Help me understand the difference between Montessori and play-based preschool
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Anonymous
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We are thinking of enrolling our daughter in a nearby montessori preschool. It seems pretty similar to all other preschools we visited, perhaps with a bit more of a focus on independence, self care and care for the classroom (e.g. there's a focus on the kids feeding themselves, cleaning up after meals, etc.). Other than the slight focus on self care, it seems pretty similar to all other preschools--kids can play and explore at different stations during the day, have outdoor time, art time, etc. I feel like I'm missing something about what Montessori means at the pre-school level. My daughter will be in the "2s" class. She's a quiet kid who tends to get overwhelmed when there's a lot of noise and chaos. The thing we liked about the Montesorri environment is that it seemed pretty calm when we visited.
Thoughts? |
Anonymous
| The biggest differences in the schools where we toured is that at the montessori schools, each object (toy, work, whatever you want to call it) had a specific purpose and a specific way the child was supposed to use it. In contrast, at the playbased schools, the kids were encouraged to explore the material as they wished, including combining materials according to their individual goals/imaginations. |
Anonymous
| Hmmm... Thanks for that comment, but I still can't really see how this plays out in real life. So, at a montessori school, if a kid is playing with (working on?) a puzzle, and decides to pretend that the pieces are dinosaurs, are they corrected? |
Anonymous
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There is no standard Montessori approach - it really varies widely how it is actually practices.
But, pp is right. Montessori has a curated collection of "toys" that follow the preschool developmental trajectory. The idea is that as a child matures s/he will naturally select what is best for their particular stage (and become bored with whatever toys target already acquired skills). Play-based is more like letting kids create the toys that are developmentally appropriate, and that through play they will practice what they need to in order to develop skills. So, there might be a morning lesson and then the stations in theory have supporting activities. (Play-based gone wrong is when all the stations look like pinterest and there's no ground-up creativity from the kids.) We've had our kids in both and have been equally happy. They both had outdoor classrooms and we felt like they were letting kids be kids. |
Anonymous
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The below is my understanding as a parent of a second-year Montessori preprimary student. I'm not a Montessori professional, and our school is not formally certified, so take with a grain of salt.
Montessori has a dedicated "work period" during which the children do "works." The works are done in a specific manner for the acquisition of specific skills, often with multiple skills being developed during each work. The same items (e.g. beads) may be used in multiple ways, for "works" of increasing complexity as a child masters and combines simpler skills. A child may only take out one work at a time, amd must put it away before selecting another. A child may only do those works which have been presented to them. More advanced works will not be presented until a child is deemed ready by virtue of mastering the prerequisite works. Some works allow for more artistry and creativity (watercolor painting, metal insets). Many don't, especially many of the early math and language works. But the works do an amazing job building skills in a way that is fun for the kids. The "work period" is not play time. The kids often enjoy it and are very proud of themselves, but it requires a lot of concentration for their age. They will be redirected if they are not using the works properly. If they are attempting to use the work properly, but make mistakes, many of the works are designed to facilitate independent self-correction by the child. See here for many of the basic pre-primary works: infomontessori.com A Montessori preschool will probably also have a significant amount of non-work-period time. At our religious Montessori, this includes prayer recess, lunch, nap, aftercare, gym, and music. During some of these times, children are free to play however they want and to socialize freely (as opposed to focusing on their work). |
Anonymous
In my experience touring a local Montessori - yes. My 2-year-old took down a set of blocks and began stacking them, and the teacher quickly swooped in and corrected her, saying that the blocks were only for laying out in a specific pattern. Same thing with different instruments on a shelf - 2 YO attempted to ring one of the lined-up chimes with a xylophone mallet and the teacher removed it from her hand. YMMV, but this was a dealbreaker for me - we're sticking with play-based all the way. I'm sure some Montessori schools are more or less strict, but I didn't like the rigidity at all, especially for such young children. Another quirk: "true" Montessori is mixed age classes of 3-5 year olds (3-year learning cycle). A friend of mine in CA felt that in practice, this meant the older kids in her child's program completely steamrolled the younger ones, "helping" them by drawing over their artwork, writing her child's name for her (and spelling it wrong), etc. I think it would take a truly skilled teacher (and an equal mix of 3s, 4s, and 5s in the class) to make this work - but generally in this area, the classes skew either young or old. |
Anonymous
Yes. |
Anonymous
| So why do people like Montessori? It sounds awful... |
Anonymous
PP here - the parents of an enrolled student at the aforementioned open house said they appreciated that the classroom was calm and orderly compared to a play-based preschool (which they described as 'rowdy'). I'm sure some children do really well with the self-directed nature of the program, and I can see how a well-managed mixed-age classroom could have developmental benefits. Still not for us, though 
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Anonymous
| My son did a trial day in a Montessori classroom and the teacher said he was playing with the broom. She said he was pretending it was a leaf blower. She was unhappy with this and also unhappy with his "unwillingness" to use it as demonstrated "multiple times." I tried not to burst out laughing and nodded solemnly but it was completely ridiculous. He was 2 years old. I enrolled him a play based preschool where he could pretend all he liked. |
Anonymous
In our experience, kids learn way more in a montessori classroom. Not all parents want this - some prefer that they play just be kids while they're young and wait to focus on academics until the later years. It's also a much calmer space, if that makes sense. Once again, not all parents want this. They also have much higher quality educational materials - the minimum set of material to be considered a 'true' montessori classroom is fairly extensive (and expensive!). They also learn to wait for their turn with stations/materials since there's often just one of each thing in a classroom and there's a focus on practical life skills (usually there's just a one-person painting station set up, for example, with a smock that they're expected to use, and they get their own water from the sink and clean their own brushes afterwards, etc). If those things don't stand out to you as being positive, then montessori probably isn't for you. I can honestly say that I have zero interest in a "play-based preschool", so maybe if you're on the fence then you have your answer. |
Anonymous
| Judging from my friends' kids who go to Montessori, they leave significantly ahead in academics. By middle elementary school, though, where anyone went to preschool is irrelevant. |
Anonymous
I think you can find those "positive" behavioral things in a play-based school - even the 'basic' church-basement preschool my children attended had free play stations where students had to share and take turns (one or two easels, one or two baby dolls to care for, etc). Agree that Montessori probably has a more consistently academic tone, though. |
Anonymous
We got a student from a Montessori school in my first grade classroom this year. He is significantly behind the other students in reading. I talked to his teacher and she said that students get to choose what to do and he mostly wanted to do math and science so that's what he did. Nobody made him do anything else so he didn't. Yeah, that's not how the world works kiddo. He had a hard adjustment because he was used to do what he wanted all of the time. |
Anonymous
That is also not how real Montessori works. Does he know his letters? Basic sounds? If so, he’s not actually behind in reading for 1st grade in any important way. |