Weekly Review 3/7/19

Message from the Head of School

“If one is to do good, he must have a little courage, be ready for sacrifice, deal affably with all and never slight anybody.”   - St. Don Bosco

Dear Parents,

I love Saint Don Bosco, and he is one of our school’s unofficial patron saints. I thought the quote above was a wonderful one from him, both for the season we’ve just entered, as well as the work we’re engaged in at the school, and the life we’re all trying to live. 

We have a Parent Night upcoming next week that you will not want to miss – the topic will be the always compelling math materials throughout the planes. We look forward to seeing you there, and exploring the magic of Montessori math.

Sean

Sean P. Garvey
Head of School
Renaissance Montessori School

Messages from the Environments

MESSAGE FROM THE YOUNG CHILDREN'S COMMUNITY

Thank you so much to Laura Osmer-Demuth, Sarah Klump, Sharon Storey, and Claire Nguyen of our Young Children's Community who spent so much time helping our school auction! We are thrilled to have won the Toddler plate at the auction so we can display it at our school! If you missed it, we are going to hang it in our new resource center, off the main office. I am looking forward to growing and living each day together in this beautiful Montessori way. As the children grow up, I hope to acquire many more pieces of their art to display and remember them by year after year!

MESSAGE FROM THE CHILDREN'S HOUSE

A number of the children have been working on the bead chains recently. The bead chains are presented, along with the golden beads, as concrete experience of numbers, their qualities and operations. The bead chains in particular give an experience of the patterns of skip counting and impressions of how numbers increase when squared or cubed. The particular beauty of these materials is that the children are able to see the qualities in their complete form, as a whole, then able to "dissect" and investigate the special qualities in the units they are made up of. 

MESSAGE FROM ELEMENTARY

Lent has begun, and the children have chosen various ways to prayerfully enter into the season. They enjoy planning prayer services for small groups and for the whole class. We will be sharing the daily readings each morning and praying the rosary each afternoon. The community members are invited, but not obligated, to attend. It is important in a Montessori Elementary environment that children are free to choose how to respond to offerings given. Free choice expresses true love, so we are particularly careful to respect the child's freedom in regard to the spiritual life.

MESSAGE FROM ERDKINDER

This last fortnight we have been constructing the presentation of our historical research project. The title for our presentation will be "The Princes in the Tower: A 500 year old unsolved mystery - UNTIL NOW." We will ask viewers of our presentation to read through the evidence and collect clues and then try to deduce our conclusion before revealing our conclusion to them. This has been an exciting project.

How to Earn a $500 Tuition Credit

Many of our families have come to RMS because they've heard from an existing school family how happy they are at Renaissance. These personal referrals are the best marketing any school could ask for and we want to reward you for them!

With open enrollment beginning,now is the perfect time to to make a referral through our “Referral Bonanza” program.

Here's how it works:

  1. Talk to your friends and family with young children and encourage them to schedule a visit by calling the office or through our online scheduler at https://www.renaissancemontessorischool.org/schedule-a-visit/. We will be sending home a flyer for you to hand to a family you think might be interested as well!

  2. Any referred family that decides to apply after their observation and visit will have their application fee refunded.

  3. If a referred family is admitted and decides to enroll, the referring family will get a $500 tuition discount.

If you feel you don’t need that discount but your referred friend does, you can gift it to them!

Montessori Math Parent Night

Thursday, March 14
6:30 Social Time
7:00 Presentation

This evening is open to friends of RMS as well so invite a friend that might be interested in learning more about Montessori!

Montessori and STEM are often seen as mutually exclusive. Sometimes the focus on all the amazing developmental, emotional and spiritual benefits of a Montessori education can mean the superior academic benefits get lost!

However, Dr. Montessori saw thatallhumans are born with a mathematical mind and the method she developed allows children to maximize this potential.Come and see how Math materials and presentations in a Montessori environment can unlock the child's natural ability and what Dr. Montessori called the "universal love of mathematics."

Middle School Informational Meeting

As previously announced Mrs. Mary Pat Blanchette, our current school nurse, has agreed to take on the task of rebuilding our adolescent program to more fully meet the needs of our families. The program will now be a middle school offering only, with a balance between the work of the hand and a classical approach to education.

We would like to offer an informational session for all parents and children interested in the program. We will speak more to the plans for the new program and have time for questions from the community. 

This meeting will take place immediately before the next Parent Night from 5:30 - 6:30 PM, Thursday, March 14th, in the auditorium. 

From the Guild

Our monthly Guild meeting is this coming Wednesday, March 13 right after drop off.  We will be discussing the Gala - what worked and what didn't and how to move forward for next year.  All voices are welcome; we would love feedback both from those who attended/helped, and those who didn't. We will also be discussing nominations for next year's Guild positions.  Please join us from 8:30 - 10 in the Parent's Lounge. 

Upcoming Events

  • 3/12/19 - First Communion Meditation 6:30 PM

  • 3/13/19 - Parent's Guild Meeting 8:30 AM

  • 3/14/19 - Middle School Information Meeting 5:30 PM

  • 3/14/19 - Parent Night 6:30 PM

  • 3/18/19 - Montessori Mondays 8:30 AM

  • 3/19/19 - First Communion Meditation 6:30 PM

Reminders

Please Review RMS

In our digital world, parents often look for online reviews when considering the best school for their family. We'd like to encourage you to post a review about your experience at RMS. We believe that we offer something unique in our area and we'd love for you to share your RMS story.

New Pizza Form Available

The March/April Pizza Form is now available. Orders are due with payment no later than the Wednesday before each Friday. The form is below or always at the top of the Weekly Updates.

March/April Pizza Form

Calendar Change Due to HVAC

As announced via email this week, we are excited to announce that RMS will be getting a new HVAC system. Not only will this help us better regulate the temperature in our environments, but it will save us money in the short and long term.

As you might imagine, in a campus our size, replacing the HVAC is a large project. We have been informed by the contractor that they need two weeks with no children in the environments to complete the work. In order to keep the impact of this time as minimal as possible, we have scheduled the work to be done around Easter, when we are already out of session for 10 days. We do, however, need to add days to this break to give the contractors the time we need.

So, please note the following calendar changes!

  • Teacher In-Service Day scheduled for March 15th will now take place on Monday, April 15th.

  • April 16th and 17th there will be NO SCHOOL but to use these days productively, they will now be Parent-Teacher Conferences. 

Please reach out with any questions you may have!