Anonymous wrote:Montessori isn't a trademarked term, I can open a day care tomorrow and call it Montesorri Magic Land. For this reason, it is suuuuuper important to tour and see the individual programs you are interested in.

DCUM has a bias against montessori--that it stifles children's creativity. I haven't experienced that, but my experience is with a single program. We sent our (now 9 year old) son through a local montessori from 3-6 and it was the best thing we could have done for him. He learned such amazing cooperative skills, improved his confidence in himself tenfold, and had fun. The playground was a nature based space where kids invented all sorts of creative games. It was a good fit for his personality--he would have been overwhelmed at the noise level and "controlled chaos" in the "play based" programs we toured, while the Montessori we chose always had a quiet hum of activity and paired partner work. He was able to work up through 4th grade math in kindergarten while staying on level in phonics and writing skills. It was a loving, cozy environment that caters to the individual child's needs.

But really, tour the individual program. They are all different.

It's more like the Montessori philosophy presents itself as open-minded and child-centered on a surface level, but when you examine it more thoroughly you see how obnoxiously rigid it is. Creativity expressed within a narrow pre-approved lane.

Our DC was happy at their play-based preschool, but we taught letters, phonics, and reading (using Bob books) at home for 10 minutes each day. Consider doing this little bit to help with reading and reading readiness, no matter which preschool one chooses.

Btw, there are several people on DCUM who either dislike Montessori or do not understand it. So anything Montessori gets bashed here pretty regularly.

Anonymous wrote:Are there “traditional” preschools?

We could not find a traditional preschool in this area, but they do exist in other metro areas. I think we would have preferred that. Something which combined play with circle time with recess and also with short daily periods of 1:1 or 1:3 time with the teacher working on letters, numbers, phonics, reading, and simple addition/subtraction - which is what we had in a different metro and we were very very happy (as were DC).

Nearly all preschools here have circle time, outdoor play, and some free form play in the classroom. Every one which we visited had kids socializing with each other all the time.

We found that in Metro DC the labels on the various preschools were not informative at all. Each preschool was different. So-called Montessori were all over the map - even among those with AMS/AMI certification. Ditto with so-called play-based - we saw wild variations between preschools.

The most rigid preschool we saw called itself “play-based” (and was not using Montessori materials). Teachers aide was going around making sure toys were being used as she thought they should be - no pretending that a toy bus was an airplane, for example. The kids sat at tables for their equivalent of circle time.

The most flexible was actually an open classroom preschool which called itself Montessori. They did have Montessori materials on the shelf in the mornings and called the morning “work period”, but the kids were free to do whichever item however they wanted. The teacher would offer a “lesson” in how to use the material, but it was not required, and they tolerated students using other ways to handle the materials. After lunch & nap, that school switched to ordinary toys, also free form, and had lots of outdoor time both morning and evening.

Anonymous wrote:You should re-read what was written. It said based on limited experience and opinion. However, what are you debating? That a Montessori classroom is not more rigid than play based or that it is not more quiet? What research are you referring to?

DP
+1 I myself attended a Montessori program and have great memories of having an amazing teacher. But we decided against Montessori for our daughter because she suffers from anxiety and her therapist, who has worked with multiple children who attend Montessori schools, has directly observed how the rigidity can negatively affect children with anxiety.

You should re-read what was written. It said based on limited experience and opinion. However, what are you debating? That a Montessori classroom is not more rigid than play based or that it is not more quiet? What research are you referring to?