Neighbors Magazines
Heber Valley’s Starry Garden Montessori: Where sunflowers and young minds bloom together
HEBER, Utah — The Olsens’ deep connection to learning started long before they entered the Heber Valley. Dan and Rachel Olsen––children of teachers, innovators, and farmers––grew up with a curiosity and desire to make a difference. As supporters of both public school and alternative learning models, they set out to foster young learners’ curiosity through hands-on learning, arts, and exploration.
Dan and Rachel’s journey to education wasn’t direct. Dan, who moved frequently in his youth, initially pursued sports medicine, while Rachel, with deep roots in Southern Utah, balanced her farming heritage with achievements in track. Despite pursuing other interests, both found themselves drawn to teaching, eventually leading to the creation of Starry Garden Montessori.
“We will never bash public education, that’s just not an opinion we’ve come to form,” Rachel explained. “Public education allows students to access a lot of resources. In older years, electives allow kids to take classes with experts to learn many skills and trades. Sure, I can find materials and utilize the tools at my disposal to expose my kids to ceramics, for example, but I am not an expert in that field and the schools hire experts in many areas to give kids amazing exposure and access to trades and skill building hard to find anywhere else.”
The Olsens have raised five children, each with their own unique paths: Isaac (22), a neurodivergent learner focused on storytelling and computer building; Bryn (20), who works full-time at Starry Garden and coaches color guard; Lily (17), an animal lover; Ella (15), an energetic color guard member; and Libby (11), an artistically inclined science enthusiast. “Our kids still want to spend time with us, we aren’t embarrassing to them and we value that we genuinely enjoy being around them, and they like having us around,” Rachel shared.
Since settling in Heber in 2016, the Olsens have enriched their school’s curriculum with unique skills. Rachel teaches basket weaving, and Dan specializes in knife crafting. Both are survival instructors, passing these practical skills to the next generation.
Starry Garden, named in honor of Dan’s mother Sandra’s love for gardens, serves as a metaphor for their educational philosophy. The school emphasizes self-paced learning, hands-on experience, and environmental stewardship.
“One of my favorite things that we do every year is we give the kids big handfuls of sunflower seeds and we turn them loose. They spread them all over the playground. During the summer, we watch these sunflowers come up all over the playground, so our philosophy with planting sunflowers should look like you turned a bunch of three, four, and five year olds loose with handfuls of seeds. That’s exactly what it looks like,” Rachel explained.
The school maintains a strong connection to nature, with a therapy dog named Eli and various other animals including a bearded dragon, a turtle, and snakes that serve as reading partners for the students. Dan emphasizes the importance of early science exposure: “When children are able to engage and explore science before they turn six, they have a trajectory to be lifelong lovers of science.”
The Olsens’ lasting legacy will be a community where children and adults are encouraged to embrace curiosity, independence, and a love of lifelong learning. “It’s hard for us to separate ourselves from the school. It’s part of who we are.”