About us

Shamrock Montessori Center

Yolanda Quinn started Shamrock Montessori Center back in 1985 renting out the basement of a church. She opened up at Oakland Drive in its current location in 1993. She has been the rock and heart of the school and I am so honored to get to continue her work here at Shamrock.

Lauren Grinnell-Ackerman is the current owner of Shamrock. She is a trained AMI guide with a Masters in Montessori Education, Bachelors in Child and Family Development, and Minors is Social Work and Holistic Health. She has been working in a Montessori school since 2013 and is passionate about her work with children and carrying out Maria Montessori’s vision for peace and guiding children to develop into their fullest potential.

The school covers the areas of practical life, sensorial, language, and mathematics. Practical Life, helping children learn how to help themselves, others, and their community. This area guides children to develop foundational skills that they will use in daily life. Sensorial is an area for the children to discover their five senses in isolation and in combination. They work with hands on materials to understand color, shape, dimension, taste, sound, texture, weight, and many more concepts. The language area provides experiences with letter sounds and their shape, blending sounds for reading, preparing the hand for writing, and sentence and paragraph formation. The math area covers counting and the discovery that it is infinite, the classic memorization of math facts with hands on materials, the decimal system and the concept of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with the decimal system, and the beginning ideas of fractions.

It is encouraged to start in the classroom as an older two / young three year old and stay for 2-3 years to work through all the progressions of work available in the classroom. This concept of a multi-age multi-year classroom allows the child to grow into the role model for the younger children and have a sense of responsibility to the classroom and their peers. The relationship between the child and the Guide is precious as well. Those early years are so important to the development of confidence and self-esteem, and the relationship with the Guide, classmates, and the environment will not be a hinderance to the social emotional development since they are coming to a space that is known and comfortable.

Mission Statement

Shamrock Montessori Center strives to provide an environment for children that guides them towards connection, understanding and curiosity in the nature and community that surrounds them.

Philosophy and Vision

Shamrock Montessori aims to be a community of families that share the common goal to foster the importance of human connection in order to become an empathetic and compassionate person in today’s society. Using Montessori education to guide the children in reaching their full potential as independent and collaborative learners. The Montessori philosophy is upheld through research and following child development. We provide an education that caters to the whole child.

Staff

Owner/Lead Guide:

Meet Lauren

Hi, my name is Lauren Grinnell-Ackerman. I am the owner and Lead Guide at Shamrock Montessori Center. After becoming a Montessori assistant in 2013, I was inspired to become a Montessori Guide. In 2016, I finished my masters in Montessori Education with Loyola University Maryland as well as my AMI Primary Montessori Diploma from Montessori Northwest. Since then, I’ve have been teaching in a primary classroom.

My husband, Ryan, and I have three children Eleanor (8), Adeline (6) and George (4). We also have two cats, Sunny and Rose. We love to go out to the mountains to camp and hike. We enjoy spending time with family up north Michigan, and we are always out and about busy with all the sports for the three kids.

Classroom Assistants:

Meet Anna

Meet Semsa

Meet Su

Meet Anu

Meet Jana