Courtney Baros (teacher, Park Hill): In our Montessori parent-infant program, parents can bring their children in once a week for a one-and-a-half-hour class, where they can explore a Montessori environment that’s appropriate for their child. Additionally, they have an evening class just for parents, where we can discuss topics including observation, preparing the home environment, and Montessori theory.

What the parent-infant classroom does for the families is it gives them the opportunity to see their children in a new way. It shows them how to observe their child so that they might step back and wait and watch. Montessori taught us that the adult is the biggest obstacle for children, so our work is to sit back and give them an environment without obstacles, and they can develop at their own pace, in their own way, and it brings them joy.

Rachel Averch (founder and president): Coming together with your peers and within the Montessori community, in a way, there’s never judgment. You know, it’s all about learning and growing all together, through dialogue, through conversation, through parent education, we come together, we’re support for one another as a community.

Courtney Baros: With our 0 to 6-month classroom, you’ll see an environment where children have the opportunity to explore mobiles and grasping objects. In our 6 to 12-month environment, it’s set up for movement, as children are beginning to crawl and walk and stand and they’re beginning to explore language in a new way.

The beautiful thing about the parent-infant program is that it isn’t about us teaching any child. It is about us assisting the parents in learning their child. And that’s a very different feel than teaching children in the classroom, because it’s about the parent.

This is very different than a playgroup. It is an opportunity for them to explore with all of their developmental needs, so yes, they have a lot of fun. But it’s different than what you would expect; it helps to begin that Montessori Continuum and that process of learning in a new way.