At Applebee Montessori we work hard to provide the best Montessori experience in McKinney. We do this by meeting the following expectations.
Not only is the Montessori school curriculum much broader than most other curriculums, it teaches more than just the basics. There are so many real life benefits to a Montessori education that are hard to explain in few short paragraphs, but to provide you with a brief understanding of why so many parents choose Montessori Education for their children we have compiled a list of the top ten reasons parents prefer a Montessori preschool over traditional preschool.
Our Toddlers-Primary Guides all hold Authentic Montessori Certifications.A quality Montessori education is related to the education of the Guide in their room.Our Guides have the training and experience to create a rich and comprehensive environment that best serves each individual child. Our Guides have worked hard and undergone extensive training, that can take up to 2+ years.By our commitment to hire and retain these highly qualified professionals we believe we show our dedication to creating an authentic Montessori atmosphere.All Guides have their certifications displayed proudly in their classroom and you are more than welcome to request to see their credentials at any time.
Our Head of School has over 13 years of childcare experience in both classroom and leadership roles, throughout preschools in McKinney. She holds a National Administrators Credential and is obtaining her Bachelor’s in Social Work and Family Studies. She is available from Monday-Friday and by appointment on Saturday. Our owners are also very present in the school and in daily communication with leadership to maintain the highest quality of service to our families. Applebee communicates to families in a variety of ways, including real time updates in our Child Pilot app, Facebook, our website, weekly zoom conferences with teachers, bi-monthly Zoom discussions with the Director, emails and our parent resource center located in our lobby.
Our staff is required to obtain at least 24 hours of training annually.Training topics include, brain development, child nutrition, safe sleep, preventing illnesses and much more.Everyone on campus also holds a current CPR/First Aid card and undergoes frequent FBI background checks, drug screening and fingerprinting.
To help make sure the transition to Applebee is smooth, we offer potential families a free discovery day before he or she starts school. Parents are free to choose a day before they enroll to drop off their little one so the child can experience the environment. After, we invite parents to meet with both the Director and Guides to discuss their experience and ask any questions they may have.
The list of Montessori school materials required in each room is extensive and expensive and many schools do not make that investment in their environments. At Applebee Montessori, we make sure each classroom is fully equipped with the highest quality materials. We make updates to the environment monthly to make sure they are well equipped and that our Guides, and children have everything they need to be successful. Our materials cover all the following areas of curriculum: Practical Life, Sensorial, Geography, Mathematics, Language, Science, Botany and Cultural. Additionally, we offer Spanish, music, gym, and computer lab classes coming in 2021.
Family is at the heart of what we do and is always a priority for us.We truly feel like a family at Applebee Montessori.We hold many events during the year that allow us to continue to cultivate the sense of family we have here at Applebee. Some events we host are: Thanksgiving Feast, Celebration of Cultures, Spring Parade, Egg Hunt, Mother’s/Father’s Day celebrations and much more!
Applebee Montessori was opened in November 2019 and features a spacious foyer with two large screen monitors that show the feeds from over 32 cameras, that cover classrooms, hallways, the parking lot, and perimeter of our campus.We have a cleaning crew who comes after hours, multiple times a week to clean our school from top to bottom. We also have a key-pad entry system. Each family and staff member has a unique key code that must be entered to unlock the doors leading into the lobby. Additionally, all our doors that lead directly out of the school do not have handles on the outside, eliminating the risk of someone entering from the outside.
Applebee Montessori creates and follows their own yearly calendar, which allows us to close less often.Unlike some schools, we are open during spring and summer breaks, as well as winter breaks. During the summer, we also offer summer camps for our after-school children.
When designing the prepared environments at Applebee, the primary consideration was to establish a learning environment that is supportive of children’s interests and development needs as they grow By doingthis we have created an environment that instills not only a love of learning but also positive foundations for a lifetime.
Applebee hosts many charity and fundraising initiatives throughout the year to benefit our community, as well as the world.Some of the organizations we work with are: Hug’s Café, Susan G. Komen, Make A Wish, Toys for Tots, and McKinney Little Free Pantry. We are always looking for new organizations to work with and welcome any suggestions you may have.
Applebee Montessori takes the current pandemic very seriously. We take student and teacher temperatures multiple times throughout the day. We are only allowing critical staff into the school.In addition, to the already high cleaning standards we have, we have added even more scheduled cleaning times for all our rooms.You can read more about our COVID-19 policies here.