SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    The Montessori School
Page 1 2 
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
The Montessori School Login/Join 
Tinker Sailor Soldier Pie
Picture of Balzé Halzé
posted
Does anyone here have any experience with this particular school? My wife and I are in the process of looking at schools for our daughter (pre-K, pre-school right now), and the Montessori School in our area has a reputation of being one of the more distinguished.

Their method of teaching though, how shall I say...gives me pause. I was hoping some members here might have some first hand knowledge with this school and their practices and philosophy of learning.

I welcome any comments on the matter.


~Alan

Acta Non Verba
NRA Life Member (Patron)
God, Family, Guns, Country

Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan

"Once there was only dark. If you ask me, light is winning." ~Rust Cohle
 
Posts: 30299 | Location: Elv. 7,000 feet, Utah | Registered: October 29, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of maladat
posted Hide Post
There isn't a national or international "The Montessori School" as such. Montessori is a teaching philosophy developed about 100 years ago by someone whose last name is Montessori, and schools that use it mostly seem to be named ____ Montessori School or Montessori School of _____ or something like that. There are a couple of organizations that will certify schools as complying with their specific interpretations of Montessori.

My kids didn't go to a Montessori school, but we looked at them and I have friends whose kids have gone to Montessori schools. It seems to work pretty well for preschool.

There are some places that take it all the way through high school and that seems more questionable to me, but I have no direct experience.
 
Posts: 6319 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
There is one in our neighborhood. The teachers and kids are always loafing around the neighborhood parks picking daisies and catching butterflies and what not. Sandal wearing, granola eating urban hippies and such. I'm sure it's low stress.
 
Posts: 3718 | Registered: August 13, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Tinker Sailor Soldier Pie
Picture of Balzé Halzé
posted Hide Post
That's kinda what I'm getting at. Is this just a bunch of hippie nonsense or what?

Regardless, we were not planning on sending our daughter to this school past say, the first grade or so. Maybe just up until kindergarten.


~Alan

Acta Non Verba
NRA Life Member (Patron)
God, Family, Guns, Country

Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan

"Once there was only dark. If you ask me, light is winning." ~Rust Cohle
 
Posts: 30299 | Location: Elv. 7,000 feet, Utah | Registered: October 29, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
If you picture the scale with Head start on one end, then for what I have seen most Montessori schools will be on the far other.

For preK type environment a Montessori school is great I'm sure. We looked at it, but opted for ours to stay home until Kindergarten. We started him in Catholic school and that is what we stayed with. Had we sent him to preK then I would have been fine with him going to the Montessori school here for that.
 
Posts: 3718 | Registered: August 13, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Tuckerrnr1
posted Hide Post
My grandmother, when in collage for a teaching degree, studied under a nun who was taught directly by Maria Montessori. Montessori's method for early childhood was teaching them how to think. Many of the items showed spacial relationships and gave the child a visual idea of a mathematical concept like multiplication. The concept was to establish in young children logic and an understanding of physical and theoretical relationships. (Size, shape, volume). Sadly, yes, it has been completely adulterated in many forms today.



Tools like this showed a young mind how different/same some things are.


_____________________________________________
I may be a bad person, but at least I use my turn signal.
 
Posts: 5720 | Location: Florida | Registered: March 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
My daughter went to a Montessori school 1966 to 1970, pre K and K and first grade. Seemed to do well when she started in public school. Was ahead of her classes. Today a doc at UAMS.


Officers lives matter!
 
Posts: 3265 | Location: Arkansas | Registered: February 12, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ammoholic
posted Hide Post
I would guess there is a wide variation in Montessori schools. Our kids went to Montessori Children’s School in San Luis Obispo from pre-K through sixth grade and I would very highly recommend it. There was another “Montessori” school in town that I would not have recommended. The Montessori method is great, but the teachers do have to follow up.
 
Posts: 6872 | Location: Lost, but making time. | Registered: February 23, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Finding the
sweet spot
posted Hide Post
My daughter is 4 and we’ve had her in a Montessori school for a couple of years now. We just started sending her 5 days a week after she asked us if she could go all five days instead of the three we had been sending her. (She loves it there).

We’re lucky in that one of the oldest Montessori schools in town (it’s been in the same location for 51 years) is less than ten minutes from our house. They’re teaching her to read already, and to write the alphabet in cursive. One of her teachers is from India, and the assistant teacher is Russian with a degree in Linguistics. She also takes Spanish lessons once a week. So she’s exposed to lots of different languages and always comes home with a new word she’s learned. The school goes up to 8th grade or so, but we’re not sure if we’ll send her there all the way through or not. Right now, it’s the perfect place for her.

Go tour the schools and see what you think and how you feel about it. My wife and I knew when we walked into this place it was right for our little one. I will warn you, it’s not cheap. If your anything like me, it’ll take a big bite out of your gun budget. However, we think it’s been worth every penny.

Sean


------------------------------------------
Just because you can, doesn't mean
you should.
 
Posts: 963 | Location: KCMO | Registered: September 20, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Tinker Sailor Soldier Pie
Picture of Balzé Halzé
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Sevo1967:

Go tour the schools and see what you think and how you feel about it. My wife and I knew when we walked into this place it was right for our little one. I will warn you, it’s not cheap. If your anything like me, it’ll take a big bite out of your gun budget. However, we think it’s been worth every penny.

