Today, we’d like to introduce you to Taryn Rice.
Taryn, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Taryn Rice, and I am the owner and lead teacher at Northern Oaks Children’s House in Henderson, Minnesota. For as long as I can remember, I knew I wanted to work with children.
My journey started with earning my Bachelor’s in Elementary Education, but I soon realized that wasn’t where I wanted to plant my roots. After spending time in Europe and learning about Montessori Education, I knew I had found something that excited me professionally. I continued learning more about this amazing philosophy, earning my Montessori primary diploma through Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), followed by obtaining my Masters in Montessori Education through Loyola University in Baltimore. It’s been quite a journey to get where I am today, but every step has been an opportunity for learning and growth.
My background in teaching has led me through a variety of teaching experiences, both here in Minnesota and overseas in Germany and Italy. I spent ten years teaching at a Montessori school in Chaska before having my children and doing some soul searching for what I wanted the next part of my journey to look like. Having two daughters of my own motivated me to find something a little closer to home – but what would that something be? I knew there was a childcare shortage, but I didn’t understand the depth of it until I started looking and talked with friends about their struggles finding childcare in our community. I began contemplating what my future was going to look like and what I could do to have an impact on the childcare shortage in our small rural town.
I knew I didn’t want to open a large childcare center, but I didn’t want to open an in-home program. I wanted to find a way to keep my home a sacred place for my family and not share the space with a new business. So, with the support and encouragement of my husband, we purchased a property in town and started our journey, opening our doors to children in September 2021.
I’ve worked diligently to create a space that is somewhere in the middle of a childcare center and an in-home daycare program. We have taken a commercial property and turned it into a safe and comfortable “home away from home” for children to spend their days. Our program serves children from infancy through preschool.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I don’t think I would use the word smooth! However, in my experience, the greatest challenges typically have led to something even better than I had initially planned because it required flexibility and out-of-the-box thinking to come up with different solutions. As soon as I tackle one obstacle, a new challenge slowly fades into view. I guess it’s all part of the journey and it has allowed us to grow and change as needed. The sooner I accepted that challenges (big and little) will always be present in some way, the sooner I was at peace with welcoming (and conquering!) those challenges.
With a career deeply rooted in Montessori education, it wasn’t hard for me to know that I also wanted our program to be built on Montessori philosophy. While an authentic Montessori program has class sizes of 20-30 children (because of the important role that each age group plays in a multi-age classroom), current licensing capacity regulations for family childcare cap us at 14 children. Trying to balance the current MN laws with the childcare needs of our community has been an ongoing challenge, but we are doing it!
This capacity limitation has required flexibility on my part to take my initial vision and turn it into a smaller program that makes us uniquely us. What has blossomed out of this hardship is something beautiful – it’s a perfect mix of a Montessori program and a much smaller, quaint childcare program where children spend their days learning, playing, and growing together. So while I can’t exactly fix the childcare deficit overnight, I CAN directly impact 14 lives every day- and that’s pretty remarkable, too. We are small, but we are mighty!
I had to ask myself how we could create a place where Montessori education meets the childcare needs of the community. Can I create a place that offers both? Can we teach Montessori principles on a smaller scale and offer the children a place that incorporates both a preschool program that will help them be ready to thrive in Kindergarten and also still be a “daycare” program where children get to eat, sleep, toilet train and get plenty of outdoor play time? Yes, we CAN and we HAVE created this wonderful combination of both.
One of our challenges has been helping prospective families understand what “Montessori” truly means in a world where the term is being used incorrectly to market items that have nothing to do with the core of the Montessori Method. There are toys that are marketed as “Montessori toys,” but no such thing exists. Dr. Maria Montessori did not create toys- she created a learning environment that put equal priority on the child, the prepared adult, and the materials offered to the child.
Montessori is a way of life- it’s a way of speaking respectfully to the child; it means slowing down so children have the time and space to learn to do things independently; it means giving them tools (both physically and metaphorically) at exactly the right moment to help them be appropriately challenged; it means putting more emphasis on the process than the product of activity; it means allowing every child to develop at their own pace in their own exceptional way.
Our program includes a wide variety of toys so children can play freely, and it also has traditional Montessori learning materials so that children are getting the best of both opportunities.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our name is Northern Oaks Children’s House, but what exactly is a “Children’s House?” The term Children’s House comes from the name of the first ever Montessori school for children ages 3-6 years old, which was founded in Rome in 1907 by Dr. Maria Montessori.
