Any input on hours for a child starting M at 4.5?

[SomedayMom]

My sons are starting Montessori in August. My little one will be 2 and doing 3 half days. My older son has been in a play based preschool for the last 2 years, 3 full days per week. He'll be 4.5 when he starts, but he's not K age, so he'll have 2 years of primary anyway.

For the preschool age his school offers half day AM, half day PM, full day, or a new program called AM plus (2 half days, 3 full days). All 5 days.

I was originally planning to put him in half day AM. I want AM so we have our afternoons together, all 3 of us. DS2's program only runs in the AM. I do not want 5 full days yet. I work 2 days a week though, so the AMplus sounds applealing. He could stay at school while I work instead of doing the half days and then going to Grandma's with my younger son. Since he's starting M a little later it would give him more time to get used to the materials. Still though, it sounds like a lot of school for a 4 year old and he'll be in the class with the kids that go 5 full days and would be leaving halfway through 2 days a week. I'm leaning towards it, but I'd love input from experienced M parents/teachers. It is the first year the school is trying this too, so they can only give what they believe will happen with it, there is not a history to look back on.

TIA

[freistms]

Are they doing Montessori all day on the full days? In my experience, the schools usually only do regular Montessori structure for half the day for kids who are there for full days, and then do either play-based or enrichment for the other half. In either of those scenarios, I don't think being grouped with kids who go all day full-time would be a bad thing. The rhythm is not as important as it is with the traditional Montessori component. It sounds like the 5+3 program would be a good fit for you. 5 days a week sounds like it would be tough for a 4 or 5 year old, but it is amazing how quickly they normalize to the environment and get used to the routine. I almost think 5 days might be easier than 3 because of that, but I don't have any experience with a 3 day program.

Good luck!

[MattBronsil]

Most schools I'm familiar with their schedule are half day for the 3s and 4s then full day for kindergarten. I say "most" in a very loose sense, estimating about 51% of them ;-)

But my point is not to say which one is better as much as it is to say you can still get a full Montessori experience with the half day option, so don't feel like you have to try any of the others if you feel you can create a great learning environment for son.