How did you choose / learn about Montessori?

[teagansmama]

Did you go to a M school yourself? If not, what inspired you to go down this educational path for your child?

[greeny]

Well, I took my almost-5-year-old dd to several open houses on Catholic Schools Week weekend. All Catholic schools. She was bored at all of them: getting cranky, begging to go home, enjoying only the free cookies and juice.

I said I wanted to stop at one more school (The Montessori School we ended up choosing), and finally convinced her to go with me.

The minute we walked in, it was like a breath of fresh air. The classroom was beautiful - open and airy, set up in interesting stations. There were live animals (birds and lizards). The teachers were energetic and engaging. My introverted dd immediately began interacting with the teachers and the classroom. And I was sold.

When we got in the car after the open house she said, "This is the one for me!"

To be honest, I know very little about Montessori. I can explain it in very broad terms, but the intricacies and language are things I have yet to learn. So I'm not really a long-time or hard-core Montessori fan. But I feel that this particular school and these particular teachers are exactly what my dd needs right now.

[MattBronsil]

Originally Posted by greeny

The minute we walked in, it was like a breath of fresh air. The classroom was beautiful - open and airy, set up in interesting stations. There were live animals (birds and lizards). The teachers were energetic and engaging. My introverted dd immediately began interacting with the teachers and the classroom. And I was sold.

When we got in the car after the open house she said, "This is the one for me!"

If you want to really get into a scientific and psychological level, we can discuss why. A general overview, however (and this is why I really think Montessori is wonderful):

From birth - 3, children are learning exactly what the order of things is. This is why a 2 year old can sit forever pouring things out of the basket and putting them back in. For us, it might be a boring activity. For him, he is pouring things out, noticing the disorder, and gets pleasure in setting the order straight again.

Maria Montessori wrote about a story where she saw a mother take her coat off and hang it over her arm. The child became upset (for no obvious reason) and everyone stepped in to try to calm the child. Montessori took her turn and said, "Can I help your mother put on her coat?" The mother, wisely taking the cue, put her coat on with the help. The child was fine from then on. To the toddler, coats are not supposed to go over your arm. They are supposed to be worn or hung up on a coat hanger. That's how things are...that is the order of things.

Oh...I have to share this story. I promise I am relating this to your daughter. I know she is not a toddler. I'm building up to something. I had a Toddler class where I was reading "Caps for Sale." If you're not familiar with the story, a man sells caps, but he carries them on his head. He falls asleep under a tree and wakes up to find the caps missing. Ends up monkeys in the tree took his caps and he tries to get them back. In the first part of the story, he is carrying these caps on his head. When he woke up and found the caps gone, a 2 year old started to cry and scream, very upset. I am not sure what he said, as he said it in Chinese (I'm in Taiwan, remember). The Chinese teacher helped him over somewhere else and tried to comfort him, but to no avail. He could still see the book from where we were and when he got all the caps back and put them back on his head, the child calmed down. The caps being gone were out of order. This was upsetting to the child. The caps going back on his head restored the order and he was fine.

Why am I telling you all this? To explain the difference between Birth-3 and 3-6. In 3-6, children move from a state of learning order to a state of refining order. This is a big reason why there are so many exact steps in many of the activities. A child does not simply learn to wash a table...they learn how to lay out all the tools and organize them so they can wash the table. The organization of the process is more important than having a clean table at the end. Of course, if you have ever seen a Montessori-washed table, you know you are not getting that table any cleaner.

The classroom is a lot more sequenced than what most people realize. And this is part of the reason children fall in love with it right away. No matter where they are in that 3-6 development, there is something they are ready for immediately. Your daughter was drawn to something in the classroom. Some activity that was not only fun to do, but served a specific purpose for her at that time. For a visit, that purpose may just be something she is interested in and something she knows she will likely see when she comes back again - at least in some point of the year. Throughout the classroom year, the material she will be choosing will be for something she needs at the time. Once she has gained from the material whatever need it provides her, she will not be as interested in it and will move on to something new. With there being developmentally important activities throughout the classroom, your child will continually be engaged at exactly where she is.

To be honest, I know very little about Montessori. I can explain it in very broad terms, but the intricacies and language are things I have yet to learn. So I'm not really a long-time or hard-core Montessori fan. But I feel that this particular school and these particular teachers are exactly what my dd needs right now.

Hope this helped some. Hope you become a regular on this board as well.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

[DahliaRW]

Interesting question.

I grew up going to traditional K-12 public schools (and a fairly traditional co-op preschool that was centers based). My elementary school was different, in that it was a magnet school and they "experimented" to see if smaller class sizes and multi-age grouping worked. Obviously, yes, it made a difference. Then I went on to traditional Jr. High and High school. Even in elementary, though I loved school, there were many times I felt like I was wasting my time, and it only got worse in jr high and high school. I knew that I didn't want my children to feel that way about school.

In college I had a work study position at a highly regarded reggio emilia based school. I was floored by what I saw. The "curriculum" very much followed the children's interests. There was beautiful documentation of what went on in the classroom and the children were put in charge of lots of tasks (such as making a birthday gift for a fellow child's birthday with teacher help). The children were very much respected for being individuals, with individual interests, and were encouraged to think and draw their own conclusions about the world. I learned a lot about this approach to education, and it caused me to look into what other "alternative" views to ECE were available.

