We are happy that many of our parents have expressed a strong interest in establishing a Suzuki Violin program at our Maple Tree Montessori. If you have not responded and are interested we encourage you to respond as soon as possible. We will be tallying up the expected price and class size for the group lessons, time needed for individual lessons and the number of instruments that need to be purchased for students. Our plan is to make equipment available for lease to students and for this we need to have a pretty close count of the number of interested students. Suzuki music study is very compatible with Dr. Maria Montessori’s observations of sensitive periods of development and sensorial education. We are grateful to have the opportunity to provide Suzuki to the children of Livingston County and importantly to the students of Maple Tree Montessori. Please email us at info@mapletreemontessori.com if you would like to include your child in this program. There are many websites available on Suzuki, www.got2twinkle.com has some video’s to watch, and www.suzukiassociation.org/ is most informative.

We are pleased to announce that we will be offering Hot Lunch as an option on Mondays and Wednesdays this school year. The company we have chosen to provide our lunch service is “Savor The Season”. We are very excited about the choices that they are offering us and the fact they they provide natural and organic foods whenever possible,with a strong emphasis on locally grown foods. We have the menu for September and they will be emailed to all parents who have submitted their email address. (you can do so by sending it to mapletree@cac.net) The menus will also be available at the school and at the Parent Night on August 19th at 7:00. Savor the Season may be providing sample foods that night for everyone to taste. We hope to see all of our parents attend this meeting.

We have decided on an Upper Elementary teacher for our new classroom. Debra Babiarz has been working as an assistant in the Lower Elementary and much to our delight, has decided to take the Upper Elementary training this summer. Debra is an experienced state certified Elementary teacher. She is well known to the children and has years of experience teaching this age group. Debra is currently taking the classes at Michigan Montessori Teacher Education Center and will be doing a mentored internship this year at our school. In addition to the training program supervising teachers, Melissa Boffi will be mentoring her this year. You may remember Melissa, she came to speak about Upper Elementary earlier this year and was very well received. We are grateful to have her experience and guidance as well as Debra’s experience and enthusiasm to get our Upper Elementary program off to a great start. We are happy to offer an opportunity for parents to meet with Debra, Melissa, Lisa and Nicole. This will give you a chance to ask questions and discuss the details of this new classroom and any concerns about transitions for your child. We will be meeting at the school on Monday, July 14^th at 7:00 pm. All interested parents are welcome!

We want to thank all of the parents who came and worked with us on Saturday, June 21^st, our Habitat looks great!! We installed the stump circle, the bird feeding area, developed trails, constructed and planted raised beds and even built a bridge!! Thanks to all of your hard work, our backyard is a wonderful place for children to play, learn, reflect and connect to the natural world. Thanks again to the Pearsall, Deuter, Adams, Minor, Cherry and Armstrong families for all their hard work!! Also thanks to the Deuter, Rue and Myers families we now have bracelets for sale to help support our project!! They are camouflage bracelets that say “Education and Peace MTMA”. They are available at the school for $3.00.

Thank you again for all your support, your fundraising efforts have been very successful, your hard work has produced a beautiful outdoor opportunity for our children and your continuing support of our programs is a key factor in our continuing expanding of programs. We are grateful to all of you and look forward to growing with your child and continuing to provide the best possible Montessori experience.

After years of searching, we have found a very talented and experienced teacher, Jessica Enderle, to run a Suzuki violin program at our school. We would like to offer individual and group lessons to all interested children. Suzuki music programs are an amazing way to learn music. This will enhance our developing music program. We have already hired a Montessori music teacher for fall that is also very talented and experienced. Julie Sporer, will be teaching music to the Elementary and Full day students. The Suzuki program will be optional and the teacher will set the fees involved. We will try to schedule the lessons during school time or immediately after class. To facilitate the procurement of instruments and other materials, and to set pricing for group lessons, we need a good estimate of students who would be participating. Please return the form as soon as possible if you are interested. There is an abundance of information on the web about the Suzuki method of teaching music and I have personal experience with my children and I will be happy to answer any questions.

Hello, and welcome to our blog. Through this, we hope to to provide timely, relevant and interesting information to the students and parents of Maple Tree Montessori Academy. While most of the information here will be directly related to news and upcoming events at our school, we also hope to provide information that will be useful to all parents in Brighton, Livingston County and beyond.

We also welcome comments, links, and feedback through this blog and would also be happy post information on upcoming events that cater to children, parents, and families in the Brighton area.

Thank you for stopping by!