Anonymous
Post 03/18/2026 11:29     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As another parent who couldn't afford private, we entered the language immersion lottery to get our bright child more stimulation in early ES, before AAP began. Thankfully we got a spot and both our kids benefited from that program.

Interesting. Can they do language immersion and AAP, or do you have to choose? Are they learning a second language? If so, seems like a little -, understood option.


At Kent Gardens they can do language immersion and AAP together. And yes, they're learning French. Not enough to become fluent by this alone, but a lot more than they would otherwise!
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2026 07:23     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As another parent who couldn't afford private, we entered the language immersion lottery to get our bright child more stimulation in early ES, before AAP began. Thankfully we got a spot and both our kids benefited from that program.

Interesting. Can they do language immersion and AAP, or do you have to choose? Are they learning a second language? If so, seems like a little -, understood option.

Language immersion can be combined with AAP (full-time or part-time) and advanced math, just like at any other school.

Most students begin with little to no prior experience in the target language. The goal of immersion isn’t simply fluency—students learn subjects like math and science in that language, which helps build cognitive flexibility and expand how they think, not just learn a second language.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 23:56     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would keep her in a good Montessori if you could. We moved DD from Montessori to FCPS in first grade. She did great in school, but would come home distraught that she was not learning anything. To show her teacher that she could do more than add two and two and come up with four, she would show that she could do 2 x 2 and get four, or 8/2 to get 4 or 16 different ways to do it, but her teacher did not acknowledge what she was trying to do (not that I blame the teacher; there were kids in class that did not recognize numbers or letters or knew the names of shapes or colors).

She successfully lobbied to go back to Montessori ("My brain is rusting when I am in school. Why am I going there?") half way through the school year, and she stayed there until she got into AAP in 3rd grade. Her first assignment when she got back to Montessori was to write a research paper on a dinosaur, to go with a diorama.
that’s very impressive! I thought FCPS had AAP to offer more challenges in-class for those who qualify from k-2.


DP. Not really. Both my kids qualified for AAP work in K-2 but only one teacher actually challenged my kids. The other teachers didn’t provide any challenging work. I assume they didn’t have time to differentiate for the higher level learners.
oh my. I was under the impression that schools utilized a resource teacher (acronym ART I think?) to administer more advanced work in a part time setting to students.


At our school, the classroom teacher is expected to provide the advanced work for the level 2 AAP K-2 students. But there is no accountability for it so it rarely happens. FCPS has no guidelines about quantity or type of advanced work for K-2. Our school is not a AAP center. The AART meets with grade 3-6 level 3 AAP students once per week. AART role is getting reduced to 50%.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 22:33     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:As another parent who couldn't afford private, we entered the language immersion lottery to get our bright child more stimulation in early ES, before AAP began. Thankfully we got a spot and both our kids benefited from that program.

Interesting. Can they do language immersion and AAP, or do you have to choose? Are they learning a second language? If so, seems like a little -, understood option.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 21:48     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Montessori through 1st grade. We switched her to public school in 2nd grade. Then our kid was given a teacher referral for AAP in 2nd grade. And she made it in. Her teacher submitted work samples that she completed in cursive writing that she learned in Montessori school.

That was our experience and that was the experience of many families that we know who were at our Montessori school.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 19:09     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would keep her in a good Montessori if you could. We moved DD from Montessori to FCPS in first grade. She did great in school, but would come home distraught that she was not learning anything. To show her teacher that she could do more than add two and two and come up with four, she would show that she could do 2 x 2 and get four, or 8/2 to get 4 or 16 different ways to do it, but her teacher did not acknowledge what she was trying to do (not that I blame the teacher; there were kids in class that did not recognize numbers or letters or knew the names of shapes or colors).

She successfully lobbied to go back to Montessori ("My brain is rusting when I am in school. Why am I going there?") half way through the school year, and she stayed there until she got into AAP in 3rd grade. Her first assignment when she got back to Montessori was to write a research paper on a dinosaur, to go with a diorama.
that’s very impressive! I thought FCPS had AAP to offer more challenges in-class for those who qualify from k-2.


DP. Not really. Both my kids qualified for AAP work in K-2 but only one teacher actually challenged my kids. The other teachers didn’t provide any challenging work. I assume they didn’t have time to differentiate for the higher level learners.
oh my. I was under the impression that schools utilized a resource teacher (acronym ART I think?) to administer more advanced work in a part time setting to students.


