and fill the temple with God's love and light. We learned how God took one day of oil and helped the menorah to shine brightly each of the eight days! For each day we lit our menorah, lifted our hands and thanked God for each of those days. Then we learned how fun it was to play games with the dreidel as we spun it and put Christmas M & M's in the pot. We were given our own dreidel and our own "pot" of M&M's to play at home. We did not have time to fry our own potato cakes or donuts in "oil" but we did enjoy a special snack of donuts fresh from our local bakery. What a fun morning!

We celebrated the birthday of our King, Jesus on our last day before our Christmas break. We read the story of the birth of Jesus from our own Bibles! We celebrated another student's birthday, Montessori style, and, after our work, enjoyed special Christmas music and a time of gathering around the Christmas tree where we found a gift of our very own--a Christmas snuggie and a new book! We were very excited!

Now we will enjoy the wonderful Christmas week with the wonderful families God has blessed us with. Be back in 2012!

Countdown To Christmas

2011-12-08T10:11:00.001-05:00

We are continuing to enjoy the beautiful month of December and the countdown to the birthday of Jesus, our King. We continue to focus on sharing and it really is not very difficult to get caught up in the joy that it brings in the classroom. Devon's birthday was a fun, new way to learn all about our friend and how the earth takes her trip around the sun.

We continue to practice our counting skills even during our snack time: this week we counted out our boxes of raisins,our granola bars and even our "kisses" in chocolate. You can even count on us to pour and refill our own water cups from our crystal pitcher when we need more to drink. What? No sippy cups? No, thank you. We don't need them:)

Did You Know? An email from 4cforchildren.org this week says that if you change the first five years of a child's life that you can change everything! Because 90% of a child's brain develops before age 5 the evidence clearly shows that just one year in a quality early education environment better prepares a child for kindergarten and that children who have been in a program for two or three years are even better prepared to succeed in school and life.

Did You Know? The Alphabet: A very young child chose older sibling is learning to read often becomes interested in learning about the alphabet. In order not to cause later confusion, we offer the children the SOUND of each letter and use only LOWER CASE LETTERS. Think about it. When a child learns capital letters, and the names of the letters, he is not at all prepared to learn to read and write. Almost all writing and reading is of lower case letters and sounds are what we need to read. Learning capitals and names of letters, although taught first for many years, is what makes learning to read and write so difficult for children.("The Joyful Child" www.the joyfulchild.us)

Montessori Birthday Party!

2011-12-01T10:05:00.002-05:00

A Montessori birthday celebration takes a different approach from the traditional focus on gifts, party bags and lots of sugary food. Children are given a first impression of the relationship between Earth and the Sun and taught that a year is the amount of time it takes for Earth to circle the Sun once. Children are told the story of their lives, year by year, from birth to the present day.

Using a globe for the "Earth" and a candle for the "Sun", a large circle drawn on the floor, and photos of the birthday child at different ages, we gather all around the circle. We put our candle in the center of the circle and light it. After learning how long it takes the globe we are carrying to circle the candle (Sun), we give the globe (Earth) to our birthday child and allow them to walk around the circle as we tell the story of their lives while stopping at the time on each of our pictures. (A child who is four will walk around the circle four times.) We end our celebration with singing and allowing the birthday child to blow out our (Sun) candle.

December Is Here!

2011-12-01T09:53:00.002-05:00

December is here and we are entering into a very special time of year, celebrating giving and our Lord's birth. We will be focusing on our sharing and bringing joy to others as we apply our skills in the classroom. Montessori principles are embraced to help your child develop their independence, confidence and a love of learning.

Our room has taken on a festive look as we countdown to Christmas. We have been enjoying Christmas books and songs. Our letters for each week include "C" for Christmas, "S" for the star that led the wise men and "K" for our King. We will be making a Christmas bracelet similar to the one we sent home at Thanksgiving. We hope that you enjoy reinforcing the retelling of the story using this bracelet.

This month we also get to enjoy TWO birthdays in addition to Jesus' birthday. We will be using a Montessori birthday celebration! (see our Montessori Birthday Party blog.)

November Is Here!

2011-11-03T11:07:00.002-04:00

November is here and we are so thankful for our friends and family. We have done many activities such as coloring mixing, determining likenesses and differences, making play dough and even pumpkin hammering. All of these activities are emphasizing cooperation, our own space, safety and are full of conversation. We are increasing our concentration and independence using more of our Montessori materials.

