One of MDs most famous sons went to Montessori:

http://www.michaelolaf.net/google.html

9:36 I completely agree with you and wish it wasn't like this. Maria Montessori had some wonderful ideas, but she isn't the only educator out there that has. There are definitely some areas that are done extremely well and other areas of development that just aren't. Unfortunately I see this everywhere even in the traditional and play based schools. There are very few schools that really go outside of what they are very familiar with. It's more like they occasionally talk to the neighboring public school or sister preschool about any new things they're implementing and call that expanding their curriculum.

My older child had 3 years at a Montessori preschool and is going into first grade. He has maintained close friendships with 3 friends from that school. These are the friends that I love to have over for playdates. All 3 of them are 'calm and quiet' and able to self-entertain and don't ask for "Wii' or other video games, etc.

My own son knew all of his phonetic sounds and was pure genius at sounding out words and reading skill in K. He wasn't really reading going into K, but the prep and sounding out was there. He came out reading at a second grade level and has been slated for advanced pull out. His math skills were also way above grade. Unclear if this is natural ability or the result of Montessori education---prob a bit of both.

My second born son is going into his third year of a play-based preschool. He is having a blast, but I am quite concerned at the lack of basic instruction. I just think by 4.5--there should be some basic academic structure for at least 45-1 hour of the day. This is a pretty hard-core play-based place. We have been teaching him letters and numbers at home and we always read so I hope this is enough. The kids go to a very academically strong elem. school where the majority of kids are reading upon K entry.

"......request to be respected with their opinions and hate people interrupting their activities, sentences or thoughts."

This is a problem. Kids get interrrupted all the time in the real world. Adults do too. Not everyone in the real world is going to listen intently to the thoughts that your child has. Your child needs to learn to operate in an environment where activities do get interrupted and they can learn to adapt and be flexible.

The M way can be rigid, and can produce rigidity in kids' thinking. It can also encourage parents to think in a rigid way, if the parents are uncertain about their parenting philosophy and are willing to adopt the whole thing. The parents who became super-enthusiastic about M in our community were almost always people who had had unsatisfactory home/school lives themselves, and were latching onto this as a way to make sure their kids did not have any unsatisfactory experiences in their childhoods or schooling.

There is something about M that has always seemed a little cult-like. You have to buy into it, 100%. People who get into it, get WAY into it. If you question anything, people will say that you just don't see it correctly or understand all the merits of it.

00:34 I think the Montessori grammar materials are great. They seem to make a somewhat boring subject to many lively with all their concrete symbols for type of word and I think the farm display is adorable. Did you not use them growing up or do you just not remember learning grammar?

So what school did you eventually end up in? How was that better?

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Anonymous wrote:9:19. Most schools would not know how to handle children many years above their level. This isn't an issue particularly with Montessori that there weren't appropriate gifted materials. And some Montessori schools extend into elementary where they would have had more elementary materials available.

I agree with that. However, the Montessori school we were attending kept insisting that they could handle these kids. They couldn't.

BTW, our (AMI certified) school extended to 6th grade. It didn't help. They STILL didn't know what to do.

My observation of Montessori is that they don't know what to do with kids who are outside the norm. Learning disabilities or gifted or any other difference is beyond their capabilities to cope with. They often fail to identify LD kids.

This is counter intuitive. If the classroom has a 3 year spread in kids' age, then potentially the younger kids can learn the materials of the older kids all within the same classroom if they are up for the challenge. I have confirmed this with our montessori school teacher.

It completely depends on how fast the kid moves. My oldest grade skipped out of Primary after the first month of his kindergarten year. My the middle of his second year in the Lower Elementary class, he had worked through most of the material in that classroom and had finished all of the material that was interesting to him. They tried grade skipping him again to the Upper Elementary class, but he wasn't emotionally mature enough to be in a class with kids who were 2-5 years older than he was. Age-wise he was supposed to be in second grade, not fourth, even though he was doing work at the 4th to 6th grade level. He asked to go back to the Lower El with his friends, but the Lower El teacher didn't know how to expand the curriculum to meet his needs. He and I developed his curriculum for his last 3 months of Montessori.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9:19. Most schools would not know how to handle children many years above their level. This isn't an issue particularly with Montessori that there weren't appropriate gifted materials. And some Montessori schools extend into elementary where they would have had more elementary materials available.

I agree with that. However, the Montessori school we were attending kept insisting that they could handle these kids. They couldn't.

BTW, our (AMI certified) school extended to 6th grade. It didn't help. They STILL didn't know what to do.

