Montessori k-8 public pros & cons

[Anonymous]

Just curious what others experiences are for montessori in the upper grades. Applied to a charter in our area (frederick) and i know people who are happy with it but they tend to be a bit alternative already. I have 3 kids, oldest is currently in a regular public school kindergarten and loves it. I entered just to see if we get in mostly because the school has a preschool which is free! My fear is that mxed age classrooms in the upper grades might not be challenging enough ( DH was in a mixed reg ed class in elementary for 2 years and didn't learn anything the second year). Anyhow, we might not even get in since it's a lottery but just thinking it over.

[Anonymous]

We just moved DS from a private montessori to public 1st grade. I would have LOVED to keep him at his montessori school, but we just couldn't swing it (and we've been really happy with his public)

One of the defining aspects of a montessori school is that kids move at their own pace through the materials. So there really shouldn't be a situation that a kid wouldn't be challenged simply because it's their second or third year in the classroom - it's not structured so the teacher is teaching the same material to all the kids.
The upper elementary grades of a montessori school are also more "project based" (for lack of a better term) than traditional schools. Students are expected to take a topic or idea and run with it however far they want. I remember on the day we visited the school DS attended, two of the girls in the upper elem classroom were absent because they were at the Baltimore Aquarium. They had done a project about dolphins and wanted to know more about it, so they made arrangements for a meeting with one of the staff at the aquarium and went up there for a tour. They later came back and wrote up a report about their trip and presented some of the info to their class. On the other hand, other kids in the class had just done a more basic research project, and that was fine too.

[Anonymous]

My son is at a private Montessori preschool that also has grades 1-6, so I get some chances to hang out with the big kids.

The kids seem great, well accustomed to talking to adults, and intellectually stimulated.

At the same time, it is definitely a hyper nurturing environment that allows much quirkiness to thrive. This is great in some senses, but I feel like some of these kids are either going to have a super tough transition to public middle school, or need to find another hyper nurturing and cloistered option for 7th-12th grades.