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Fountainhead Montessori has been dedicated to serving Bay Area children for more than 30 years.
We have been educating children since 1972 and are now seeing second- and even third-generation
children pass through our doors. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve children over
generations. Fountainhead is affiliated with the American Montessori Society (AMS), and many of
our teachers have years of early childhood experience and/or hold Montessori credentials.
Open everyday except for National Holidays
No toilet training required • No parent work commitments • No hidden fees
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Policies
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Structure
Fountainhead Montessori School is a California nonprofit corporation and is not affiliated with any religious
or political organizations. The Fountainhead Board of Directors is responsible for all policies. These policies
are subject to change from time to time without prior notice, at the discretion of the Board of Directors of Fountainhead.
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Disability Rights and Nondiscrimination Policy
Fountainhead, Inc., is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal access for all children, including
children with disabilities and/or special medical needs, as provided in Title III of the Americans with Disabilities
Act, accompanying federal regulations, and applicable California law. If you notify us that your child has a disability
and/or special medical need, Fountainhead will, as required by law, make an individual assessment of its ability to
accommodate those needs. Fountainhead will provide reasonable accommodations which are consistent with the Montessori
method and Fountainhead's policies, practices and procedures for any special needs of your child.
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Admissions and Tuition
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Admissions
Admissions are based on availability of space and determination by the staff that a child is ready to benefit from
the environment. Prospective parents are asked to observe twice—first without their child, in order to focus on our
environment, and then with their child to observe his or her reaction to our environment. Please make an appointment
to avoid the disruption caused by too many adults in the classroom.
Children from the toddler and preschool classes and the siblings of current students are given preference in
admissions. Consideration is also given to the age balance of the class. A completed application, accompanied
by cash or check for one entire tuition installment, should be submitted to the administrative office. The funds
submitted with the application are nonrefundable unless Fountainhead cannot accept your child.
Fountainhead 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 the administration of its educational, athletic, and
other policies and programs.
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Tuition
School-year tuition is based on a 180-day school year. It may be paid in a lump sum by the semester or the school
year (resulting in a discount) or in 10 installments (each paying for 18 school days). Tuition is payable in advance
by the 15th of the preceding month, and hourly child care is payable by the 15th of the month the bill is received. A
late payment fee is charged after the 18th of the month.
You may pay by automatic checking debit or check. Tuition may also be paid through Automated Clearing House (ACH)
transactions upon completion of ACH authorization forms.
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Health
The necessary State and health forms will be mailed to you upon enrollment. These forms must be completed and
returned within two weeks for your child to continue enrollment. (A fee for additional state forms will be assessed.)
An immunization record must be provided on or before the first day of school. If your child is ill, please keep him
or her at home and notify the school. Any medication or other special needs must be brought to the attention of the
administration prior to enrollment on the school application form.
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Nutrition
Snack: Pretzels, fresh fruit, vegetables, and juice are provided.
Lunch: Please send your child to school with a nutritious lunch—no junk food. Juice is provided. Children are not
permitted to share their food and any leftovers will be sent home so you will know what your child has consumed.
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Parent Participation
Parents meetings are held throughout the year. The meetings will cover Fountainhead’s educational concepts, student
activities, and ideas to help develop consistent treatment of the children at home and at school. Parents are encouraged
to observe the classrooms. In addition, parent-teacher conferences will be held twice a year. (Please check the
Fountainhead calendar for exact dates.) You are always encouraged to ask any questions that arise. If a parent has a
particular interest or skill—dancing, art, or sewing—we ask that he or she check with us about coming to share that
interest in the classroom. Ideas for our newsletter, The Sponge, are greatly appreciated. We’d love your input on
anything from a good doctor to a recipe or child-friendly place to visit.
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Holidays
The only holidays fully celebrated at Fountainhead are children’s birthdays—those being the days that mark their
development. Please send pictures from various stages of their lives that we may borrow to discuss their growth.
