East Hillside

My kid is in the Spanish immersion program at MW. He’s had an excellent experience! I feel fortunate that we are able to receive such amazing programming at a public school. I volunteer at MW fairly frequently- the school does have a significant number of students that are low income (I volunteer delivering food bags); the staff/teachers here are quite amazing and I can tell they really care about their students.

When our family moved to Duluth after I completed my medical training in New York, our son was 4 and our daughter was 2. We enrolled at Many Rivers Montessori expecting it to be primarily a preschool and kindergarten option for our family. Today, our son is entering fifth grade and our daughter third, and we've chosen to stay.What has kept us there is the combination of academics with independence, problem-solving, creativity, and practical responsibility. Our children have learned everyday skills such as cooking, setting tables, cleaning up after themselves, and taking responsibility for their environment. They've also learned to write in cursive, spent significant time outdoors, participated in nature-focused trips and experiential learning, and had opportunities through extracurricular activities such as robotics, soccer, and chess club. We have also appreciated their early exposure to micro-economies and learning to be entrepreneurial, coming up with ideas for crafts to make and sell at their annual Fall and Winter festivals. The mixed-age classrooms have been particularly meaningful. Younger students have the opportunity to learn from older children, while older students gradually take on mentoring and leadership roles. Over the years, we've watched our own children become more confident, independent, creative, and capable of approaching problems in different ways. We've also really appreciated how well the guides know our children and the level of individual attention that comes with the smaller learning environment. The school community has given us opportunities to know other families and to be genuinely involved in our children's education.No school is a perfect fit for every family, but if you're comparing options in the Duluth, Hermantown or other nearby areas, especially if you're wondering what Montessori looks like in practice, visiting Many Rivers and speaking with administrators and parents can be very helpful. We originally planned to stay only for the early years. The fact that we're still there many years later is probably the clearest endorsement we can give. It has been an amazing experience for our family so far.