Deciding to send DS to M or not

[camies]

My son was accepted to a private montessori school. He is 4. I'm having a really difficult time deciding on whether or not to send him there or not. It's a half day program for $5k+. It's kinda far away. My biggest dilemma woudl be is that I also have a 2 year old. There's no way we could afford to send both.. so my question is: Would it be worth it to send my older ds for one year and then go to a public kindergarten?

The reason I started to consider this in the first place is because my son seemed bored in his preschool last year. He's reading and it seems like an M school would be a great fit.

What I'm afraid of is if I don't send him will I regret it later?

Thanks,
Cyndi

[3girlmom]

I wouldn't do it. The montessori experience is supposed to be three years in the children's house. Sometimes this doesn't happen, but I think it is not a good idea to enroll your child knowing you will not do a three year cycle. Also, it's disruptive to the other children at the school to have someone enter, begin to get the ropes, and then leave. Every school I know of has a policy that if a child leaves during the three-year cycle, a sibling cannot enroll. Personally, I find it frustrating when parents decide to abandon the third year for public kindergarten. I understand some people have financial considerations, but it's not a surprise that the third year is there, and it's really the culmination of the experience.

[maybemom05]

I know this can be a hard choice.

Do you have to sign a contract for the full year? Our school did not insist on that, which is one of the things we liked about it. It is a big financial commitment, and while it's not the only factor, we're certainly not in a position to discount it all together.

I agree that 3 years would be ideal, but that's not always practical. I think even a single year in a Montessori environment could be beneficial.

[fizzymom]

Have you checked to see if your school has a scholarship program? Many private schools do, even if they don't advertise them.

[MathMom]

I see nothing wrong with sending him there for a year and then doing public K. Even though 3 year cycle may be nice and better than one year I think your son would still benefit from it.

This will be my son's first year in Montessori and he will be in K. When visiting the school (which goes up the age of 12), I asked about the number of kids in K and was told that lots of parents start in Montessori but put their kids to K because it gets too expensive. Those are the words of one of the administrators of the schools and there were no bitter feelings towards those who do so, there were for sure no restriction when it came to siblings attending the school later on. The school also allows us to pull the kids anytime during the school year no questions asked and for full refund (paying only for the time they attended).

Like your son my son has been reading for a long time (since the age of 3, he is 4 now) and besides homeschooling Montessori seems to be the best option for him right now and one of the recommended schools for gifted children. We will see if it works for him. He did attend regular PreK (the Montessori was too far away and I didn't feel it was fair towards his young brother to spend so much time in the car) and still liked it there though. He didn't learn anything new when it comes to academics but he still learned lots of social skills and had fun there.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I hear you on the cost as well, ours half day program costs even more : Fortunately we are in position when we can send both of our children there.