This is one of the aspects of Montessori that drove my son crazy. He was in a Montessori Preschool from ages 2-5. His last year he was mastering all the lessons so quickly and wanting more, more, more but he was VERY frustrated because of all the writing. He has dyspraxia which makes handwriting just a hate of his.....I would see lots of writing work come home and for him it was all copy work...nothing original. The thing that irked him the most was when he would do the Math bead chains - he loves doing the 1000's chain where he would count out the beads/chains and place them completely around the room up to 1000. He would place all the beads and then the little teeny tiny number tags next to where they each belonged and then the teacher would make him sit there with a clipboard and roll of adding machine paper and make him write out every single number that was on all of the number tags. He was SO determined to complete the 1000's chain that it took him almost a week just to write out all the numbers. I could never, ever figure out the point of why she made them do that!
