Schooling here in the Netherlands is different from in the US in that you start in the month of your birth, rather than in September. Public education must begin by age 5, and may optionally begin in the 12 months prior to the 5th birthday.
My daughter has been offered a place at our local Montessori pre-school. It starts at age 3 in the month of her birthday and runs for a year, at which point the public school portion (still Montessori) takes over. If I don't want to send her to real school when she's 4, there's no pre-school option that I could keep her in, as all those programs end at 4. The assumption is that everyone will begin public education at age 4, even though you don't actually have to until you're 5.
We attended an orientation today for the pre-school portion, although since virtually everyone who attends the pre-school continues on through age 12, much of the information today was about the entire educational experience. Unfortunately for me, it was in (rapidly spoken) Dutch, and I was unable to follow a lot of it. My husband is fluent, though, and was also in attendance, though he's bad about relaying information.
My initial question here is about the orientation period. The teacher made some comments about how parents aren't allowed in the classroom because they found that parents often guided their kids to particular workstations, and then when the parent left, the kid chose a different workstation. My husband asked if we'd be allowed to stay with DD when she first starts, as she's not a child who easily goes into new situations, and the answer apparently was yes (I wasn't there when this question was being asked). However, he didn't ask enough about specifics and I'm concerned that maybe they just mean that I can stay for 10 minutes for the first few days, and DD just wouldn't be okay with that. Can you tell me about your experience with Montessori pre-schools and their policies about transitioning children into the school?
My other question is about the "workstations." This sounds awfully schooley and I'm a bit apprehensive. Are Montessori pre-schools generally more play-focused or learning-focused?
We have another option for a pre-school that isn't associated with a primary school, and that place seems really lovely and low-pressure. They have themes for the week, like butterflies or colors or whatever, but it just felt younger when I was in there. If DD goes there, though, she will be joining the Montessori school when she's 4 or 5 with a group of kids who will have been together since they were 3. I'm not sure if that would be really hard or not.
Until this point, most of my parenting decisions have been a lot more black and white with reasonably clear "correct" answers. This is the first time where I've run into something where I really feel like I could get it wrong.
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Thanks.
My daughter has been offered a place at our local Montessori pre-school. It starts at age 3 in the month of her birthday and runs for a year, at which point the public school portion (still Montessori) takes over. If I don't want to send her to real school when she's 4, there's no pre-school option that I could keep her in, as all those programs end at 4. The assumption is that everyone will begin public education at age 4, even though you don't actually have to until you're 5.
We attended an orientation today for the pre-school portion, although since virtually everyone who attends the pre-school continues on through age 12, much of the information today was about the entire educational experience. Unfortunately for me, it was in (rapidly spoken) Dutch, and I was unable to follow a lot of it. My husband is fluent, though, and was also in attendance, though he's bad about relaying information.
My initial question here is about the orientation period. The teacher made some comments about how parents aren't allowed in the classroom because they found that parents often guided their kids to particular workstations, and then when the parent left, the kid chose a different workstation. My husband asked if we'd be allowed to stay with DD when she first starts, as she's not a child who easily goes into new situations, and the answer apparently was yes (I wasn't there when this question was being asked). However, he didn't ask enough about specifics and I'm concerned that maybe they just mean that I can stay for 10 minutes for the first few days, and DD just wouldn't be okay with that. Can you tell me about your experience with Montessori pre-schools and their policies about transitioning children into the school?
My other question is about the "workstations." This sounds awfully schooley and I'm a bit apprehensive. Are Montessori pre-schools generally more play-focused or learning-focused?
We have another option for a pre-school that isn't associated with a primary school, and that place seems really lovely and low-pressure. They have themes for the week, like butterflies or colors or whatever, but it just felt younger when I was in there. If DD goes there, though, she will be joining the Montessori school when she's 4 or 5 with a group of kids who will have been together since they were 3. I'm not sure if that would be really hard or not.
Until this point, most of my parenting decisions have been a lot more black and white with reasonably clear "correct" answers. This is the first time where I've run into something where I really feel like I could get it wrong.
Thanks.