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My DD will be four in October. On Friday my husband and I are planning to check out a close-by Montessori Preschool. I have heard so many great reviews about them and am thinking of having DD go twice a week. Academically, I don't expect for her to get too much out of it because she's at a 2nd grade level. I am more wishing her to go for the social aspect of it.

The only issue is that she is also socially mature and prefers much older kids-- 5 and 6 year olds. I am worried about whether this will be a waste of time and money. From what I've been told... the preschool automatically places the kids based on age. This means she'll be put into a classroom with other 3 year olds.

So... I am wondering... for those of you who have had/do have your kid(s) in such a Preschool...

Is it working out?
What issues have come up?
Did/does the easy stuff bore your kids or do they just shrug them off?
How did they fit in socially when they're cognitively way ahead of the rest?
Is it common for the preschools to move the kids into the higher classes (in this case Pre-K for 4 and 5 year olds)?

Thank You in advance!

Let me prefix this with the info that my DD does not go to a Montessori school but I'm confused by your post. I thought the draw for many was the fact that Montessori schools do groupings? IE 3 - 6 year olds are in class together. From your short description of the school, I question if the school you reference is a true Montessori. But again ... my knowledge is from the outside since I have no experience. We did consider it for my DD and I called and talked to a few schools in our area and what I could tell is the certified schools are more strict. For example, if you wanted to send your child part-time it would have to be for a minimum of three consecutive days such as MTW or WThF because they work on projects and missing a day would be disruptive.

I thought that as well... that they group kids by mixing their ages but apparently do not here. They also allow part-timers to go nonconsecutive days.

Hi Littlewisestone-
Here is a list I created for a discussion about Montessori education a few months ago. We've discussed Montessori schools a few times before so a search of the posts might turn up some more information. Here is one link: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted...._Montessori_the_answer_to.html#Post58524

With a little urging from us, our Montessori did put DS in a classroom with older kids because of his verbal ability and because he was potty-trained. He was about 6 months younger than the other students at the beginning. He stayed in the same classroom for his entire two year tenure at the school. He was definitely not challenged adequately by the time we left the school (but he was becoming one of the older children in the classroom). They did allow him to progress through their standard K curriculum at around age 3.5-4 years old. However, it was done "unofficially"- the school would not complete the paperwork for the state requirements.

Let me know if you have other questions-
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Our eldest DS attended a Montessori for two years. As with anything, it had some great aspects and some not-so-great aspects (particularly for gifties). Just for a bit of background, our Montessori was a small, beautiful school that is very well-respected in the area and nationally for Montessori education. It offered toddler, primary and K but no other elementary level classes.

Pros
-The Montessori method believes in the potential in children! (Wow!) They really embrace that children should not be limited by age and instead by ability.
-A Montessori education encourages the child to be independent and makes learning a self-fulfilling endeavor. (they seek intrinsic not extrinsic rewards)
-The Montessori method focuses on whole learning. The "work" that the children do in class has purpose! (How often do you hear that about a public school assignment?)
-Most Montessori schools espouse the behavior expectations that we have but that public schools are unable to enforce. Manners, citizenship, and responsibility are build into the work and constantly expected.
-Montessori schools, in general, are a pleasant, healthy place to be. They often encourage healthy habits.
-The Montessori method dictates the exact way in which the "work" is to be done. This is very regimented and exact. Despite the fact that the classroom allows a lot of choice on the type of work that is to be done, the way it is done, is not a choice. This is actually great for some kids and definitely not great for others. (Hence, this is on the pro and con list)
-Children learn from each other. They are expected to encourage and help each other.
-Classrooms are multi-age.
-Schools usually have gardens, animals and home-like atmospheres. They are warm and comforting.
-The classroom is designed for children. They work on the floor or standing. The materials are designed for children's fingers not small adult hands.
-Music and art are an important part of the curriculum.


