Montessori was supposed to be our solution for next few years (read till DS runs out of their curriculum) at least that's what we thought back in 2007.
DS6 spent 2 years in a play based PreK and was very happy there. There wasn't too much academics involved and it was mostly about having fun. They still let him read to other kids and bring in his own report about Solar System. He loved it there.
He spent K in Montessori together with his younger brother who was 3 at that time. Within a week the teachers told me that they had never had a child like my son but they also told me that this wasn't school for him. On one hand they said he was extremely gt on the other hand they told me I was pushing him, he learned only to please me, etc. They went on and on about his handwriting. He was unhappy and angry at home. His perfectionism went trough the roof. He asked to be hs.
I still think it was most likely a better match than public K would be (part of the reason was that he went only 1/2 day as opposed to full day in PS). That said I have a big regret that I didn't pull him out when he asked to stay home.
It was a very bad year for our younger one (3 at that time). Where our older son was clearly out of their curriculum and they tried to accommodate him, our younger one fit nicely in their idea of 3-6 year old program. They followed the manual to the "t". They wouldn't let him move beyond simple counting because he couldn't write the numbers. Nevermind that he had hands of a three year old and none of the 3 year olds could. He came there reading but they still attempted to teach him a few letters. He didn't like it there. He refused to go to school quite often and I let him to stay home.
This year DS6 is hs and DS4 is back in the play based preschool where our older one used to go. He is happy in PreK now.
Our experience can be summed up to "No academics is better than wrong academics." For some gt kids play based PreK may be a very good option. They can get all the academics their heart desires at home and on the right level.
