A Great Question
The answer is always in development as we continue to follow up with our graduates. But here’s what we know…
The Case for Cursive
This blog was originally posted in 2013 on our old website! We think the content is still very relevant for us today at Mountain Sun and so wanted to re-publish it. Long live cursive!
Montessori Research
Parents naturally want to set their children up for success, so they ask tough questions in order to make an informed choice when deciding amongst educational programs. For a Montessori school, people often want to know…
5 Montessori Areas to Have at Home
Montessori schools encourage, scaffold, and celebrate children’s independence and believe it is an integral part of preparing the child for success in life. Dr. Montessori believed that education should be an aid to life. She believed that the child’s early functional independence in caring for oneself and one’s school and familial environment builds the foundation for psychological independence as the child enters adulthood…
Dealing With Conflict in 2020
With many generations of attorneys, therapists, and challenging educators in my own family, it would seem that the complex joy of navigating conflict in one way or another has influenced many of our professions, myself included. (I guess we just love to argue!) I appreciate conflict because I have seen in my family how conflict can lead to great lessons and growth. Change cannot happen without conflict…
MSCS Students Exploring the Natural World
Backpacking trips, bird banding, paddling 28 miles on the French Broad River, learning primitive skills, and spending a night in a tent: these are some of the things Mountain Sun Community School students do throughout the school year…
Montessori Language Work
Nouns and verbs and adjectives, oh my! Here we go on an adventure of discovery. This may be a difficult and tiresome journey at times but the path is paved in growth and learning. Our path is made clearer by the foundation created by Dr. Maria Montessori…
The Montessori Philosophy: Cultivating Peaceful Independence
More than a century ago, Dr. Maria Montessori pioneered a method of education rooted in the observation that each child is a unique person who is naturally curious and has a desire to learn experientially. When a beautiful educational environment is intentionally created, children find their passion for learning and are able to fully develop intellectually, socially, and emotionally…
Multilingual Education
Part of Mountain Sun Community School’s mission is to cultivate a love of learning through a challenging academic curriculum grounded in mutual respect and a sense of belonging. Our students, all of us actually, are citizens of the world. So, naturally, challenging our students with language learning fits into our mission perfectamente…
Mountain Sun Works with Ellie Elzerman to Develop Curriculum
Over the past school year, Mountain Sun Community School worked in partnership with Ellie Elzerman, Educational Consultant and Montessori expert, to develop and improve the school’s academic curriculum…
What is Natural Play?
Natural play can take on many forms, but at its core, it is self-directed, imaginative play in outside spaces that include elements of the natural world. It is exploring and discovering; it is building and demolishing; it is creating and imagining; it is interacting with the environment in hands-on, physics testing, common-sense-building ways…
Storytelling
When I think back to my childhood and some of the stories I heard from my parents, I smile at the images that come to my mind. My favorite was one that my father told often about cooties and the spoon that found them. It was magical, and I always wondered how he knew to use such an amazing tool to identify the infected…
Water Water Everywhere
Living in a temperate rainforest comes with the good, the bad, and the sloppy. Grab some rain boots, a good book, or settle in for good times inside and out. Snuggling up at home, in your pajamas, with your family and pets is certainly one of the most enjoyable things that come with rainy weather…
Mountain Sun Community School Raises Trout with Trout Unlimited
Each year the Monarch class (grades 4-6) at Mountain Sun Community School raise trout from eggs in the classroom. The local Trout Unlimited chapter provides the class with all the materials needed to raise trout, and this year the class successfully released 80 trout into the Davidson River on February 6th…
Follow the Child
Dr. Montessori did not believe that she invented a method of education. She simply studied children. And what she found was that every human being develops through a unique process of self-construction…
Planting Seeds
After winter break, the children and teachers are all excited to be back at school, in our space, and re-connecting. The children are wearing smiles, greeting one another, and offering hugs. There are exciting stories about what happened during the break as well as remembering shared activities. The teachers are treasuring these moments and share in the joy of the children reuniting…
Cider and Conversation
I just love homemade apple cider. I mean, what’s not to love? It’s warm and sweet, it has all the spices that make you think of the holidays, and if you make it in a crockpot, the entire house smells like one enormous pie…
Lucky Us
I had the joy of taking the Acorn Class to the WNC Nature Center on a field trip. It was wonderful!! Breaking the day down into pieces sheds light on so many gifts we have here at Mountain Sun and the region we live in. The order of this list does not indicate anything other than how the day unraveled in my mind…I am so grateful for the Nature Center…
Experiential Learning at Mountain Sun Community School
Our journey began with a silent hike down a steep and winding trail, minds full of anticipation and excitement for a different kind of school week. As the trail came to an end, the landscape opened up into the beautiful valley of Buffalo Cove Outdoor Education Center…