Cons
-There a several different accrediting bodies for Montessori schools so it is hard to "measure" their level of Montessori-ness.
-The Montessori method dictates the exact way in which the "work" is to be done. This is very regimented and exact. Despite the fact that the classroom allows a lot of choice on the type of work that is to be done, the way it is done, is not a choice. This is actually great for some kids and definitely not great for others. (Hence, this is on the pro and con list)
-The "work" often requires a lot of manual dexterity so children need to have good fine motor skills to progress with the work intellectually. (This was a big issue for our not-so-coordinated DS)
-As with any school, a gifted child's intellectual needs may outpace the curriculum/materials available in a classroom or school. (Another big issue for our DS)
-The Montessori method believes that a child should be well-rounded in their abilities so if a child is grossly asynchronous, it indicates to them some level of discord in the child's life. They work to balance the child. (Keep in mind, most of Maria Montessori's research subjects were orphans in very impoverished areas of India. They suffered abuse, starvation, and horrid living conditions prior to being put in her care. Nevertheless, again another issue for DS)
-The Montessori method allows for a lot of independence but not necessarily a lot of creativity. Creative children may be stifled because they don't fit the desired norm.
-The Montessori method views "square pegs" as pegs that desire to be round. With enough work, they too can become round pegs and fit into the round hole.
-Montessori schools can be "soft" in their discipline strategies because they believe natural consequences will yield the desired behavior.


Other stuff to be aware of:
-Teachers exist to be a model/guide to the students. In an "ideal" situation (per Montessori standards), a teacher rarely speaks but instead just observes.
-All classrooms feature a variety of areas (i.e. subjects) for work, including Practical Life. Don't be surprised if your DC spends his afternoon sweeping, washing windows or making orange juice! Also, don't be surprised if your 5 year old is working with decimals and division.
-Children choose their own work. Each teacher/school will have a policy about how much they help to guide the child's choices. Some will not guide at all (just like unschooling), others will guide or require that the child completes some work.
-During work time, a Montessori classroom may appear chaotic. Typically, it is a controlled chaos (you should never see children running or yelling) since you have 30 children each doing their own thing. The classrooms can be loud and distracting for a sensitive child.
-Some Montessori schools will have some formal lessons to the group, others will not.
-The Montessori method does not mesh well with the standard educational model in the U.S. so a true Montessori student will face a major transition when leaving a Montessori school (i.e. learning to sit in a desk, not having choices, taking tests, etc.). Some non-traditional Montessori schools have some "transition" models that they follow to help a child acclimate to the non-Montessori version of education.
-Students entering a Montessori classroom for the first time (with other, established students) will need a considerable amount of time to adjust, learn the work and expectations. Having read all of Maria Montessori's books available in English, I LOVE the concept of a Montessori education. I don't think the concept entirely translates into real life/real classrooms. We had a rough 6 months while DS adjusted to the method, a fabulous 12 months where DS blossomed followed by another rough 6 months where DS was bored and miserable.

Hope all this makes sense and hope it helped. Believe it or not, I actually tried to make this concise. So many other stories I could have shared . . .

Katelyn'sMom - you are correct, a true Montessori program does not group by ages - that was one of the major belief's of Maria Montessori - she wanted children working together in various age levels so that they could all learn from each other.

My son attended a Montessori preschool program for many years and I did quite a load of research on Montessori over that time when I was teaching in regular public school. I love the whole Montessori approach and if done with some flexibility it could be a good fit for some children.

Most Montessori schools are very strict in the way they require a child to learn/complete activities. Lessons are taught in specific steps in a complete order and a child has to show mastery of all the steps before they are allowed to go onto a new activity. If they mastered the overall skill but did not complete the various steps, then many will not allow a child to move on. It is a lot of repetition - which was not a good match for my DS. When he learned the main skill, he was ready to move onto the next skill and he got tired of being told no or held back because he didn't string a math bead set neatly, didn't show his full work or didn't carry the tray steady enough. Once my DS got the main meat of a lesson/project he was ready to move on and did not want to go back and repeat the activity over and over again.

A Montessori classroom is set up in that a child is introduced to a lesson with the correct manipulatives and is walked through the various steps..then after their lesson they are allowed to use that manipulative/activity piece off the shelf during learning time. In my son's case, when they finally realized that making him do every single step when he has the lesson already mastered was just silly- he went through all of the preschool lessons in the blink of an eye and the teacher ran out of materials...which left him going back to repeat the same things over and he got bored out of his mind....he thrives on new activities/lessons/games....I know that there have been many discussions on Montessori so if you do a search you will find them :-)

One big issue we had with DS was that he is super, super creative and the teacher would get very upset if she saw him doing something different with a lesson/activity than what was supposed to be done with it. He would take many of the math manipulatives and come up with his own math games since he had already mastered the lesson, he wanted to make his own games...so he got in trouble a lot for that. We saw a lot of concern from the teachers/staff that he was so advanced and even had his teacher tell us to stop allowing him to read advanced books because he would get too far ahead of the rest of his classmates. They seemed very gung ho on trying to dumb him down so that he would fit better with the other children

Although this wasn't my post, I wanted to say thanks to those of you who know quite a bit about the Montessori method. Some of the aspects sound great, but others give me pause. My DD4 is very creative and doesn't like doing anything in specific order, has never used manipulatives to learn and I get the sense she is somehow annoyed by them sometimes. The preschool she will be attending is lightyears behind her, but it helps her to feel comfortable in a typical school environment, helps her to work on some social skills, etc. I still go back and forth because the Montessori program might allow her to do more, but I am just not sure how much more and how important that is right now.

