Anybody know anything about Montessori schools?

[NewJeffCT]

We just found out that our daughter's preschool/daycare place had decided to discontinue their kindergarten program this year, so we're scrambling to find an alternative. She had already been accepted to the kindergarten program because the school said she'd be bored if she had to go through another year of preschool...

She's 6 weeks too young to go to official public school kindergarten (have to turn 5 by 12/31/07, and she turns 5 in February)

So, we might suck it up for a year and send her to a private kindergarten. There are a lot of posh private schools around our town, but they are also really expensive - one school quoted my wife at $1,800+ per month, plus another $5,000 per year for "aftercare" (meaning, they can stay there until 5:30 or 6:00 instead of going home at 3:00) So, that is like $27,000 for just one year and it's not quite in our budget.

We called the local Catholic church to see if they could recommend a school to us, but we have not gotten a return call. I'm not big on religious schools, since I'm an atheist, as is my wife.

Another alternative is the Montessori schools - there are two in our area. I doubt they are much cheaper than the school I mentioned above at $27K, since I know the Shanghai, China Montessori school runs about $20,000 per year. But, if the school is very good, we might be tempted if it's closer to $1,500/month.

[BlueIris]

1. I attended one in the early '80s. Totally worth it.

Read "The Absorbent Mind." All about the Montessori concept. That's what I've got now, 23 years later, I think: an absorbent mind.

[NewJeffCT]

3. Thanks

I'll have to find it somewhere.

[femmocrat]

2. Does your school district offer pre-kindergarten?

Some districts offer it for 5 year olds who aren't quite ready for regular kindergarten. Your daughter might be too advanced for it, but if they offer it, it would be free.

[NewJeffCT]

4. Nothing official that I know of

There is a local "science academy" that is nearby that has K-12 in it, and the price is a lot more reasonable. However, it's also at the top of a small mountain at the very end of a long & windy road... I would imagine it's a nightmare in the winter, even if you had an SUV.

[Geek_Girl]

5. My child just got excepted to Montessori

Our situation is similar she will be 5 in November a few weeks to young for Kindergarten. We looked at other private schools but really liked the Montessori school in our area. It cost about 4500 a year. I would look into it. If it's like ours they will offer a tour and an opportunity to observe their school.

[RiffRandell]

6. I think the correct term Is "accepted'.

I don't mean to be the grammar police; but they will surface, like sharks.

Personally, I would not pay that amount of money for preschool/kindergarten.

[NewJeffCT]

7. If daycare is $1,000/month

$4,500 for half a year seems like a bargain to me.

[RiffRandell]

9. Ok.

Whatever you think is best for your family. It made more sense financially that I quit my job and stay home.

[LibraLiz1973]

11. Can I ask where you live that you pay that much?

[NewJeffCT]

14. Hartford, CT area

The place we go to currently is even a bit cheaper than the local KinderCare. Our daughter had a brief experience at KinderCare before, but it was not very positive.

The only places that are significantly cheaper are home day care businesses. You can probably find them for $600-$800/month.

[SCDem]

8. My son goes to a Montessori School

I love it and he loves it - I fell into it by accident - they were calling my son not good things at his last day care so I needed to move him and I had heard about Montessori and there were spaces available - now i am hooked and am on his School Improvement Committee. Our cost is mediocre compared to prices in the next largest city next to us. There is one public Montessori school in town but the new director of the school is not formally Montessori trained. Make sure that your director and teachers stay true to the Montessori method and mission. Maria Montessori was a wonderful progressive teacher. "If there hope and salvation are to come, they will come from the children, as the children are makers of men." Maria Montessori.

A common misconception is that at a Montessori School the kids "do what they want to do" = ie free play. But a true Montessori School is actually structured/ www.freedommontessori.org this is my son's school.

[NewJeffCT]

10. Thanks

there are several around where we live:

http://www.cobbschool.com/

http://www.msgh.org/

plus, one in Farmington and Windsor CT that don't have websites.

[riderinthestorm]

12. My girls went to Montessori programs for 3 years each

from 3 years old to 6 years old (which would have encompassed their kindergarten years). These were all day programs even the kindergarten, 9 - 3 but we could drop them off at 8:30 and pick them up anytime before 3:30. They had extended day program hours which we didn't need since I could structure my work hours to do some work at home but we were initially looking for day care when we signed up for this school and just fell into a great thing. We were really pleased at the Montessori approach and structure. You should read a bit about the Montessori method before you decide though.

