Kaybee Montessori Materials

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Montessori equipment made by Gonzagarredi.

"As the largest Gonzagarredi distributor in the world, and the sole worldwide distributor of Kaybee India products, we pride ourselves on being the only full-service classroom design company in the US that can accommodate AMI schools. Far beyond merely outfitting classrooms, our experienced staff assists schools at all levels, from inception to business plan creation, up towards marketing plans, staffing and affordable billing services for new schools. With available financing we have services available at any level for virtually any budget reaching to every corner of the world."

Gonzagarredi dates back to 1911, when Maria Montessori, the famous pedagogist, was a guest at her friend Maria Maraini Guerrieri Gonzaga. Maria Montessori found a small joiner’s shop in Gonzaga, Italy where the educative material and furnishings required for her Method (today widespread all over the world) could be tried and produced.

That was the beginning of an important production activity, at first carried out as a private firm called “Baroni e Marangon” and later (1975) as a cooperative: Società Cooperativa Gonzagarredi that made the Montessori materials for the first Montessori school in Italy.
 
Gonzagarredi products are subjected to safety, strength and atoxicity tests at authorised laboratories to obtain quality certifications. Production takes place in compliance with the standards in force: atoxic varnishes and paints, formaldehyde content class E1, fireproof materials (class 1 and 2).

The Kaybee Story

"In 1977, a representative of the exporting company (Voltas Ltd, in India) traveled to Washington, D.C. To meet with representatives of the Washington AMI Training Institute. Their mission was to interview an AMI-trained teacher who might be interested in importing the AMI-approved Montessori Apparatus manufactured in Hyderabad, India, by the Kaybee Equipment Manufacturing Co. The person selected was Patricia Sinopoli, a Montessori teacher who had trained at the primary level in Washington and later, at the elementary level, at the International Montessori Training Centre in Bergamo, Italy, Her trainers were the late Margaret Stephenson and Camillo Grazzini, respectively -- both of them international icons of the Montessori Training world.

The new organization, formed in 1977, was Kaybee Montessori, Inc. headed by Tony and Pat Sinopoli. The name "Kaybee" is a story in itself. It's the phonetic expression of the initials of Kira Barasinska, the wife of a Polish diplomat stationed in India during World War II, at the time when Dr. Maria Montessori was interned in India. Kira, who hand an artistic bent and experience in the design and production of educational toys, became involved in the design and production of Montessori materials for the first Montessori schools in India.

Our first warehouse and office was in the basement of the family home on Chesapeake St, in Washington DC. It expanded to the garage, the attic and eventually to another rented garage in the neighborhood. The first office equipment and supplies included a surplus Navy manual typewriter, battleship-gray steel shelves, carbon paper and an ample supply of white-out. In those beginning days communications with our suppliers were primitive, primarily cryptic telegrams via Western Union. With this humble structural organization Kaybee Montessori became the second -- comparatively miniscule and unknown -- of only two AMI-approved distributors in the Unites States.

Since then Kaybee has grown exponentially in size and reputation. From the basement and garage, it moved to better facilities and equipment in suburban Maryland. In the 1980's we began supplementing the line of Indian apparatus by importing materials made by Gonzagarredi, then known as 'Baroni & Marangon'. Baroni & Marangon carried the names of the carpentry shop that made the Montessori materials for the first Montessori school in Italy. Early in the 1980’s Kaybee introduced the Bohemian glass beads, now a Kaybee exclusive and our flagship product. In the early 90’s Kaybee expanded operations a second time, moving to a larger warehouse in the same area.

Throughout the years the mission has remained the same — to provide the Montessori community with the best materials and support not merely as a conduit of apparatus but as an active participant in the process of Montessori education. Kaybee forced often recalcitrant suppliers to improve the workmanship of their materials, and the level of support they offered. The skills and knowledge of its staff as teachers, craftsmen, woodworkers, artists and IT experts has resulted in the improvement, design and production of many new items and it has opened to the Montessori community educational and technical resources previously unavailable. Aside from our historic didactic products manufactured by Kaybee in India, Gonzagarredi in Italy and by ourselves, we are pleased to offer our customers an extremely extensive line of furniture, science equipment, music & rhythm products, and (starting early 2008) computer equipment and software for the administration of schools.

In late 2005, Tony and Pat officially retired and the venue and management changed. Kaybee Montessori, Inc. became Kaybee Montessori, LLC relocating to large and modern facilities in Rochester, NY under the leadership of their son. Our new facility boasts over 3 times the space of our previous one, with room for 4 display rooms, storage for raw wood for our local manufacturing (in a separate facility also in Rochester), and dedicated technical assets that allow the company to function under an extremely high level of automation. As the largest Gonzagarredi distributor in the world, and the sole worldwide distributor of Kaybee India products, we pride ourselves on being the only full-service classroom design company in the US that can accommodate AMI schools. Far beyond merely outfitting classrooms, our experienced staff assists schools at all levels, from inception to business plan creation, up towards marketing plans, staffing and affordable billing services for new schools. With available financing we have services available at any level for virtually any budget reaching to every corner of the world."

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