Three Tree Montessori School

Love TTMS! My 3 yr old daughter has been attending this school for a little over a year. It has been great watching her develop socially and intellectually with the love and support of the most caring and patient teachers you have ever seen. They have fostered her love of learning and have helped her develop amazing concentration. The classrooms have beautiful Montessori materials and the outdoor play spaces have vegetable gardens, a bunny, and a chicken coop! We are looking forward to enrolling our son here in a year or so. One of the best decisions we have made so far.

It’s hard to believe how much we like this school. My daughter is in the toddler program for half days, and is excited to go to school everyday. On the weekends, she wakes up and starts to get ready for school and we have to explain to her there isn’t school today, which bums her out. Her class has 12 students and 3 teachers. She’s learning to bake, garden, paint, sing, dance, clean up after herself, and of course is being potty trained. The staff and teachers are the most positive, balanced, healthy group of people I’ve seen in a long time.
I didn’t know much about Montessori education before we found this program, but if you’re looking for a school for your kids, look into Montessori. It’s amazing. Make sure it’s an AMI accredited, or on the way to being accredited, program. And beware of places that call themselves Montessori but don’t follow AMI standards. From what I can tell, there are only a few really good Montessori programs around the Seattle area, and TTMS is one of the. We couldn’t be happier.

Parents, be aware that you must commit your child through the end of their Primary years (or the end of the Kindergarten). I was not told this and wasted lots of time with registration (school visit, forms) when I could have explored other programs, not to mention paying $ 75, for something that was not to be from the very beginning, ultimately only to receive a rejection letter. Not happy! I didn’t have a problem with this except in looking out for my child, I wanted the option of seeing how she responded to the program. It just really depended, and I was not willing to «lie». Too bad, had it worked, maybe my 2-​year old would have gone through the program too. Oh well. (**For clarification, I don’t support the idea of a 2+ year commitment into any program, however, it is a standard of the school, which is fine. I just feel that such stipulations should be made clear maybe plastered somewhere on a website, even before the parent arrives for classroom visit. Also, my child who is 4 very well could have stayed in the program through Kindergarten; I simply wanted to be the one to determine this and to do so because I like and support the program, not because I’m forced to. These are just my opinions.)

TTM is a pedagogically-​observant Montessori school, which will come as a relief to those parents who believe in the method and seek something more for their kids (and their expense) than a glorified day care. The classes are appropriately sized and more than adequately staffed with Montessori-​trained guides & aides, and feature a full complement of beautiful wood, metal, and fabric Montessori-​specific works arranged to allow curious minds instant access to meaningful, self-​directed learning.
The administrative staff is exceptional, led by a 20+ year veteran of both Pacific Crest Montessori & Northwest Montessori School. While transparently placing the student experience first (as they should), this administration takes great pains to accommodate the needs of parents by being respectful of the scant spare time available to most parents, and by reaching out to parents with lots of pertinent information & updates.
The building itself is a high-​security cruciform arrangement where toddler, primary, and elementary classes are housed in their own wings. It appears to be a former hospice or nursing home, the practical upshot of which is wide hallways and doors, bright sunny rooms, and lots of ‘safety’ hardware in common areas. The outside play areas are securely fenced (with locking, key-​coded gates) and include play structures, gardening, and opportunities to get messy in real dirt in the time-​honored tradition.
The location is a quarter mile off WA-​509 in Burien at 160^th Street, just down the street from Highline Medical Center. We make the drive from Capitol Hill every day in 20 minutes. The location is also served by several bus lines from downtown Seattle (#131 & #121 pass ¹⁄₈ mi. to the east @ 160^th & 1^st; #123 ¹⁄₈ mi. to the west @ 160^th & 4^th).