OUR GARDEN

We are a garden school.

School Gardening engages students
​by providing a dynamic environment

to observe, discover, experiment, nurture, and learn. School Gardens are living laboratories where interdisciplinary lessons are drawn from real life experiences, encouraging students to become active participants in the learning process and to know where food comes from. We encourage a healthy lifestyle. All snacks are fresh fruits and vegetables, and we adhere to a water only policy.

Mercy's Garden

Richlands Montessori Preschool

Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori didn't coin the term "mindfulness," but she was an early advocate for sustained focus and internal motivation. Her methods deliberately encourage intense concentration as the best context for early learning.

"Education is a natural process," she said, "spontaneously carried out by the human individual 
and is acquired not by listening to words but by his experience upon the environment."

OUR LOVE OF ART

We celebrate all things creative.

On our fully stocked art shelves, children choose lessons of paint, clay work and an age appropriate study of the masters
of fine arts. They, themselves, work earnestly to master the fine art of cutting and glueing. We bring art into our academics with crafts
from the different continents and cultures that we study! Each year the children produce beautiful works; clay hands, beads, tie dyed
​t-shirts, and from our garden; plant dyed fabrics and fresh pesto.