Montessori education -- what are your thoughts?

[May05 preemie mom]

I am presently trying to decide on what to do with my dd4 for kindergarten and wondered about montessori education. If you have children in montessori or if you looked into it, what were your thoughts? How did you decide to go that way versus traditional education? Thanks.

 

[kevschickee]

Montessori is great bit IMO not for every child. When I was going to school I studdied different schools of thought and fell in love with Montessori. It teaches you a lot of life skills in a way children can understand. For my kids I know my 3 year old would not strive in that situation she needs to be part of a group and with Montessori you tend to do a lot of work on your own. Now for my youngest I think she would do great in a Montessori program. Please take a tour of your local program and decide if it is a program your child will thrive in. But Montessori as a whole is great.

 

[Jasperann]

My oldest daughter was in Montessori for Pre school and Kindergarten. It was great for her. They did a lot of singing and hands on learning. I would have kept her in it, but I found out that after the sixth grade they couldn't be accredited by the state or just were not?? Plus it was very expensive, and being a single parent at the time, I just could not afford it.

 

[princessmom29]

I am coming at this from the perspective of a general ed teacher who gets a fair number of kids form Mont. schools. In general from what I have seen, for a child to be sucessful in Mont. thery have to WANT to do it. It is largely self driven, so kids who are reluctant don't often get what they need. They kids I have seen be very sucessful with it and the ones with the "fire for knowledge" The kid that asks a million questions about everything because they just want to know. We have a mont. sunday school program at church, and I have been through the training. I chose not to teach in the program because i do not agree with the approach. Form what I see, the kids really have to go looking for the information, and nothing is really "taught" directly. It is about the child "discovering" information on their own. I do not like the aspect of witholding answers from a child who is asking questions so that they can make the "discovery" on thier own.

 

[Nom]

My daughter goes to a Montessori school- she spent 2 years in the 3-6 class and is now in their 'kindergarten'.

I am not sure what the pper means about working alone a lot of the time- honestly, at my montessori, and how I understand the program, the kids work together most of the time! They way the younger kids learn the 'work's, in many instances, is by observing and being 'helped' by the older kids.

But I am not formally educated on montessori, so I could be wrong. Anyway, my experience is super awesome with this program, and talking to some of the other moms who have siblings who are now in public school, the only problem is that the montessori grads know so much more than the public 1st graders they can be a little bored at first!

At my montessori, here is the schedule:
circle time with montessori presentation (the teacher reviews one of the montessori 'work's and skills associated with it)
montessori work time (the children choose montessori 'work' and do it either on their own or in a group at one of the group tables) at this time the kindergardeners break out and do their journal
At this time, they also do a lovely thing- snack. At the school they are taught that for snack time, one child invites another for snack and then serves them and eats snack with them. I think that is so sweet.
Lunch
Plaground
Nap (but at this time the kindergardeners do higher level work and do not nap)
circle time with montessori presentation
Montessori work time

My daughter has learned SO much and made so many friends- I love this school. Honestly what I love most about it is that my daughter can move at her own pace- the teachers can challenge her with more advanced work if she wants it, and they can work with her on things she does not 'get'. This is the main reason I chose this over 'traditional' school- that and how loving the teachers seemed.

I can not say enough good things about my experience with montessori. If you have specific questions, let me know!

 

[MNdisneymom]

I looked into it for my son because my ex and I wanted him to go to a smaller school, ie not public. The school I considered was a k-8 montessori. I went and visited multiple times, saw all of the grade levels...the kids all looked engaged and interested in what they were doing. I'm assuming you know how montessori works (ie, age levels mixed together, self-directed learning, practical life skills learning....)? I thought it would be good for my son, who was doing advanced stuff in the pre-k he went to, and was (still is!!) a very eager learner. Then I took him for a visit where he got to stay for a few hours while I left. I came back an hour and a half later, went into the classroom, and he was sitting in the corner looking at a book. The teacher said he had a good time, but wasn't interested in the activities. Days later, I got it out of him (it's really hard to get that kind of info out of a 5 year old) that all he had done was read because nobody told him what to do. There was probably a lot more to it than that, but we decided not to send him there.

I still think the Montessori concept is a good one, but over the past year (he's in first grade now) I have realized that it wouldn't have worked for my son. He goes to a small Lutheran school and is very happy. As much as a first grader who says his favorite part of school is recess can be, anyway.

