I had a very negative experience with Montessori.
In DD's case it was a combination of the teacher - not particuarly intellingent herself and the fact that DD thinks 'global'. She needs to have the complete picture and then she fills in the details.
For example, once I told her that the letters have a name and a sound and that each language have slightly different names and sounds, she became interested in learning them.
So, in her case, it was not at all that she knew all the stuff, but rather the way the material is presented.
They had last month the theme 'the environment' and they learn about separating the trash, they planted a tree and stuff like that. I went to a presentation where the teacher explained what they have learnt and done and you could see DD completely 'off'. She would have been MUCH more interested if there would have been explanations about climate, global warming, the role of plants and trees in our environment, etc.
And for the Montessori materials the same. In her case, the presentations would have to be grouped and modified rather than simply allowing her the more advanced ones.
