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Authentic Montessori Experience
A Nature-Based Montessori Micro-Pod
"Where childhood is protected, curiosity is nurtured, and growth happens naturally."
About Us
Maple Roots Montessori School (Toronto) is a nature-rooted, intimate Montessori micro-pod designed for families who believe early childhood deserves something more: more space, more stillness, more room to wonder. We are a micro-by-design community of five children, guided by a philosophy that places relationship, readiness, and the natural world at the heart of every learning experience.
We exist because the right environment for young children is not always easy to find. Maple Roots was co-founded by a mother and educator who searched for a setting that honoured developmental science, valued the unhurried pace of childhood, and felt like an extension of home. Thus decided to build it herself.
Somerset Lane
Somerset Lane
Founder & Lead Educator, Maple Roots Montessori
"I didn't set out to start a school. I set out to find the right environment for children — and when I couldn't find it, I built it."
CREDENTIAL
Montessori ECE Diploma
EXPERIENCE
10+ years with young children
ROOTED IN
Riverdale, Toronto
Somerset Lane has spent over a decade doing one thing really well: showing up for young children. From the tennis courts at Kew Gardens to nursery classrooms at The Granite Club, from YMCA toddler programs to a curriculum consultancy in Mumbai, India — her path has been shaped by a genuine curiosity about how children learn, and a willingness to follow that curiosity wherever it leads.
She holds a diploma in Montessori Early Childhood Education. She has taught as a Montessori educator at Monarch Park Montessori in Toronto — deepening her belief in the philosophy not just intellectually but practically. The Montessori approach, with its faith in the child, its respect for individual pace, and its insistence on a prepared, purposeful environment, gave language to what Somerset had already observed in years of working across different settings: children thrive when they feel seen, safe, and free to explore.
But experience across many kinds of childcare also showed her what was missing. Large groups, stretched attention, programs built around scale rather than relationship. Somerset knew there was a better way — and Maple Roots Montessori is her answer to that. A small, home-based micro-pod where every child is genuinely known. Where there's time. Where the pace is set by the child, not the calendar.
Maple Roots is steps from Withrow Park, rooted in the Riverdale community, and built on a simple belief: the early years matter more than almost anything else — and they deserve more than almost anything else.
What Is Montessori?
Developed by Dr Maria Montessori in the early 20th century, Montessori education is a child-led approach grounded in the belief that children are naturally capable, curious, and motivated to learn when given the right environment and freedom to explore it. Rather than delivering knowledge from teacher to child, Montessori guides children toward discovery — honouring each child's own developmental pace and intrinsic drive.
At its core, Montessori teaches the whole child: fostering independence, emotional regulation, executive function, and a deep love of learning — long before academic content takes centre stage.
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