For Dr. Trina Seligman, the decision to send her 3 and-a-half year-old twins to Living Montessori Academy was all about the food.
At this private Bellevue elementary school, tuition includes an all-organic lunch: locally grown fruits and vegetables; lean proteins: chicken, legumes, tuna and seeds.
“It’s hard to know what they get from me and what they get from school, but my kids will say, ‘I just wanna eat fruits, I just wanna eat veggies, I wanna be tall,’ said Seligman, who’s pleased that her twins, a son and daughter, already know how to make healthy eating choices before reaching kindergarten.
The academy’s on-site nutritionist even plans menus that represent the students’ ancestry, offering Indian and Mexican dishes, for example.
For Seligman, a naturopathic family doctor who tries to solve her patient’s problem with nutritional counseling and herbs before prescribing drugs, the price of the upscale private school was worth it.
“To me, what you put in your body and mind is the most valuable,” Seligman said. “I see them feeding my kids’ bodies and minds, so maybe I won’t drive a fancy car or shop at Nordstrom’s every day, because I can’t put a price on that.”
An emphasis on good nutrition is only one aspect of nature-inspired living at the Montessori school, which opened it’s doors for business in September and takes in many of its students from its feeder infant/preschool across the street. The school will eventually serve students age 3 up to sixth grade.
From classes in yoga, ballet and organic gardening, to the recycled flip-flop chairs in the reading corner, to the completely green-designed building, including zero-VOC paint, children are immersed in a classroom environment that teaches them how to be caretakers: of their bodies, of the environment and of one another.
The teaching of these values can’t be found as readily in public schools, or even in other private or Montessori schools, said Principal Afrose Amlani.
“As our students get older, they’ll be able to function at an optimum level, because from an early age, they’ve known respect for the earth and have developed the ability to be peaceful and caring,” Amlani said.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle go hand-in-hand with “A,” “B,” “C” at Living Montessori. Children take paper from a recycled paper bin for art projects, and they also learn how to take care of the earth in other ways, by being told the value of eating local foods and being instructed in gardening projects, such as pumpkin-harvesting.
Students learn to take care of one another, as well, in part by investigating different cultures. Differences, racial or otherwise, are welcome and celebrated said Seligman, whose family is both Jewish and Christian. She appreciated the school’s winter-themed, as opposed to Christmas-themed, festival it held this year, where students had a bake sale and the proceeds went to charity.
But this holistic type of education doesn’t mean that academics aren’t at the school’s core values. According to Amlani, the majority of the 58 3-to 6-year-olds who currently attend Living Montessori are at least a grade level ahead.
Seligman has been especially pleased with her twins’ success. Though she chose the school for the food, she’s since fallen in love with the rest of the program.
“My kids have come home and told me things about Africa or my daughter will say, ‘If I have five pillows and I take one away, then I have four pillows left … They’re only 3 and a half,” Seligman said. “I’m constantly amazed.”
Gabrielle Nomura be reached at 425-453-4602.
For more information on the Living Montessori Academy elementary school or the Early Education program for infants and toddlers, go to livingmontessori.com and click on “Admissions” or call 425-373-5437. The school is located at 2445 140th Ave. NE, Suite B-200.
