Our daily routine is designed around Inclusion, Connection techniques through Circle check in, specialist visits and time for focus/concentration-homework practices while honoring our time in nature, arts exploration while in all year round connecting.
Our intimate group will follow COVID-19 protocols in sanitation, small class size and outside time with our open classroom spaces and garden. We will follow the normal district calendar of breaks, tuition will be paid in full for 10 months (September-June) with possible small closures if substitutes are not found to help if quarantine is required for any teachers during the school year. Although we will not be holding bi-annual conferences for our PM families, we request full commitment to the program and encourage open communication for our extension programming. Our daily routine will be designed around Inclusion, Connection techniques through Circle check in, specialist visits and time for focus/concentration-homework practices while honoring our time in nature all year round.
Enrollment Logistics:
Enrollment in Klahanie multi-age Toddler (2yrs) and Early Education (3-6yrs) program is intended for two or more years commitment and annual re-enrollment process requested each New Year. Klahanie School offers Kindergarten and parents are encouraged to enroll in the early years intention of moving children through the three year Montessori foundations and graduate out of the program as an Elder. Elders are students that move through the Klahanie program (or transfer from another school as a 5 or 6 year old) and graduate their cycle as a Kinder master; offering time and help to younger students and exercising confidence to show what they know and fuller sense of completion as well as new levels of expressing the love of learning.
Klahanie School 2021-22 is offered September through June and tuition is paid in full those 10 months (Extended Programs is offered 9.5 months). Klahanie School follows Vashon school district breaks (listed in the school calendar): national holidays and weather/emergency closures (please refer to Klahanie school calendar for specifics on weather closure and extreme protocol). Weather school closures are assessed for make-ups if extended more than a week and a half. All schedule changes will be alerted to parents through newsletters, email and/or phone.
Please note: Starting 2022-2023 enrollment, Klahanie School will be transitioning to a Year Round School calendar. Please refer to the school calendar page for specifics.
Soft Drop-Off
Transitioning from home to school can be a delicate time, necessitating patience and empathy with the child being dropped off. Soft Drop-off is an opportunity for guardians/drop off people to help children enter the space, greet the teacher and the goal is to allow the teacher to help children walk to the cubby and enter class space independent from the drop off person. The intention is to create a safe space for the children to form connection, pride and ownership of their space and even in deep emotions during transition for the child, that the adults are supporting the teacher helping children build trust with the teachers and space. Parents are welcomed and encouraged to greet one another, form connections, community and carpool opportunities. This can all take place in the white tent with low volumes and courtyard spaces near parking.
All Programming
Klahanie School is For Science school and all staff, adults on premise to be COVID19 vaccinated. We support Masks and vaccinations and require teachers, students and visitors/families on site to wear masks. Teachers will wear masks the entire time, students will wear masks in small groups of three (using WA social distancing protocol), circle, transitions, drop-off and pick-up. Responding to the recent pandemic and our Montessori-Peace &Anti-bias-Empathy Early Education connection-sensory exploration foundation based school spaces (i.e. insured school property East, West and Garden classrooms), the following protocols are followed by WA state CDC health mandates, adapted to our school setting to ensure best health practices.
Parent Help At Home
- Parents take daily temperatures of their children and bring them to school at their own known risk (please refer to Waiver of Liability). Child will remain home if any fever occurs and not return until 24 post fever and contagious symptoms (please refer below for a complete list).
- Document in an email a child’s absence daily, thank you for this help.
- STATE REQUIRED: Report to school any COVID-19 cases in home. Adhere to the 14 days quarentine.
- Practice use of masks at home and out in the world to familiars and help create a normalcy to interacting-connecting in a mask. Klahanie school: all participants will be asked to wear masks.
- Practice with child daily: dressing independent (putting on and zipping up coats, wearing only Bogs/Muck boots to school, changing clothing, wiping independent).
East Classroom New Arrival:
- Parking, Please Drop-Off in shifts & offer calm space: pause until your child is waved and greeted by the lead teacher. Thank you for your patience as we acclimate to these new steps as COVID-19 remains active and we work with such a vulnerable group. This gives you permission to truly take a pause and not rush. Children are always present on the roads so driving snail-pace is requested.
- Arriving at school, the Lead teacher greets the child and family 1-1 time with a mask and gloves on (thank you for respecting 6 foot distance and wearing masks for adults and children is required in school entry and recommended to purell hands/gloves while handling items). Child’s temperature is taken by Teacher. Hugs from drop off person and child walks with teacher to East area.
- Separation Anxiety: Please contact the school director-lead teacher if you feel nervousness your child(ren) will experience separation anxiety with tantrum tendencies when feeling fear, sadness and anger. More research and support conversation must be made in the upcoming weeks and months before a decision is made regarding if we might need to pause enrollment until a child is completely ready. Again, respecting that each case varies in household needs for part-time early education schooling and work, and must be held with listening and assessment. Thank you for contacting us to explore in great detail.
- Greeting: Hands on heart with a Bow and hello with name. Slow and calm to adjust the child to this new method.
- Wash hands: Teacher and child wash hands together in the new East classroom outdoor sink.
