Montessori or Otherwise
I'm debating on having my twin boys attend Montessori School rather than traditional school. My sons will both be a bit young attending school since they're birth month is September so I felt them being in a school that goes by skill set rather than age would be more comfortable for them to not feel rushed to be at a par with their classmates but I have no personal experience with this school type.
I know I can wait to send them but I need to get back to work asap. I'm only a SAHM because daycare costs for twins basically canceled out my check and my husband doesn't make enough for me to do/buy much of anything.
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Hi! I was in the same position as you not too long ago. Does the Montessori school do a campus tour?
I was set on my son going to the 2 year old Montessori classes after much research until I visited the school. One other family also was doing a tour at the same time.
Crazy enough we both separately came to the same conclusion and ended up in the same mommy and me classes at the Waldorf school instead.
Part of the Montessori method pushes independent learning, concentration, and self-discipline which sounds nice but at least the school we visited it was a little much to both our families. The dads both called it baby robot jail but also that school was a feeder school for one of the top private schools in the country.
During our visit we saw the 2 year old class and they had towels on the floor to mark the kid’s space. Each kid sat on the towel to focus on their own puzzle projects silently. There were 3 silent teachers 2 to supervise one to pull students individually for bathroom
breaks. The kids were doing impressive puzzles for their age but I didn’t see a single smile or hear a single laugh. No interaction between each other or the teachers except when a kid would finish a puzzle and bring it to the teacher. Montessori strongly discourages what they call external generic praise so the teacher would without even a smile just acknowledge that the kid was done and point them in the direction of picking their next puzzle. This was a 2 hr daily practice of independent learning time which I felt was a lot for that age.
I’m sure it’s great for some kids. I had a friend whose son went there and he’s very task oriented and math driven. He was always kind of serious even as an infant so it totally makes sense that, that would be his learning style but each kid and school is different and I’d highly encourage you to check out whichever school you’re considering before making a final decision.
Best of luck to you all!
I've only read up on Montessori so my opinion is limited. But it seems like a great format for the early years.
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