Montessori For Everybody is a place for Montessori teachers and all those interested in doing the work needed to create Montessori education. It is founded on the base that putting the ideas of Maria Montessori into action is the best hope for the world to become a more healthy, vibrant, and joyful place through its most precious resource: our children. It is also a place for beginning an exploration of applying these ideas fully to learning for people of all ages.
Most of all, it’s about you. If you got this far on our site, it’s about you. What do you need to use Montessori insights with your children or in your classroom? What can you contribute to help meet that need for another parent or educator? Maria Montessori was an education innovator, a brilliant philosopher, a pioneering medical doctor, and a gifted presenter. What too many people miss is that she was a practical scientist who quickly found a way to put abstract ideas, that many educational theorists endorsed, into day-to-day use in classrooms and homes. That’s what we’re about – helping you and your friends do that.
Montessori For Everybody is the creation of Jim Zink, and myself, Souzzann Zink, in collaboration with people in many different Montessori communities. My thirty years plus of living and loving Montessori education began with a visit to a Montessori school in Florida. I immediately enrolled in an American Montessori Society affiliated primary (ages 2 1/2-6) teacher training program. My classroom experience, after my training, started with my own tiny Montessori home childcare program using mostly just homemade materials. From there, our school grew to a full primary environment in my new basement and on to a school for children ages 2 1/2 to 9 that served about 70 families a year with a staff of seven. We also offered special phonics instruction reading camps each summer. Over the course of ten years, about 300 families were a part of our school.
Since then, I have taught children ages 3 to 18 in public and private schools, including special education students, in both Montessori and non-Montessori settings. An essential part of my Montessori experience has been using these principles to teach and train adults in holistic health, movement therapy, phonics instruction, business, and creative arts.
Other highlights of my background include:
- MAED St. Catherine University Advanced Montessori ProgramsMontessori
- Educational Programs Institute (MACTE accredited) Elementary II (ages 6-12) credential
- Montessori international conference exhibits and presentations, 2006-present
- Trainer Level Certification, Neuro-Linguistic Programming
- Utah teaching license
- International trainer and presenter in movement therapy and creative arts
- Over thirty five years experience in education and training
- Director, Montessori Little House of Bountiful for 10 years
- Over 17 years Montessori classroom experience with children ages 3-12
- Author, co-author, and illustrator of books and manuals
- Montessori for Everybody Home Study Course – 8 manuals
- Phonics and Spelling for Everybody: Montessori Language Supplement
- Foundations of Movement
- Experiential Kinesiology
- The Yoga of Life: An Introduction to Holistic Living
- Neuro-Linguistic Programming: An Experiential Introduction
- A Lasting Legacy: Scrapbooks and Photo Albums that Touch the Heart
After spending the last seven years teaching, consulting, training, and administrating in Montessori schools in Utah and California, I’m excited to focus on sharing what I have learned over the years through products, this web site, other online communities, and consulting. My first student, my older son, is an attorney and I am now also blessed to be able to use what I have learned with his son. You’ll also get to know a little bit about my younger son, Logan, seen above being a very fun uncle.
Jim Zink is a professional photographer. He is also chief technical officer for all aspects of our business. In addition, we bring in the expertise of gifted Montessorians dedicated to creating an authentic, effective Montessori community that makes best use of recent developments in our profession while retaining all of Dr. Montessori’s essential ideas and practices. I am honored to be a part of this adventure.
Though we still provide full technical support for the products sold on this site, and some additional support through Facebook groups for those who make purchases of some programs, this business is no longer the main focus of my work.
To find out about the most current ideas in my work, please visit souzzann.com and look for me on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. (Searching “Souzzann” will usually get you to me.) And always remember to . . .
Educate from your genius!
Sign up for guidance on doing Montessori in your home or school, get our guide to 70 free Montessori videos as our gift, and learn to bring out the creativity and genius in your students or children.
One of the greatest innovators in education and cognitive psychology was Maria Montessori. Unlike other famous well-known innovators of her time, such as Jean Piaget and John Dewey, her work was extremely practical. She was less interested in why children did things at a certain time than in providing ways to support and enhance healthy development and learning.
Though child-size furniture, objects for young mathematicians to manipulate, and the innovations we now call, ‘hands-on learning,’ are almost universally accepted today, Montessori originated them all. Less than 30 years ago, it was hard to find well-designed furniture sized for a three-year-old. Yet Montessori was promoting and providing these innovations in1907. The true test of an innovator is that his, or her, ideas are now common practice.
Montessori for Everybody is devoted to making these revolutionary learning ideas available to parents and teachers of all children. We even believe they hold many of the keys to dynamic, effective, enjoyable training experiences for adults as well. Learn how you can begin to use Montessori’s ideas to make learning a delightful, productive experience for all those you teach and parent.
What Others Have Experienced
“Souzzann offered and continues to offer me the ability to view a master at work and life. Specifically, in working with children and as a dad, Souzzann has developed in me the opportunity to afford the child a space to feel safe, know that one may fail in the moment but ultimately will recover, be present in the company of the child and parent. In the absence of Souzzann in my life, as guide, I’m quite sure I would be the lesser educator, dad and person. I am, and will be forever, grateful to Souzzann.”
“I realized a new sense of confidence. . . I had a plan for taking one concept and working on it for 2 weeks and then adding other parts. . . If you are interested in helping yourself or your children, this is the best available.”
“Learning about Montessori has given me a great desire to conquer (my health) problem once and for all. I would truly love to spend my days blessing children’s lives. . . I find your course to be highly motivational and helpful. I have learned so much, . . . I think it is amazing.”