Meet Karli Horner and Danielle Torrey | Owners

We had the good fortune of connecting with Karli Horner and Danielle Torrey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Karli and Danielle, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind the success of our brand would be our values and transparency with the parents. We strive for a positive safe environment with emphasis on community and parent involvement and I think that has played a huge role in our success. When parents are happy and know in their hearts that their children are being cared for in the best possible way, they tell their friends!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My career started almost nine years ago as a children’s yoga instructor. I started to get contracted out to various Montessori schools to lead their children’s yoga program. This is where I fell in love with teaching children and the Montessori philosophy in general. I switched to a career in early childhood education and never looked back. It is my passion, so much so that I went back to school for my Masters degree in early childhood education prior to starting my own schools. The challenges of being a mother of two young children, balancing my academic and professional life took it’s toll emotionally. However looking back it’s amazing to see the beautiful spaces we’ve created. -Karli Horner

I grew up with a love of children, always jumping at the chance to nanny or babysit. At 21 I found myself as a single mother, so naturally I got to work at the first job I could find and continued working dead end jobs until my daughter was about three. I decided that I wanted to go back to school and was having trouble finding a job that would work with my hours – until I relayed that to the owner of my daughters Montessori School. She let me know that they were hiring and would hire me and on my first day of work, I felt like I had finally found the place that I was meant to be. Teaching was something that I was passionate about and thoroughly enjoyed every single day. Montessori means so much to me, because it fosters that love of learning and connection with words and numbers at an early age that prompts the children to want to search deeper. It instills confidence, kindness and respect into little hearts that need it the most and I will be forever thankful that I was given the opportunity to find my passion. – Danielle Torrey

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would take any and everybody that comes to my city to the buffalo chip saloon to watch some bull riding! It’s such a family friendly experience (they do mutton busting too) with s’mores available for kiddos and drinks available for those without! – Danielle Torrey

I would take visitors to LGO (La Grande Orange) where you can get the home market experience and enjoy some good food all in one! – Karli Horner

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We want to dedicate our shout out to our own children, after all they were the inspiration for us to open our own schools. We saw the need for good quality childcare and the growth our children experienced under a Montessori teaching philosophy and we wanted other peoples’ children to experience the same. We also want to shout out our amazing student parents who followed us over and put their trust and faith in us. We could have never grown and been successful without their support.

Website: montessoriroom.com

Instagram: @montessoriroomarcadia

Facebook: Facebook.com/montessoriroomllc