Hmm this is an aging thread but I haven't been on the board much. Our DD5 and DD3 are both at a Montessori Children's House where they are in 3-6 cohort. It has been fantastic for both of them, but in very different ways for each. They truly have worked at each kid's level. The costs are very reasonable for M schools in this area, but certainly increase at the grade school level, which isn't trivial for us at the moment.
Being blunt, the parents are interesting professionals, several are recent immigrants, and are engaged in the school's direction. It is a young school; our older daughter joined in their 3rd year of operation (so I had toured it only in their 2nd year).
DD5 missed K cutoff in our town (on state border). School is in another state where K cutoff is one month later. This Monti school runs to 9th grade.
So now I am exploring the choice between keeping her there for Lower Elementary, and going "back" if you will to K in our town. I went to the town's K info meeting this week and it was not promising.
I was that parent who as politely as I could asked a teacher after the main session "what would you do with a child who has already done a year of full day K?" [let alone being gifted]
the gist of it that I got was "not much" - she'd have her own books to read. Ok, so does that mean chapter books or easy readers? No, definitely easy readers. No chapter books.
Then I asked about math. Well, by the end of the year they are deconstructing up to 20 (I asked more questions and it seems to be adding/subtracting up to 20). Um, yeah. Done that already.
Is there any going to 1st grade for stuff? nope.
This is for a 5 year old who extemporaneously dropped the word treacherous into her description of something tonight. My husband and I just looked at each other. I don't believe we've ever taught her this word. This is for a kid who figures out in her head when I am age forty-x, she will be age y, etc.
Montessori can absolutely be the best option for a kid because of the age range (when she moves up, she'll be in a group of 6-9 years old). DD5 is very tall, she fits in with this age group already. She is doing plenty of challenging work in her 3-6 room with no likelihood of running out of things to do. So I think we will be sticking with Montessori for a while.
Also, my kids are adept at going between the confines of the Monti school way, and the much more free form home we have. From time to time we streamline and organize a bit. DD5 tends toward perfectionist, but she understands there is the school way, but home/other life can allow for different approaches.
And FWIW DD3 has thrived a ton there too. Whereas DD5 sticks out as obviously advanced, DD3 requires a little more decoding to see her thinking... but it's there and often comes out in comedic fashion, keeps our life interesting for sure!
Last edited by sunday_driver; 02/27/15 10:26 PM.
