education for life

A place where curiosity grows
wildly.

We believe that children learn best through hands-on exploration and discovery. Harmony Montessori creates an environment where young minds flourish naturally.

Learn more
🌿

Lifelong Learning

Founded in 1994 in East Portland

🎨

Learning Levels

from toddler, preschool and extended care

📚

Little Learners

serving children ages 15 months to 6 years

a quick note from us ➘

Hi! We’re a small school built around a wild and stubborn idea: that children are not little adults to be hurried into something, but whole people already, deserving real tools and the time to use them.

how we do it

Four ideas, lived every day.

🌱
01

Follow the child

No bells, no rotating stations. A child works on what calls her, for as long as her concentration holds.

🧺
02

Real, beautiful tools

Low shelves, real ceramic, glass that breaks. Every object is sized to a child's hand.

🌤
03

The long morning

A three-hour cycle that lets concentration deepen. We protect this hour fiercely, quietly, every day.

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04

Mixed-age rooms

Three-year age spans, so the youngest can admire and the oldest can teach. Leadership grows on its own.

two rooms

Find your child's room.

➘

The Nest

Ages 18 months - 3 years

SENSORY PLAY MOVEMENT LANGUAGE
➘

The Long Morning

Ages 3 - 6 years

INDEPENDENCE READING MATHEMATICS

from arrival to wave goodbye

A day at Harmony.

7:30

Hellos

Coats hung, shoes changed, a high-five with a friend.

🌅
✏️
8:30

The long morning

Three hours of self-chosen work, lessons, and joyful focus.

11:30

Outside!

Garden, mud kitchen, the wild edge — in any weather.

🌳
🍞
12:30

Family lunch

Pour your own water. Pass the bread. Talk about everything.

1:00

Rest or read

Some children nap. Others read, or build, or invent.

🛏
👋
3:00

Goodbye song

A song, a hug, a wave to each friend by name.

meet the grown-ups

Your kid's favorite people.

Marisa Underberg

Director & Lead Guide

Theodore Mitchell

Primary Guide

Sofia Martinez

Assistant Guide

James Wilson

Primary Guide

come see for yourself

Book a tour.

Tours are small and unhurried — about an hour, including time in the classrooms with a guide. Fall 2026 enrollment opens this October.

important dates

Fall 2026 →

Tour days open October 1, 2025
Applications due January 15, 2026
Decisions sent March 1, 2026
School begins August 25, 2026

p.s. financial aid →

We set aside ~18% of tuition for need-based aid. We mean it when we say: please apply, regardless of circumstance.

a letter from maren

Why we're doing this.

When I started Harmony eight years ago, I had one question I couldn't shake: what happens to a child when you stop rushing her? What does she become when the morning is long, the materials are beautiful, and the grown-ups in her life have decided to trust her?

Montessori isn't a curriculum we follow. It's a set of deeply held beliefs about what children already are. They're not vessels to fill or clay to shape. They are people — complete, curious, and capable — arriving each morning with something to offer the world.

We're a small school on purpose. Twelve children to a guide. Three-year age spans. Real ceramic. Real glass. Real conversation at lunch. We think the details matter. We think an unhurried morning is a form of love.

— Maren Holloway, Head of School

Children at work in the classroom