At our girls' Montessori, teaching was based on a 3 year "focus model" with the kids grouped by age in 3 year spans ie. 3 - 6 year olds, 7 - 10 year olds, 11 - 14 year olds, 14 - 17/18 year olds (most kids graduated early). For three years they were intensively taught 3 subjects (history, reading/writing, language or science, math, reading/writing). They got all 5-6 subjects all year but there was a much greater emphasis on the big three during those three years. The kids got their assignments on Monday and were allowed to finish the assignments at their own pace and wherever they wanted to finish them throughout the campus. My older girl always chose the barn to do her work and would finish everything within the first day or two of the week. My youngest chose the library and would finish everything on the last day or two of the week. The teachers were available to them after giving them their initial assignments throughout the week and checked regularly to ensure the kids were progressing with their work. Tests and quizzes were administed on a group basis on Fridays. All special projects were individually worked out with the teacher and student. This was a small Montessori school pre-k through high school with perhaps 140 students.

Both of my kids managed to get in the cycle of reading/writing, language and history. Both of my kids were reading at the 3rd grade level when they made the jump to public school, both of my kids are avid learners - especially about history and social studies and both of my kids could speak French when they left. They were both weak in math and struggled their first year at public school with math but they both skipped 1st grade cause their reading and writing skills were so phenomenal (so they went straight to 2nd grade) which explained a lot of their math anxiety. At that level it was easy to bring them up to math speed ourselves, at home.

My oldest girl is now 19 years old, and will be a senior at Indiana University (graduating in 3 years) majoring in archaeology and history with a 3.9 gpa. She's heading to grad school next year at Oxford in England. She firmly believes her first years at Montessori were what instilled in her that love of learning, history, writing, language etc.

My youngest is only 10 years old but appears to be on the same track. She also loved her Montessori years.

If we could have afforded it, we would have kept them at this school their entire education but we could only swing the three years for both of them. I remember the costs as not too exorbitant - I'm thinking perhaps $7-8k/year.

There is very little standardization in Montessori - some schools are really good and others are probably little more than day care centers with some Montessori veneer.... Check carefully to ensure it is really a school.

[NewJeffCT]

15. The public schools in our town are terrific

Among the best in all of Connecticut... so, I'll be happy to send her to public school when the time comes.

[MrsMatt]

13. My son attends a Montessori day care

and is thriving (he's two). It's bloody expensive (16,000 a year), but we feel that he's getting learning so much academically than our daughter (now 10) got out of the local YMCA day care. We feel her experience was superior in the social area - most of the children were minority (African American), so she learned a bit about getting along with people of other ethnicities. My son's day care is almost exclusively white.

We're exploring options for when he goes to kindergarten - either a Montessori or an immersion school (if we decide on the immersion route, we'll probably choose the language our daughter selects to study in junior high, if there is one available).

I did a lot of research in educational theory when we were looking for a school for our daughter - she ended up in a school that subscribes to the Howard Gardner theory of multiple intelligences. The Montessori school was fourth on our list (after the A+ and immersion). I guess it all depends on your child's strengths.

Good luck! I think Montessori is a very solid educational theory.

[NewJeffCT]

16. Thanks - there seems to be a wide range in tuition charges

Somebody above mentioned $4,500, others $7-8,000, while you have $16,000. And, my wife's old boss who is now in Shanghai has his daughter in a Montessori school there at around $20K per year.

[bridgit]

17. hubby still has a copy of The Absorbent Mind around here somewhere...

http://www.montessoriplus.org/MTP/absorbentmind_article.htm the early identification of naturally occurring skill-sets and their enhancement, my son went to 'a form of' Montessori school and enjoyed it

[kath]

18. I really like the Reggio Emilia approach

My daughters' childcare center in St.Louis used this approach, and it was fantastic.

Looks like in CT there are places with this approach in Litchfield, Madison, Woodbury. Probably others as well.


Working in the Reggio Way: A Beginner's Guide for American Teachers. By Julianne P. Wurm, San Francisco Unified School District. (Redleaf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota) 2005. 142 p.


<"The municipal early childhood programs of Reggio Emilia, Italy, have created an educational reality that many other educators strive to achieve. A 1991 Newsweek article identified the programs in Reggio Emilia as the best early childhood programs in the world ('The Ten Best Schools in the World, and What We Can Learn from Them,' December 2, 1991) and thrust them into the international spotlight.... This book offers a tour of the Reggio approach through the eyes of a foreigner with one foot in both cultures.... It is a practical guide to help reshape your thinking towards working with young children." NOTE: Working in the Reggio Way... is available for loan.> From http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/sitn/2005/0536.htm

another article:
"The Real Head Start." By Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education. IN: The Boston Globe (September 7, 2003) 3 p.