I ended up researching a lot about Waldorf and Montessori. Both approaches intrigued me as well. I ended up learning a lot more about Montessori, also, because my mom is a librarian at a Montessori school.

Living where I am, almost all of the Waldorf schools and the one or two reggio schools are in the city, which is a 45 minute drive. No way I'm going to travel that far for preschool! So I started looking into Montessori/Montessori inspired schools. One I visited had a blended approach (incorporated some M, but still had some traditional aspects). While I liked the school and it seemed good, when I went to tour a local M school I was blown away and I immediately knew it was the right fit for my oldest. I was fortunate in that they had an open house I attended, where I got to hear an overview of the philosophy, talk extensively with the teachers and directress, and even see how the teachers interacted with each other. Since I have a degree in elementary education, I was really interested in how they viewed "learning" and how to encourage children to take an interest in a variety of subjects and materials. I recieved wonderful answers to my questions and to the questions other parents asked. For example, one father who was looking for a kindergarten age spot asked how they handle it when a 6 year old is not interested in reading at all. At first the teacher talked about the standared "incorporating reading into other subject areas they are interested in (i.e. using word problems in math and such)" which is a pretty common answer. But then she went on to talk about when she does see a 6 yo who isn't interested in reading, she starts to look for the reason WHY they are not and try to solve that problem and she gave some examples. Bingo! Best answer I've ever heard to that question, IMO. Why don't traditional schools look at the child to figure out "why" something is happening rather than just trying to put a bandaid on the problem, kwim? It also helped my decision that there is a teacher there that is just a dead on perfect match for my son's personality. After spending a few minutes talking to her and viewing her classroom I just knew that she would know how to help my son positively channel his energy into learning. And when I went back and observed her classroom in action I was even more convinced. Fortunately, he will be in her class next year!

I discussed M with my mom a lot, since she's very familiar with M philosophy and my ds and she felt it would be a good fit as well. She also asked around at her school to find out if any of the staff was familiar with the M school I was considering, which was helpful. My main hangups with the M school were that it ws 5 days a week and therefore more expensive. But after really thinking about it, it felt right. My husband and I know my son will not have an issue with 5 days a week. He's one of those kids that likes to be out doing stuff with other kids all the time if possible. So very much, the 5 day a week thing was our hangup, not his.

I'm not sure how long we'll stay in M for sure. Definitely through Kindergarten. If we want to stay in after that we'll have to look for a school with a 6-9s room and on up. The main issue with continuing M is cost and proximity to our house. If we don't continue with M, I will most likely homeschool.

[teagansmama]

I was sent to traditional public schools, starting in Kindergarten (no preschool) - Seeing what little I learned (or should I say retained) at the end of my 13 years, I just knew when I had kids I wanted something "different" for my own children.

Once I was pregnant with my first child, I started doing TONS of reading - and came across Montessori. Everything I read was just what I envisioned for schooling - like a second home. Alex started at 2.

Now our daughter has been in since 2 (she's almost 5) and will stay in Montessori at least until 3rd grade.... Our oldest (4th grade) is being home schooled using many Montessori materials and philosophies.

To us it is just a natural way of life.

[chick]

I got into Montessori by mistake!

I was going to do a regular childcare course at college but for some reason the course was cancelled and they offered a Montessori course instead. Not really knowing anything about it, I decided to swap to that course and the rest is history!

[KBecks]

I heard other moms talking about it on the internet and looked into these education forums. I also looked into Waldorf but Montessori clicked with me. Then we included an M school in our preschool tours and ended up choosing it.

[BCFD]

I believe it was my MIL who first mentioned Montessori to me. She did some volunteer work at a well known Mont school (working in their organic garden) and for years said I should look into it. I was actually sold on Waldorf, but decided to look a little more at all types of educations. When I walked into a Montessori school, I knew we were home. Now, I can't imagine putting my children into anything but a Montessori school and we found a really, really great one!!

[samstress]

both dh and i went to public schools. dh in california, myself in massachusetts.

when it came time to find school for dd, we didn't actively seek it out (although we were familiar with it).

we went to many different places. we would drop in unexpectedly, spend time observing and talking with teachers and administrators. just turns out that the one that most shared our values/philosophies/styles was a montessori.

[snowyowl]

I went to public school and hated every minute of it. When I got to university, I had a ton of bad work habits and so did many of my friends. Two of my new friends, however, had great work habits. What they had in common was that they both went to Montessori schools when they were younger. I know that two people isn't much of a sample but it was enough to get me interested in Montessori. I started to read about it here and there and talked to my husband about it when we were thinking of having a baby. By the time our daughter was born, we were sold on the philosophy and decided to go for it as long as it suited her personality. Montessori turned out to be the perfect style for her. She is in upper elementary now and loves school.

[karne]

I have been lurking here for a while, so most of my info has been gained from this site! We are coming out of a disasterous waldorf experience, trying out a fantastic pub. school for one child this year, and possibly exploring Montessori for another next year.

[DaughterOfKali]

I used to teach in a Montessori preschool.

[zinemama]

The preschool was three blocks away and very affordable. Lots of people I knew and respected had sent their kids there. The teachers were kind and modeled peaceful conflict resolution. The kids sang Woodie Guthrie songs.

That's it, basically. I really didn't care that it was Montessori, and after having two kids go there, I still don't. I could take Montessori or leave it. It was all about this particular school/teachers.