It’s very hit or miss whether those level 2/3 services happen before 3rd grade even if your kid gets referred.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 17:43     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would keep her in a good Montessori if you could. We moved DD from Montessori to FCPS in first grade. She did great in school, but would come home distraught that she was not learning anything. To show her teacher that she could do more than add two and two and come up with four, she would show that she could do 2 x 2 and get four, or 8/2 to get 4 or 16 different ways to do it, but her teacher did not acknowledge what she was trying to do (not that I blame the teacher; there were kids in class that did not recognize numbers or letters or knew the names of shapes or colors).

She successfully lobbied to go back to Montessori ("My brain is rusting when I am in school. Why am I going there?") half way through the school year, and she stayed there until she got into AAP in 3rd grade. Her first assignment when she got back to Montessori was to write a research paper on a dinosaur, to go with a diorama.
that’s very impressive! I thought FCPS had AAP to offer more challenges in-class for those who qualify from k-2.


DP. Not really. Both my kids qualified for AAP work in K-2 but only one teacher actually challenged my kids. The other teachers didn’t provide any challenging work. I assume they didn’t have time to differentiate for the higher level learners.
oh my. I was under the impression that schools utilized a resource teacher (acronym ART I think?) to administer more advanced work in a part time setting to students.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 11:37     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
As another parent who couldn't afford private, we entered the language immersion lottery to get our bright child more stimulation in early ES, before AAP began. Thankfully we got a spot and both our kids benefited from that program.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2026 22:11     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
I had 2 kids both started Montessori at 3. DC1 did Montessori kindergarten then transferred to public ES for 1st grade, and 1st grade teacher told me DC1 was strong in math, but behind in reading and it surprised me, as I knew our Montessori was good and didn’t actually read much with DC1 at home. I started to teach DC1 reading daily at home, and DC1 was able to reach top reading level by end of 1st grade. DC2 only had 1.5 years at Montessori, then due to lockdown I taught DC2 at home for the rest of prek2 school year at home, before transferring DC2 to online public kindergarten. DC2 was an early reader at 2 and also strong in math as Montessori built foundation. If you don’t like current Montessori school, transfer your older child to public K or a new Montessori you like, your younger one would definitely benefit from a good Montessori school.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2026 21:26     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:I would keep her in a good Montessori if you could. We moved DD from Montessori to FCPS in first grade. She did great in school, but would come home distraught that she was not learning anything. To show her teacher that she could do more than add two and two and come up with four, she would show that she could do 2 x 2 and get four, or 8/2 to get 4 or 16 different ways to do it, but her teacher did not acknowledge what she was trying to do (not that I blame the teacher; there were kids in class that did not recognize numbers or letters or knew the names of shapes or colors).

She successfully lobbied to go back to Montessori ("My brain is rusting when I am in school. Why am I going there?") half way through the school year, and she stayed there until she got into AAP in 3rd grade. Her first assignment when she got back to Montessori was to write a research paper on a dinosaur, to go with a diorama.

I wish we did this. My kids were appropriately challenged in Montessori and were ahead in public school. They didn’t have their academic needs met until 3rd grade AAP.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2026 21:24     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would keep her in a good Montessori if you could. We moved DD from Montessori to FCPS in first grade. She did great in school, but would come home distraught that she was not learning anything. To show her teacher that she could do more than add two and two and come up with four, she would show that she could do 2 x 2 and get four, or 8/2 to get 4 or 16 different ways to do it, but her teacher did not acknowledge what she was trying to do (not that I blame the teacher; there were kids in class that did not recognize numbers or letters or knew the names of shapes or colors).

She successfully lobbied to go back to Montessori ("My brain is rusting when I am in school. Why am I going there?") half way through the school year, and she stayed there until she got into AAP in 3rd grade. Her first assignment when she got back to Montessori was to write a research paper on a dinosaur, to go with a diorama.
that’s very impressive! I thought FCPS had AAP to offer more challenges in-class for those who qualify from k-2.


DP. Not really. Both my kids qualified for AAP work in K-2 but only one teacher actually challenged my kids. The other teachers didn’t provide any challenging work. I assume they didn’t have time to differentiate for the higher level learners.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2026 21:07     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:Montessori K was the best possible thing I could have done for my son. That year gained him so much confidence and independence. I love montessori as a whole, but the third year in the cycle was wonderful. Mornings were whole group, but afternoon was just K, so it was a very small group with the teacher and he was able to just fly.

The downside was that 1st and 2nd were all review. I wish we'd had the money to continue Montessori through elementary school, or at least until AAP started.

+1
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2026 21:03     Subject: Montessori or Public K?
Anonymous wrote:If it's a true Montessori model at the daycare they would benefit from completing the third year of the cycle in kindergarten. If not, switch to public.

+1