We also have added an art shelf to the classroom. Montessori programs and most developmentally appropriate early childhood classes emphasize the PROCESS of creating art versus the PRODUCT. This means that children should be encouraged to explore and experiment with a variety of art mediums without being made to feel that they should complete a specific project that looks a certain way. That is why most Montessori classrooms have an art shelf which has materials available on a daily basis that allow children to practice cutting, crayoning, gluing, threading, etc. In our classroom, the materials on this shelf are used EVERY DAY. One important difference in how the art shelf is presented in a Montessori classroom as opposed to a traditional preschool classroom is that all children have access to it at all times and they may freely choose which skills to practice at any given time. In a more traditional setting, art materials may be out only at certain times and/or their use may be more directed by the adults than by the children themselves.
There is no pressure or even direct encouragement from adults in the classroom for children to complete the art projects. The projects are set up to be completed independently by individual children which is in keeping with the Montessori philosophy. All students are given a presentation on the project as a group. Then, during the work period, they may freely choose to complete the project, or not! We believe that art projects are in keeping with the Montessori philosophy of having children do things that they will do in REAL LIFE. In real life people do make things to decorate their environment as well as complete pieces of art just for the sake of creating something.
One more reason we have for putting out art projects is the sense of accomplishment that children feel when they have completed something. It is still very empowering for a little one to be able to independently go to a shelf, carry all the needed supplies to a table on their own, sit down and follow multiple steps using several fine motor skills and have something beautiful that they have created when they are finished.

October: A Fun Month

2011-10-30T23:11:00.002-04:00

This month has been so fun for the students of the CityGate Montessori! We have enjoyed pumpkins like never before. We have carved them, removed their seeds, did math with the seeds and even enjoyed eating the fresh baked seeds. We even did art with the pumpkin.

Tomorrow we bring in our costumes, dress up and practice verbalizing to the other children what we are. We will get to enjoy the Hallelujah Night games that are currently set up in the sanctuary of the children's building. We will complete the morning with party snacks and favors. Our little siblings are invited to join us.

We had a Picture Day and will be posting them soon.

Next, we are on to the letter "T" as we enjoy the turkeys and Thanksgiving! We will be enjoying the Pink Tower and the Brown Stairs as well.

This week the diploma from North American Montessori Center arrived for Teresa Turner for completion of her studies in 0-3. Tamie O'Bryon will be completing her studies in 3-6 shortly.

LIcensed!

2011-10-05T22:30:00.003-04:00

We completed the final hurdle and has received our state license. To celebrate, the registration fee of $100 has been reduced to $50 throughout the month of October. Be sure to check out our web site at www.citygatemontessori.com. Forms for registering your child may be downloaded there. Questions? Contact teresa@oasiswired.org.

Did you know? Few people seem to consider the value of teaching children the fine details of acceptable behavior. At CityGate Montessori the "lessons in grace and courtesy"--exercises which set a tone of respect and kindness--sit alongside the more conventional subjects on the curriculum. Parents can reforce the following Courtesy Lessons:

1. saying "please" and "thank you" and "you're welcome"

2. using a kind tone when speaking: no whining or yelling

3. how to ask for a turn or if you can play too

4. how to introduce yourself

5. how to open and close doors

6. what to do if you cough or sneeze

7. giving people complements and encouragement

8. allowing others to pass in front of you or to go first

9. saying "excuse me" if you bump into someone

10. responding politely when someone calls you or says your name

11. walking around areas where other children are working or playing on the floor

12. learning how to wait

13. not interrupting other people when they are talking

14. answering the telephone politely

(borrowed "How to raise an Amazing Child the Montessori way by Tim Seldin, President of the Montessori Foundation)

Did your child score well in "courtesy?"

Montessori Moments

2011-09-29T13:57:00.002-04:00

Our preschool classes are well underway and we have totally enjoyed this first month of operation. The fall season has arrived and we are enjoying learning everything associated with the cooler season. This past week we talked about apples: the letters in the word, Johnny Appleseed, songs abut apples, snacking on sliced apples and apple muffins and even stamp painting with apples! We are learning the basics of our Montessori room such as giving "first fruits" to God, pledging to our great American flag, circle time, snack preparation, and even our own special cubbies.

We continue to open our doors to new enrollees and will welcome two more in October. We welcome tours for any families considering the value of a Montessori education for their preschooler/kindergardener. Be sure to visit us on Facebook and citygatemontessori.com. Application can be conveniently be downloaded.

Today's Tool: Dressing Frames

Dressing Frames encourage your child to be independent by allowing them to learn the basic skills necessary for dressing and undressing. CityGate Montessori supplies dressing frames to assist learning in large buttons, small buttons, zippers, typing, buckles and lacing.

Grace and Courtesy

2011-08-27T09:51:00.003-04:00

Did you realize that it is never too early to educate the Montessori way. I loved the newest newsletter release I received about Montessori and the infant:

While showing a friend her newest grandson, a Montessori instructor cautioned the admirer to NOT LOOK AWAY OR STOP TALKING TO HIM UNTIL HE IS FINISHED OR LOOKS AWAY. This was a basic lesson in grace and courtesy for the infant.