The children may host their own parties by bringing nutritious snacks to prepare and serve. Students may also prepare
their own exchanges for other holidays depending on their level of involvement. Major and minor world events and
celebrations are discussed in an effort to increase awareness of the range of global observances.
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Personal Property
Each child at Fountainhead will have a personal property drawer. It may be used to store a change of clothes
(labeled with the child’s name) as well as work from school. Please discourage your child from bringing toys to school.
The Montessori materials and environment provide the necessary mental and physical stimulation for the child.
Please send two pictures—one for their property drawer and another for their name card.
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Releases
No child will be released to anyone whose name does not appear on the Emergency Card without specific written
instructions. Persons picking up the child will be asked to show picture identification.
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Class List
In order to facilitate car pools and birthday parties, we will provide a class list, including names and phone
numbers of parents and students. If you do not want to be on the list, please notify the office by August 15 of each school year.
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Withdrawals and Re-Enrollments
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Re-Enrollments
In order to reserve a place for the following school year, we ask parents to complete a re-enrollment form and submit the first
tuition installment by April 1 of the proceeding school year. This prepayment for the following school year will be applied to
the next years’ Fall tuition and is nonrefundable unless we cannot accommodate your child. After April 1 of each year, we accept
new students to fill any vacancies. Summer re-enrollment is taken for July and August and is separate from the school year.
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Withdrawals/Refunds
In the event you wish to withdraw your child from school, you need to give one month's written notice in advance or pay one month’s tuition.
Any credit remaining after prorating the tuition and child-care charges will be refunded to you within one month after the last date of attendance.
NO WITHDRAWALS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER April 1 unless you pay tuition through the end of the school year. There are no refunds for absences such as
vacations, sickness, mishaps, or holidays not on Fountainhead’s calendar. There are no substitutions for days missed.
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Educational Philosophy
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Dr. Montessori revolutionized education with her dynamic theories, which are the basis for Fountainhead’s educational
philosophy. Each child is an individual accorded the respect due to every person. At the same time, children are not
miniature adults; instead they think and learn in ways unique to their special time in life. Every child is nurtured
physically, psychologically, cognitively, and spiritually. Fountainhead Montessori provides an environment for children
to literally create themselves through purposeful activity. Children through the age of six experience and learn
through all of their senses. Everything is hands-on. When activity is purposeful, developmentally appropriate, and,
above all, fun, learning is joyful.
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The Montessori Method
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Who is Montessori?
Maria Montessori was born in 1870 into an upper-class Italian family. In her professional life, she was first attracted
to engineering, but she later changed her mind and decided to study medicine. She was very determined—she was not only
admitted to an all-male medical school, but she also became the first woman in Italy to become a physician. Additionally,
her profound interest in humanity led her to pursue the study of anthropology, philosophy, psychiatry, and experimental
psychology. This, along with the experience she gained from her years of work in medicine, provided a rich background for
her eventual life’s work in the education of children. It was this work that, at the time of her death in 1952, left her
one of the most honored and respected educators in the world.
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Roots of The Montessori Method
Montessori was appalled by the conditions suffered by the mentally and emotionally challenged children for whom it was
universally accepted there was “no hope.” Again, her devotion to humanity and her indefatigable determination made her
refuse to accept such easy pronouncements. Indeed the more she worked with these children the greater her certainty that
they had no need to be branded “idiots.” After two short years (1898–1900), Montessori’s charges were reading, writing,
and passing exams meant for “normal” children. An amazed world applauded her efforts, but Montessori’s thoughts were already
elsewhere. “[While] everyone was admiring my idiots, I was searching for the reasons which could keep back the healthy and
happy children of the ordinary schools on so low a plane that they could be equaled in tests of intelligence by my unfortunate
pupils,” she said.
