Does my child need to be potty trained to attend CMC?

To plan a first day for your child in one of our Children’s Houses, your child must be using the toilet with full independence or you must be working, as a family, to support your child in learning to use the toilet with full independence. We cannot support the use of any diapers, pull-ups, or absorbent and/or lined "training pants" among children enrolled at CMC. This includes during our nap and rest time. To provide consistency for the child in their toilet learning, we ask for a commitment from all regular caregivers of children enrolled at CMC (family, friends, nannies, babysitters) to keep the enrolled child out of absorbent and/or lined bottoms during at least all waking hours.

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Do You Offer Preschool and/or Kindergarten?

At CMC, we offer fully-implemented Montessori education and childcare. Our mixed-age learning communities are an alternative to: child care (for children at least 30 months and ready to work on toilet learning without diapers); preschool (in schedules, age range, and programming we compare very favorably to typical PK3 and PK4 options), and kindergarten (children that spend the equivalent of their first and/or second year eligible for public kindergarten in our program are well prepared to enter first grade or join a Montessori elementary community - they are typically independent learners, fluent readers and writers, and already engaged in elementary level math work). We are licensed by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and are not recognized by the Ohio Department of Education in any way. However, it is our understanding that public and independent schools typically enroll age eligible children transitioning from AMI Montessori programs directly into first grade, often without testing. This is because they recognize our Montessori Guides’ training through Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and their ability to offer a strong alternative to both preschool and kindergarten. We are lucky that our trained Children's House Guides have come to us with many years of experience fostering a life long love of learning.

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May I enroll my child two, three, or four days a week?

We only offer full-week schedules at CMC. When all children enrolled in a Children's House attend on a consistent and predictable schedule this supports strong, child-centered communities. These child-centered communities are one of the key features and benefits of fully-implemented Montessori. If some children attended just 10 to 15 hours a week while others attended 40 to 50 hours a week, the group's makeup would be too inconsistent for a strong community to form, especially around those children that attend the fewest hours. Full-week schedules for all children are also supportive of diversity among our Children's House communities. If we enrolled children in our Children's Houses based on schedule, the communities that formed would look and feel very different from one another. This is a result of key demographic differences between families with preferences and needs for different schedules. Requiring all families to enroll in our full-week program is one of the best ways we have found to foster strong, intentionally diverse, child-centered communities at CMC.

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Are you able to accommodate drop-off or pick-up times outside those windows built into your daily schedule?

Not on a regular basis. Like our full-week schedule, our daily drop-off and pick-up windows are designed to provide the consistency needed to build and maintain strong, child-centered learning communities. Frequent drop-off or pick-up outside our community's regular routines can be disruptive to feelings of security, trust, and, ultimately, learning and growth among our whole community. We can, of course, accommodate occasional drop-off and/or pick-up of children outside their normally scheduled drop-off and pick-up windows due to family emergency, medical appointment scheduling, etc.

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We are choosing not to vaccinate our child, do you accept exemptions? 

In short, no. CMC only accepts the immunization records of children currently following a CDC recommended vaccination schedule or those with certification in writing from a medical professional (as defined on the Child Medical Statement for Child Care JFS 01305) that such a schedule is medically contraindicated.

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How much will CMC cost (my family)?

We offer Sliding Scale Fees at CMC. This means that if your family chooses to share their financial situation with us, we will base our fees off of that information. To do this, we use a metric we developed in-house, Adjusted Family Income (AFI), which incorporates your family size, annual income, and net assets. Our AFI metric is based off of the four-decade-long use of a similar metric used in offering sliding scale tuition at Manhattan Country School as well as the eligibility requirements for Publicly Funded Child Care (PFCC) in the State of Ohio.

 

We are also providers of PFCC and will support families that may qualify for that program in applying for and maintaining this benefit. In addition to Sliding Scale Fees, we also offer flexible scheduling options across our School Year, Extended Care, Summer, and Break Sessions. This means families will only be charged for the care that they schedule.

 

For these reasons, we cannot share any meaningful single amount that represents the fees your family would be asked to pay. We can offer to estimate your fees on our sliding scale based on your financial circumstances and ideal attendance schedule for your child over the phone or during your first visit to CMC if you are prepared to share estimates of the following: 

• Total family income from all sources

• Total net assets from all sources (all major assets minus all debts or loans greater than $3,000)

• Family size 

• Ideal schedule for your child(ren) at CMC 

 

Please keep in mind that any family may waive the disclosure of financial information and calculation of their family’s AFI by agreeing to pay our Maximum Fees for the schedule in which their child is enrolled.

 

Please see our Sliding Scale Fee page as well as our Family Handbook for more details!