Ms. Lynnelle

Earlier in my life, I was a math person. I majored in math and earned a degree in computer networks. I was a daytime analyst until my daughter was born. Ever since becoming pregnant with her, I wanted to learn all I could about childhood education theories, from all the way back to the 18th century. I found it all incredibly fascinating, and I was especially captivated by the Montessori philosophy. I enrolled myself into a course to earn a certificate in Montessori teaching so I could teach my daughter the Montessori way. My daughter was born in 2007 and by 2009 I had my certificate and thought, why not teach not only my daughter but other children as well using this method? So, I had my first EEC license in 2009. I feel so privileged to be able to play such an important role in young children’s lives, especially before the age of 6. It is a critical time and throughout my time working in the field, I’ve realized what a knack I have for teaching young kids. I love observing them and getting to know what they are thinking and what they want. I feel like a child whisperer! I feel my ability to understand them is a huge advantage. I do my absolute best every day to provide an environment for the children that they can develop in every aspect from physical, emotional, social, and cognitive. I am so ambitious for their little hearts, and I look at each child for the whole of them. I want to help parents raise their children, looking at every part of them, including life skills.

I just earned my CDA (Child Development Associate’s), a national credit, so that I can teach young children nationwide. I strive to be the best educator that I can possibly be, taking courses and learning throughout my time working in order to better myself and the program. My first priority for the program is making sure the children are safe. It is an absolute non-negotiable! I want to bring up the children as a whole person: physical, emotional, social, cognitive, as well caring, compassionate, and respectful little humans. I provide a bilingual curriculum in both English and Chinese, on top of the Montessori method. We love to play, it is so fun! They go to school to play, and in every activity they do, they are learning. It is the beauty of working with children. When we play with blocks, they are learning colors, shapes, counting, sorting, and more. When they are playing with Play-Doh, they are learning creativity and how to use their imagination, while building hands-on skills. The sensory and language aspects of, “this bucket of play-doh is dry,” and “this one is smooth,” is infinitely important in their little brains as well. There is so much to gain from playing. I want them to have every opportunity imaginable to learn through play. The benefit of a small program in a home environment for the children is that they learn how to deal with different personalities, conflicts, and more. They are little, but they learn from the examples set not only by adults, but by the other kids as well. Children can teach each other how to share, how to be patient, and how to ask for permission. I had one little girl teaching a little boy how to ask to use a toy, whether it was right then or when a peer was done with it. She asked for permission, the child said yes, then they said, “thank you,” and “you’re welcome,” and the little boy observing learned. Prior to that, he had been taking toys without asking. It is so rewarding to see the kids growing up and learning how to behave on a daily basis in a safe environment. We also teach the children about gratitude. It isn’t only during Thanksgiving that we talk about this. The children are taught to say “thank you for dropping me off!” to their parents in the morning. Before we sit down to eat lunch, we do a family-style meal where we all sit together during breakfast, lunch and snacks, we say thank you and are aware of the gratitude of having food to eat. There is so much to teach the children and my program ensures that they learn as much as they can to launch themselves into a bright, successful future with all of the tools and development they need.

At my house, we sit on a little more than 1 acre of land that is all fenced. This means there’s a lot of outdoor opportunity for the children to run, walk, play, pick up leaves on the ground. Something we love to do is use pine cones for painting and they get to create their masterpieces from nature. They love the little bits of branches, and everything the backyard has to offer them for utilizing their imagination. We have a playset outside too for extra enjoyment! We go outside twice a day, weather-permitting; once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Inside my home, we have a living room that is joined with the dining room. We have kids-sized shelves so they can get the Montessori teaching materials themselves. There are different sections in these rooms. We have areas for language, math, sensory, geography and maps, and science, such as plants, animals, and weather tools. We also have a reading corner with a bookshelf that has books in both English and Chinese. We read to them, or they read to us. We do all types of activities, but we love reading. We joined the local library to do a program where kids read one thousand books before kindergarten. Our local library works with the organization in charge of the initiative, so we registered and have a book log. Every one hundred books the children read, they get a sticker from the library, which makes them so excited! This builds a habit of enjoying reading in the children, and so our reading area is very important to them. The walls are interactive for the kids, one with the abc’s on them. Another wall has a board that's used for magnets. We also have famous paintings as part of our art education, so those are up too. We tell the children the story of the painting, and they have the opportunity to identify different parts of the painting. When they connect with the art, it brings me so much joy! We also have two little sinks in the bathroom so the children can learn hand-washing importance. And an indoor playroom separate from the living and dining room areas where the children can play and develop their physical skills if we cannot go outdoors.