It was deliberately chosen to describe a place where children will spend their days in an environment that was set up with their needs in mind, not the adult’s. Back then, that was not the norm. The Children’s House is a multi-age classroom that aims to help children gain independence, confidence, curiosity, and problem-solving abilities.
While there is a time and a place for screens in today’s world, we don’t have any screen time at Northern Oaks, as we strive to be a place where children can spend time with hands-on manipulatives instead. “What the hand does, the mind remembers.” – Dr. Maria Montessori.
When children are trusted with tasks and responsibilities, they grow in confidence. When children are given opportunities to use a variety of hands-on tools in their learning, they grow in independence. When both of these things come together at just the right time, children THRIVE. We place a large emphasis on grace and courtesy as children are learning to be kind, respectful, and responsible members of their greater community. It is our mission at Northern Oaks to partner with parents to support the development of the whole child- physically, emotionally, morally, socially and intellectually.
One thing that makes us unique is that, even as a licensed family childcare program (which is typically one room), our program is set up in two separate environments- one room for infants and toddlers (with a second full-time teacher) and one for preschool-aged children (which is where I teach). This allows us to set up intentional and safe spaces for each age group with developmentally appropriate materials. Our infants and toddlers focus on language development, fine and gross motor skills, and being part of a group, while the older children focus on building confidence, independence and social skills – all of which will eventually contribute to kindergarten readiness.
Our large fenced-in playground allows us to spend a great deal of time playing outside every day. We garden, we bake, we play, we write, we read, we build, we explore, and – most of all – we love one another and learn to work cooperatively together. The link to our virtual tour is posted below; please check us out and see what we’ve been up to!
I am grateful for the chance to share our story here and that appreciation is twofold.
First, I want prospective parents to know that we are here- that there is another option in addition to the mainstream childcare options that have been available in the past. The first six years in a child’s life are some of the most crucial ones because they are developing so much of themselves during these early years. I wholeheartedly feel that something that makes communities strong is the childcare options within that community. Every in-home daycare and childcare program have benefits that make them unique. Parents should be able to tour a variety of spaces and choose the best fit for their child(ren) to flourish. Education should not be a one-size-fits-all approach, so I am honored to be a choice for parents in our community and surrounding communities.
Secondly, I want others who wish to work in early childhood to know that this is possible. It’s possible to operate a family childcare program in their home, but it’s also possible to operate one outside of their home and still be successful. It’s possible to leave the comfort of a stable career, to take a leap of faith (with a lot of hard work!) and create a new career. When you build a program and are intentional about what you are teaching, you will attract like-minded families and begin to build a relationship that is very special. It takes a lot of courage for new parents to leave their young child(ren) with another person all day, and it is such an honor to be the person who parents choose to entrust their child(ren) with.
While the smaller class size has certain limitations, there are also many ways in which it enriches our program. Having fewer children in our program allows us to really get to know every child for who they are and know them on a deep level. It allows the friendships to be strong and gives a lot of one-on-one time with the adult. Keeping our program small has also allowed me to spend the first five years of my own children’s lives directly with them, and there is no greater gift as a mom and a teacher than to have that invaluable time with them. Taking financial and career risks like this may not be for everyone, but the way it has brought enrichment and fulfillment to my own life should not be underestimated. It’s been an extraordinarily blessed journey so far, even with the obstacles along the way!
If you find yourself searching for something that doesn’t exist in your area, sometimes you have to envision it in your mind and then get started on creating it yourself. This journey wouldn’t have been possible for me without the help of various family members and some grants currently available to childcare providers. When you surround yourself with the right people and start searching for resources to make it happen, you can turn a dream into a beautiful reality.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Making a change in your life takes risks. In my case, it was financial risk as well as risk in career stability. After ten years in my previous position, it would have been easier to stay in a position that was comfortable and stable. However, the personal benefits of this career outweigh the financial gain.
Program options: Year-round or Academic year only. (summers off)
Current openings: We are currently giving tours for three to five-year-olds for the 2024-2025 school year. We are a great option for a family looking for a preschool program for one more year before going into Kindergarten. Please note that, in an effort to keep families together as much as possible, all of our infant and toddler spaces are reserved for siblings of children enrolled in our preschool program. If you would like to know more or are interested in taking a tour, I would love to meet you!
Virtual tour: Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy our virtual tour here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVaFrHN7UDA
Open hours: 7:30 am to 4:30 pm.
Facebook: Northern Oaks Children’s House.
Email: [email protected].
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066688037426
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVaFrHN7UDA