<"Harvard University professor Howard Gardner praises the preschools in Reggio Emilia, a city in northeastern Italy, for their imaginative approach to learning as a group activity. He says the schools, which have engaged children in such activities as exploring fax machines and building bird amusement parks, successfully allow preschoolers to follow their own interests while teachers introduce new ideas and materials." ASCD SmartBrief (September 8, 2003).>



This person on the faculty at Yale is interested in the Reggio-Emiliia approach and may be able to direct you to schools with this approach in your area:
Carla M. Horwitz, MS, Ed.D, Lecturer and Director of Calvin Hill Day Care Center and Kitty Lustman-Findling Kindergarten
Carla Horwitz has been the director of Yale University's Calvin Hill Day Care Center for the past thirty-one years. The Center, a model educational preschool program, provides high quality, developmentally informed, affordable child care and education for the children of Yale and community families; it is also the site of early childhood student teaching and practicum placements for the Yale Teacher Preparation Program. She has a joint appointment in the Psychology Department and at the Yale Child Study Center where she teaches three courses in child development and methods. She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, an M.S. from Yeshiva University in Urban Education, and an advanced Diploma in Education and Child Development from the Froebel Institute, Institute of Education, University of London, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Hartford. She has taught at the undergraduate, elementary, and preschool level. She spent a year in England studying open classroom, integrated day infant schools, and is currently involved in studying and incorporating the practice of the progressive preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. Her research interests include the creation and implementation of progressive curriculum, developmentally appropriate early care and education, supervision and the professional development of teachers, and educational leadership.
http://www.yale.edu/tprep/about/faculty/index.html

[Kali]

19. $1500 /a month

FOR PRESCHOOL????

Sorry but that sounds insane to me. Are you a rich famous celebrity?

SIL had a Montissori School in New Mexico, but other than the fact that she is fantastic with kids I don't know much else about them, sort of self-paced and driven by the kids' own talents/interest from what I understand.

[NewJeffCT]

20. well, as I said above

daycare/preschool runs $1,000 per month where our daughter goes now. The local KinderCare is even a bit more expensive than that and most places are in that range. Home daycare is cheaper - maybe $600-$800 per month.

[Kali]

21. ouch

I had my kids in daycare before school just for a bit of socialization since we live on a ranch and the nearest neighbor, sans kids is a couple miles away. This was back in the late 80's and 90's. It was a funky little place, one of two in the town. It was the one for the less "affluent" and Mexican kids (read: friendlier and more diverse) I think it was maybe 10 bucks a day or something. They had 15 or 20 kids in there, two "teachers" and a couple of helpers. It was not too structured, but they had a couple hours of "classroom time" beginning reading, crafts, singing - that sort of thing. They took them to the library and out to lunch occasionally (small town - things within walking distance)

They provided breakfast and lunch if the kids were there at those times, drop-ins were ok.

[Giant Robot]

23. My daycare is about $800 a month

And it is at one of the better places in town, but they all seem to run in the same range. Its more expensive for us because she is an infant and they charge more for the young'uns.

[mcar]

22. They are wonderful

My son went to Pre-K, K at a Montessori school. He was reading by age 4 and adding and subtracting up to the hundreds in kindergarten. They did a unit on geography and the 4-5 year olds beat the high school academic team in a mock bowl.

Beyond that, he developed a love of learning. He'd come home from school and go on the internet to learn more about different countries.

He's 10 now, academically gifted but public school with its incessant focus on standardized tests has knocked some of the curiosity out of him. Fortunately he has had some very good teachers and like-minded friends who keep him thinking.

[Midlodemocrat]

24. Be sure it is a legitimate Montessori school. One that is

based on and utilizes the theories of Maria Montessori.

A lot of schools will tell you that they are Montessori based, or inspired, or what have you.

Be sure you're getting the real deal.

FWIW, schools that are actual Montessori schools are outstanding.

[NewJeffCT]

25. Thanks

I'll make sure.

[Karenina]

28. I'm with Midlo on this

My son, who I was urged by a Dr. at UCLA to institutionalize as he would "never learn anything" attended a certified Montessori school till he was 11. It was a hands-on partnership, the value of which can never be monetarily defined. My little Mr. Spock graduated from University in May.

[NewJeffCT]

30. I know you can't put a value on learning

But, if it's $20,000 per year, it's a real stretch financially.

The public schools in our town are among the best in CT, too.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

26. I went to one 2-8th grades. It was a great option for me

It allows alot more freedom than most schools. However, some kids do work better in environments where there are more structures. Where I went, they showed you how to do what you were supposed to learn, and then gave you exercises that had to be completed. They didn't have homework. You did all the class work there at school. Once you finished and you felt ready to move on, they showed you a new concept and the cycle repeated.

[NewJeffCT]

27. Thanks

sounds like a great program overall.

[Greyskye]

29. They can be great

My son goes to one, and my wife teaches there as well. It's a public, charter Montessori school. Since it is a public charter, you don't pay to attend. One of the things they strive for are what my wife calls "ah-ha!" moments. They attempt to give the kids all the information they need, and guide them gently until they get the "ah-ha!" epiphany. That kind of discovery really seems to make the lesson learned 'stick' in the memory.

Our schools waiting list is the same size as its population - they must be doing something right!

Good luck!

[NewJeffCT]

31. We already tried one in our area and it's full

for kids in my daughter's age range.