A More "Academic" Preschool

[Anonymous]

Rosslyn Children's Center has an amazing 4's and 5's classroom. Our daughter did the 5's room (really Kindergarten) as a 4 year old and loved it! She 'repeated' at a big 3 school and had an amazing foundation compared to classmates who were almost a year older (and we did not push reading or anything either year). While it is a 'day care' of sorts geared toward working parents - some of her classmates arrived for morning circle time (9:30 am) and left either right before nap/quiet time (1 pm or 3 pm). The 5's teacher has been there 10+ years and runs a 'tight' ship but with a caring hand. With 2 children, we were at RCC for almost 8 years! Since you live in Arlington - it would be worth checking out - infant/toddler Wl are long but 4/5's should not be. Another option is Arlington Public school Pre-schools at some elementary programs - they begin at age 3 and are 'part day' follwing the school calendar. Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

ts also nice not to have all the plastic toys and commercial characters floating around. I'm not a big fan of some of the arts and crafts that my kids did in a play based program. DD was also excited to paint at home with me because she could paint abstractly or whatever she wanted on an easel. In the play based program they were always gluing foamies on some outline the teacher drew which IMO isn't all that creative.

The play based program that were in also seemed really chaotic. Very loud, kids running around, and then being constantly told to sit down and X,Y, or Z only to shift onto something else.

This sounds like a bummer of a preschool on several fronts -- but it is not representative of the better play-based programs with which I am familiar. In fact it in no way resembles them. With all the respect due a fine Montessori school, I believe you are making an unfair comparison of the general school types because you had the misfortune of attending a badly conceived, badly executed non-Montessori school.

I agree. What the first PP describes, especially the gluing foamies on an outline for art, sounds like the opposite of a good "play-based" preschool. It also sounds like a poorly managed classroom period.

For what it is worth, I visited a supposed Montessori preschool where kids were running around, being told to sit down, being yelled at etc. I realized that this was not a problem with the Monetssori method per se, but with that particular class, school and teacher.