Ghent Montessori School

The splash pad and ice cream make for a perfect day at camp! 🍦💦🌈

Wishing you a happy and safe FOURTH OF JULY!
❤️💙🤍
We hope you enjoy time and rest with all of your loved ones. ✨

Time sure flies when you're having fun...
As June comes to an end, we reflect on what an amazing time summer camp has been in just the first 3 weeks! Our children have kept busy - whether it be in their morning work cycles, in the splash pad, in Renea's art camp, in Amber's yoga camp, in the classroom cutting out watermelon dinosaurs, and even in the wonderful Chrysler Museum! We're looking forward to what the rest of the summer has in store at GMS! ☀️

“Education is the best weapon for peace.” —Education and Peace, Dr. Maria Montessori

Make plans now! How do you commemorate Juneteenth respectfully?
https://app.robly.com/archive?id=37cc2e446642ae09e729b4cf8e6b62a3&v=true

This is a must read for Montessori parents! Enjoy.

The Leap of Faith: An Interview with a Montessori Alumni Parent (and Teacher) Forest Bluff School teacher and alumni parent Sarah Robbins shares her experience of sending two children to Montessori through Secondary Level

Middle School Graduation 2023!
This group of graduates beamed with confidence and gratitude as they closed the chapter of their time at Ghent Montessori School. Today's ceremony made clear that this community is founded on respect, responsibility, and LOVE.

To our graduates,
GMS will always be a corner of your life that roots for you. The future is BRIGHT!

Meet Hazel!!!! ❤️This gorgeous, and very lucky, little girl gets to attend EVERY DAY with her Mommy!!!! She loves the kids and they love her!!! Hazel is a 1 year old Aussidoodle!!! 🥰She came along in today’s field trip!!!🥰🥰🥰

Love this! Thanks Doumar’s!

We had a wonderful group of students and teachers from visit today! Happy almost summer!!!!🏖️☀️

This week's fun snapshots are brought to you by a field trip to the zoo, a wild and windy beach day, an AWESOME science fair, and some creamy, cold treats🍦

“We must clearly understand that when we give the child freedom and independence, we are giving freedom to a worker already braced for action, who cannot live without working and being active." (The Absorbent Mind, Maria Montessori) 🌱

It feels like summer is near at GMS...warm sunshine is in the sky and on our faces. 😄 Here's some of what we've been up to:
- Children's House 2 took advantage of the nice weather and had their work cycle outside.
- Toddler House 2 watered the garden.
- Upper Elementary made chicken quesadillas (Hazel was very happy about this) and took their work over to the pagoda!

We're excited to soak up all the goodness in these last few weeks of school.

T E A C H E R A P P R E C I A T I O N W E E K! (Day #5)

Today we are appreciating our ADMIN TEAM! 🤎 We are incredibly thankful for such a brilliant group of administrators! Susan (Business Manager), Sara (Office Manager), and Olivia (Office Administrator)

Thank you to all who made our teachers and staff feel special this week. We loved to celebrate them and shower them with gratitude for all they do!

T E A C H E R A P P R E C I A T I O N W E E K (Day #4)

Today we are appreciating our "SPECIALS" TEACHERS! 💙 We are incredibly thankful for such a brilliant group of educators.

T E A C H E R A P P R E C I A T I O N W E E K ! (Day #3)

Today we are appreciating our ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS! 💚 We are incredibly thankful for such a brilliant group of educators!

T E A C H E R A P P R E C I A T I O N W E E K (Day #2)

Today we are appreciating our CHILDREN'S HOUSE TEACHERS! 🧡 We are incredibly thankful for such a brilliant group of educators: Inna, Margaret, Erica, Cynthia, Lysiane, and Dawn!

Teacher Appreciation Week has commenced! In celebration, we will be doing an album series of our staff where you will get to know a little bit about them.

Today we are appreciating our TODDLER TEACHERS! 💛 We are incredibly GRATEFUL for such a brilliant group of educators: Audrey, Tyler, Katherine, and Zorah.

"Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and strength, use it to create."
— Maria Montessori

Thank you to everyone who came out for our annual ART SHOW this past weekend! This is one of our most favorite events of the year and we're glad a little rain didn't keep us from the big day! 🌦💐🎨

Perfect day for Lower El's annual hosting of a spring EGG HUNT for those moving up to Elementary next school year! ✨🐣

We are thrilled to announce the opening of enrollment for the 2023-2024 school year.

Next year we will be arriving at another landmark in the history of our Roadstead Montessori High School. That will be our tenth year of operation. So much growth we have experienced since the first school day in early September 2014. Then, we were no more than three students, one teacher and a vision incubated within the middle schoolers of Ghent Montessori School. A decade later, we are a recognized program with a fabulous teaching team, an expanding network of partners, a loving and highly diverse student community, and a gorgeous historical building in Downtown Norfolk. We also take pride in the line of alumni who sailed to the world from our roadstead to RIT, NYU, SCAD, ODU, Sweet Briar College and more.

Our nesting period in the new building is still evolving. The renovations are finally over and now we are embarking on the next phase, the interior design of the space. The students are going to be actively involved in the process. We formed a highly professional, creative and enthusiastic designing team. We are confident that when it is done, the space will become a most inviting learning environment.

We launched three new exciting partnerships in the 2022-2023 school year: one with Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the second with Virginia Stage Company and the third with the Downtown Norfolk Community Garden. The students produced two instructional videos for the VSO, which soon will be uploaded to VSO’s website. They have also been ushers at the student matinee performances of the VSC and have assisted with the building of theater stage sets (that is what you see in the pictures). Finally, the students have learned how to maintain and grow vegetables in the school's raised beds. We will meet during the summer with our partners to brainstorm the next phase of our partnerships. Based on the successful experience, we are expecting to grow further in the next school year. Our teaching team is committed to the ongoing development of Roadstead’s highly respected academic program.

