Nichole Holtvluwer, owner

Nichole is deeply passionate about the child under three, centering her work in anti-bias, anti-racist, pronoun-honoring, trauma-informed, joyful, and intentional early childhood education with an emphasis on Montessori. With over two decades of experience, observation, and practice, she has developed a profound understanding of the unique needs, rhythms, and brilliance of our youngest children.

Known by many as a kind of “toddler whisperer,” Nichole brings a gift for communication — both with children and with the adults who love them. She is a master at unlearning and reframing the words, phrases, and assumptions we often carry into our interactions, instead offering language that honors the dignity and spirit of the young child.

At her core, Nichole is a hopeful enthusiast. She believes that when children are respected, understood, and supported by the adults around them, they carry within themselves the power to reshape the future of our world. Every moment in early childhood — every choice of word, every act of listening, every invitation to independence — is, in her eyes, both a privilege and a responsibility to nurture humanity at its very beginning.

I began my work with children as the “neighborhood nanny,” caring for all the little ones who lived around my family home in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado. Yet it wasn’t until I entered a Montessori classroom for the very first time that my life’s work truly began to take shape.

In 2001, I was hired as a teacher’s assistant in the Toddler Community at a Montessori school in downtown Denver. I still remember that first day of observation — awed and bewildered as I looked around the environment:

A child ironing?

Everyone in cloth underwear!

Is that child arranging flowers?

And over there — she’s slicing a banana!

They’re feeding a fish!

What is this beauty? What have I stumbled into?

Of course, the enchantment of that first hour didn’t last the whole day. By the afternoon, the children had tested every limit I had, and I left feeling defeated. But on day two, I returned — and fell in love with this (all too often underserved) age group. The children had me at our second hello, even as they continued to baffle me.

More than two decades later — after earning my AMI Assistants to Infancy diploma at The Montessori Institute of Denver, attending seminars, workshops, refresher courses, working in many Montessori schools in Colorado and rural Hawai’i, and, most importantly, spending thousands of hours alongside children and families from birth to age three — I still carry that same sense of awe. The difference now is that I have gathered a deep well of knowledge, experience, and understanding to guide me through this crucial stage of human development.

My goal is simple: to help you help the child. Children hold the key to a brighter future for humanity, but only if they are surrounded by adults who both love them deeply and are committed to supporting them in becoming who they are meant to be.

In my years within the prepared Montessori environment, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing countless ways a child’s brain unfolds and develops. While there are universal patterns, each child sings their own song. Maria Montessori reminds us: to work with the young child, we must “follow the child.”

This is the heart of my work. Years of following the child — of honoring each child’s spirit — have given me a rich collection of insights and practices for uncovering what Montessori called “the secret of childhood.”

Some call this stage the “terrible twos.” But I have come to know differently: with the right mix of knowledge, patience, mindfulness, and intuition, these years can be the terrific twos. The terrific ones. The terrific birth. Even the terrific pregnancy. Yes, it is hard. And it is also profoundly beautiful, when we trust the child, trust nature, trust the universe — and trust ourselves to keep learning and growing.

These are Radicle Beginnings.