This question consumed her. In 1906, having seen countless children bored, distracted, lulled, or repressed in the state
schools, Montessori was given an opportunity to establish the first classroom for a group of 60 “little vandals” (residents
of slums ranging in age from three to six) in Rome. It was this group of children who demonstrated the “spontaneous
discipline,” “explosion of spontaneous reading and writing,” and “free social life” that so astounded the world. In
fact, the transformation was so great that there were many that were ready to believe that since Montessori was a medical
doctor, the real “miracle” must have been drugs. But the facts were quite different.
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The Montessori Method
Dr. Montessori believed that education must be a “help to life.” The goal of her method is to prepare a child for real life
rather than just for school. The Montessori Method is based on three interdependent components: the child, the teacher (or as
Montessori called her, the “directress”) and the prepared environment.
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The Teacher is a trained professional who acts to facilitate learning. Using his or her knowledge of child development
and the Montessori materials, he or she designs the environment; acts as a resource person, role model, and demonstrator
of materials; and is a careful observer and record keeper of each child’s growth, behavior, and needs.
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The Prepared Environment provides a purposeful place for learning. Everything within the environment is designed for the
child. This is why the teacher has no desk, nor even an adult-sized chair.) The furniture, shelves, and even the paintings
on the walls are at a child’s height. Each material is prepared by the teacher so that by using the work, the child may
absorb the lesson built into it. The works are constantly updated to meet the child’s need for new challenges. Thus the
environment, through the teacher, responds to the children as they develop.
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The Child chooses the activities prepared by the teacher, interacts with the other children and adults in the environment,
and all the while is learning. Dr. Montessori adopted from biology the term “sensitive periods” to describe what she observed
about how children learn.
Montessori found that there are periods of intense sensitivity of short duration when the child shows unusual capabilities for
acquiring certain skills and/or knowledge (seemingly to the exclusion of all else for that period of time). Each sensitive period
has as its aim the development of a specific ability and the acquisition of a determined characteristic. Once this characteristic
has evolved, the corresponding sensitivity disappears—never to return again!
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The Curriculum
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Children from birth through age six are building the structure and character that they will have for the rest of their lives. While
imagination and pretending play vital roles in this development, children need real, accurate information with which to build that
structure and character. For this reason, Fountainhead Montessori’s curriculum is reality-based. This means that, as far as possible,
teachers use accurate—even scientific—language and materials. For example, animals are studied along with their natural environments.
They don’t speak like humans and they don’t wear clothes. Literature may be entertaining and fun, even silly, but it doesn’t include
fairies or superheroes. At Fountainhead, fantasy may come from a child’s imagination, but it is not imposed on the child by the
teacher. Beliefs and a heritage of stories and traditions are respected as being best left to the family.
The curriculum of the Montessori Method includes exercises of practical life, the sensorial materials, language (writing and reading),
mathematics, and cultural subjects.
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Exercises of Practical Life
(“Help Me Do It by Myself”)
The exercises of practical life are the foundation of the Montessori philosophy of education. They provide the “motives for activity”
that constructively channel the child’s natural need for activity. Practical life exercises are individual work units made up of
materials the child is likely to see in use in the everyday environment. Each individual work must be colorful, attractive, and
related in its use to one of four main areas:
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Control and Coordination of Movement. Exercises for learning to pour, carry, fold, cut, polish, walk, sit, and move gracefully, etc.
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Care of the Environment. Exercises for sweeping, dusting, washing tables, wiping up spills, watering plants, etc.
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Care of the Person. Exercises for learning how to wash hands, dress and undress (buttons, zippers, snaps, buckles, lacings, bows,
safety pins, hooks and eyes), toileting, nose blowing, etc.
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Social Relationships. Also known as Grace and Courtesy. Learning to be polite and thoughtful of others, to listen and respond
to other children and adults, to take turns when necessary, and to mirror the respect shown to them by their teachers and fellow
students. Also learning to walk, stand, and sit properly, serve items such as food properly, and generally show respect for
the environment and others.
The direct aims of the practical life exercises are order, concentration, coordination, and independence. As the child is introduced
to each activity, practices it through repeated use, and masters the skill or concept designed into the work, these four essentials
are developed at the same time. Mastering these skills builds self-confidence through pride of accomplishment and assures the
development of initiative.
