Reply to I don’t understand the Montessori hype

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[quote=Anonymous]Preschool options near us during the pandemic were pretty weak, so we wound up at a Montessori because it was by far the best of available options. There was a "STEM-based" PK as well but it was $$$ and I honestly do not think PK kids need that much academic teaching -- some play-based integration of pre-kindergarten readiness concepts is fine (pre-literacy, numbers, world awareness, etc.). And then there were a few play based PKs that allowed kids as young as 18 months, which is find for a young 3 but at some point you're kid just needs a bit more structure than that.

The Montessori school was a happy medium. The playtime was largely unstructured ("child driven") but the environment and days were very structured, which was great for this age because my DD really learned her routines and that's huge with 3/4 year olds. They didn't teach the kids to iron, but the did teach them to clean their little area after lunch or playing with art materials (they each had a little spray bottle and rag and they learned to wipe things down and make sure their chairs were pushed in). And they did clean up time where they put away all their toys before meals and rest time and the end of the day, and the kids really did it, it was kind of amazing. I feel like my kid gained some good independence there and some basic life skills, and it was also safe and they seemed to have fun. I probably would have preferred something with more music and more outdoor time. But again, options were limited.

Agree the quality in teachers varies a lot. I really liked the woman who ran the center we went to -- she was very knowledgeable and clearly was invested in the kids as individuals and spoke very affectionately and knowledgeably about DD. Some of the other teachers were not great and there was one in particularly my DD just could not stand because she was very rigid about potty visits and my DD is self directed about that and really resented it. But the other teachers weren't that way so it was only an issue every now and again, and honestly kids have to learn to deal with annoying or subpar teachers sometimes -- they will not all be amazing.

Overall a good experience and I'd recommend it, but if we'd had access to an Reggio Emilia based program with more outdoor play and a music program I would have picked that. Other than the cleaning up stuff, I don't know that the Montessori approach was superior to others, and those are skills you can teach other ways. But they were effective![/quote]

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