Millions of words have been written about how to reform high school education. There is one high school that actually does it, Roadstead Montessori High School. Give us a call and come to check us out.

Some things we've found out this week:

1) Toddler hugs are some of the best kinds of hugs. 💛
2) Colorful balloons bring insurmountable JOY. 🎈
3) Our local Military Tradoc band's music makes you want to dance like no one's watching! 🎷🥁

Look at our Middle Schoolers go!
This past week they did a service project at the Fred Hewitt Center, helping with the spring planting and cleaning the gardens. The students also learned about invasive plant species and how to eradicate one that can take over gardens. 🌱

https://www.facebook.com/100046028185752/posts/750427069834892/?mibextid=uc01c0

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from GMS! 🍀

This week has been a fun one. Thanks to our brilliant music teacher, Steven Brindle, our first MUSIC NIGHT in two years was a success! We are grateful for all of our supportive families who came out last night.

Meanwhile, the rest of school has been busy making festive treats like Irish soda bread and green, fluffy pancakes!

Thank you to each and every one of you (staff, alumni, students, parents, etc.) who make our GMS community so special. Have a great weekend!

We are excited for more warm days and happy with the spring tease last week! Here have been some highlights:

- The children have taken advantage of the sunshine. Upper Elementary worked together to build our new picnic tables and Children's House have been refreshed by delightful nature walks.

- Upper Elementary took a wonderful field trip to the Barry Art Museum.

- Middle School interns have jumped right into spending time with our children as young as Toddler age all the way up to Upper Elementary. Below is middle schooler, Nyla, reading a book to our toddlers 🥰

We are thankful for our GMS community and hope you have a restful weekend.

Hello there, February 💓🌷 Pouring, flower-arranging, and tonging in Toddler House!

Memories made in Elementary this past week. ☺️ Thank you to our parents who made Parent-Child Night so special.

Children's House's parent-child night was a great success! This is a special time where parents get to spend an evening in their child's classroom and see all the different types of work that is done in their daily cycles.

“Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make them learn things,

but by the endeavor always to keep burning within them that light which is called intelligence.”

Maria Montessori 🕊

There are not many things more exciting than getting new students in a new semester at Ghent Montessori School!

This past week we welcomed our new friends, Parker, Declan, Nina, and Saya into the classroom.

Tuesday, Jan. 17th at 7 pm ET

AMI USA presents Raising Antiracist Children. Learn about raising inclusive, antiracist children in an informed, actionable, and accountable way.

This virtual event is free and open to the public.

Register using the link here: https://loom.ly/uBovVAE

'Twas the night before winter break at GMS. . .

there were lots of little reindeer singing and dancing in the Children's House halls. . .

up the stairs you'd find Upper Elementary exchanging gifts amongst friends. . .

and across the street, there was Middle School enjoying macarons and solving challenging logic puzzles at Hummingbird Cafe!

Thank you to our wonderful community who makes this holiday season so special! We hope this is a joyful time of relaxation and celebration with your loved ones.

Our annual craft and bake sale last week was a major success!

The children look forward to this special tradition every year - not only do they get to express themselves creatively and purchase crafts and baked goods,
but they get to raise money and awareness for an AMAZING cause.

This year we raised $1,777.17 for Operation Smile!!!

This amount can provide life-changing surgery for 6 CHILDREN!

It has been such a gift for our school to be able to engage work that inspires peace, generosity, and kindness all around the world this holiday season. We thank our Ghent Montessori community for keeping traditions like these alive!

Our wonderful staff, celebrating together this holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving from Ghent Montessori School!

There is so much to be thankful for this year, whether it be friends, family, or food on a table. May we never take these precious gifts of life for granted.

We hope you enjoy a warm, safe holiday with your loved ones!

Upper Elementary and Middle School went to the opera! Pirates of Penzance!

"One test of the educational procedure is the happiness of the child." Maria Montessori 🧡

Wishing all of our GMS family a Happy Veterans Day and a great weekend.

"There is a great sense of community within the Montessori classroom, where children of differing ages work together in an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competitiveness.

There is respect for the environment and for the individuals within it,

which comes through experience of freedom within the community."

Maria Montessori 🌿

Have a wonderful weekend!

Upper Elementary stopped at Operation Smile yesterday for a field trip!

The students got to experience the incredible, selfless work they do for people all around the globe.

Operation Smile’s restorative mission is founded on the belief that "everyone is worthy of honor and respect – to be able to smile, feel a sense of pride and live a dignified life."

Our after school enrichment classes have brought so much joy and creativity to our afternoons!

Pictured below:
- Children's House feeling the rhythm in creative movement with HJ
- Elementary shaping their pieces in pottery with Joan
- Pensive Middle School girls threading in handwork with Dawn

As Maria Montessori states:

“The sensory education, which prepares for the accurate perception of all the differential details in the qualities of things,

is therefore the foundation of the observation of things…

it helps us to collect from the external world the material for the imagination.” 🌷

Upper Elementary had a blast at the park with our favorite pup who turned ONE this past Friday! 🎊🎁

We are thankful for the joy, cuddles, and laughter Hazel brings to GMS!

A visit from the fire department! 🚒

Happy International Peace Day from Ghent Montessori School ☮️🌎

"Everyone talks about peace but no one educates for peace. In this world, they educate for competition, and competition is the beginning of any war. When educating to cooperate and owe each other solidarity, that day we will be educating for peace."
— Maria Montessori