Mothering Forum banner

What is typical for Montessori for 3-year olds?

598 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Flor 
#1 ·
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.
:

Thanks.
 
See less See more
1
#2 ·
I'm definitely new at the whole Montessori thing, but had some thoughts that could help you. My ds is starting Montessori this fall. At his school, they too have a transition period and ask for no parental observations for the first 6 weeks. I asked for more info on this and was told that the new students (roughly 2 1/2 to 3 years old, maybe 6 per classroom) are brought in for a week before all the returning students come back. The new students are then given lots of lessons (more on this later) to intro them to lots of different materials. THen, the following week when school actually starts, they stagger the new kids in. Meaning, not all 6 of them show up on day 1. Maybe 1 or 2 new kids per day. The idea being that they will take up a bunch of the teachers time, and she will want to dedicate herself to getting them integrated into the classroom, etc. The no observation thing, was really their formal observation part. They allow at any time (other than this 6 week ban) for parents (current stu or prospective stu) to actually sit on a chair in the classroom and observe, take notes, etc. They do NOT want the new parents doing this in the class their child is in until after 6 weeks or so, b/c the new student needs time to get in the groove of the classroom. New parents are permitted to hang out all day if they'd like, behind the 2-way glass. Our program runs 5 days a week, from 8:30-11:30.

Onto the work thing. All Montessori materials are called their "work". In Montessori - play is the child's work. It is what they are supposed to do to learn. Montessori has several different classifications or areas that the materials support. The easiest to describe is the practical life stuff. Picture child size bowls, glasses, brooms, mops, etc. And the child "playing/working" at a task. Perhaps preparing their own snack, but washing, cutting (with a safe utensil), plating, cleaning up, then eating an apple. All play to the child, but work in the Montessori sense.

There is lots more to it, but I thought this might get you started.
HTH!!!
 
#3 ·
Our school has no parent visits for a while, too. They do a nice job of transistion the kids into the class, though and are very knowledgable about child development at my ds's school. They wouldn't want me hanging around all day, but we did things like ds started visiting the teacher and classroom after school for a few days to get used to her and the setting. Then he came once while the children were there, just gradual transisitions. It was still hard, but I did trust the teachers and they were very loving with ds.

Montessori is not playbased-- but don't tell ds that! Actually, I should say, it is not toy based. Ds tells me he has lots of work to do each day, but it is enjoyable work that he loves like cutting bananas, measuring water, cleaning chairs, sorting items, puzzles, reading books, polishing silver, folding napkins. . . .

If you look at the sticky on the top of this forum about where to find info., there is a bunch of websites to check out.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top