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The Sensorial Materials
(Educating the Senses)
Dr. Montessori observed that young children absorb information about their world through their senses. Yet education or training of
the senses has generally been ignored by traditional education. Montessori developed special apparatus and activities to remedy this.
Experts today are beginning to catch up with Montessori in their discussions on the importance of sensory integration.
Adults can easily pull up a mental image for concepts like long or short, heavy or rough. By using, for example, the red rods that
increase in length from 10 to 100 cm, children develop such abstract references for themselves. Dr. Montessori has said “the function
of the sensorial materials is not to present the child with new impressions (of size, shape, color, and so forth) but to bring order
and system into the myriad impressions he has already received and is still receiving.” In addition to ordering all these sensory
impressions, the sensorial materials help to refine such impressions.
It is amazing to see a four-year-old child order colored tiles from darkest red to palest pink when an adult can barely perceive
the differences between these gradations of colors.
Through this refinement of the senses, which includes fine motor control and hand-eye coordination, and the sensorial materials,
along with the exercises of practical life, the child is prepared for writing, reading, and mathematics.
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Language
(Writing and Reading)
Dr. Montessori discovered that children can actually learn to write before they learn to read. By breaking down writing into small,
developmentally appropriate tasks, young children can learn to write and read with ease.
The physical act of writing is complex and involves many factors. The writing instrument must be held correctly by the three fingers
that grip it; the hand must be capable of moving lightly across the paper, and coordination must be developed to permit the mind to
direct the hand to move with precision. Most of the activities in the practical life and the sensorial areas have as an indirect
purpose the preparation of the hand to write: holding the knobs of the solid cylinders with the three writing fingers, touching the
rough and smooth boards as lightly as possible, tracing around the insets and frames of the geometry cabinets, etc.
The drawings made with the metal insets directly prepare the hand for writing, and give the child control over the writing instrument.
The sandpaper letters are lightly traced by the child as he repeats the sound of each letter, thus learning the letter phonetically
and visually, and committing it to his muscular memory through the tactile system. When he knows several letters, he can begin to
build simple phonetic words using the movable alphabet (a form of mechanical writing—the child usually cannot yet read what he has
built at this early stage). Reading generally follows the many stages involved in preparation for writing. It often comes explosively,
when the child suddenly discovers that the letters he has been fitting together actually form a word he understands—“f-r-o-g is frog.
I can read!” This discovery is often followed by a lengthy period of devouring every word in sight.
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Mathematics
Mathematical concepts are easily acquired by children at very early ages when they are exposed to materials that clearly illustrate
the abstractions they represent. The number rods show the qualities of “one” through “ten” as no other materials have yet been able
to do; sandpaper numbers permit the child to trace and learn numerals visually, orally, and through the muscular-tactile sense, just
as with the sandpaper letters. Other materials bring the child, gradually, into counting in sequence; understanding odd and even
numbers, the decimal system, concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; skip counting (counting in multiples of
two’s, three’s, etc.); and fractions. The relationship between arithmetic, geometry, and algebra is constantly emphasized in the
mathematics materials. This foundation prepares children to understand more easily the role of higher mathematics in later life, and
they therefore come to appreciate its relevance to their own lives.
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The Sciences
Children have an insatiable curiosity about the world around them. The teacher takes advantage of this wonderful incentive for
learning by using biology, zoology, physics, geology, geography including diverse world cultures, and even history as jumping-off
points for preparing the environment and materials. If the children discover a roly-poly bug on the playground, the teacher may
set up a terrarium with a magnifying glass for observing the bug for a short time before returning it to its natural habitat. From
there the children might make booklets describing the parts of the roly-poly in exact scientific terms. This work would incorporate
process skills, drawing, and writing. Another activity might be making models of roly-polies in paper or clay. These activities
could lead to learning about the differences between roly-polies, which are crustaceans, and most other bugs, which are insects.