Good luck on your decision. It's a very hard one!

 

[lucyem]

Like anything a lot depends on the actual school.

I know a lot of people absolutely love it. But I have seen situations where the "montessori" part is new or not understood by the teachers.

 

[Nom]

I do not like the aspect of witholding answers from a child who is asking questions so that they can make the "discovery" on thier own.

In my experience at least, this is not how the school my dd goes to is run- if it was I would not like it either! The teachers do answer questions when they are asked of them.

However, something they do do differently is not correct the children the way traditional schools do. For example right now my dd sometimes writes '2009' as '200P' (in other words writes her '9's backwards). The teacher explained that that is a developmental stage, and we will see that over the months of kindergarten the children will naturally correct themselves as they observe their error and learn how to do it correctly. In that way, they don't traditionally correct kids, because they want to give them the ability to learn it themselves and therefore build confidence. If the child never got it, yes, they would eventually correct them. But they want to give the child a chance to develop naturally first- that does a long way in confidence boosting!

But if the child asked 'is my 9 right?', at least at my school, they would answer the question.

eta I totally agree with ppers that each school is different. I toured two different mont schools, they were pretty much the same, but I am sure there are some that do it differently than others. Looking for one officially accredited helps.

 

[justhat]

My daughter is also a 3rd year primary (kindergarten) student in an AMI Montessori school (AMI being the 'strictest' of the accredation programs).

Kids do work together a good bit, particularly as they get older (5+). I just went on the Lower Elementary tour (1st-3rd grades) since my daughter will move up next year and they stressed how most of the work at that age level is in groups as kids are social beings at that age and just love being together and sharing ideas. When I visited, the 1st graders were working on spelling with their teachers, 3rd grade girls were doing a science project, the 2nd and 3rd grade boys were working on math (in pairs, but all were doing math).

In my daughter's current class, I have yet to see her alone this year. She is constantly surrounded by the younger kids as she loves to read them books and even at just 3yo they are a very patient audience. In the afternoon, only the 3rd years stay and there are just 4 kids at the moment (they move up according to birthday throughout the year, so there will be 9 of them by January). She does do some work alone during that period, but only because at this point she's ahead of the other 3 kids. That is in part because she's the oldest in the class, but also because she moved up to "kindergarten" in January (late February birthday) so she's had a good 5 months other the other kids.


As far as kids not being interested in a topic, avoiding it, therefore not learning it/doing well, that simply isn't allowed. The teacher works closely with each student daily and can see what areas a child is avoiding very quickly and will then work one-on-one with them in that area and pair them up with an older student. The Montessori mantra, so to speak, is see one, do one, teach one (interestingly, also the method used in medical school and medical residencies so my husband was pretty impressed to see them apply the same theory to him at 25yo that our kids are doing as preschoolers). So not only do kids ultimately have a great understanding of the materials, but there's also lots of interaction among peers.


Like the PP said, my daughter has learned an incredible amount so far. She is independently reading chapter books, doing addition, subtraction, and beginning multiplication (all single-digit). She can name and locate all the continents on the map/globe, as well as many countries on each continent. She's been working on the map of Africa for ahwile and knows the names and locations of many more countries than I do! (This work is done mostly through puzzles, so it's not just staring at a map and memorizing, it's actually fun.) In science she's made books about animals, labeling the parts of their body. She's also writing stories (in cursive) and illustrating. I truly can't say enough about how great the education has been so far.

And FWIW, some kids leave her school after K and either go to public school for 1st grade or another private school (typically a K-12 private school, just as it is easier to get in in K or 1 and then have the security of not needing to apply to schools at the middle or high school level-our school goes to 6th grade). The kids who have move out to public and private have been extremely advanced for their grade level and bored for the 1st year or so of school. 2 of my daughters friends went to Sidwell Friends (which I mention only because most people have heard of it due to the president's kids going there) for K and 1st grade and were very bored as they already knew all the work presented. By 2nd grade I am sure it evens out, but in the meantime these kids were reading books while their class was being taught to sound out words. In math they were learning counting while the Montessori kids could already do basic multiplication. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing as it gave them lots of time to socialize which is also very important at that age, but they did actually complain to their parents that they were bored and wanted to go back to their old school where they 'learned'.

 

[justhat]

In my experience at least, this is not how the school my dd goes to is run- if it was I would not like it either! The teachers do answer questions when they are asked of them.

