My DD informed me at 2.5 that she was going to school as soon as she turned 3. And she clarified that she was going to school to learn reading and writing, having already mastered printing and jolly phonics. She quickly rejected the play preschool as "too messy" (!), so I visited a Montessori, knowing nothing about them. It turned out to be nirvana for my DD, who is shocked - shocked! - when kids put the wrong colour lid on markers and has better concentration skills than the adults in our house. Her class was an even mix of 3's, 4's & 5's which was huge for her. She could easily work with the older kids and work to her skill level, and was encouraged to do so by the teachers. For a focussed, motivated child it was a perfect fit.
Questions I'd ask: 1.are the ages mixed in the classroom?; and 2. do the teachers encourage appropriate-for-the-child progression, rather than age-based progression?
For DD it was a marvellous match and we see, every day, how much better it suited her abilities than the very good, but very conventional and entirely age-based, school she has aged into. A lot of that was the advanced work with older children, without which I don't think it would have been as great a success, so I really recommend asking the questions, above.
Incidentally, I spent the first 10 minutes of my introductory school meeting thinking I'd mistakenly stumbled into the local cult...it got a lot better once they started explaining what they do in the classroom!
Good luck!