My observation of Montessori is that they don't know what to do with kids who are outside the norm. Learning disabilities or gifted or any other difference is beyond their capabilities to cope with. They often fail to identify LD kids.

This is counter intuitive. If the classroom has a 3 year spread in kids' age, then potentially the younger kids can learn the materials of the older kids all within the same classroom if they are up for the challenge. I have confirmed this with our montessori school teacher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9:19. Most schools would not know how to handle children many years above their level. This isn't an issue particularly with Montessori that there weren't appropriate gifted materials. And some Montessori schools extend into elementary where they would have had more elementary materials available.

I agree with that. However, the Montessori school we were attending kept insisting that they could handle these kids. They couldn't.

BTW, our (AMI certified) school extended to 6th grade. It didn't help. They STILL didn't know what to do.

My observation of Montessori is that they don't know what to do with kids who are outside the norm. Learning disabilities or gifted or any other difference is beyond their capabilities to cope with. They often fail to identify LD kids.

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Anonymous wrote:He went from not reading at all to reading "The Hunger Games" by the end of the year.

I know it's off topic, but I am stunned...shocked and stunned that you let a kid that young read the Hunger Games. Wow. Reading level isn't everything, content matters for age appropriateness too.

I didn't ask you.

He asked to read it and he hasn't had any problems with the material. He's also read Ender's Game which is very dark. For that matter, Harry Potter is dark and lots of gifted kids read that in 1st or 2nd grade.

Anonymous wrote:9:19. Most schools would not know how to handle children many years above their level. This isn't an issue particularly with Montessori that there weren't appropriate gifted materials. And some Montessori schools extend into elementary where they would have had more elementary materials available.

I agree with that. However, the Montessori school we were attending kept insisting that they could handle these kids. They couldn't.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My school used Montessori for math and sciences only and it was the perfect combo for my personality. DD is 2 and will start Montessori next week. I'm so excited!

We'll see how she'll do and go from there. Montessori is not for everyone.

How so?

If the kid needs close interaction with an adult, if they need directions for every single step for example M is not for them. M fosters indepence. Kids who crave leadership don't do well in M.

hah, secretly bashing kids who don't go to Montessori. I am surprised you didn't add "If your kid is below average intelligence" to your list. GTFO.

Not really, not everybody is a leader and that's fine. We need everybody to work their full potential. If your child prefers to have the one on one interaction with a teacher (and that's fine!) they will never thrive in a class where the ratio is 8:1 - what's true in a M class.

My brother never did well in M and my mom sent him to another school. He's still better than me in Math. He thrived in the environment with lots of structure and prediction of the routine while I thrived in the "chaos" of M class.

I was not at all trying to bash anybody, please forgive me if this is the impression I caused.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My school used Montessori for math and sciences only and it was the perfect combo for my personality. DD is 2 and will start Montessori next week. I'm so excited!

We'll see how she'll do and go from there. Montessori is not for everyone.

How so?

If the kid needs close interaction with an adult, if they need directions for every single step for example M is not for them. M fosters indepence. Kids who crave leadership don't do well in M.

hah, secretly bashing kids who don't go to Montessori. I am surprised you didn't add "If your kid is below average intelligence" to your list. GTFO.

I have two kids, one is in the primary program and one will start the lower elementary program in a montessori school. Both kids have very different personality. First born avidly follows and enforces rules, expects everything to have a "right" answer. Second child ignores rules (at least in the house), and is much more flexible in thinking. But both kids flourish in their montessori education. Very creative and independent in their learning, request to be respected with their opinions and hate people interrupting their activities, sentences or thoughts. Get very angry if I tell them the answer before they have a chance to prove themselves. Very curious and ask all kinds of questions. I don't know how much of these are due to their montessori education, but it is good enough for me to see happy, learning kids. Oh yes, they love to play hosts too, and much more vocal/social then their playmates. In terms of academics, my rising 1st grader is now fluent in reading, can do addition, substraction and simple multiplication. My second kid can sound out words and understand addition and substraction. The school taught them geography too. Couldn't have been happier.

i totally disagree with 13:13. all of the kids at my dd's montessri are well-ahead of the other 1st and K kids when they hit both private and public schools.

hi, i'm a montessori parent and my brothers went to montessori from ages 3-5 - they are both in business world and highly, highly successful - you would know the companies they own/run. my mother claims to this day that it was the montessori way that taught them math and that the public school system really doesn't teach math as well.

i love montessori b/c it teaches numbers and letters in a very natural way and integrates a lot of learning in each activity - polishing silver is an activity to learn activities of daily living and is also a pre-writing skill.