The Story of Fiddlehead

The History of Fiddlehead Montessori

Fiddlehead Montessori birthed from a seed of an idea planted nearly 15 years ago after our founding families were introduced to alternative philosophies in education, rather than traditional public schooling. The journey first began when one of our founding families helped to start Greenwood Tree, a Waldorf-inspired cooperative school and homeschool enrichment program in Mount Vernon, WA. While this provided a wonderful educational experience, it was not a full-time option instead of public school or religious-based private school.

Soon after, all our founding families had children who attended San Juan Montessori preschool in Anacortes, Wa, where they were introduced to the pedagogy and philosophy of Maria Montessori. With their own children on this educational path in Skagit Valley, the need for a full-time Montessori elementary school was obvious. Over the years, many families had been interested in the idea of a Montessori elementary school, but few were willing to invest their time and energy to such a tough endeavor - until January of 2016. At that time, we began to see our dreams become reality as we laid the path of what would need to happen to open a Montessori elementary school. After more than a year of researching, interviewing, planning, learning, growing, and fighting to make our dream come to life, Fiddlehead Montessori opened its doors and welcomed our first class of students in September 2017. We are so grateful that our vision has come to fruition and we believe that our community and our children, as well as future generations will benefit from having the option to attend a Montessori elementary school. May it grow and flourish - not only for our children, but for many, many more.