About
Welcome Future Dandelions!
Do you remember, as a child, picking up a dried dandelion, blowing with your breath to make the seeds fly into the air and make a wish? When I look at a child, I see an image of this flower with its seeds spreading into the world, surviving and flourishing anywhere. Because of this, some people see dandelions as a symbol of optimism and joy or simply as hope for something better to come. This also reminds me of one of Maria Montessori’s quotes, “The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind.”
Like dandelions, children are the smallest and most humble people, but they can be strong and overcome the challenges they will encounter.
As parents or educators, we are responsible for allowing children to develop the necessary emotional skills to become firm, resilient, and satisfied adults. Montessori and Positive Discipline are potent tools to build relationships based on mutual respect, personal responsibility, and problem-solving skills for successful living.
About The Founder
Hi!, My name is Natalia. I am originally from Spain.
I hold a Masters’ Degree in Spanish Language and Literature with two years of university study in France, where I lived for 10 years. France became a second home for me. A very special country where I completed my Association Montessori International (AMI) training for Primary level. This training awoke my senses and changed my life.
My career in the Education field started many years ago as a Spanish teacher in French public and private schools. In 2011, I graduated from the Institut Supérieur Maria Montessori in Paris and started my journey as a Montessori Primary Teacher. A journey that would take me, one year later, to America (San Diego) and where I now live. Here, I made another life-changing discovery, Jane Nelsen and the Positive Discipline Association.
In 2015, I became certified as a Positive Discipline Parenting Educator and in the Classroom. I am currently participating in Positive Discipline (PD) Advanced Training with the goal of sharing this wonderful philosophy with parents and educators.
Discovering Montessori and Positive Discipline helped me become the teacher I want to be. Both philosophies complement each other, sharing the same values of respect for the child and trust in their ability to learn from experience within the environment.
Education is my passion!
If you are interested in knowing more about Montessori and Positive Discipline education, please contact me to set up a meeting so that together we can explore what I can do for you and your child.
Dandelions Montessori
Mission and Vision
In 2019, I opened a Montessori environment at my house to care for my first dandelion, Totini. This is how Dandelions Montessori Non-Profit began. Our organization has a mission to teach long-term parenting and the role of kindness and firmness in raising children. Dandelions Montessori is for parents and educators interested in learning the principles of the Positive Discipline and Montessori philosophies.
Dandelions Montessori aspires to give all children and families the opportunity to choose a Montessori and Positive Discipline education, regardless of economic or social condition, color, creed or national/ethnic origin.
“The greatest gifts we can give our children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.”
Maria Montessori
Helping Your Child Explore, Grow, & Learn
The Montessori Method of education, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. The Montessori Method has been tested over time with over 100 years of success in diverse cultures throughout the world. The approach values the human spirit and the development of the whole child—physical, social, emotional and cognitive.
A Montessori program includes multiage groups that foster peer learning, uninterrupted blocks of learning time and guided choice of work activities. In addition, a full complement of specially designed Montessori learning materials is meticulously arranged and available for use.
The Montessori Method of education includes a learning triangle of teacher, child, and environment. The classroom encourages independence, freedom within limits, and a sense of order. The child, through individual choice, makes use of what the environment offers to develop himself, interacting with the teacher when support and/or guidance is needed.
To learn more about the Montessori Method of education and its educational value, visit the Association Montessori Internationale website (AMI).
Positive Discipline
Positive Discipline is a program developed by Jane Nelsen and Lynn Lott, and based on the work of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs. There is an extensive library of books on Positive Discipline, dedicated to meeting the needs of parents living and loving a variety of ages of kids and family systems.
At the heart of the Positive Discipline philosophy is the idea that children grow into healthy, happy adults when they are raised in encouraging homes, practicing life skills and receiving unconditional love.
Positive Discipline parents are dedicated to walking their parenting path with kindness and firmness. Kindness shows up in the way they interact with their children, honoring their dignity and respecting their needs. Firmness shows up when parents respect themselves and the needs of the situation, as well as following through with what they say they are going to do.
“Children do better when they feel better.”
Jane Nelsen
Positive Discipline is Authoritative Parenting
Providing children with an environment where reasonable expectations are set for them, and the support needed to meet those expectations is given lovingly. Parents are the holders of the shared vision for the family. Parents are responsible for modeling, teaching, and creating space to practice the life skills they will need to embody as adults. The Positive Discipline home is one that embraces horizontal relationships, where parents and children work on solutions together, and skill-building, where children are given the space to practice the tools they need to navigate the world.
Parents are the leaders of the family. The most effective leaders move through the world with integrity, are open to continuously learning to be better versions of themselves, are proactive, listen to understand, look for solutions to problems, and develop encouraging relationships.
Parents who commit to Positive Discipline are invited to embody all of these traits and more. Through family meetings, joint problem-solving, and creating routines and agreements, PD parents provide the gift of allowing their children to use their voices and experience what it is like to be deeply respected.
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What Our Families are Saying
Meet the Board Members
Christiana
Christiana has worked in software development, project management, university-level alumni and development, and has helped nonprofits and small businesses grow throughout her career. She has worked as a data scientist, data analyst, non-profit fundraising & events coordinator, and owned her own small business in Ocean Beach, The Coffee Method. She is a mother to a Dandelion student and native San Diegan.
Bianca
Bianca has a degree in psychology and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. At the moment, she is working as a crisis counselor for severely mentally ill individuals. In the past, she has worked as an activities director and a CNA. Her passion is helping people and meeting people where they are. She has two young children, ages 7 and 3; they have been a Montessori family the last 4 years. San Diego has been home for 9 years now.
Kara
Kara Bialostozky is a native San Diegan and completed her Master’s in Law, LL.M., at UCLA in business law-tax emphasis. She has two kids, and her first started in Montessori at 15 months. She enjoys the flexibility and independence of the Montessori classroom. She feels it is suited to their development as children and encourages them to do things they already want to do. It is all very natural and fluid. Kara likes the quiet of a Montessori classroom which fosters focus. She enjoys that everything in the classroom is accessible to them, the furniture is their size, and it promotes a sense of independence and confidence. She enjoys that there is only one of each activity in the classroom which encourages their patience, problem-solving, and good social skills. She also appreciates the Positive Discipline approach taken in the Montessori classroom, and she has incorporated it at home and found success.