Couple Questions

[eco_mama]

1. Do you think most M schools "interview" each child who applies to their school before accepting them?

-We've been to two schools and like both of them but we're deciding on the 2nd one. There are spots open right now so I asked when we send in the app., how long will it take until we know we're accepted? And she said, well as long as there are open spots and her app. gets in, she is automatically accepted. It's a first come first serve basis. I was kind of surprised because I thought they usually set up an "interview" or whatever first.

2. For those of you who attend a school that also provides day care. -- What kind of toys do they have for them? Just regular plastic toys, more natural stuff, or a mixture?

[GuildJenn]

1. I think it depends on your area. My school had spaces (it's small), which concerned me a bit, so I called around, and found that most schools in our area had spaces. So it's just that our area has space!

But the directress wanted to meet us which was a bit of a little 'interview.' However in that interview I asked if there were kids they don't take and she laughed and said their school generally takes everyone they have space for, because they don't assume problems before they have them. They currently have one student with autism and one with cerebral palsy.

2. My school has all the Montessori materials out on open shelving, which are majority natural materials (there are some plastic pieces, but not the beads, towers, rods, silver polishing stuff, etc.)

Then they have bins of toys like lego and some imaginative play stuff, which they pull out for the after-Montessori care which is a total mixture - all reasonably durable, open-ended, high-quality stuff, but definitely more towards quote-unquote mainstream toys.

[Flor]

My school doesn't "interview." They are small and always have space available. There is hardly any interest in private/alternative schooling in my area so the two private schools in town are always trying to recruit. Plus, we don't have finacial aid and we live in a lower income town.

They do ask to meet the child first, but I didn't feel like they'd reject him based on interview.

[mightymoo]

On the first, I don't know, our school interviews, but its mostly about making sure the child is ready developmentally if they are young, and getting a feel for temperment so they can help balance the classrooms a bit.

On the second point, I'm not sure what you mean by daycare, but our school provides before and after care, the full day school goes from 9:20 to 3:20, then they have aftercare from 7am before school and to 6pm after school. DD only does half days, but she goes to the aftercare. They have a variety of what I'd call educational toys. Not necessarily the montessori stuff, but not lights and whistles and noise. They have a lot of building things like duplos, train sets, blocks, puzzles, games. They also have a bunch of coloring sheets available and crayons for coloring. They go outside for a lot longer than the kids go during the regular school day (at least that the afternoon class does - they generally only go for 10 minutes). I just asked DD she said that they do have one shelf of works they can do in aftercare. But most are off limits and just the aftercare toys are used.

[MattBronsil]

Originally Posted by eco_mama

1. Do you think most M schools "interview" each child who applies to their school before accepting them?

-We've been to two schools and like both of them but we're deciding on the 2nd one. There are spots open right now so I asked when we send in the app., how long will it take until we know we're accepted? And she said, well as long as there are open spots and her app. gets in, she is automatically accepted. It's a first come first serve basis. I was kind of surprised because I thought they usually set up an "interview" or whatever first.

It depends. An interview is a great help to the teacher. It was helpful to know that we met the child, the child is comfortable with us and will recognize us when we come back in, and knows how to do some materials already. It's helpful that they know where the bathroom is when they come in and helpful that they know how to use the water fountain and where it is. (Or however else they get a drink of water).

The interview was also a time to see if there was an issue. Like said above, many schools do it to see if the child is developmentally ready. This is obviously a judgement call, but we've had parents try to bring their child into the school while they were still in diapers or were just too young (still a toddler). We can spot that in an interview. Obviously, if there is something of a large concern, we can see that as well.

I believe interviews are great more for the child. If we see there's a seperation problem, we can simply do more interviews until the child seems ready to come into the classroom.

2. For those of you who attend a school that also provides day care. -- What kind of toys do they have for them? Just regular plastic toys, more natural stuff, or a mixture?

That varies from school to school. Normally, day care is not seen as an extention of the Montessori classroom. They might do activities that extend it, such as art, music, foreign language, or other enrichment activities. However, most schools do see it as a free play time. Your child may have a lot more outside time during this period. You'll have to discuss the particulars with whatever school you end up looking into.

Matt

[Mum2JocelynAngus]

At our school, the parent goes to observe the classroom for an hour or so, then the parent gets to interview the directress! The kids are accepted in order of application. The application form is long (10 pages), with lots of questions about the child, how you as parents handle discipline & bedtime, & about what you as a parent want out of the school. The questions about the child are to help the directress know the child. Then the child comes for a visit in the classroom before they start - we started in January, the kids visited in December for a morning.

[wrzos]

Our school interviews. It was a closed door meeting with the directress, supposedly speaking with me. The co-director was there as well. It was really a setup, b/c there were M materials in the back of the room, and my ds was invited to help himself to them while we spoke. Then they covertly watched him and his interaction with the materials. I got the feeling it was more to evaluate his readiness for the classroom, as well as sound out the parent on their knowledge of the M philosophy, etc.

We have extended care at our school. It is in a separate building (our school is several homes converted to classroom space - the extended care is the home behind the school). Anyway, there are definitely more regular toys there, but they are nice sturdy open ended stuff. A kitchen setup, blocks, trucks, books, dolls, dress up clothes, lots of arts & crafts materials. They have free access to the outdoors where the children built a tee-pee (sp?) and a log cabin. They have cooking days once a week, using a very nice picture only cook book. They do fun projects like - recently they read stone soup and then made stone soup.