Welcome! To learn how the ToTH community has adapted to meet the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, we invite you to view our Fall Newsletter, and to visit our COVID-19 operations page. Please direct any questions you may have to info@toddlersonthehill.org and an administrator will be happy to respond within 48 hours.
“The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six.” – Dr. Maria Montessori
ToTH Montessori, founded as Toddlers on the Hill in 2012, is an OSSE-licensed independent school for children between the ages of 18 months and 6 years of age. Our Toddler and Primary communities embrace the methodology and curriculum developed by Dr. Maria Montessori.
Since its inception, ToTH Montessori continues to adapt to meet the needs of our diverse and growing Capitol Hill community. We offer world class materials, a unique and balanced year-round school calendar, foreign language in each of our full-day classrooms, ongoing parent education programming, and a close knit and supportive community. To ensure the greatest possible access in our community, we accept OSSE vouchers. We are committed to offering our parent community a neighborhood school that is right for D.C., while never losing sight of how best to satisfy the children’s needs: a prepared environment, highly-trained guides, routine and structure, a mixed-age group, and above all, peaceful uninterrupted work periods that foster concentration and bring joy to each child. Our school is located in the secure first floor childcare suite of the Capper Community Center, completed in 2017 in the Navy Yard/Capitol Riverfront section of Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC.
We are grateful for the years of support we have received from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation in support of expanded access to our program, as well as for support we have received from the Low Income Investment Fund to expand our school in 2019 and increase our enrollment of families participating in OSSE’s childcare subsidy program.
The Montessori Method
This unique and widely-lauded education method, developed more than a century ago by Italian physician Maria Montessori, is built around developmentally appropriate environments, self-directed learning, mixed-age classrooms, and social responsibility. We value the 110 years of cumulative observation and research on this method and we feel that a school based on the Montessori Method is the best that we can offer the toddlers and preschoolers in our neighborhood.
In 2006, the journal Science published a study comparing outcomes of children from similar backgrounds at a Montessori program versus a traditional school (summary here). The study concluded that while academic tests were comparable for students from both schools, those who attended the Montessori program had better social and behavioral skills, and tested better on “executive function,” which is defined as the ability to adapt to changing and more complex problems. Find more information on what research says about Montessori learning and student outcomes here.
Read what parents are saying about ToTH Montessori . . .
