The Lakeview Montessori School may be relatively new to the Sparta area but its curriculum is over a century old.  It was in 1906 that Maria Montessori, an Italian pediatrician turned educator, developed her methods based on what she saw in children in her practice.

Since then thousands of Montessori schools across the world, including 500 in the United States and 56 in Wisconsin, have embraced her concepts.

Lakeview Montessori School was founded in 2004 and we serve children from preschool through third grade.

The program is based on four components of Montessori education:

• Helping each child reach his or her full potential in all areas of life:  social skills, emotional growth, physical coordination and academic skills.  This holistic curriculum allows the child to experience the joy of learning, time to enjoy the process and to develop self-esteem.

• Creating a safe and positive environment supportive to the child with self-directed learning and student-teacher relationships built on trust and respect to foster self-confidence and a willingness to try new things.

• Montessori materials that are the focus of learning and expand the child's attention span because the teacher does not continually interrupt him or her.  These specially designed materials stimulate the senses, encourage learning in a sequence and are self-correcting to facilitate learning.

• Montessori teachers, who encourage learning by designing the environment and serving as a resource person, a role model, a demonstrator, observer and facilitator of student learning.

The school is designed to narrow the achievement gap due to socio-economic barriers.  It also will improve students' reading and language arts skills and meet their individual social, emotional and educational needs.