“Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence.” – Maria Montessori
Pre-Primary
Laura Maheux – Head of Pre-Primary
Laura grew up in New England, but has spent her adult life in Colorado. She moved to Montana recently and look forward to forming a warm, fun, and adventurous community in her families new home.
She enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, and yoga. She also enjoys a handful of outdoor adventure sports. After college she hiked most of the Appalachian Trail.
She earned a degree in Art and K-12 Education and then a Masters Degree in educational Psychology & Early Childhood Development. Her favorite parts this career are enjoying aspects of nature and art with children. She approaches her work as a service towards not only children, but the family as a whole.
Madison Coon – Pre-Primary Assistant
Kaylyn Kuehn – Pre-Primary Assistant
Miss Kaylyn has been at Explore since February and grew up 45 miles east of Bozeman. She has an Australian Shepherd named Cally, and is working on her degree in graphic design.
She has been working off and on with children since she was 14 and has been working in education settings for almost a year.
Her favorite part of working with children is watching them learn, grow, and develop their own unique personalities. She loves working at Explore because of the team of guides she gets to work with and how well they all work together.
Some fun facts about Miss Kaylyn are that she was a student of Montessori all through elementary school, she is partially colorblind, and she loves to draw and paint.
Susan McClain-Wells – Pre-Primary Assistant
Miss Susan originally joined the Explore team as a sub but has quickly become a very important part of our pre-primary team.
She has worked with children for over forty years. She started out as an art teacher for two to nineteen year olds at a fine arts center in California. She came to Bozeman taught at the Emerson Cultural Center before getting her certification to teach K-12 Art and finally her Montessori Certification in 2017.
Her favorite part of working with children is watching them open their hears and minds to the learning experience. She enjoys their work periods that allow for independence and creative choices for each child.
She loves working with the children on their daily quest to develop skills with dexterity, large motor, and speech and language skills. She looks forward to moving into teaching early math skills and creative arts soon!
She has recently become a “Birder”. She finds great joy and excitment in observing local wildlife, particularly birds.
Primary
Marianne Molina – Director and Head of Primary
With a genuine appreciation for the Montessori approach, decades of experience teaching, caring and raising her own children Marianne is thrilled to embark on this new adventure as the Director of Explore Montessori.
Marianne started her training in Child development and psychology when enrolled in high school in Sweden and thereafter worked in different childcare facilities from a maternity ward, caring for the terminally ill to an Antroposophical Institute for mentally handicapped children.
She was briefly introduced to Montessori while working as a nanny for the City of Stockholm. This inspired her to put together simple Montessori lessons for the children in her care. Watching them work and being absorbed by the lessons made a deep impression on Marianne and her love and passion for Montessori education was kindled.
Marianne had a special sense since childhood that she would move to the US sometime and she fulfilled that dream when she came here in her mid twenties. After getting married she and her husband enrolled their firstborn in an infant Montessori program where she also taught. They later settled in Minneapolis where she homeschooled their now five children on and off for 15 years. While still there Marianne worked in a couple of different Montessori schools and started the Age of Montessori Primary Teacher training in 2011. She was the very first student to graduate from AOM in 2014.
The family moved to Montana in 2012 to be closer to nature and the mountains. In 2013 Marianne became the lead teacher in a Montessori Toddler classroom for one year and then the lead for the two to four year olds with up to 22 children and two assistants until the summer of 2019.
Last summer she set up and designed a Montessori environment in a school in Issaquah, WA but returned to Montana in the fall to be closer to her family.
Marianne brings her enthusiasm and commitment to Montessori education to create and maintain a genuine Montessori program at Explore Montessori.
Philip Molina – Assistant Primary Guide
Academy
Hanna Morel – Acadmey Guide
Hannah is a recent graduate, with a degree in Fine Art and Environmental Studies. In her free time, she loves to fly fish, mountain bike, and cook fun new recipes.
Miss Hannah joined us as a guide for our first cohort of elementary heroes in the fall.
She has been spending time with kids of all ages her entire life, coming from a big family, babysitting throughout high school, volunteering through college, and now pursuing early education and art therapy with her career.
“One of the greatest joys that have come from working with kids is the sincerity with which they view the world. Through some of the tiniest humans, I have seen the largest compassion. I have learned more about selfless acts of kindness and grace through working with children than any other experience thus far.”
Her favorite part about working at Explore is watching young friends embrace the joys (and challenges) that come with autonomous education. Working in a collaborative fashion with so many ages (K-5th) grade shows just how worthy every mind is to curate the exact environment that the whole group wants to have.
A fun fact about Miss Hanna is that her art medium of choice is welding.