Several years ago I did quite a bit of research on this. Because we moved while the kids were still preschool age we've enrolled our children at three different Montessori schools (all private) and I have toured quite a few others.

While I agree with most of Sittin Pretty's post, in my experience it is very easy to gauge the level of "Montessori-ness".

First off, AMI schools (this is the International organization) tend to follow the Montessori approach to the letter. AMS schools are hit or miss. My children attended an excellent, but very expensive AMS school in the NY area. They also attended a mediocre AMS school in the south which we switched out of mid-year in favro of an AMI school. In my limited experience, AMI schools are consistently good, AMS schools are a crapshoot, and schools that are neither AMI or AMS are complete garbage.

This sounds harsh but when you think about it...why would you claim to be a Montessori school when you really aren't? Why wouldn't you just incorporate the Montessori concepts you admire and give your school a generic name? IMHO it calls the administration's credibility into question.

Without getting into the details of Montessori, here are some obvious characteristics of Montessori schools:

- Mixed age classrooms - 3-6 and 6-12
- A lead teacher and an assistant in the class
- A fairly high student/teacher ratio
- An immaculate, organized classroom
- High (or rigid, depending on your perspective) expectations on student to care for classroom equipment and use it properly
- All areas are equipped to facilitate the children's independence as much as possible. Coat hooks at the proper height, child sized tables and chairs (for eating, work is frequently done on the floor), low cabinets, a low sink where the children clean up after meals...
- A my way or the highway attitude. This isn't as bad as it sounds as it tends to weed out parents who can't get their shit together. OTOH, if you have a child with very, very specialized needs it could be an issue.

We were very happy with the Montessori approach. I think my younger son could have used a little more structure and both kids could have benefited from more aggressive intervention to deal with the relatively poor writing skills. But no place is perfect and I frequently tell people that i am just as happy with what my children did NOT learn at their Montessori school as I am with what they did. Additionally, the school they most recently attended attracted families with very intelligent children. A very high percentage of my children's classmates have gone on to programs for highly gifted children.

However, I have heard from parents who felt that their children were not adequately accelerated. I don't doubt this.

Thanks for the detailed posts sittin pretty and belle. Great job on describing it. Probably the best pro and con list I have seen on Montessori. I'm sure the information you guys provided will help Littlewisetone.

The interesting/weird thing about DD's school is they added a 'Montessori' lab this past year. I was annoyed with it, because her school isn't Montessori and was afraid they were heading in that direction. Personally, I think the lab is a great thing to have... another environment/method for the child to learn but I don't think they need to call it Montessori. Perhaps observation lab would be more accurate. The students use it twice a week and it gives the teachers a chance to observe them outside of the regular classroom.

With any school it really depends on the teacher. My DS7 did go to a Montessori school from 3-6. He had one amazing teacher who fought to keep him in her class for 2 years. We had a great experience but it really was because of her. The last teacher he had made him follow the group and she was the owner of the school. That is the complete opposite of what Montessori should be.

We looked at a number of Montessori schools. Some were good, some not so much.

At first, his school was a great fit for Mr W due to the high degree of flexibility. They still have that flexibility. But he has exhausted what they can teach him.

But Mr W needs a lot more and it is exhausting to get home with him and have to do all his large puzzles (48+ pieces) and then read with him, which they cannot do because all of the other kids cannot do this.

I feel we are in a holding pattern now until he can read by himself.

Once he can read by himself, I think we'll have no problems getting the school to let him have reading time. But I fear the clash will come when he wants to read for hours vs minutes.

DW is due with number two at the end of the year and that may be the time to go with his old Spanish nanny so he can read and progress at his pace again - until he starts school for real. She was over last weekend and it was fun to listen to them converse in Spanish.

A friend's son who started at a great PS last fall when the local ISD said they could do nothing for him really enjoys the PS program. So that may be the place for Mr W.

I fear we may come to see the school as a daycare and not as a place of learning. Right now that is what Montessori is. It was not that way at first. But it is now.