Berkeley Project Day and Parent Work Day- Success!

On Saturday Nia House hosted a very successful Berkeley Project Day and Parent Work Day. Windows were washed, repairs made, plants pruned, walls painted and more. In short, Nia House was bustling!

Thank you parents for your hard work and presence to your children’s school. Brazil and Xochi were proud to know that their mom, Pilar, painted the walls. Daphne lit up when she learned that her dad, Chris, changed the light bulbs! Though the children weren’t present at the workday, they observe the school improvements and also appreciate your help.

Berkeley Project Day volunteers, we appreciate your enthusiasm and hard work. It is invaluable to have community members support our work. We hope you had fun and know that you are always welcome back. We certainly enjoyed you all.

P.Diddy, Julia Child, Prince Harry, & Gabriel Garcia Marquez

What do Julia Child, P.Diddy, Prince Harry, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez have in common? Each holds an education inspired by Dr. Maria Montessori. It is exciting, and not all too surprising, to see that some of the most innovative and creative minds have been taught using the very methods used here at Nia House.

 “Is it a coincidence that many of the mavericks on the leading edge of innovation and creativity in our culture are Montessori graduates? To the millions of Montessori students, families and supporters around the world, the answer is obvious. Montessori offers an education for life – and with that come the skills needed to succeed in our ever changing global society.”

http://mariamontessori.com/mm/?page_id=571

Here’s a list of some famous Montessori educated people:

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Founders of Google

Sean Combs, Puff Daddy

Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder

Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia

Julia Child, chef

Steph Curry, NBA superstar

There are more! To see a longer list, check out:

http://www.mslf.org/famous-montessori-students/

“When Barbara Walters, who interviewed Google founders Messrs. Page and Brin in 2004, asked if having parents who were college professors was a major factor behind their success, they instead credited their early Montessori education.  ‘We both went to Montessori school,’ Mr. Page said  ‘and I think it was part of that training of not following rules and orders, and being self-motivated, questioning what’s going on in the world, doing things a little bit differently.’”

 http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/04/05/the-montessori-mafia/

We are incredibly eager to see what will become of our current Nia House students and will soon share the accomplishments of some our graduates. Stay tuned.

Pictures taken from:

Julia Child  

Puff Daddy: 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez:

Prince William and Prince Harry

Maria Montessori

 

Demolition

These last few days have been filled with excitement, cupcakes, important milestones and hard work.

Just this morning (Monday, November 10th), an excavator arrived on a flatbed truck and in about an hour, the site of our new school building was leveled. A few of us watched and cheered as the excavator dug into the old building, taking claw-fulls of old house down to the ground. We now have a site that is nearly ready for more of Nia House.

Check out this stop-motion video, taken by one of our Board members:

Groundbreaking Ceremony

On Friday night, we celebrated with the school community during Nia House’s official Ground Breaking Ceremony. Mayor Tom Bates, Senator Loni Hancock, Nia House Founder Tia Waller and Board President Jeff Vincent helped commemorate the event, offering words of encouragement and recognition of Nia House’s journey.

Throughout the Ground Breaking Ceremony, families participated in a photo shoot with the plan of including their photos in our very own Nia House time capsule. If you missed our Ceremony and still want to participate in the time capsule, please get in touch- we’d love to include you!

Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate our ground breaking. What a weekend it’s been! Special thanks to the Ridolfi family for baking the ceremonial cupcakes.