The quiet got me. I visited a Montessori school bc it was closest to my home and the teachers all whispered and it was so quiet. And I thought about my rambunctious 2 year old -- that was never going to work. He did well at a play-based school. This school actually had a "Montessori room" where they practiced things like buttoning and sewing for 30 mins or so a day.

We know a kid that went from Montessori to play-based at 5, though, and he was a hellion. I think he really needed more structure and the play-based school had a lot of trouble with him.

Anonymous wrote:This is all anecdotal since we didn't continue with Montessori, but I think it can be great for some self-motivated kids and less of a good fit for others.

My twin niece and nephew definitely illustrate that. They were both in Montessori, but when their parents decided not to continue, the dad said it was because one of their kids needed "more inputs" -- meaning more direction -- than the other.

We left a more standard daycare/preschool for a Montessori-based one because one of my kids clearly needed more autonomy, and Montessori was a great choice. He was willing to follow certain rules if he could have control over other aspects of his day, such as what he spent his time on.

His brother once listed "red rods" as one of the things he was thankful for at Thanksgiving. The boy loved him some math, and continues to.

Are there still Montessoris that don't allow imaginative play? I keep hearing about them, but I've never seen one or heard from anyone whose kids attended one.

We had my DD in a Montessori preschool and the emphasis on independence was really valuable. You CAN learn it in any preschool, but it is a central focus of Montessori so they seem to master things much earlier in a Montessori environment. I also liked the seeming ability to differentiate more easily for elementary, but we did not pursue it past preschool so I don't know how it would have worked in practice. I do know not all schools, Montessori or otherwise, are created equal and knew a few older Montessori kids that ended up very far ahead in some subject areas and far behind in others. In traditional school they probably would have been in the middle all around. This is all anecdotal since we didn't continue with Montessori, but I think it can be great for some self-motivated kids and less of a good fit for others.