Anonymous wrote:Struggling with standard procedures of identifying numbers and letters on a daily basis but seems to do better in a one on one setting. Personality seems to play a bit of a role as the screen is quite noisy with all the kids doing class at once and that drives my child mad.

In person Montessori (or even online for next year of classes remain online). How would you presume a child would do if they are at K level and struggling in some areas with letter and number recognition? Is having a child in traditional schooling a better option if they struggle academically? We are dealing with some social anxiety as well.

You need to introduce more hands on practice. Something as simple as play-doh and sand can help. Do you use magnetic letters and numbers. They offer a tactile object to make it more concrete and less abstract. Think about what you did in kindergarten and what they would in the classroom in person...Glue cotton balls onto a letter then draw a picture of something that starts with that letter. Using a piece of string or yarn to form a letter. Going on a scavenger hunt looking for objects that start with that letter. Singing the abc song while pointing to the letters on a chart on the wall. Matching the letters using magnetic letters and the abc chart. Sesame Street is awesome for number and letter recognition. Start with those ideas and you might come up with a more on your own. Also invest in number and ABC books to reinforce it. Scholastic sells them at a discount.

My son was slow with letters and was in a Montessori charter for K. He did learn all his sounds throughout the year and made appropriate progress toward reading. I loved the Montessori environment for him - he doesn't transition super well so the long work periods were ideal. I thought he was thriving. His progress reports were average/passing in every area.

We switched to a different elementary close to our home for 1st grade that was not Montessori and it was VERY difficult because he was used to referring to the letters by the sound, not the letter name, and even through he was on track with reading he couldn't answer "what letter is this?" in the way they wanted the first try. They would ask him to spell CAT and he would say "cuh-aa-tuh" instead of C-A-T. That answer was right for Montessori but wrong for the regular school. He ended up repeating first grade and is on track now but the transition from Montessori made things more difficult for us.

I can share my child's experience in case it is helpful. He's done Montessori at a private until this year, now 2nd grade in DCPS. He is very noise sensitive! Such that we kept him a bit longer in Montessori since our local DCPS seemed loud/chaotic for him.

Funny thing that in his previous school, he was extremely focused, and I think this was a large part because of the format of the classroom, which was quiet and orderly. Looking at him now, he is super distractable, and I'd never know the focus he is capable of if we hadn't had the Montessori experience. I really think the format of the learning makes a huge difference. In his previous school he seemed so smart, and now he seems like a dud student having to follow directions and a painfully slow pace.

Also, about numbers, Montessori Math is really tactile and works to assign valve to numbers in a way that traditional math does not (at least not at that age). I wonder if yours would benefit from a Montessori Math tutor, which is available on places like outschool.com (we use one named Jackie who is fantastic). You'd have to buy some materials, but may be worth it? The 1-on-1 is so great at that age.

My kid is in Montessori and doing fine, but also think she would have been fine in a traditional school as well. Right now what's important is can they do in-person. The people talking about 1-on-1 time with teachers are forgetting that in Montessori apart from teachers, kids spend time learning from older kids as well, which in my experience is highly beneficial. But all that is a moot point in times of remote learning. If your kid is going to do DL rather than in-person, then you'd have to figure out specific schools and their DL. I am very happy with the way ours has handled DL, which has been so much better than "better" schools by DCUMs standards. So it really boils down to that particular school.

A lot of kids are suffering from anxiety this year. It might be beneficial for you to get them evaluated and if all is fine, then maybe you need a break and extra support. I don't really recommend getting a tutor for Pre-K or K kids but if it isn't working out at home, then getting a tutor might be helpful.