Meet Jean Doolittle | Montessori Preschool Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jean Doolittle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jean, alright, let’s jump in with a deep one – what’s you’re definition for success?
My oldest daughter and I have has long conversations about the definition of success. The conclusion we came to was that success is not having a gap between what you want and what you have. As a feeling it would be closely related to contentment. There are two types of people in this wold, there are growers (growth motivated striving folks) and there are those that don’t strive to grow. I’m a grower. Success to me is progression in a constant state of growth, bigger, better, easier, helping more people etc.

What should our readers know about your business?
My story is one of creating out of nothing, and building up from scratch again and again.
At the age of 21 I was living in family housing for CU Boulder with my previous husband, our 2 year old daughter and our second baby on the way working as a nanny supporting our family through my husbands undergrad.
I shared with a friend that I would love to have a preschool in my home. She replied ” If you build it they will come!” referencing the movie 1980’s Field of Dreams (highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it ) and so I “field of dreamed” that sucker!
I printed out flyers for Shining Stars Preschool on light yellow paper and put up by homemade flyers near all the mailboxes, the laundry rooms, and at local parks….and guess what? I built it, they came. In my tiny little vintage throwback apartment families brought their children to sit at my kitchen table and have circle time on my living room floor.
We moved back to Littleton once my previous husband’s degree was finished and I continued with my preschool first in a tiny apartment and then in our home for many years. It worked. It made a miracle. I was able to raise up my 5 children while providing a livable income and never once were any of my children in daycare. This is forever the thing I am the most proud of in my life.
In 2012 I worked up the insurmountable courage to leave my husband. I left with $87 and my bicycle. I never felt so rich in m y life as I could now work on savings goals. I moved into the basement of a home where I slept with my children all in one room. I rented the upstairs rooms to housemates who were strangers. I feed my children oatmeal three meals a day until I got my next months tuitions. I moved my preschool into that home and only two children didn’t go with me. All the rest believed in me and stayed by my side through my divorce/move. I saved for 3 months until I could afford a 1988 station wagon…which often stalled in the middle of intersections.
I made a mistake though and with the move my licensing was not at the new home. After a year I got a knock at my door. My previous husband had called me in and reported me for being unlicensed. In one phone call he had destroyed my livelihood of over a decade. I had to close my doors. I was devastated that someone could do something so hurtful to me and to our children. At that time, I went back to nannying and life got better and better.
I missed teaching though and when covid brought with it 4 months paid vacation I sat in the sunroom in the back of my home, and I thought about how great the space would be for a new preschool. I also thought about home much work it would take and how hard it would be. I remember the Field of Dreams. I decided to build it. I created Southglenn Montessori Preschool.
It was indeed a lot of work, shoveling pea gravel, worrying my children would starve and I had made a mistake and that I would need to go crawling my way back to my nanny family begging for my job back. Only guess what? They came. My classroom filled up. I created the life of my dreams, working 35 hours a week, 39 weeks a year with Summers off. I have waitlists for 3 years out where families put their infants on the list hopeful for a spot. I am currently looking into opening Pueblo Montessori Preschool as there are no Montessori’s in Pueblo. I have the desire in my heart to create a program in that beautiful city where Marie Montessori’s love for children in vulnerable situations can be manifested. I have three goals for this new endeavor.
1. Provide a Montessori model of education where there is none currently. 2. Make a Montessori education accessible to the most vulnerable children of Pueblo by providing transportation to preschool and utilizing Colorado state UPK funding making tuition free for families and 3. Creating careers for local residence where they are valued, respected, paid honorably and they can support their own families. I get discouraged somedays when I am making phone calls, researching funding opportunities, chasing down rabbit hole options, learning about S corps, health departments, taking classes and overall feeling that I am standing in a field of corn all alone with my big dreams. I am not alone though, and when I build it. They will come.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I had a friend visiting Colorado for the first time I would take them on my favorite hike in Cascade. I would take them to Littleton Historical Museum, Wash Park for some ice cream at Bonnie Brae and a stroll around the Wash Park neighborhoods for architecture conversations.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I am successful because of all the families who have believed in my abilities to guide and trusted me with their most priceless children. I am grateful they have graced me with that trust.

Website: https://www.SouthglennMontessoriPreschool.com

Youtube: @msjeanreads2413

Other: www.PuebloMontessotiPreschool.com (not yet active but hopefully it will connect with the next few days)