Montessori more important for young age or older?

[TranscendentalMom]

The Montessori school in my town goes from prek-12 years (6th grade?) and I really love it. We are in a really great public school district with small classes and good teachers. However, it is the public model with all the testing, pressure to keep up yada yada.

My ds is entering kindergarten next year. We can dip into some savings for the tuition but I doubt we can afford to send both kids there year after year thru 6th grade. We've thought about sending him to the Mont school for 2-3 years and then moving him over to 2nd or 3rd grade when he'll be a bit more mature. Then dh said he feels like kindergarten and the early years are fine in public school since they are sorta free and fun and that its later when there is more homework and pressure that the Mont school might be more important. I feel like its nice to give the kids a good start in Montessori and then move them over especially since our local public school has some great resources (theatre and sports) that the Mont school won't have. Oh yeah, and both my kids are going to a different Mont preschool right now part time.

Any opinions?

[mightymoo]

At first I was thinking 'man, I don't know', but based on your post I would say earlier. I'll tell you why - I am constantly impressed with the values that montessori instills in DD. Things like focus, completing work, respecting others, listening, being polite, etc. They don't shove these things down her throat, they model them, they use gentle reminders, etc and I really feel like this is the kind of stuff that makes a bigger impact the younger its taught.

[DahliaRW]

Honestly, the pressure and homework is there from the getgo in public schools. I did my student teaching and subbing in a K classroom and those kids had weekly homework. They were also expected to know how to read and write and such by the end of the year as well as memorize a bunch of site words. It was not the "fun and play" K used to be when I was a kid.

I think that Montessori instills a great foundation (just from reading the philosophy and talking to my mom who works at a M school - we're starting in the fall). The idea is to give the skills and drive that will help kids succeed throughout the rest of their lives. And I think kids are more pliable to learing these things younger and then can take them with them whereever they go from there.

The other issue is that some M schools are choosy about taking children that aren't transferring from other M schools when they are older. They usually are given lower priority. So you may have trouble finding a spot if you were to try to transfer back to M in a few years.

[MattBronsil]

I don't think one is more important than the other. It is something where it is probably best to learn what both are like and decide from there based on your child.

Two videos that may help you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM1Gu9KXVkk 3-6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGFYVRSWokg Elementary

I think one thing we recognize as Montessorians is that 3-6 is a critical time for learning, as are the other age groups. Many places, however, do not place any emphasis on learning in that age group. I would tend towards 3-6 personally if I had to decide.

Matt

[BCFD]

This is just my personal opinion, but I think I'd rather have it earlier than later for my children. I'd like to let them develop the love of learning and hopefully by the time they reach high school they will have had a great foundation to work from.