What kind of child does well in Montessori

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point is that preschoolers, especially 3 year olds, shouldn't be doing a lot of solitary tasks. That's the time where they are really learning social skills and bonding with other children.

I love this argument. Primary Montessori students of age 3-4 are in class for 3 hours tops, 5 days per week usually. That means that when you pick them up at noon, they have the entire rest of the day to "learn social skills" and "bond with other children." What kids can learn in Montessori is pretty remarkable, and I find that most people who turn their noses up either know nothing about it first-hand or have a child who just did not take to it. In my observation, the kids who don't would likely have behavior issues no matter where they went.

Of course, in theory the kids have the rest of the day for socialization, but at least for my kid, he's at hime the rest of the day. School is the prime time for socialization.

As far as I can tell, M's strength is in how it introduces academic concepts. You'll get no argument from me that M kids are more advanced when they start K/1st grade. For me, though, that's not my primary goal for my 3 year old. I'd much rather he learn to form friendships and think creatively at that age, and I have no doubt he'll catch up in academics when he gets to K.

[Anonymous]

I am so impressed by all the thoughtful posts on this thread. As the Director of a Montessori school in the Washington area (Evergreen School), I appreciate everyone’s efforts here to understand both the benefits as well as the drawbacks of the Montessori approach.

For me, the key aspect of Montessori is the belief that children naturally want to be engaged with interesting topics, materials and challenges. They want to have choice and control in their lives. They want to use their hands and senses to explore the world around them. They want to create art and music and towers and castles. They want to be able to work alone at times and with a partner at times. All in all, they are a lot like you and me.

At our school, habits of character, a sense of self and joy in learning are even more important than the academic foundation that develop in each child. It is so important that we provide a warm, safe environment with caring teachers where children can feel secure and grow in confidence.

Clearly, there is a wide choice of Montessori schools in the area. Each has a unique culture and program. Some have larger classes than others. Some offer music programs, PE and more; others do not. And not all Montessori teachers are the same, either. In addition, there are a lot of great schools in the area, Montessori or not.

I appreciate all the questions being posed here. If you want to know more about us, let me know. I love to talk about the "what's and the why's" of how we nurture children.

John DeMarchi, Head of School, Evergreen School

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Thank you Mr. Demarchi,

I'm the teacher above, the one who asked the question about creativity. I really appreciate you coming in to join this conversation, and doing so openly and not defensively. I've heard good things about your school, as a place that the Montessori model is implemented well.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The point is that preschoolers, especially 3 year olds, shouldn't be doing a lot of solitary tasks. That's the time where they are really learning social skills and bonding with other children.

THIS! This is why I sent my DD to preschool. I'm the PP above whose daughter is shy and solitary tasks only reinforced her quietness.

[Anonymous]

And that is exactly the reason that all M schools (that I know of) have a lot of group time in addition to some independent work.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bump

Do you have a particular question? You might want to start a new thread. This one is six years old and there may be a lot of differences in programs over 6 years.

[Anonymous]

I’m also curious about the quiet classrooms for preschool-aged children. We only looked at one Montessori school - so that limited experience is surely not representative of all Montessori schools - but the classes we observed were weirdly quiet. The children were seemingly calm and content, but they were also mute! It was really unnerving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m also curious about the quiet classrooms for preschool-aged children. We only looked at one Montessori school - so that limited experience is surely not representative of all Montessori schools - but the classes we observed were weirdly quiet. The children were seemingly calm and content, but they were also mute! It was really unnerving.

My twins were in Montessori from 2013-2015. They had Montessori class for 3 hours either in the morning or afternoon. The school we were at had a daycare room and when they were not in the Montessori class, they were in the daycare room with the exception of 2-3 periods of 20-40 minutes that were outside, weather permitting. The rules for the daycare room were different. They could make noise at "inside voice" levels. They could play freely, as long as it was not rowdy or disruptive. So games in groups or playing with toys together or singing or talking without yelling was fine. During outside play, it was like any play-based outdoor play. There was a lot more freedom outside as long as no one was doing anything dangerous or getting hurt.