However, something they do do differently is not correct the children the way traditional schools do. For example right now my dd sometimes writes '2009' as '200P' (in other words writes her '9's backwards). The teacher explained that that is a developmental stage, and we will see that over the months of kindergarten the children will naturally correct themselves as they observe their error and learn how to do it correctly. In that way, they don't traditionally correct kids, because they want to give them the ability to learn it themselves and therefore build confidence. If the child never got it, yes, they would eventually correct them. But they want to give the child a chance to develop naturally first- that does a long way in confidence boosting!

But if the child asked 'is my 9 right?', at least at my school, they would answer the question.

eta I totally agree with ppers that each school is different. I toured two different mont schools, they were pretty much the same, but I am sure there are some that do it differently than others. Looking for one officially accredited helps.

That is exactly correct. In fact, my daughter complained to me when she was learning to read that when she encountered a word she didn't know in school, her teacher would tell her what it was whereas I was making her sound everything out. Her teacher has been teaching primary 1 year longer than I have been alive, so I realized she must know what she's doing and I went with her approach. Believe it or not, my daughter was reading independently within days of that event so clearly it worked.


And like the above quoted poster said, definitely look for an accreditated school. AMI and AMS are the 2 big Montessori accreditors and you can check their websites for school listings. A lot of schools call themselves "Montessori" or claim to use a Montessori approach, but you can't be sure what that really means unless someone is actively watching the school to keep them accredited.

 

[princessmom29]

That is exactly correct. In fact, my daughter complained to me when she was learning to read that when she encountered a word she didn't know in school, her teacher would tell her what it was whereas I was making her sound everything out. Her teacher has been teaching primary 1 year longer than I have been alive, so I realized she must know what she's doing and I went with her approach. Believe it or not, my daughter was reading independently within days of that event so clearly it worked.


And like the above quoted poster said, definitely look for an accreditated school. AMI and AMS are the 2 big Montessori accreditors and you can check their websites for school listings. A lot of schools call themselves "Montessori" or claim to use a Montessori approach, but you can't be sure what that really means unless someone is actively watching the school to keep them accredited.

We are using a program called Catechesis of the Good Shepard at chuch that is montessori affiliated, and this is soooo not the approach they use. They WILL NOT answer that children's questions about anything, and it is really fustrating for my child who wants to learn, and is essentially not getting anything out of sunday school. They want them to "figure it out", and the kids just don't have enough info. to do that. We are cosidering moving to a different congregation because of it. She is thriving in her school classroom, and it is sad to see her not enjoying sunday school. Most montessoir programs around here are simply not adequate. They attempt to apply the approach with 2 teachers to 20 kids. Kids tend to get lost in the shuffle and not get what they need if they are not proactive about asking. I had afriend who taught in one of these programs and quit in fustration after about half a year. What you guys are describing sounds great, but is not what I have seen from local montessori programs at all.

 

[erinmomof2]

I went to a Montessori school from K-6 and I think it was an amazing program. After 6th I started public school and I was blown away by the differenct. I will agree with PP that the biggest problem is boredom when you are through with the Montessori program. I went through Junior High and I doubt I learned anything in my time there. After that I began homeschooling because I felt the public school was not challenging enough. I loved that Montessori teaches you with a lot of hands on activites so you not only see something in a book, you do it. I think the approach is wonderful for most kids and I do know that my brother and I were far beyond other children our age. If I had a montessori school nearby my children would be attending for sure.

 

[justhat]

Well, Montessori classes, at the primary level anyway, have 1 lead teacher and 1 asst teacher for 25-28 kids. So the ratio shouldn't be a problem. HOWEVER, you need to be trained in Montessori education to effectively teach Montessori, and this is a post-graduate degree. Check out http://www.montessori-ami.org/ to look for accredited Montessori schools near you. I warn you that is only AMI schools. There are also AMS, and you could search for those as well.

 

[princessmom29]

Well, Montessori classes, at the primary level anyway, have 1 lead teacher and 1 asst teacher for 25-28 kids. So the ratio shouldn't be a problem. HOWEVER, you need to be trained in Montessori education to effectively teach Montessori, and this is a post-graduate degree. Check out http://www.montessori-ami.org/ to look for accredited Montessori schools near you. I warn you that is only AMI schools. There are also AMS, and you could search for those as well.

there are none in our state,or anywhere even remotely cose.

