SHEBOYGAN — 20 years on, I can still remember vivid experiences from my pre-school days: Winter Social performances, tea time, the shaving cream sensory activity, or reading a picture book in my favorite corner of the room.
All that happened at Montessori Children's House of Sheboygan.
I was able to reunite with my former teachers this week — the ones who gave me some of my first memories.
“Everyone who comes here is like family," said Lisa Keglovits, owner and director of Montessori Sheboygan. But I know her better as Ms. Lisa.
Watch: Back to basics - Mikenzie Hammel spends some time at her former daycare in Sheboygan:
"Even children and families have come back to Sheboygan to visit...like you.”
When I entered the room, the school was just about as I'd left it. The exciting yet calming energy felt most familiar.
The kids were quick to show me around, holding up their favorite toys and sharing random facts about their families. One sweet boy even handed me a glass of homemade lemonade (which was delicious).
Little did I know, my mom had reached out to my teachers, like Ms. Lisa, to let them know what my siblings and I were up to.
"I told her 'Oh my goodness, she’s here in Wisconsin on channel 4! I was like 'Wow!'”
The school has been owned and operated by Ms. Lisa's family for 30 years this year. Her parents helped her buy the building and her two younger sisters are part of the childcare team.
“That’s a long time," Ms. Lisa said. "I think back at how many lives I’ve touched, how many lives my family has touched.”
The Montessori method is a self-directed, hands-on approach to learning, which stems from its namesake — Maria Montessori.
She was exiled from her home in Italy during Benito Mussolini's fascist rule for her belief that children are peacekeepers and that education is the only way to get rid of war.
Anyone who wants to follow my method must understand that he should not honour me but follow the child as his leader.
Maria founded the first Montessori school in Rome in 1907, which just so happens to be the building number for the Sheboygan location.
“They don’t have a family like ours sometimes when they go home," Ms. Lisa said, referring to her school kids. She estimates she's cared for more than 4,000 children in her 30-year run.
"So while they’re here, we know that they're loved and they’re protected and they’re safe.”
I felt that when I went to Montessori, and I think the current students do too.
“I just want to keep going and keep touching lives and helping the community out and make it a better world.”
