Water Lily Montessori

Menu

Welcome to Water Lily Montessori, a Wildflower School in St. Paul, Minnesota. We provide an authentic Montessori education for children ages 33 months-6 years.

Our Mission:

Water Lily Montessori School is an inclusive, multicultural community committed to serving children and families in compassionate ways.  Our AMI Trained Teacher Leaders are committed to providing an authentic Montessori environment, while simultaneously assisting families navigate the journey of parenting and life.

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

Please contact us to receive more information about our school.

Water Lily Montessori Distance Learning Plan during Covid-19 for all Pre-k students and families

 

Location & Hours

Location

Water Lily Montessori
244 10th St E.
Saint Paul MN 55101

Contact Us

info@waterlilymontessori.org

(651) 227-7483

Hours

Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 3:30pm

Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 1:00pm (Limited spaces available please enquire)

Before & After Care

Monday – Friday, 7:30am – 8:30am
Monday – Friday, 3:30pm – 5:30pm

Transportation

Please contact us for transportation needs.

Lunch & Snacks

Healthy snacks are provided for all children. We can accommodate most dietary needs. Lunch can be purchased or brought from home. Students that qualify for free and reduced lunch have the fee waived.

Daily Routine

The goal of the time in the Montessori environment for children ages 3-6 years old is for the children to learn how to adapt to their surroundings as future members and change agents of our society. The entire classroom environment is constructed just for the children’s use and maximizes independence, community, and exploration.

During the day, children at Water Lily Montessori will have uninterrupted work time in the classroom where they are free to choose work they have already had presentations on and repeat that work for as long as they desire during the work period. There are five areas of work in the environment – practical life, sensorial work, language work, math work and cultural. Children will be offered presentations individually or in small groups by the teacher leader. The children prepare their own snacks, garden, eat lunch communally, care for their environment, and explore the outdoors together.

There is nothing more beautiful and hope instilling than seeing children developing the confidence, self-esteem and agency as they engage in the meaningful and self selected work in the Montessori environment.

Our Calendar

Our School year runs from September 3, 2019 to June 9, 2020. We follow St Paul public schools calendar.

Winter Break is December 23, 2019 – January 3, 2020.

Additional holidays observed are Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day and Memorial Day.

We have parent teacher conferences in October and March to collaborate on your child’s development.

Water Lily 2019-2020 Full Calendar

Our Teacher Leaders

Angharad Picton
Co-Director / Founding Teacher Leader

Angharad was born and raised in a small seaside town of Saundersfoot, Wales in the United Kingdom. She left her hometown at the age of 18 years old with a long time desire to travel the world to experience different places and cultures. These places included Indonesia, Australia, Egypt, Canada and the United States. Angharad found Montessori whilst living in Egypt in 2001 and later returned the United Kingdom to study Montessori education. In 2006, Angharad received her AMI Primary Montessori certification at the Maria Montessori Institute in London. Angharad has taught in different schools around the world and in different roles within the school environment, for teaching to mentoring teachers, instructional support, consulting to parent outreach and school administration. Angharad settled in Minnesota several years ago having fell in love with Minneapolis and now lives here with her 11 year old daughter Adara who has been in Montessori since she was an infant. In her spare time Angharad is also an Life Embodiment Coach and Qoya Instructor and enjoys leading classes, workshops, retreats and teacher trainings within the USA and abroad. Angharad loves hiking, dancing, playing golf and traveling to sacred sites around the world and learning about ancient cultures and traditions.

Amanda Jakowich
Co-Director / Founding Teacher Leader

Amanda is an educational leader committed to collaborative learning that engages students, staff, families and the community.   Amanda began her journey by receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Music, from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, where she studied vocal-choral music education.  Upon completion of her undergraduate degree, she immediately dove into family life and utilized her experience as she developed a new identity of being a Mom. After many other adventures, Amanda set off down the path of self-exploration which offered grace, refinement, and growth, in the interest of child development; observing the unique gifted qualities each child possesses.  In the spring of 2019, Amanda completed her Montessori Primary Training at the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota.  Thus, earning the highest, internationally recognized Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) credential.  Currently Amanda is pursuing her Master of Arts in Education at Saint Catherine University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  In her free time Amanda enjoys time with family and friends, baking, yoga, almond flavored lattes, adventures in nature and being at home in Minneapolis.

Enroll Now

Meet our Teacher Leaders

The application process begins with contacting the school and arranging to meet with our Teacher Leaders and touring our school to learn more about us.

ENROLLING NOW FOR 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR

Water Lily Montessori School Open House & Visiting Day for new families February 18th 2020 4:15pm-6pm. You must RSVP to this event. Please email info@waterlilymontessori.org for information and directions for this event. 

We are currently enrolling for our Pre-k program, if your child is 33 months-4 years old, please fill out our online application.

We are now enrolling for kindergarten for the 2020-2021 school year. If your child is 5 years old by September 1st 2020, please fill out our online Kindergarten application. If enrollment becomes full, a waitlist will be available.

Guidance on our Enrollment and Admissions Policy

Click here to learn more about our enrollment and admissions policy.

 

Tuition

Preschool tuition is $1100 per month for full day 8:30am – 3:30pm​.

We are dedicated to making preschool affordable for every family who applies and have scholarship opportunities. Water Lily Montessori school is a four star parent aware program.  Please reach out ​to us for more information.

Kindergarten tuition is free. ​We are a public charter school authorized by Audubon Center of the North Woods to provide tuition-free kindergarten.

Non-discrimination Policy

Water Lily Montessori School is a nonprofit organization and does not discriminate by race, color, national or ethnic origin, creed, religion, sex, disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or status with regard to public assistance. Furthermore, Water Lily Montessori School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

News & Events

Parent Workshops

October 29, 2019, 5:00pm – 6:30pm
February 6, 2020, 5:00pm – 6:30pm

Resources

Why Montessori?

Why Wildflower?

Consider a charitable gift to Water Lily Montessori. We believe educational opportunities should be available to families in our community regardless of financial means. We appreciate any support you might offer our community as we strive for social justice through quality, authentic Montessori education.

Donate

Water Lily Montessori is part of the Minnesota Wildflower Montessori School public charter, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. All donations are tax deductible.

Wildflower Schools

Water Lily Montessori is a member of the Wildflower Schools Network

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.

About Wildflower Schools

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.

Our Principles

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.

Our Network

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.