What kind of child does well in Montessori

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I've been reading past threads on Montessori as I consider where to send my child to preschool. Over and over, it seems like people say that some children thrive there, while others have a bad experience. I would love to hear more about this--what kind of children are likely to do well with a Montessori program? And do some children only do well in the preschool program, while others thrive in the elementary school program (through 6th grade)? The schools we are looking at generally go through elementary school. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Not my child.

[Anonymous]

Girl children. Who love to follow rules.

That's about it as far as I can see.

[Anonymous]

Ds is doing really well there. He is very focused.

[Anonymous]

DD is a strong willed and spirited child. She does well in Montessori because she isn't expected to sit at a desk and do what 15 other kids are doing. She loves the independance interspersed with one on one lessons. But I see lots of different kids doing well in her class--serious, hyper, eager to please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a strong willed and spirited child. She does well in Montessori because she isn't expected to sit at a desk and do what 15 other kids are doing. She loves the independance interspersed with one on one lessons. But I see lots of different kids doing well in her class--serious, hyper, eager to please.

Very helpful, thanks. My child has a similar personality.

[Anonymous]

My son is in a Montessori preschool and he is really happy. Before we started, he was pretty shy and quiet, so he would have been miserable at the loud, chaotic, large daycares that we checked out. His classroom has 12 children, one lead teacher and two assistants, so it is a smaller, calmer atmosphere. Now that he is a bit older, he is more confident, but I still wouldn't call him gregarious. Other kids in his class are much more high energy.

My son is a very focused kid and has a great attention span. He loves new activities and experiences. So far, he follows directions really well. He has some slight gross motor delays so he is not as physical as a lot of other boys his age (i.e., he'd rather play a game or have books read to him more than kicking or throwing a ball around).

I think the best thing to do would be to visit a number of preschools (Montessori, Waldorf, play-based, secular, religious, etc) and see what you like. Before our son started school, I toured a couple of Montessori schools and specifically asked "Are there certain kids/temperments that don't do as well in Montessori?" One school wouldn't really answer the question. The other was pretty vague, but they did say for the really little kids (2-3), if a child is still exclusively interested in gross motor activities, then maybe it would be best to wait a year to put him in the school. The same school has students who have some learning disabilities, so I don't think they are trying to be exclusionary. How welcoming a school is likely depends on the administration.

One ding against my son's school -- his teachers are not particularly warm and fuzzy, but I am not sure if that reflects their individual personalities or some type of Montessori approach.

It seems silly, but the school visits help you get a feel for whether your child will fit in at a particular school or daycare. Wherever your child goes to school, he or she will learn colors and shapes and letters and have a great time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a strong willed and spirited child. She does well in Montessori because she isn't expected to sit at a desk and do what 15 other kids are doing. She loves the independance interspersed with one on one lessons. But I see lots of different kids doing well in her class--serious, hyper, eager to please.

That might be a good comparison in the older grades -- I don't know. But no good preschool would have her sitting at a desk doing what 15 other kids are doing.

My dd would do terribly in a montessori bc she likes to hyperfocus -- without the structure of teacher-guided activities, she'd do the same thing over and over without interacting with anyone. But at her good play-based school, she still ad plenty of times for individual choice and there were no desks or worksheets at all.

[Anonymous]

I am a Primary Montessori teacher (ages 3-6.)
The children who I think thrive BEST are:
* Able to focus/concentrate.
* Like to work.
* Enjoy learning from older children/mentoring younger children.
* Self-starters.
* Children who are invested in their work, and take pride in what they are doing.

However; Obviously not all children have all/any of these traits. A very GOOD Montessori teacher will help the child to gain these traits AND find and work with the STRENGTHS the child ALREADY has (creativity- etc.)

Also- every school/teacher is different. Just because a child does/does not do well with one Montessori environment- it does not mean

[Anonymous]

(Cont) .....that they will have the same experience elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

i have 2 kids in montessori - my DD is 4 and started at 2; she is very creative, loves to draw and paint, is very social, and might be a little ahead of the curve in terms of her interests (she wants to know all the countries in the world, so her teachers are working on that - and now wants to know their capitals and flags, so i'm working on that at home)...

DS is 2 and just started in the 2s class - he just loves going in, picking out his own "work" to do and being able to spend the time perfecting it - lots of the activities focus on small-motor skills and i've noticed he will do one activity 3 or 4 times in a row before moving on. he's also very physical and the emphasis on outdoor time is great for him. he's also quite social and has two best "fwends." he seems quite average to me, as far as boys go, and i anticipate holding him back in the 2's class another year (he's a december baby, so had a mid-year start), whereas his sister was more advanced and we pushed her into the primary class, where she has done very well.

So, i think all kids can thrive in the montessori environment. I know less about traditional preschools, but I vividly remember mine as being very rigid - I went to Geneva Nursery School right here in Potomac and the teachers would choose activities for the children every morning - and there was no switching into something else - so if I got put into the blocks area, that was all i could do all morning... I remember being especially miserable that painting was so infrequently allowed.

[Anonymous]

PP again: Another really lovely thing I've noticed is how kind and gentle the kids from the primary class are to my son - they know he is DD's little brother and i have seen them looking out for him on the playground or holding his hand to lead him to an activity outside... And i think montessori specifically fosters such an environment.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure there's a particular type. I have twins that are quite different, though both like to learn. One is very independent, confident, and can concentrate for long periods, the other is much less confident and not very independent, and more creative. They both thrived in montessori.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is a strong willed and spirited child. She does well in Montessori because she isn't expected to sit at a desk and do what 15 other kids are doing. She loves the independance interspersed with one on one lessons. But I see lots of different kids doing well in her class--serious, hyper, eager to please.

That might be a good comparison in the older grades -- I don't know. But no good preschool would have her sitting at a desk doing what 15 other kids are doing.

My dd would do terribly in a montessori bc she likes to hyperfocus -- without the structure of teacher-guided activities, she'd do the same thing over and over without interacting with anyone. But at her good play-based school, she still ad plenty of times for individual choice and there were no desks or worksheets at all.

My kids have been at M school for years. The hyperfocus issue is something Montessori supports strongly and allows. My kids and other kids at the school have been known to do one particular work for hours or even days. The Montessori explanation for this is that the kid's brain is really into that particular work at that moment and is learning/growing like crazy. It's the Montessori teacher's responsibility to make sure the child covers all the required subjects by the end of the week, and end of the school year.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who has two children in Montessori. The child who is very self-motivated (will initiate and work on projects without being told to or guided) does really well. But the other child needs more structure.

Montessori, in my humble opinion, works very well for kids who don't need a lot of structure/routine and can stay focused (and that's actually very few children). I think children who have attention issues need more structure and routine than the Montessori method allows.

Also, Montessori (at least the schools that stick closely to the original method) doesn't have a lot of homework. I think that has its advantages, but it probably isn't very good for children who don't retain information well and need a lot of repetition and practice to really reinforce what they learn.

However, really advanced kids who learn quickly and then get bored when the rest of the class is still going over something -- those are the kids that really can thrive in Montessori, because it allows for individual learning (i.e. they can move on to more advanced things/projects).

The problem is with younger children, you don't really know these things until after they start school. And the transition from a regular classroom to Montessori or vice versa can be a huge transition once they're used to a certain style.