MPS Montessori schools

I'm assuming you mean Minneapolis Public Schools? If so, I know a little....

Our DS attended a private Montessori school from ages 2-5, but for financial reasons we felt compelled to switch him to public. So we investigated MPS kindy programs pretty closely.

From another family who'd made the same switch, we heard very good things about Seward Montessori. We visited the school for half a day, talked to many parents and staff, and were quite impressed with the program there. They really seem to actually know what Montessori is -- KWIM? And the community, while large, seems tight-knit and enthusiastic.

Armatage is another MPS Montessori we considered -- briefly. When other families and teachers from our son's school gave lukewarm reports from their tours there, we crossed it off our list.

I think there's another Montessori primary program on the north side of Mpls., but since that's pretty far away from our home (on the south side), we didn't look into it.

In the end we didn't choose Seward, but not because we didn't like it. Rather, it was because Seward's hours (early!) and location were an insurmountable logistical problem for us. FWIW, we chose Whittier School (an International Baccalaureate primary program). We were a bit nervous about the switch from child-directed to teacher-directed learning, but it was actually not much of a problem. Our son is thriving there and learning like crazy, and we're thrilled with the teachers and administrators.

My dds attend Parkview Montessori-a MPS in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood on the border of north and south mpls.I have mixed reviews myself.I picked it because of the small class sizes but this year they are growing (my 7 yo class is a mix of 1st and 2nd graders with almost 30 students and 1 and a half teachers-they do have out of classroom teachers they split the kids off into for different levels) and my 10 yo class is a mix of 4-6 with 30 students for 1 teacher.The staff is great and the children really do get to learn at their own pace.Both of my daughter are above grade level and they encourage them to work at their level.
My 7 yo has the same teacher my 10 yo had last year and some of the things I've heard are a bit discouraging.My 10 yo teacher this year has had to teacher those students that were in that class last year how to use him as a teacher.It seems the old teacher was really hands off when it came to helping the children-he did alot of computer based learning.As for my 7 yo k-garten teacher she was amazing!Wish she would follow the kids to 4th grade.The principal is a great woman.
They do have very early hours there my dd catch the bus by 7 am,but on the positive they're home by 2pm so it gives us lots of time in the pm to do fun stuff.

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As I understand it, Montessori works better with larger classes, so I am actually glad to hear there are 30 students/room. I had heard Park View was smaller so I am glad to hear the size.

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I'm a little confused about this. Your 10yo spent a lot of time doing computer based learning when he was in the 1st-3rd grade class? Or he is doing more computer work now in 4th grade? Either way, I am surprised to hear a Montessori using a lot of computers. Are the teachers Montessori trained? How do they apply Montessori principles in their classes?

Thank you SO much for your feedback, this is very interesting to me!

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So sorry if this is a dumb question, but does this mean if you live in District 112 you could send your child to this private school for free like public? What does open enrollment mean? Sorry I'm not familiar - I did not grow up in the public school system so a lot of the terms are new to me. Thanks!!!

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Wow, thats amazing! So they will enroll any student regardless of where they live, whether they live in the district or even in the city? That is surprising!

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It's nice - but you still have to transport to/from the district lines.