Montessori school was WONDERFUL for my son the first year he was there. He was 3.75 when he started, and very quickly his skills were recognized and he was encouraged to work with the kindergarten students, who were mostly six, as they also stressed the benefits of the 3 year program at this school. He was far and away the best reader in the class, although it was an advanced group and almost all of the kindy students were reading. He had a group of age peers who he was great friends with, and then the older kids who he did the more academic stuff with regularly. The trouble came the next year, when my son was "skipped" into kindergarten while he was still four. The huge older group of students had graduated, and now my son hadn't anything close to a group of academic peers. Suddenly he was getting spoken to on a daily basis about leaving his (solitary) work to socialize with the other kids, or to "help" them with their projects. He started to feel bad about himself, and we pulled him after three long and difficult months.
The thing with placements for gifted kids is that they can be a great fit for a while, but you have to be vigilant about ensuring that it continues to be a good fit. Maybe Dottie or Grin can speak more about the constant monitoring and tweaking that they do. It seems that change truly is a constant with these kids!
I hope that next year will be a great one for your son!
