Sidewalk'S End Montessori School

Sidewalk's End Montessori is an absolutely fabulous school! The heart of every school is its teachers and Sidewalk's End's are top notch. Led by Ms. Lynne, who has won community awards as an outstanding teacher, the team of instructors is motivated, kind, intelligent, loving, and actively engaged in your child's learning. Together they have decades of teaching experience and many have Master's degrees in addition to special instruction on teaching/leading the Montessori method. My oldest children attended Sidewalk's End for the entire three years we lived in Colorado Springs. My oldest graduated from Sidewalk's End and attended our local elementary school this year. She excelled in every area, due to her great foundation established at Sidewalk's End. I could not be happier as she continues to be excited to go to school every day. My other daughter was lucky enough to continue at Sidewalk's End this year where she continues to grow and learn at her own pace and focusing on her areas of interest. She is happy, bright, and socially adjusted. She also loves going to school each day! As a military assignment takes us away from the area, this school will be one of the things I miss the most. I cannot say enough great things about Sidewalk's End. You will love it!

Having read up on the Montessori educational program previously, I already knew this is the route we wanted to take. As soon as my daughter starting showing the signs of "I can do it all by myself", I knew it was time. I called Sidewalk's End and made an appointment. Ms. Lynne really took the time to show us around and explain all the activity stations. She took what I thought I knew about the program before to the next level. I was blown away. Then she went into what each station teaches the child; it really is down to a science. Once enrolled, they really got to know my daughter as an individual. It really shows that all of the wonderful teachers there believe in the Montessori program and want to see each child develop to their best potential. I can't talk about our personal experience without specifically mentioning Ms. Grace and Ms. Amber. They had a huge impact on my daughter during her year and a half there; and even though we haven't been enrolled at Sidewalk's End for many months now, she still talks about them today. I am absolutely certain that if my husband's career didn't take us in a different direction, she would still be enrolled at Sidewalk's End. Thank you Sidewalk's End Montessori School. As her parents, we are completely confident we chose the best teammates possible in creating a strong foundation to her life skills and educational journey.

What’s not to love about Sidewalk’s End? The school is in the middle of a peaceful, treed neighborhood with a lawn on one side where the kids have picnics under the big tree during the warm months, run through sprinklers, and more. The other side of the school has a vegetable garden, a sandbox, a play structure, lots of outdoor toys and plenty of room to run around. The inside of the school is light, bright and well organized, and is pure Montessori – with tons of different works in all areas, my daughter never gets bored. The teachers are AWESOME. Warm, caring, full of positive energy, down-to-earth and calm but firm, they manage the entire school with a benevolence that sets a wonderful tone. My daughter, who has never made an easy new school transition, jumped right into this school and into the lap of Ms. Grace who greeted her each morning with a huge smile and read her books. I also love how parent friendly the school is – better hours than other pure Montessori schools, including a fantastic summer program with Science and Language focused weeks, competitive pricing, easy payments. Sidewalk’s End is wonderful because it is focusing on what kids need and love to learn at this age, Practical Life activities, Math and Reading Skills, and even planning skills – my daughter is encouraged to make a plan at the beginning of her day to decide what she will do and then check off the things as she does them – she loves it! They have a wonderful pretend play area and the teachers have a flair for engaging with and encouraging this kind of play - one fond memory was during space camp week when they constructed a rocket out of a cardboard box, and took a picture of my daughter "going to Pluto". I am so happy for my daughter to be part of this wonderful community. I wish I could give it ten stars on a five star scale.

My daughter has attended Sidewalk's End for a year now, and she has loved every minute! They really understand the Montessori methods there and teach the kids accordingly. My daughter has grown in so many areas: language, writing, math, fine motor skills, manners, social skills, and in general she can do so many more things for herself that I used to have to do for her. In addition to the daily Montessori learning activities, the staff there go out of their way to enrich students with other learning experiences. This year, they brought in a boy who played the bag pipes when they were learning about Scotland, they took care of caterpillars that turned into butterflies, and the kids helped make "stone soup," among so many other things! I can't say enough about this awesome school!

Our timid (and sometimes anxious) 3-year old son attended Sidewalk's End Montessori School three days per week for 9 months. Initially unsure of his new surroundings, he was immediately made to feel comfortable, welcome, and included at his new school. By way of continual, positive, and personalized care from the entire SEMS staff, our son overcame most, if not all of his anxiety. He measurable grew academically, organizationally, and socially, and looked forward to his next day of school. Sadly military duty has forced us to relocate from Colorado Springs... and we will be somewhat challenged to find another preschool as great as SEMS.