The philosophy at our Montessori school was that the children learned what was appropriate behavior in each setting. In the classroom, they spoke in whispers so that a conversation by a student with teacher or even the occasional student-to-student conversation was not distracting or disruptive to the other students. They learned that in the learning setting, they needed to be quiet and do their work. They learned that in the daycare setting they could play and talk but not yell. They learned that outdoors, they could yell or make noise as much as they wanted. It was because of this training that it was easier for us to take our 2-4 year olds out to restaurants and other people's homes (people without children). We would make sure to get them outside time before or after such visits but they were good about knowing the difference between sitting at a table in a restaurant and being at the playground (which a lot of children these days don't seem to understand).

We later moved them to a different program, but it wasn't because of dissatisfaction with the Montessori school. That experience was very good for us and we are still friends with many of the families that we met there and our kids bonded very well with the other kids in that program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the poster who said "Montessori discourages creativity" ---- I respectfully disagree! (Montessori teacher.)

I'm the PP who wrote that. Can you give me some examples of ways that you feel that Montessori encourages creativity? I'm a teacher in a different type of program, and I've been able to spend several full days observing in different local Montessori programs, including programs that get a lot of love here. I've also talked with colleagues who have seen other popular programs. Finally, I've had the experience of integrating students into my program, coming from Montessori.

I'm well aware that this thread is 6 years old as is this comment, but since the thread was revived and someone is asking questions about Montessori, I thought I would chime in on this. I'm the PP above with the twins.

In our Montessori school, the school was run by two sisters who were both Montessori trained by their mother. Their mother was actually trained by Maria Montessori herself. The mother was largely retired, but was still the figurehead of the school. The two sisters served as the managers (one was the business manager and the other was the educational program manager). All three had input on the teachers and curriculum and procedures of the school. They had four schools and all three rotated throughout the four schools throughout the week, so there was at least one of them at each school for at least part of every day.

Each room had six subject matter areas. During each three hour "day", each child was expected to complete at least one work project form each subject matter area. As long as they complete one task from each station, they could manage their own time.

My twins were very different. One likes to get a project, do the lesson associated with it and then move on to another project/task. He would complete 15-20 tasks in 3 hours, plus take breaks in between. He would do a his task, then pack it back up and then he would walk a maze-like pattern (like Billy from "Family Circus") around the room, circling some of his friends to see what they were doing, occasionally whispering something to a friend, stopping to whisper to one of the teachers put the project back, go get a snack (they had a table with fruit and light healthy snacks that kids could visit throughout the session), wander by the window to look out, then get another project to work on.

My other son was very fixated on things and hated to change until he was ready. He would do 6-8 tasks in a session. He would do the assigned lesson, then after the teacher reviewed it with him to make sure he learned his lesson, he would sit and play with the task. He would take cylinders and try to build pyramids and he learned about balance and the difference between building a right-side up pyramid and an upside down pyramid. He sit and explore the materials and components. As long as he completed one task per section and learned the given lesson from the tasks, he was free to explore his own creativity with the materials. We had one visitation per semester where we would sit in a corner quietly and watch the class for an hour. It was quite interesting to see my second son exploring the materials.

In fact, he was the reason we chose Montessori. In the play-based daycare that they were in before, he would come in and do morning play. At a certain time, they would get ready for breakfast and everyone would be told to put the toys away and wash hands for breakfast. If he wasn't done exploring with his toy, he would hate to transition, especially since he usually ate breakfast before coming, so he wanted to just play, but they wouldn't let him. Then they would have some more free play after breakfast while the teachers cleaned up. Then they would have to put the toys away so that they could have circle time. Each time they transitioned to something else, he would have difficulties because he wasn't done with what he was doing/exploring. Montessori was wonderful for him because he was able to learn the expectations of completing one task from each subject but he was able to transition when he was ready instead of when the group was ready. The teachers just kept reminding him periodically "Don't forget, you still have to do these stations" and he would get to them. In fact, it suited both kids well. The one who was used to doing a lot of things was able to finish the lessons and have time to do other things he wanted to. Both had a lot of options for creativity.

And when we left to go to a different school, we recommended our school to friends who had children 1 and 3 years younger than our kids. This family has now been there for four years across the two children (the older is now in a charter elementary school, but the younger is still at the Montessori) and they love it too. We've kept up on the school through them and the policies are still much the same now as they were a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

We will be at the new Montessori Public School of Arlington. For anyone looking for individualized education, that is Montessori. It's not tracking, but it's letting the kids lead themselves farther where they are strong (and get help where need be)