A letter from Karri Messina, founder of OTCMS

As the opening of Oak Tree Christian Montesorri School draws near, we would like to share this letter again from Karri Messina, its founder.

Meet the family behind Oak Tree Christian Montessori School!
Hi There! I’d like to briefly introduce you to Team Messina. Mike, Kaedance (19), Koen (16) and me, Karri. Mike and I met at a masquerade ball, a singles event at our church, in 2001 and married in 2003 at Deep Run Park in Henrico County. A year later we moved to Hampton Roads, (from Catonsville MD) familiar territory for Mike since he grew up in Portsmouth, Va. It wasn’t long before we became young parents and were co-leading a Young Marrieds’ Ministry where we had the honor of studying the Bible and raising our babies with many newlywed couples who were in the Navy. The summer before Koen went into kindergarten (2014), we moved back to my hometown of Mechanicsville, where I worked for two years as a school-age director at The Goddard School, a child care center behind Mechanicsville High School. Wanting to spend more time with my own children, I decided to launch a part-time business called Handy Treasures: The Mobile Pottery Studio in 2017. I traveled to numerous summer camps, recreation programs, scouting events, and church groups hosting pottery and clay events with my children in tow! Now that my children are more independent and are starting their own adventures, I asked God to give me new direction as well. I had a 23 year off-and-on again prayer that I dared to pray - for God to grant me the opportunity to start a Montessori school - not for my own glory, only for His - it would be His school for His children!

I was brought to tears when Father Bill called and told me that Church of the Creator would be open to hosting Oak Tree Christian Montessori. I’ve been supervising and educating children almost my entire life and now more than ever I understand how critical it is to reinforce the Christian morals and practices some parents are striving to instill in their children. Since graduating JMU many moons ago, I’ve worked at five Montessori schools, two public schools, a private Christian school, Goddard, offered inhome childcare services while being a stay-at-home-mom for seven years, and even started babysitting neighborhood children when I was in the sixth grade! With this array of experience, my hope is to create a learning environment that will make my Father in Heaven proud and meet a unique educational need for young families in our local community. 

Oak Tree Christian Montessori’s Vision: To provide an exciting one room, multi-age learning environment for children 3-6 years of age with a Christian worldview using Montessori materials. Our educational philosophy asserts that children are naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating their learning in a supportive, loving, thoughtfully prepared environment. Our approach values the human spirit and the development of the whole child- spiritual, physical, social, emotional, and cognitive. Besides the core academic areas, we will emphasize care of the classroom environment, nature, and oneself; grace and courtesy; and an appreciation for the arts. Students at OTCM will learn in a peaceful environment that encourages each child to work independently and fosters internal curiosity as motivation to learn. OTCM will run through May, Monday – Friday, from 9 am - 1:30 pm.

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