 

[emma'smom]

Check out the American Montessori Society as well (AMS). Many more schools in the United States are accredited through AMS.

there are none in our state,or anywhere even remotely cose.

 

[emma'smom]

Both of my dd's are enrolled in our local Montessori school and I am passionate about Maria's philosophy because I've seen it be so effective for my dd's!

Dd7 is in second grade in the Lower-El class and dd4 is a second-year in the PreK/K program. I am constantly amazed at the wonderful school experiences my dd's are having (particularly my dd7 as it is my first time watching a child go through the elementary program).

The best part about the Montessori 3-year cycle is the fact that the children work in a multi-age setting. Dd7 serves as a leader and role model for the first graders (often reading aloud to them--improving her fluency while improving their listening skills). She also works frequently with the 3rd graders and with the Upper-El class. The structure gives the teacher the flexibility to truly "follow the child" based upon her ability levels and this varies for my dd across subject areas.

What I really like is that the teacher (who is Montessori trained, but also state licensed) is very aware of the state content standards and integrates her teaching of the standards into the Montessori approach. Each morning they begin with first circle where group presentations occur on a specific topic.

Then they begin independent work time where each child has a specific set of goals to finish by the end of the morning. They work on these goals in partners, in small groups with a teacher, or alone depending upon the work at hand. The goals are all the kinds of topics you would find in any classroom (reading, writing, math, handwriting, phonics, etc). They can choose the order of the work and, in some cases, whether they work alone or with someone else.

In the mean time, the two teachers are circulating to teach one-on-one with individual children or teach small-group lessons.

Every so often they will have "check in time" where the teachers specifically check their daily contracts and the work that they have been doing to see that everyone is on task and to redirect as needed.

In the afternoon, they do more project-based learning for Science and Social Studies and have their "specials" (music, art, gym, spanish, and latin). This when they tend to work more with the Upper-El as well.

What I really like is that it is a more "natural" environment that mirrors the way people think about their own work/learning in the real world. For example, if I have a list of things to do---I tend to think about the best way to approach the tasks I need to complete. I might take a break when needed, confer with someone if I have a question or want to collaborate, and work independently when I need to concentrate.

We love it for our dd's as they seem to not just be acquiring content, but also developing a lifelong love of learning and a sense of curiosity about the world around them---and they have the confidence to ask questions about what they are observing and seek the answers to these questions.


P.S. I do think it does all depends on the school and teachers though. Maria lived over 100 years ago---the operationalization of the philosophy is in the eye of the beholder!

 

[princessmom29]

Check out the American Montessori Society as well (AMS). Many more schools in the United States are accredited through AMS.

the closeset one is 3+ hours away. We have a "montessori" school here that is nowhere near adequate, and I think that haas colored poeple's view locally about the whole program. If it were my only basis for comparision I would think the entire program was a joke.

 

[justhat]

the closeset one is 3+ hours away. We have a "montessori" school here that is nowhere near adequate, and I think that has colored poeple's view locally about the whole program. If it were my only basis for comparision I would think the entire program was a joke.

Again, if it's not an accredited program, anyone can hang a shield and call themselves Montessori. A true Montessori program is standard throughout-meaning I can move from DC to say Texas and the classroom will have exactly the same materials, same work, and my child would have a seamless transition. There are certain "tools" so to speak that are found in Montessori classrooms and are integral parts (pink tower, brown stairs, golden beads, etc.).

 

[ppan77]

I actually attended Montessori school for preschool and kindergarten. I loved it. It is set up for a child who can choose what they want to learn for the day. I was not a child that liked going to the bank (math) and I do remember being encouraged to go to the bank after trying to avoid it We had a lot of hands on activities, multi-cultural days, and outdoor activities. Not like I can remember much but it does beat most classrooms these days in public schools that are busy teaching to the test and pushing worksheets.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Every adult that I have known that has gone to a Montessorri school said it was the worst experience ever. They said it did not prepare them at all for the real world and they struggled trying to learn to work in the real world. These were all adults who went to different schools in different areas. I guess like everything it is good for some but not for all. I personally am not a fan of it. I would go look at the schools and be really honest with yourself as to what kind of child you have and if they really will thrive in that situation. Don't get sucked in because of the sales pitch. It is like any school, you have to do your research. Good luck!