Is Montessori worth it if you don’t do kindergarten?

[Anonymous]

I know it’s typically a 3 year program so I’m interested to hear thoughts on people who only did 2 years and not kindergarten. Is it worth it?

[Anonymous]

It's hard to compare without having sent elsewhere. In our experience, Montessori does a nice job teaching pre-reading and reading skills in the first two years. Most of the kids seem to be at least sounding out CVC words by the end of the second year and all are expected to know their letter sounds by then. Our kids also really loved their preprimary teachers and had a great time.

I wouldn't make claims about how much it's "worth" in terms of additional cost or inconvenience. Maybe other places are just as great.

We have kept our kids in Montessori into elementary, so I can't speak to the adjustment or transition.

[Anonymous]

Is your child thriving and happy in the current classroom? Will they have the same teacher(s) in the kindergarten year and other peers in that age group? If you can afford it and the answer is yes to these questions then I think it's worth it. Montessori kids really look forward to being the "leaders" as kindergartners in the primary class.

[Anonymous]

"Worth it" is really a personal and subjective decision.
I will say that I am *so* glad we kept our two kids there for the third year. As a PP said, the kids typically are really excited to be the leaders. I was also amazed at how much they learned and developed in the third year. You could really see how the materials all came together and how much they learned and how much they grew in confidence and independence.

Would they have grown that much in K at their regular public school? Maybe. They both went to public for first and did great there too. But they both still talk fondly about their montessori classrooms and all the cool things they did there, and the freedom and independence and responsibility that had that they miss in their traditional classroom.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is a long time Montessori kid. She had several friends go to public for the KG year and their parents were really disappointed by the level of academics in public, and this was in highly rated elementary schools. I guess keeping them in Montessori would have just postponed that disappointment another year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is a long time Montessori kid. She had several friends go to public for the KG year and their parents were really disappointed by the level of academics in public, and this was in highly rated elementary schools. I guess keeping them in Montessori would have just postponed that disappointment another year.

This was our experience. My daughter attended Montessori for four years and once she entered MCPS, she did not learn anything new until the end of 2nd grade. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely. It was such a great program for our DCs. After two years and upon turning 5, we sent them on to Kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is a long time Montessori kid. She had several friends go to public for the KG year and their parents were really disappointed by the level of academics in public, and this was in highly rated elementary schools. I guess keeping them in Montessori would have just postponed that disappointment another year.

Not Montessori, but our kid went to a pretty learning-focused preschool. He did not learn much in public K-1. But I don't blame public school for that and that should be expected.

I don't think sending our kid to our preschool's K program would have been worth it. I'd rather save the money.

[Anonymous]

My niece's Montessori school only accepts children whose parents agree to stay for kindergarten believing it's not fair to the child not to finish it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My niece's Montessori school only accepts children whose parents agree to stay for kindergarten believing it's not fair to the child not to finish it out.

It's not that it's unfair for the kid. I suspect that it's to keep the tuition even and regular, instead of having parents pull out for K and not being able to replace that spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My niece's Montessori school only accepts children whose parents agree to stay for kindergarten believing it's not fair to the child not to finish it out.

It's not that it's unfair for the kid. I suspect that it's to keep the tuition even and regular, instead of having parents pull out for K and not being able to replace that spot.

They have no trouble 'filling the spot'. It's truly unfair to the child and to the fidelity of the multi-age classroom that people are paying for. Don't do it if you only want to spend two of the three years in the Montessori classroom. There are plenty of two-year programs around.