Montessori vs. traditional daycare/preschool?
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desigirl
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Hi,
I am a new Mom looking for opinions on Montessori vs. traditional daycare/preschool. My daughter will be 18 months soon and we want to migrate her from in-home care (by grandma) to a daycare and eventually preschool. I have 2 questions: Do Montessori schools accept toddlers as part of a daycare program or do they only accept preschool kids? What would be the benefit of sending my child to a Montessori-run daycare (if one exists) versus the traditional daycare/preschool like Bright Horizons? Also any recommendations for Montessori and/or daycare/preschool in the Falls Church, VA area would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. |
Anonymous
| I don't think there is such a thing as a Montessori daycare. Some montessori schools have twos programs. The true Montessori style classroom starts at age 3. And IMO not every child is a good fit for Montessori - mine wasn't. |
Anonymous
| There are 18 months - 3 year old rooms at some Montessori schools. Some of these are run well and others aren't. You have to be a little careful there because there isn't as much of a set curriculum with the 2's as it is in a primary classroom. |
Anonymous
Why not? |
Anonymous
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Not PP, but some kids really prefer or even need a lot more structure and teacher-directed activities at that age. Doesn't mean anything about the child's intelligence or aptitude for learning - some just don't thrive in the montessori environment. There is structure to the montessori environemnt, but it is obviously very different from a traditional academic preschool. Different strokes for different folks.
My children are both in a montessori program and they are absolutely thriving. |
Anonymous
| Different PP. I think mine were able to learn more on their own after they had a good foundation they can build from. This is why I'm a bit against some of the 2's classrooms. While I think free choice is important, I feel they are a little relaxed about introducing children to all aspects of learning. They also don't have as much of a mixed age where older kids can teach younger kids. Even the older 2's can't really teach the younger kids too much. I think during that age range it is important to introduce kids to many different things so then they can take off and learn more on their own. Some Montessori schools are better than this than others. And some traditional schools are too structured for that age range as well. It really depends on the school and teacher. You'll just have to visit them all and decide for yourself. That's what we had to do. |
Anonymous
| Msnv has a falls church location. The youngest age they take is 2. |
Anonymous
| What exactly does it mean that Montessori isn't structuredor directed? What do the kids do during the day? Just curious. |
kkastorf
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I don't think its accurate to call it unstructured. Its actually more structured than some or most "Free Play" or "Play-Based" centers.
Students typically have their choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options, are allowed a lot of uniterrupted work time, and learn primarily through manipulating materials rather than direct instruction. If you visit a classroom, it does sometimes look like the children are entertaining themselves, but obviously a lot of thought has been put into which options to offer the children, how the options are structured to move individual children from one skill to the next, etc. And, if the center is well-run, the teachers are free to give children individual attention. I would describe it as a good option for a child who DOES need structure, but is not inclined to learn by listening and discussing. It would probably not be a good fit for a child who is not very self-motivated but is good at looking and listening. |
Anonymous
| From what I can tell, Montessorians believe a lot in intrinsic motivation. Traditional schools believe in a lot of extrinsic motivation. Some schools are in-between. Traditional schools have rules directed by the teacher for children to follow "Now it's time to sit down in a circle". "Now it's time to do activity "X", and they might have a free play time with few rules at all and at the end say "Now it's time to clean up". Montessorians teach rules that children are to follow themselves at all times without their direction. There are rules for pushing in your chair, choosing and putting away work, asking for help, much of the work is done a certain way, but there are little extrinsic motivators such as telling the child what to do when. So they both have structure but in different ways. |
Anonymous
| IMO some schools use Montessori as a way to justify 30kids to 2 teacher ratios. |
Anonymous
I can see this working well with older kids but 2s and 3s?? |
Anonymous
| From what I can tell, Montessori stresses individual "work" and responsibility. A play based school often stresses social skills so that children can function well in a group. IMHO, this is the most important thing that a preschooler can learn in order to be successful later in life. |
Anonymous
| 17:02 - as opposed to public schools, who justify 30 kids for 1 teacher? |
Anonymous
yes, but you're not paying nearly $2k per month for public school. |