Ivy Montessori Children's House

Tracy Epps
Founding Head of School of Ivy Montessori Children’s House

Tracy Epps began her Montessori journey 20 years ago as a parent with her now adult son, Greylon and continues the journey with her two babies, Joaquin & Vioney. She has three diplomas from the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI): Assistants to Infancy (birth to 3), Primary (3-6) and Montessori for Aging & Dementia. She holds a M.Ed. in Montessori Education from Loyola University of Maryland, a master’s degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a masters and doctorate in Psychology from DePaul University.

Dr. Tracy is very passionate about giving children the best start for a healthy life. She has a special interest in promoting healthy relationships between children and their parents, families, and caregivers. Dr. Tracy‘s extensive training and early childhood certifications include:

– Current Fellow: Infant-Parent Mental Health, UC Davis
– Pikler Advanced Intensives: Engaging in Dialogue w Infants/Toddlers; Respectful Care and Relationship with the Adult; Self-Initiated Motor Development
– Resources for Infant Educarers® (RIE): Foundation Course
– SonRise® Autism Treatment Center of America
– Music Together®
– Suzuki® Early Childhood Music Education
– Monart® Draw and Learn, and
– Zumbini® (fitness, music, and dance for 0-4 year olds).

Previously, Dr. Tracy served as faculty in management and psychology at DePaul University, a personal and executive coach, an organizational consultant, and a research psychologist (active duty) and education specialist (reserves) for the U.S. Army.

Dr. Tracy is especially enamored of infants and toddlers, who she sees as fearless explorers filled with wonder. She is excited to bring the first Wildflower Montessori home school to Pittsburg and the NorCal Hub.

Wildflower is an ecosystem of decentralized Montessori micro-schools that support children, teachers, and parents. Our schools aspire to give all children and families the opportunity to choose high quality, beautiful learning environments as they follow life’s unfolding journey.

Our aim is to be an experiment in a new learning environment, blurring the boundaries between home and school, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them. Our schools are small and teacher-led, with deep parent engagement. At the core of Wildflower are 9 principles that define the approach.

Our network is supported by a foundation that works to build capacity, systems, tools and research to grow and strengthen the network.

Learn more about our story.

Blurring the boundaries between home-schooling and institutional schooling, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them. At the core of Wildflower are 9 principles that define the approach.

Read about them here.

After the first Wildflower school was created in January of 2014, there was intense interest in the school and the approach. This interest led us to open-source the model and help other family groups and teacher-leaders to create new Wildflower schools. Each teacher-leader at each Wildflower school serves on the board of at least one other Wildflower school, creating a community of schools that are linked by both a shared philosophy and a network of shared relationships.

View our network.