About Us
Welcome to Friendswood Montessori School (FMS). We are located at 809 & 811 South Friendswood Drive. The school was founded in January of 1979 by my parents Henry & Betty Winston. They dedicated their lives to educating children. Most of their years teaching were spent in Friendswood Independent School District (FISD). The Friendswood High School football stadium is named in honor of my dad.
FMS maintains fully equipped Montessori classrooms with trained teachers in order to offer your child a true Montessori experience. This ensures that your child will have the opportunity to develop to their full potential.
Our low teacher-student ratios guarantee children a close relationship with their teachers, which is essential for positive social and emotional development. The nurturing environment at FMS gives children the sense of belonging to a family and helps them learn how to live with others. It also encourages independence, self discipline, confidence, and love in our children.
In our country atmosphere (complimented by 2 wooded acres, a garden, and a nature center), an all day program is provided for children 18 months-5 years old, plus an after school program for those children attending kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades in the F.I.S.D.
Montessori schools have proven successful all over the world, with all kinds of children (blind, gifted, learning disabled, wealthy, poor, etc.) and in many different environments (from refugee camps to elegant schools).
There are no academic requirements, but children are exposed to amazing amounts of knowledge and often learn to read, write, and calculate beyond what is thought usual for a child of this age.
Our Montessori school doesn't look from the outside like the one-room school houses where George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Laura Ingalls Wilder attended. But within our school many things are the same. Montessori schools have:
- Multiple-age grouping
- Individualized work
- Peer tutoring
- Small class-size
- Family-like atmosphere
- An emphasis on virtues and patriotism
Outdoor Experiences
Play is to a child what work is to an adult. It is what they do. It is through play that children learn about their world and the things in it. Play allows children the chance to explore their environment. A child can express feelings and emotions through various types of play activities (play, art, stories, etc.) far earlier than they can express them in words. Through play children can be anyone, at anyplace in anytime.
Every child has a need to experience the great outdoors and to experience the joy of unstructured play. To adults, the activities of this play may appear mindless and without purpose. As children engage in hide and go seek, jump rope, climb trees, or throw a ball they are learning. They are learning how to balance, and gaining strength. When we, as adults, ignore the developmental importance of unstructured outdoor play, we deny our children the opportunity to stretch their imaginations beyond the limitations of the classroom.
In 1979 our founder, Betty Winston, opened this school based on these very principles. She established the very policies we continue to follow today. Outside play is an integral part of each and every day.