Reply to Help me understand the difference between Montessori and play-based preschool

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=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?[/quote]

This was our experience at Aiden Montessori, yes.  Our child was corrected by the teacher and also by other kids, often older due to the mixed agree classes. He was also not allowed to use or touch a toy unless he had first been instructed in its proper use.  It was not a good fit for us.[/quote]

This was our experience as well, with a different school. We participated in a one-day-a-week parent-toddler program for under 2s. Although I liked all the toys, I was turned off by the way the teacher constantly corrected DD. For example, she was not allowed to use the ball out of the shape sorter for anything other than putting it back in the hole. There were rules about everything. It even made me feel anxious. One (older) child was immediately shushed when he started singing the ABC song. Apparently, it's a big no-no in Montessori. I know that it probably depends on a particular school. But this was not a good fit for DD. [/quote]

Montessori methods are designed for 3+. The fact that anyone is trying to apply them to a 1 year old is a big red flag to me. I'd ignore anything said by someone who thinks 1 year olds should follow a methodology designed for 3-6.[/quote]

PP here. This makes much more sense. Most kids in the parent-toddler class were not verbal and probably only had limited receptive language. So, it felt like the parents had to be constantly on top of their children, correcting them to comply with the teacher's rule. I can see that a 3 year old should be able to follow directions much better. [/quote]

Mmm, I disagree. Again, this is going to be school dependent. My son's is age 0-6, and most of the stuff in the infant and toddler rooms are very similar to what you'd see at a "traditional" daycare with a few significant modifications. For the babies (0-20 months or so), there's more of an emphasis on self-feeding and getting dressed by themselves, which I found ridiculously helpful. For the toddlers, they're big into fairly early potty training and getting the kids to help prepare their own meals -- meal time is a big, time-consuming deal where the kids prepare the fruit, set the table, wash the dishes, and so on. "Play" is called "work," but it's basically just the same as normal play except kids are supposed to respect when other kids are playing with something and wait their turns, and toys are set up as "kits." But, the kits are manipulateable -- they don't enforce that they be used in a certain way; that doesn't happen until they're in the primary classroom where some of the kits are instructional materials for teaching math and language and geography and what have you. But, I have noticed that the kids who started in the infant room are more independent and self-sufficient than those who started later on, so I think that the daycare choosing to offer these younger "grades" is both a function of convenience for the parents and a way to instill the Montessori ethos early on.

My son, age 2, sings the ABC song without chastisement, understands how to share ("we're working on it together"), can take turns, has plenty of prosocial 2 year old behaviors ('so and so is my friend,' 'teachers says there's no such thing as best friends'), cares for dolls, cleans up after himself, and knows how to wash dishes and sweep. It's been a good fit for him.

But, again, this is going to be school dependent.  A lot of what my son's school does probably happens at plenty of traditional daycares, the lingo is just a little different.  The more significant differences start to appear in the 3-5 classroom. [/quote]

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