Michaela, barbarajean,
I'm definitely going to stay open to looking for the right fit for him. Montessori doesn't work for him because he is incredibly social, and what he loves more than anything is to be social in large groups and do lots of pretend play and drama. He is a natural leader. If he was an introvert (like me) Montessori would have been perfect, but alas...
Grinity,
So true. These kids are multiple ages in one, and it's always important to remember that sometimes they are their chronological age or younger!!
I wouldn't dismiss Montessori so quickly. Kids ARE allowed to interact often in Montessori (and the beauty of it is that they choose to interact if they want to but if they don't want to they don't have to either). Also, the idea of Montessori is not that pretend play is evil but because they have everything at a child's level (e.g. small chairs, child size sinks to wash dishes, clean etc) then it's not like they need to "play house" because the have the actual materials there to do it. Also, some Montessori schools are much, much more flexible when it comes to pretend play (that's where you'd have to visit the school and ask lots of questions).
DD goes to a Montessori school and it's been a good fit for her. It's not prefect (but what is?) but she has a number of friends there and does a lot of pretend play too. If she wants to do group things she does if not she's allowed to play by herself. It works very well for her because she's a pretty independent (um... stubborn) kid and wants to do things on her own terms. A school with a stricter schedule (they do have a set lunch time/nap time, though) and planned activities would be pretty disastrous for her!
ETA: DD does very well in a self-directed learning environment. Honestly, I have a hard time imagining anyone would have any success teaching her something she doesn't want to know (her teachers have said the same..). The converse is true too, if she wants to know something she'll bug you about it relentlessly until she understands it. She's so young, though, that I'm not sure how much of that is personality and how much is just being a young (er, stubborn) kid, you know what I mean?
