newmom21c,
We toured some Montessori schools near us. My understanding is that they are allowed to play with one other child if they want (and not more) and that a traditional Montessori doesn't allow imaginative play with costumes and kitchen sets and all of that.
My son wants nothing more than to join a group of children that are wearing costumes and fully immersed in some complex pretend like playing restaurant, or pirates battling, or knights fighting dragons, the kind of play where everyone has a defined role and forts are made out of blankets. I've never heard of a Montessori that allows this, certainly not a traditional one.
Montessori can be great for the right child, but from what I've seen, it's a poor fit for my son.
The bolded part is not something in Montessori and might be just some strange made-up rule at that individual school. A very odd rule for that matter.
DD's school does have some pretend play activities, but again, it depends on the school. However, you wouldn't see a pretend kitchen because the children would actually be making their own food, serving it, and cleaning it up themselves so they'd be do essentially the same thing with real food instead of pretend food.
I'm not saying you have to pick Montessori
but I just wanted to clear up the confusion on pretend play/playing with friends because these are common misconceptions I've seen about Montessori schools (and it could very well stem from Montessori schools that either misinterpret the idea or make up some odd rules like you're describing).
It sounds, though, that your child would like more of a play-based preschool which is completely fine too. I just didn't want you to think that all Montessori schools had a bunch of kids that never played with each other and aren't allowed to do pretend play either (if you knew DD you'd understand that couldn't be further from the truth! :D).
