Welcome, blue spruce. Like Dude mentioned, this is one place where I don't mind bragging about my kid bcos people here are awesome! I have a DD who will turn 3.5 in a couple of weeks. She has been attending a 3 hours/day Montessori school since Sep 2012. It is a small school with 10 kids ages 3-6 with one teacher. I chose this over the more famous, larger (pre-K thru' 8), full-day, accredited Montessori school in the region as DD had stayed home before that and I wanted her to take it slowly. It has been a wonderful experience so far. It took the teacher less than 10 minutes to see that DD was advanced for her age. She has continued to guide DD to perform at higher levels without being pushy. DD took naturally to the environment and constantly learns just by observing the older kids. DD loves the freedom to choose her material as she does very poorly in situations where she is instructed to do something, especially when all other children are doing the same thing. The social aspect is okay but not great as kids work independently (again a plus for my child) except there are not many opportunities to interact with other kids. I would recommend that when you visit, use your instincts about the teacher and the school to guide you instead of the prett brochures or marketing spiel.