How does that go along with our modern technology of cell phones and watching TV while we eat? Hmmm---it doesn't.

Grace and courtesy are taught at the CityGate Montessori! We don't have TV's for the precious time we spend together.

Shouldn't your child be a part of the CityGate Montessori?

Open House

2011-08-21T17:49:00.002-04:00

Come and visit our new CityGate Preschool and Kindergarten's Open House this Sunday, August 28 from 12:30-2:30 p.m. We will have Parent Handbooks on hand and registration papers for those who are considering registering their child for the 2011-2012 school year. Questions? email them to Teresa@oasiswired.org. Visit our web site at www.citygatemontesori.com.

CityGate Montessori Promo!

2011-08-19T11:43:00.007-04:00

Share this video with your friends and spread the word! And if you're on Facebook, "Like" us to get even more updates on what's going on.

Call For A Tour!

2011-08-12T21:19:00.002-04:00

The CityGate Montessori rooms are tour-ready! The remainder of the back-order items (minus 8 things) arrived and will be in the rooms shortly. We would love to share our new vision of the Montessori with you. It you have a child age 18 months through kindergarten and would be interested in providing a loving and educational Montessori experience, come take a tour and see our "prepared environment."

Provide your child with the best--A Montessori education that does not ignore the importance of the Spiritual element--that true Wisdom comes from Above!

www.citygatemontessori.com

PREPARING FOR TOURS!

2011-07-17T21:35:00.002-04:00

We are trying to complete our classrooms in order to allow for interested families to tour our facilities. We have a very special servant in our church who is completing our low shelving and we will be painting them and completing our rooms. This morning four more shelves were delivered, on Wednesday we will receive two more and next Sunday we will receive another six. These shelves are important to us because they allow us to display the special Montessori materials in our prepared environments.

We are especially excited about our newest endeavor--kindergarten! Our kindergarten teacher, Lynn Shafer, is very motivated and even laid out her classroom plans while on vacation! I know we have been blessed to secure her to start our Montessori kindergarten. She has much experience and knowledge of Montessori in addition to her many years of teaching in a traditional public school. She just retired and we did not let her get too comfy with retirement :)

I have extended the reduced cost of registration for kindergarten only through the month of July. The usual $100 registration will be $50 through this month. The kindergarten will operate a half day (mornings) every day, Monday through Friday and the yearly cost is $3400 or $378 monthly September through May.

Your child will love kindergarten, Montessori style! Check us out!

CityGate Montessori Kindergarten!!!

2011-06-30T10:53:00.002-04:00

Yes! CityGate Montessori is now both a preschool and a Kindergarten.

Recently retired from Monroe City Schools, Lynn Shafer has joyfully accepted the position as the teacher of our new Montessori kindergarten.
Lynn holds a bachelors from Ohio University and has taught for 22 years and 8 years in preschool. She has tutored and has a Masters of Teaching and has a degree in Special Education. Lynn and her husband have lived in Monroe for 35 years.

Lynn will be teaching the Montessori way and is equipped with Montessori materials! We are very excited to have Lynn as a part of CityGate Montessori! Shouldn't your child get started learning the Montessori Way? Download applications and apply today. Kindergarten will be Monday-Friday, mornings, and half-day.

Licensure In Process!

2011-06-22T16:53:00.002-04:00

Last week the Plan of Operation and all the attachments were dropped off to start the process of getting our license. This week the floors got a beautiful new facelift and, before the week ends, Montessori workers and volunteers will get into the classrooms and begin to set up the various centers.

I am now a student of the North American Montessori Center seeking my diploma in Montessori 0-3 and, very soon, another directress will be ready to begin her studies.

Our open house is scheduled for August 28 but we hope to have the facilities ready for "tours" in just a few weeks.

We have now begun to meet weekly with the Montessori staff in preparation for fall. It has been a very exciting summer already!

IT'S TIME TO SIGN UP!

2011-05-26T16:33:00.002-04:00

All the forms you need to get your child/grandchild enrolled in CityGate Montessori are available online! Simply download your application and new student letter. Follow that up by downloading the three state required forms to enroll your child in a preschool: Child's Medical Statement, Child's Health Information and Request for Administration of Medicine. Drop only the application and your deposit by the offices of the Oasis Church at your earliest convenience--remember, your deposit is only $50 up until June 1st! When you come in for your interview later on in the summer, bring your completed state required forms with you or you can pick them up at the interview.

We are getting so excited to meet your and your child and to enjoy our upcoming year of learning the Montessori Way!

