Family-owned since 1976 · Ages 6 weeks to 6 years

Montessori in St. LouisWhere Learning Feels Like Play

Hands-on Montessori child care at three family-owned schools serving Chesterfield, Crestwood, and Mehlville, year-round.

We Regard Children As Equals, Capable, Curious.

Since 1976, three St. Louis schools built for the smallest hands and the biggest questions.

  • Baby exploring a xylophone on a colorful play mat

    First discoveries

  • Two toddlers stacking colorful cups together

    Working side by side

  • A toddler balancing apples on paper tubes

    Testing a theory

  • Preschoolers gathered on a play mat during a group lesson

    Learning together

Trust, Earned One Family at a Time

Our daughter walked in shy and came out asking to set the table at home. The teachers see her, not a class list.
Megan R. · Crestwood family
We toured five schools. This was the only one where the classroom looked the same with us standing in it as it did without us.
Daniel P. · Chesterfield family
Both of our boys started in the infant room and stayed through pre-K. Four years in, it still feels like family.
Alyssa T. · Mehlville family
Real Montessori materials, real patience. Our son reads now and nobody ever sat him down and made him.
Chris and Jenna M. · Crestwood family

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Why families stay

The NA Montessori Difference

A lot of places borrow the name.
We live the method.

Toddlers painting with colored ice cubes on a shaded porch

Ice-cube painting on the porch

01
Real Montessori
Every classroom, every room, the same genuine method. No franchise, no shortcuts.
02
Family-owned since 1976
Your child's name, not a file number. Same family running the schools since day one.
03
Hands-on & child-led
Materials kids touch, move, and choose. Learning that looks like play, because it is.
04
Every age, all year
Six weeks old through pre-K, plus weekends and summer. One place, the whole way through.

Five Areas, One Classroom

The Montessori curriculum isn't a set of subjects taught in turn. All five areas live together in the same room, and each child moves through them in whatever order suits their day.

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  • 01

    Practical Life

    Pouring, buttoning, sweeping: the ordinary work of becoming independent.

  • 02

    Sensorial

    Sorting the world by size, sound, weight, and shade, until the differences are obvious.

  • 03

    Language

    Sounds before letters, letters before words, and writing before reading.

  • 04

    Mathematics

    Quantity you can hold in your hands before quantity on a page.

  • 05

    Culture

    Geography, botany, music, and art, treated as one continuous subject.

A Few Ordinary Days

No staged photo shoots. Just our classrooms and playgrounds on a regular week.

  • Two preschoolers squeezing fresh oranges at a classroom table

    Juicing oranges, all by ourselves

  • Three toddlers playing inside a playground climber at our Crestwood school

    Crestwood playground crew

  • A preschool girl matching letters on a worksheet in a Montessori classroom

    Matching letters, one at a time

  • Toddlers painting with colored ice cubes on a shaded porch

    Ice-cube painting on the porch

  • A preschool girl carefully pouring from a small metal pitcher on a work mat

    Pouring, without spilling

  • Two children playing ring toss on a sunny outdoor play pad

    Ring toss, best of five

  • A toddler printing red and blue starbursts on a t-shirt with a paper tube

    Printmaking with a paper tube

  • A boy in a blue smock using a dropper to fill a snowflake tray with blue water

    One drop at a time

  • Two preschoolers preparing oranges and lemons for juicing

    Snack we made ourselves

Find Your Nearest School

All three of our schools in the St. Louis metro area share the same Montessori philosophy and the same warm, family feel.

  • Casa Dia Montessori
    of Crestwood

    Crestwood, MO

    Near The Magic House and St. Louis Children's Museum

    Tour this school
  • Casa Dia Montessori
    of Mehlville

    Mehlville, MO

    Near South County Center

    Tour this school
  • The Centre at Conway

    Chesterfield, MO

    Near Faust Park and the Butterfly House

    Tour this school

See what a real day here looks like.

See a real classroom in session, not a staged walkthrough. Schedule a tour, and we'll find a time that works for your family.

Schedule a Tour