Our Great City

The Barbara Gordon Montessori School is your child’s home away from home. Nestled on nine wooded acres in Colleyville, BGMS is made up of 11 buildings where each classroom evolves into a comfortable environment for your children to grow and learn. On the eve of celebrating it’s 40th anniversary, The Barbara Gordon Montessori School continues to serve the youth of the Colleyville, Grapevine and Southlake area; growing from a single building campus to now serving almost 200 children from the age of 18 months on through the 8th grade.

The Montessori Method, classically speaking, lets the materials do the teaching. The purpose of the Guide is to know the child, assess the development, and determine which lessons are immediately appropriate to a particular child’s development—which is also why Montessori education is individualized rather than presented to a group. The Guide, then, is a ‘hook’ between child and teaching materials.

The process is:
· invite the child to a lesson
· name the material or activity
· show how to carry it and where to place it
· ask the child to watch
· demonstrate the basic process
· invite the child to have a go at it

It is a very clean process, highly refined, with a minimum of words and economy of movement. Afterwards there is little or no intervention unless the child asks for help. The Montessori adult practices a hands-off policy, encouraging exploration and discovery. The real learning occurs not in the presentation but in the child’s exploration. In the exploration phase we avoid making corrections, but we observe any difficulties. A typical ‘correction’ might be, “Watch how I do this part.” This general approach may be adapted to life in the home. It works because it shows respect for the child’s inherent drive to learn and to grow.