Gymnastics•Swimming•Gardening•Music

Your Toddler will love this introduction or continued exposure to the Montessori classroom. Our campers experience the classroom materials while developing motor skills,  language and socialization skills.

 Toddler Campers enjoy:

• music & movement •gymnastics
• create art projects   •swimming

Our swim program is run by experienced professionals. We boast a 99% success rate with our beginning swimmers and offer lessons daily.

Preschool Camp (Ages 3-4)

Swimming• Montessori Curriculum •Sports & Games•Garden Care •Music & Movement

 Preschool Discover & Explore (Ages 4-5)

Gymnastics•Yoga•Swimming•Tae Kwon Do•Sports & Games •Montessori Curriculum•Garden Care•Music & Movement•Arts & Crafts with Themes•Science

Preschool Campers ages 3 to 5 yrs. enjoy mornings exploring:

• The Montessori environment (with educational opportunities in math, language, sensorial, practical life, cultural, geography and life science)
• Music & movement
• Garden care
• Art
• Swim lessons are offered daily by the qualified & experienced professionals.

The afternoons for Preschool Discover & Explore Campers ages 4 to 5 yrs are spent exploring:

• Gymnastics •Yoga •Sports & games
• Tae kwon do •Music
• Fun educational themes through arts & crafts, science, language, dramatic play, cooking, music & movement.  The themes include: Tools and Machines, Community and Careers, Farms, 4^th of July and All About Me, Sea Life, Insects and Spiders, Harvest, &  Growing Things.

Funtastic Friday events keep the fun rolling with Water Fun, Dance Parties, Scavenger Hunts and more!                                

 Elementary Explore! (Ages 6-12)                                        

Explore: Fun & Exciting Field Trips •Hands On Science  •Sports & Games•Swimming•Musical Instruments•Arts & Crafts•Tae Kwon Do Computers•Drama•Funtastic Fridays

•New Late Night Camp Outs & Movie Nights

Session II – Beach, Surf & Science!  Science has never been this cool!  We hit the beach in the    morning and enjoy the sand, surf & snorkeling.  Then we head over to Gumbo Limbo and the FAU Shark or Turtle Lab to see first hand recent discoveries and research.     

Science– Weather or Not- Learn about weather as we take an up close and hands-on look at a tornado, touch lightning, & make it rain!

Session III- Sizzling Summer look out! We Have Water Mania!!  Outrageous combo waterslides,  water games, open swim and more! The Fun is Hot but the Kids are Cool!

Science– Cosmic Capers- explore our solar system & launch rockets! 

  (Interactive science workshops provided by High Touch High Tech) 

In  Addition Every Session includes:

Explore Music! – Here’s your chance to try several instruments from the strings family and beyond! Explore Swimming, Sports & Games, and Explore Exciting Themes with Arts & Crafts, Drama, Computer research, experiments, creative writing & games.  Themes being developed- Rainforests, Go Green!, Space Travel, Oceanography, Friends Connect Around the World, Create Art Like Famous  Artists, Caring for Pets, Community Service and more! Field trips subject to change and more added.

New this year – Late Night Camp Outs! Roast hot dogs, make s’mores, tell stories by the campfire & watch movies with friends. (additional charge)

Funtastic Fridays finish out each week! Catch all the fun at Camp Explore!!

Program:  Each class from Toddlers to Upper Elementary will be involved in the program to promote peace.  There will be art, music and literature presentations filled with creativity.  See the unveiling of the newest student made mosaic!  Parents, families and neighbors are welcome!                                                         

Service Project:  Children have been collecting Pennies for Peace to help build schools for children (primarily girls) in Afghanistan and Pakistan through the Central Asia Institute.  This organization was founded by Greg Mortenson, co-author of the Three Cups of Tea NY Times Best Seller.  Learn more at www.penniesforpeace.org.  Children have also collected funds for Smile Train, www.smiletrain.org, an organization that helps to repair cleft palates/lips for children in need that would otherwise be developmentally devasted.  All donations are welcome.

Important logistics: Please use our parking lot or the adjacent grass lot (west of the school on Spanish River, just before Grandview) to park.  Please do not park at the church across the street and use care when parking along NW 3^rd Ave. swales (section of grass closest to the street- city property).  Your courtesy and care when parking is much appreciated.
 

We look forward to seeing you there! 

I was reading an article today called “The Genius of Montessori” by Judith Cunningham¹ and it put me in such a grateful place.  Grateful for this wonderful school and its devoted and dedicated teachers, assistants, and support staff, who are committed to making your child’s experience a rewarding one.  In the article, Ms. Cunningham touches on the genius of Maria Montessori’s work in its focus to “prepare the mind and the emotional heart.”  This is done by purposefully preparing the environment that stimulates the child’s intellectual curiosity and at the same time providing flexibility that encourages experimentation and creativity, without punishment.  Carrying a dish and breaking it, then becomes a lesson in how to hold a dish properly or that gravity is a force that pulls objects toward the earth versus a punishment.  The emotional heart is strengthened by this approach of flexibility, respect and understanding.
 

When children are learning in this kind of environment, their genius flourishes.  Ms. Cunningham notes that emotional intelligence quotient or EQ can identify genius.  EQ is defined as the measurement of one’s Emotional Intelligence (EI), which describes an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one’s self, of others, and of groups.²  As it develops, “it helps open the mind to a greater complexity of thinking, a more holistic form of thinking, and an ability to weigh multiple perspectives.”  She gives Newton as an example. He watched a natural occurrence that millions before him had seen, an apple falling from a tree, but with his high EQ he was able to observe it from a different perspective and develop a law of physics to explain this phenomenon.
 

I’ve witnessed high EQs in our children at Summit.  Just walking by the playground I have seen 1^st grade girls respect and acknowledge the distress of a friend, and peacefully work toward a resolution together.  In a preschool classroom I observed a 3 yr old engrossed in balancing a pencil on a block and upon his success stated, “this is a lesson.”  As a parent, I have enjoyed my daughter’s thorough investigation of how civilization developed after the dinosaurs, why paperwork is not considered art and how to help organize classmates into a full fairy tale play (including princesses, knights, dragons and babies).  These children think outside the box and come up with ways of doing things that are creative, inventive and very fulfilling.
 

It is through these small beginnings- a broken plate, a problem solved, a creative game, Ms.Cunningham states “that minds are opened to allow free-flowing thoughts and new experiences…As a Montessori child, he will exhibit genius by a lifelong love of learning and how he live his life.”
 

Dr. Susan
Susan Mike, MD
Vice Head of School
Summit Private School
 

References: 

¹The Genius of Montessori, M: The Magazine for Montessori Families, March/April 2006.

²Wikipedia, Emotional Intelligence.