By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: March. 31, 2012
Growing up in Lebanon, Anissa Mousi was always impressed with her friend, Nawal Hadeed.
“She would get top grades at school, she volunteered with orphanage during her summer vacations, and she was a very benevolent person,” Moussi said, recalling her friend.
It was later she discovered the reason for why Hadded was such a giving person: It was her Montessori education.
“That is how I got interested in knowing more about Montessori education,” she says.
After moving to Quebec, Anissa got a one-year degree in Montessori education from Connecticut.
This March, having moved to Squamish from Vancouver, she started Moussi Montessori, Squamish’s only bilingual child care centre for toddlers and preschoolers.
The inspiration came from her own family.
When she realised there was no toddler program for her daughter that would provide a Montessori education, she decided to start her own.
Moussi Montessori, she claims, is one of the only two programs available in British Columbia that imparts Montessori education.
Moussi also provides education in French. Montessori education lays emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological development.
“We help them become independent,” she said.
“We are so used to in our culture and in our schools of telling children what to do. In Montessori, they learn it by themselves and become indepenent,” she said.
The toddler program doesn’t start until this June, but Moussi said she is already hearing from parents who want Montessori education for their children.
“There is a huge gap in our community for such a toddler program,” she said.
