Water Lily Montessori

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

info@waterlilymontessori.org

(651) 460-9260

Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 3:30pm

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

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

Please contact us for transportation needs.

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.

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.

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.

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.