Montessori Academy

Information may not be reliable

Here at Dandy Lion Montessori School, we provide an authentic Montessori program for preschool and kindergarten aged children (2.5 to 6) in the Five Cities (Pismo Beach, Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, Shell Beach, Oceano) and surrounding areas of San Luis Obispo (SLO) County, California.
Thank you for your interest. We hope you find our website informative and look forward to your call to answer your remaining questions and schedule a tour of our facility.

Our Mission at Dandy Lion Montessori School is simply to serve the children of many exceptional parents in our community, who are truly concerned about the future of their children in these uncertain times. We provide our students with the very best start in their lifelong learning adventure, by maintaining an authentic Montessori program, which the International Association of Progressive Montessori (IAPM) has always been respected for worldwide. We will continue to excel in implementing a specially prepared environment for their budding minds to explore and utilize in developing their critical thinking skills.
Beyond providing the full complement of venerable Montessori didactic materials, by genuinely respecting children engaged in the awe-inspiring process of developing a unique mind of their own, we provide a safe and nurturing atmosphere devoid of judgmental stress. The serene ambiance thus achieved, is conducive to the concentration necessary to organize a young mind for the daunting task of sifting, sorting, and classifying the incredible volume of information they will encounter as joyfully diligent learners in the 21st Century.
We acknowledge that our role as the guiding adults in this exceptional environment is critical to their obtaining the most benefit from it; but programming of beliefs and prejudices we leave to others. It is our job to help them learn how to think - not what to think. We welcome the challenge and will continue to always give it our best effort, for the sake of the children entrusted to our care, by the finest parents in our community.

Dandy Lion Montessori School is the lab school for the International Association of Progressive Montessori. At times, it is used nights and weekends as the venue for the training of teachers by internationally renowned trainer Ann Balasuriya, under the auspices of the Montessori Teacher Training Institute of the Central Coast (MTTI-CC).
Ann's other training venue is Montessori Teacher Training Institute - Laguna Beach (MTTI-LB), which is conducted at various Montessori schools in southern California. One of them is the Hillside Montessori school, owned by two of her former students. They have put together a lovely YouTube pictorial of their IAPM affiliated facility that offers an excellent indication of what an authentic Montessori school is all about. Although we do not have infant or toddler programs here at Dandy Lion, if you are new to Montessori we recommend investing seven minutes in veiwing their tour below. Do notice the attractive environment, the sense of order, and the various looks of intense concentration, satisfaction, and sheer joy on the faces of these young children engrossed in learning how to learn: