[VA] Montessori schools & reading

[Anonymous]

We are in VA and want a Montessori school for DD. We already decided against play-based.

Which VA Montessori schools are good at teaching reading ? which curriculum is each school using for this ? what age do they start with phonics ? and which age do they start with reading pre-primers ?

Thanks !

[Anonymous]

I can't speak to specific schools (don't live in VA), but I recommend you find an accredited AMS or AMI Montessori school. There are lots of places that call themselves Montessori but actually aren't. When they start teaching reading/pre-reading schools really depends on the child more than the school. Kids move at their own pace and some are not ready or interested while others are. This isn't something a good teacher will push if the child is not ready. That said, phonemic awareness is baked into daily activities even for 2 year olds. ("If your name starts with an S sound, you can go wash your hands.") It's fairly common for kids to be fluent readers at age 4 in some schools: the problem then is that the parents of kids who aren't doing that get upset, which isn't fair to their own child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak to specific schools (don't live in VA), but I recommend you find an accredited AMS or AMI Montessori school. There are lots of places that call themselves Montessori but actually aren't. When they start teaching reading/pre-reading schools really depends on the child more than the school. Kids move at their own pace and some are not ready or interested while others are. This isn't something a good teacher will push if the child is not ready. That said, phonemic awareness is baked into daily activities even for 2 year olds. ("If your name starts with an S sound, you can go wash your hands.") It's fairly common for kids to be fluent readers at age 4 in some schools: the problem then is that the parents of kids who aren't doing that get upset, which isn't fair to their own child.

Yes, the above is correct. A school with AMI or AMS recognition is a good bet, or IMC as well, but there also fully-implemented Montessori schools that are not accredited and yet still authentic. As you tour schools, you will want to make sure that these 5 things are present: 1) Montessori guides who have attended training programs that are endorsed by the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education; 2.) classes have uninterrupted work cycles (2.5-3 hours daily for 3-6); 3.) mixed age classrooms (3-6 is called Primary or children's house); 4.) classrooms contain specially designed Montessori materials; 5.) self-directed learning (children should have freedom of movement and the ability to choose work that interests them.)

If you select a school that has the 5 core components implements, the curriculum will be essentially the same (there a slight variations between teaching programs, but the lessons and materials are all the same as designed by Dr. Montessori). Language curriculum represents an entire section of the classroom, and children are free to choose work from that area. The guide will also give lessons in a highly sequenced order based upon your child's readiness. The guide will assess readiness through observation (another core Montessori principle). Younger children are also free to watch the lessons being given to older children, which works to spark interest and motivate the younger ones to complete the prerequisite lessons.

In Montessori, instruction in writing comes before reading. During the first year the focus will really be on learning and mastering phonetic letter sounds and connecting those sounds to the letter symbols. In Montessori, no one cares if your child can repeat the alphabet or look at a B and say "bee" because that is not the sound that letter makes! Once the letter sounds have been mastered, the child will begin to construct and sound out words phonetically using a material called the moveable alphabet. At the same time, SO MANY activities in the classroom are designed to help the child develop their hand strength and fine motor skills as a prerequisite to writing with a pencil. As these skills come together, the child will experience an "explosion" of interest and ability with writing, and then reading comes very naturally and much more easily. I've seen this happen for children typically in the last part of their 2nd year and into the 3rd year. Very occasionally a 3 year old is ready to read. A trained guide will know exactly when to offer lessons in the sequence to each individual child based on their observations of that child.

OP, I highly recommend that you tour some schools, ask to observe in a classroom, and do more research on the Montessori Method and how the three-year curriculum unfolds so that you are not surprised or disappointed. As an administrator at a Montessori school, I find that parents who are fixated on one or two subject areas (math, reading) struggle with trusting and understanding the method of instruction, and they either end up leaving the school early or being at odds with their child's teacher. Most of us were educated in traditional schools with a one-size-fits-all approach and it can be hard to trust a child-led, developmentally-centered method of instruction. But it is SO worth it!

Resources for learning more: www.amshq.org; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_m6OIqYH4Q