s/o: What is the best fit for Montessori?

[Anonymous]

Not the OP of the Aidan Montessori thread, but another family who is seriously considering Aidan and also other Montessori schools. I know some about Montessori but not a ton. My kid is kind of an extrovert so I worry that in a classroom where he gets to choose his own work, he would get too distracted or would just spend the whole time yakking with other kids. I understand that not all educational pedagogies, Montessori included, are right for every kid or family. Montessori families: What seems to be the personality type that is the best fit for Montessori?

[Anonymous]

I think kids who are very persistent, task-oriented, and interested in sorting/counting/manipulating/observing do well in Montessori.

[Anonymous]

Also kids who are less physical. Montessori is not great for high energy kids. Not surprisingly, boys are disproportionately booted out of Montessori programs.

[Anonymous]

Our Montessori school is probably 75% boys. I actually think they do well BECAUSE they can move (ie, not sit in chairs)

[Anonymous]

Kids who have their own "pace" of work and don't want to fit a schedule as set by other schools. Our twins had issues in their first play-based daycare/preschool. One likes to work with a given toy/project until he's figure everything out about it. He hated to be interrupted by "It's group circle time. Put away your toys and come to the circle," when he wasn't done with what he was trying to figure out. The other twin is flighty and works with something until he has a solution or the lesson and then it done. If the group is working on it, once he has the answer, he loses interest and wants to go do something else even if the teacher is still trying to do a group lesson or if it's still time for X activity. He gets bored and antsy because he's ready for something else.

The student-driven pace of learning in Montessori worked out well for them. Twin A would work on 3 projects in one hour, while Twin B would work on about 12-15 in an hour. Our Montessori school allows the students to focus on any project as long as they want provided they learn the lesson expected from the project. So, for Twin A, that meant that once he got the assigned lesson, he was free to explore the activity, pieces, try different configurations, etc. Twin B loved the self-pacing because he would do the project, finish the expected lesson, put it away and was free to find something else to do. And as long as he got the expected lesson from the project, he could move on again. It worked amazingly well for them being so self-paced and environment. My kids flourished in this environment and learned at an amazing pace. I personally think the self-pacing made a world of difference in their level of progress.

[Anonymous]

If your child is very imaginative, I'd look elsewhere. My DS loved pretending and his teachers always tried to "correct" him when he would pretend a broom was a leaf blower for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your child is very imaginative, I'd look elsewhere. My DS loved pretending and his teachers always tried to "correct" him when he would pretend a broom was a leaf blower for example.

This varies by school and teacher. I'm the PP with twins above and we have had no issue with imaginative play. The restriction on imaginative play at our Montessori school is only during the 2.5-3 hour Montessori class. So, essentially, when they are trying to get the children focused on their projects and the lessons. Our kids are in daycare at the Montessori school both before and after. There is no constraint on imaginative play in the before-care, daycare, aftercare periods. Nor is there any restriction during the 3 20-40 minute playground times. We see our Montessori classmates routinely at many birthday parties on weekends. These kids do not suffer from constrained imaginative play. And frankly, I don't really see a problem with discouraging imaginative play in one set of lessons that takes up only about 1/4 to 1/3 of their day. This is akin to discouraging imaginative play during group session or alphabet lessons in a play-based school. I fail to see a problem with saying that imaginative play is discouraged during a given lesson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also kids who are less physical. Montessori is not great for high energy kids. Not surprisingly, boys are disproportionately booted out of Montessori programs.

I think this is not true at all.

OP, I would tour a few Montessori type schools--they're all a little different in how they practice. Like Oneness stresses quiet and calm during work time. Waldorf (which is a related teaching approach) stress outside time every day.

[Anonymous]

Waldorf IS NOT a teaching approach that is "related" to Montessori. It's a completely different philosophical approach that emphasizes engagement with the natural world.

Amazing what misinformation can be spread through DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also kids who are less physical. Montessori is not great for high energy kids. Not surprisingly, boys are disproportionately booted out of Montessori programs.

Our experience has been the opposite. My very energetic, active boy did not do well in a play-based program because he didn't like being interrupted in what he was working on because now it was art time, or circle time, or whatever. He liked to work at his own speed and keep working on the thing he was interested in, and he could also move about the classroom to choose his work. So Montessori has been a good fit for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our Montessori school is probably 75% boys. I actually think they do well BECAUSE they can move (ie, not sit in chairs)

What quality preschool programs have kids sitting in chairs for significant amounts of time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your child is very imaginative, I'd look elsewhere. My DS loved pretending and his teachers always tried to "correct" him when he would pretend a broom was a leaf blower for example.

<sigh> I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I agree that imaginative play is discouraged during the "work cycle" time in the Montessori classroom. So a kid can't use the pink tower blocks to build a castle for dragons, for example. But on the other hand, I take one of the other poster's point that the students have lots of time outside of the work cycle to engage in imaginative play, such as on the playground. And my own kid, who has been in Montessori since he was a toddler, is very creative and often spends time at home making up little stories and acting them out with his toys. As structured as his class time is, it doesn't seem to have dampened his active imagination. So while I sometimes wish there was more free flow or "pretending" within the classroom, I also see the value of the structure. I go back and forth about this with my spouse all the time

[Anonymous]

I'd say if you have a kid who tends to be more anxious, Montessori probably would not be the best fit - you'd need someplace less structured.

And if you're a high maintenance parent, forget it. Most Montessori schools make no bones about not dealing with those types. Communication with parents is not a strong suit for these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think kids who are very persistent, task-oriented, and interested in sorting/counting/manipulating/observing do well in Montessori.

+1 The math-oriented kids seem to do really well in Montessori. The math aspect of the curriculum is very strong. I think generally kids who are experiential learners also tend to fit well in Montessori.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd say if you have a kid who tends to be more anxious, Montessori probably would not be the best fit - you'd need someplace less structured.

And if you're a high maintenance parent, forget it. Most Montessori schools make no bones about not dealing with those types. Communication with parents is not a strong suit for these schools.

In fact, many kids with anxiety need more structure, not less. We rejected montessori for my highly anxious kid because it wasn't structured enough (or, rather, was structured in the wrong way). She would have found one lesson to do over and over and over again, which would have been allowed (at least at the school we looked at) but not healthy for her development.