The teacher might use models of insects for sorting, grading, and counting. Thus the cultural subjects become a part of the complete
environment.
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Creativity
Essential to the Montessori Method is the concept of freedom within limits. Creativity can flourish in this environment because
children feel safe, respected, and accepted. A child may explore the possibilities of any material as long as it is being used
in a way that does not damage it and is safe and respectful to the needs of others as well.
Knowing the proper use for a material releases creativity rather than inhibiting it. Just as a musician trains to make music on
a violin and does not use the instrument as a hammer or a weapon, a child uses the red rods, gold beads, scissors, or markers—each
material with its own purpose. The trained Montessori teacher is thrilled to see a child use a material in a positive new and
creative way. Along with the Montessori materials, music, art, movement and storytelling flourish in each classroom. There are
special areas and times of day for certain activities, yet when a child is working “freely, within limits,” it’s always the right
time and place for curiosity.
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Discipline
Being in a class with other children and teachers rather than parents presents many new challenges for a child. In fact learning
to get along in such a situation is part of why school is important for young children.
To make this first school experience a positive one, discipline must be based on respect. As far as is developmentally appropriate,
children are respected as independent individuals with rights to self-determination and self-direction. Such an attitude leads to a
strong sense of self-esteem and dignity. Respect for the rights of other children and adults along with respect for materials in the
environment are fundamental rules of conduct at Fountainhead. By defining the limits within which children may act and by being
explicit about the reasons for these limits, a child learns self-discipline and self-control.
The concept of justice is also developed in this way. To the greatest extent possible, disputes between children are settled by
the children themselves based on principles of conduct at school. Corporal punishment is not employed by the teachers and physical
abuse between children is not tolerated. In all situations, teachers deal with the consequences of an action rather than making a
judgment about the child’s character. For instance, a dispute about who has a right to a particular material is settled by the
principal that the person who first chose the work has a right to use it, without interference, until finished. The teacher might
say, “It’s Alice’s turn now. You may have a turn when she puts the work away. May I show you another work while you are waiting?”
If a child has injured another child, he or she is responsible for helping to repair the damage to every extent possible—for example
by helping clean and bandage a cut or by providing ice for a bruise. The teacher could say, “I see Billy is hurt. Shall we help him?”
If a child makes a mess, that child is responsible for cleaning it up. At first the teacher may point out the mess and suggest how
to clean up—putting a work back on the shelf where it belongs or getting a sponge to wipe up a spill. Later, the child’s own sense
of responsibility prompts the necessary action. The children and teachers demonstrate community responsibility by taking individual
responsibility for their actions.
About our Founder
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Sarah Zimmerman |
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AMS Credential, MECA Seton; College Instructor: Contra Costa College, U.C. Berkeley, Cal State Hayward, Cal State Fresno;
Headstart, NAEYC and national AMS seminar presenter; AMS School Consultant; Fountainhead Montessori School Founder, Administrator,
President and teacher since 1972. BA in Ed., Drake Univ.; MA Special Ed., Northwestern Ill. Univ.
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In 1972- Sarah Zimmerman, the founder of Fountainhead Montessori lived in Libertyville, Illinois. It was there she began dreaming
of leaving her career in public school special education and starting a Montessori school. Fountainhead was born that year in a
remodeled barn, the Quaker Oats Farm Hour broadcasting studio with six children. It took a lot of elbow grease and her entire public
school teacher pension.
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During that time Sarah was under the tutelage of Miss Domicele Petrutis. Miss Petrutis, a native Lithuanian, was a former student of
Dr. Maria Montessori in Nice, France (1934). Miss Petrutis led Sarah and Fountainhead to a special understanding of the philosophy
of Montessori. In 1972 Sarah moved to California where the school was re-established at the old Orinda Union School, now the Orinda
Community Center. It was at this time that Sarah met John Lindl and George Zimmerman who became the pillars of Fountainhead along
with all the other crucial ingredients who joined us along the way.
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