- Lead Teacher walks the child to the Co-Teacher in the East classroom and garden for outside play or to get their art box, journal or stretching.
- Please note: The largest change for this stage will be the individualizing of somethings that were communal before (i.e. Art Cabinet, Work Rugs-Mats).
- All items and surfaces will be wiped down in between use with disinfectant.
- IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Children will be asked to wash hands repeated throughout the school session, in between all activities. We have water sources (large sink and sanitize stations installed in the garden) as well as and purell dispensers throughout the property.
- Masks and Teachers: Klahanie School is For Science school. We support Masks and require teachers, students and visitors/families on site to wear masks. Teachers will wear masks the entire time, students will wear masks in small groups of three (using WA social distancing protocol), circle, transitions, drop-off and pick-up.
- The Lead Teacher will be outfitted with bathroom safety precautions and wear, to help children with bathroom needs.
School Routine
3-6 Class
Montessori Foundations
Please note: the video above referenced accidentally 1806, when in actuality the date is 1906. Thank you.
Dr. Maria Montessori believed in the development of the child, spiritually and intellectually. Follow the child was and is the foundation of the Montessori method, began and noted in 1906 at Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) in San Lorenzo, Italy where she began her quest to assist in the success of children through practice of observation, presence, respect and care of the individual. After great research, passion and time Dr. Montessori established clear goals for education, which has become the defining Montessori path. These include; to help the child reach his/her highest potential, help facilitate normal development of the whole child and assist in the development of the child’s intellect emotionally, socially, cognitively and physically. Dr. Montessori believed that living the goals listed through the practice of concrete curricula and awareness of developmental stages (Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Math, Absorbent Mind, Sensitive Periods, Concentration, Coordination, and Order) would enable that child to grow to his/her full potential.
Her profound insight into the soul of the child; her long and varied experience; her scientific outlook combined with a maternal tenderness and sympathy; the lucidity of her discourses and their originality…the passion of her devotion to her mission-all these combined to make her a perfect advocate of her cause, which was the cause of the child (Her Life and Work, E.M. Standing, 65-66).
Understanding Developmental Stages of the Child through Absorbent Mind
From the moment we humans open our senses to the world we are engrossed with the wonder of exploration, experimentation, examination and dissection in order to begin to understand what is presented from the world. A child is born an explorer. “The child is a philosopher before he can talk, an explorer before he can walk” (Standing, 102). Dr. Montessori broke the stages of life into three categories (First Stage Birth-6yrs, Second stage 6-12 years and Third stage 12-18) to help understand the developmental transitions one goes through. The first Epoch of Development (Birth-6 years) is termed The Absorbent Mind. From Birth-3 years the child is in a state of Unconscious Mind, constantly absorbing impressions from the environment and yet does so without knowing that he/she is doing so. “In the first year of its life, then, a child takes in the whole of his environment unconsciously. In this way he accumulates the materials from which he will later build up to his conscious life”. We adults cannot teach this directly. This mysterious process of humans passing from unconscious to conscious is independent of us caregivers; we can only assist in providing conditions that will nurture the child during this transitional period.
The second sub-division of Absorbent Mind, 3-6 years, in a move from the child’s absorption of the world through his unconscious intelligence by merely moving about in it, to the second stage where the child takes in the environment consciously by using his/her hands to educate. “The hand has now become the instrument of the brain; and it is through the activity of his hands that he enriches his experience, and develops himself at the same time”. During this time the child passes through a defining period in which they reveal intense and extraordinary interest and attention on certain aspects of his/her environment to the exclusion of others to develop order and distinction to their understanding which is called Sensitive Period. During the 3-6 years there are different Sensitive Periods emphasized for Order, Language, Interest in Small Objects, Learning Grace and Courtesy in the world and Refinement of Senses.
~Emily Graham
AMS Certified, Montessori Educational Institute of the Pacific Northwest graduate
Please refer to the following site for our American Montessori Society foundations and intention for future application for accreditation. https://amshq.org
Resources to check out:
Message of support for parents from our Klahanie School Expert Specialist from DOVE:
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to take a moment to share some resources for caregivers and community members as we all navigate how to best support children and ourselves in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting.
I am personally experiencing many feelings of grief, anger, anxiety, and…so much more as I think of the children and families of Uvalde and the state of mass shootings in our country. Taking time as adults to sit with and honor our own feelings can be a really important first step in supporting children, as we often talk about in our Planting Seeds family group.
Children are picking up a lot of information, misinformation, and very understandable fears during times of mass trauma, as we’ve seen through this ongoing pandemic and social inequities in so many ways. I found these resources below really helpful in thinking about how to frame conversations with the children in my life and hope they are helpful to you as well.
- Child Mind Institute: How to Talk to Kids About School Shootings
- National Education Association: Talking to Students About Texas Elementary School Shooting
- PBS Kids for Parents: Helping Children with Tragic Events in the News
Thank you all for the space, support, and love you bring to the young people in your lives. A reminder for us all to do our best to feel our feelings and take care of ourselves as well. ❤
-Collin–
Prevention Specialist
Vashon DOVE Project
Klahanie School 