Moving Along Nicely

2011-04-15T18:14:00.002-04:00

This week has been busy but now the kitchen has a new blue paint job, new blinds and a new clock. The two refrigerator are nearly complete and the only thing lacking is a good floor stripping and waxing. The Director office/classroom will now be a dual purpose room for the Bible Clubs' Daisies as well as the Montessori's administrator and it's shelves are neat and dusted. The rooms are slowly coming together with a couple more tumbling mats to be ordered. Our easels need a light staining and finish. Our wish list includes a pink tower, a moveable alphabet and several dressing frames so if you love to search out good buys online, find a good price and consider ordering and donating an item to the CityGate Montessori. Our open shelves are grouped by subject matter such as mathematics, language and sensorial. Dr. Montessori recognized that children go through stages of intellectual interest and curiosity--which she called "sensitive periods"--in which they become intrigued and absorbed by particular aspects of their environment. It is important that we understand this process because each stage represents an opportunity which, if taken advantage of, can profoundly influence our children's development. Registration is open now and applications are available online and at the Oasis Church's Welcome Center. Email questions to teresa@oasiswired.org.

Download Applications!

2011-04-04T01:07:00.000-04:00

You can start the enrollment process by downloading the Prospective Student Letter and the Application packet to print off, fill out and return to Teresa Turner.

Student Letter: DOWNLOAD

Application: DOWNLOAD

If you have any questions, contact Teresa Turner at teresa@oasiswired.org.

Banners Are Up! Brochures Are Here!

2011-03-30T16:36:00.002-04:00

We are so thankful for Walter for getting our Montessori banners up and our brochures have arrived and are available at the church welcome center. If you would like several to give out and help us advertise, please pick up what you need! And, thank you!

We have an information letter and an application ready for those who would like more information on enrolling their child in CityGate Montessori. They, also, are available at the church welcome center or are available online--just send your request my way.

The deep cleaning has begun in the kitchen and the cabinets are cleaned and the sinks are now beginning to sparkle. We had a wonderful volunteer who spent nearly three hours on the sinks themselves! The kitchen will now need a paint job. Any volunteers? We are nearly ready to contact the health department for a food service license!

Do you have a nice wooden changing table to donate?

All correspondence should be sent to teresa@oasiswired.org.

Banners Have Arrived!

2011-03-16T11:39:00.009-04:00

Our Montessori banners advertising our presence and our readiness to enroll have arrived and will be displayed this week. Our brochure is nearly complete and ready for printing. The deep cleaning of the Montessori rooms has begun and we have a willing volunteer that is doing small repairs and painting for us this week. We need some cleaning done on our kitchen area. If you are available to help out in this area, let me know.

Please help us get the word out that we have a Montessori preschool coming this fall and that we are ready to put an application in the hands of parents/grandparents who desire for their child to be a part of a solid Montessori education.

About the CityGate Montessori Preschool

2011-03-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

One hundred years ago a young Italian woman devised a new approach to education based on a foundation of encouragement and respect. Her name was Maria Montessori.

Today, across the continent, Montessori’s legacy lives.

Here at the Oasis, we desire to develop and operate a safe and meaningful environment in which to assist the families of our church and the community in developing their unique abilities and precious gifts that the Lord planted into each and every child. We recognize the impact of early family training. We want to come alongside families to train their child with meaningful activities that lead to children developing fully and happily. We want to grow our church.

We will do that through our own Montessori. Like Dr. Montessori, we believe all children are born with an amazing potential which can develop only if adults provide them with the right stimulation during the first few years of life. We also know the value of a spiritual element for a truly balanced development.

We will begin a preschool in the fall of 2011. It will be CityGate Montessori. Currently we are obtaining licensure as a child care operative in the state of Ohio and we will operate a preschool with a Montessori flavor, ministering to toddlers and preschoolers, ages 18 months until they enter kindergarten at age five. In the fall, it will be conducted on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 8:35 a.m. until 11:45 a.m. With growth, we will expand to an afternoon class and/or a Tuesday/Thursday program.

We encourage our church family to follow our progress through our blog on the church website homepage. We will have numerous needs throughout the spring and summer and we will need willing hearts and hands to help with our preparation efforts. Can you help?

Areas of Need:

Light painting of various areas. We need to do a small amount of wall patching prior

Housecleaning: windows/kitchen/floors/chairs/tables/mats

Carpenter to create 2 low open shelves 8 or 12 ft. long/raw wood or stained in oak with polyurethane finish for easy cleaning. Child sized table (small) in wood. ( I would be willing to refinish a used one.)

Donations of WOODEN (only) small toys and manipulatives

More needs will be listed as we progress.