Sean


Ohhh believe me, I know it ain't cheap. But I'm certainly willing to spend the money on my daughter.

We actually visited the school this morning. They have been in Park City since '87 but they have a brand new facility now (three years old or so.). It's a beautiful school. We had a good feeling about it; just wanted to see what others might have to say about it


~Alan

Acta Non Verba
NRA Life Member (Patron)
God, Family, Guns, Country

Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan

"Once there was only dark. If you ask me, light is winning." ~Rust Cohle
 
Posts: 30299 | Location: Elv. 7,000 feet, Utah | Registered: October 29, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I sent 3 to Montessori based preschool through 5k.

Like said before they teach how to think. For example when 1 of the 3 went to 1st grade the teacher complained that she couldn't read as a1st grader would be expected and might need special class. Yea sure.. only 2 weeks in and doing it the way the teacher wanted she was then the best reader in the class
 
Posts: 231 | Location: Reidville, SC | Registered: October 24, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Caribou gorn
Picture of YellowJacket
posted Hide Post
My nanny is a product of Montessori, her mother runs a local Montessori school, and has a secondary degree from a Montessori school (training to teach in Montessori.) She implements these teaching methods to the degree she can and that we ask of her. She is a nanny, not a in- home teacher at this point. My boys are 3 and 10 mo.

I am impressed by some of the concepts but can easily see how they may not work for some children. I like the idea of mixed ages in the classroom as the younger children learn from the old and the old learn from teaching the young. I like the concept of teaching the children to think aboit things rather than memorize. There are some analogs to Socratic method in their teaching. I think the one that hangs most people up is the selective/free learning where children are allowed to choose what they want to do for blocks of time. This will work for some children and probably not for others. I also think it probably works up until a certain age when the children's inner demons take over and they learn to game the system in order to do nothing all day.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: YellowJacket,



I'm gonna vote for the funniest frog with the loudest croak on the highest log.
 
Posts: 10474 | Location: Marietta, GA | Registered: February 10, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I can only give the experience we have with our now kindergartener. She reads at the 3rd grade level, and is good in math and science. people are stunned how she reads. Most youngsters sound robotic when reading, and she reads like she is full of comprehension and understanding. That is my best measure of its success.


There is something good and motherly about Washington, the grand old benevolent National Asylum for the helpless.
- Mark Twain The Gilded Age

#CNNblackmail #CNNmemewar
 
Posts: 706 | Location: Seacoast in USA | Registered: September 24, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I sent my boys to Mont school when they where little. Pre K through 3rd grade, after that I thought they would do better in our local public school system. The theory behind them are sound, but like anything else the theories are implemented by humans. Some do a good job, some less so. Check out the school and spend some time talking to the teachers. If you get good vibes then give it a try for a quarter and see if it is a good fit.
 
Posts: 1788 | Location: Spokane, WA | Registered: June 23, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lucky to be Irish
posted Hide Post
My son attended a Montessori school many years ago - he's in his mid-forties now, so that's what I mean when I say many. I recall the "games" they used to entertain the children helped them learn and think. I still recall a large wooden globe that had a small handle on each continent. They had small bottles filled with liquid polish. The kids liked to play with the squeeze bottle and liquid. So the teacher would choose a child and tell them they could polish "North America", but only that continent.

It didn't take long for my son to know them all. If I recall they also learned Spanish as well as English. Their time was divided between indoor activities and outdoor "games" that were also learning situations.

I also recall that, even back then, each child had a Macintosh computer for other things they would learn.

The staff included one instructor and several assistants, so the student to instructor ratio was very good.

My overall impression of the teaching method was very positive. But as mentioned in other posts, each school is somewhat different, so a visit really helps when trying to make the decision.
 
Posts: 1770 | Location: Mason, OH | Registered: October 19, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Step by step walk the thousand mile road
Picture of Sig2340
posted Hide Post
Daughter-chan attended the Montessori School of Herndon (VA).

It was an incredibly good choice.

Basically they let a child learn a subject as fast and as far as they are able; unbounded by age appropriateness.

By the time daughter-chan was ending second grade, the school informed us that they could have her back the next year because their license only allowed teaching through 8th grade and in their opinion, she was ready to start 9th.

This was not an uncommon thing there. That same year there was a boy in 3rd grade who was doing trigonometry and a 4th grader learning her third language.





Nice is overrated

"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
 
Posts: 31382 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: May 17, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Finding the
sweet spot
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
quote:
Originally posted by Sevo1967:

Go tour the schools and see what you think and how you feel about it. My wife and I knew when we walked into this place it was right for our little one. I will warn you, it’s not cheap. If your anything like me, it’ll take a big bite out of your gun budget. However, we think it’s been worth every penny.

Sean


Ohhh believe me, I know it ain't cheap. But I'm certainly willing to spend the money on my daughter.

We actually visited the school this morning. They have been in Park City since '87 but they have a brand new facility now (three years old or so.). It's a beautiful school. We had a good feeling about it; just wanted to see what others might have to say about it


Cool, I think you’ll be pleased. I hope it works out as well for you and your family as it is for me and mine.

Sean


------------------------------------------
Just because you can, doesn't mean
you should.
 
Posts: 963 | Location: KCMO | Registered: September 20, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Not really from Vienna
Picture of arfmel
posted Hide Post
True story: Nephew who went to montessori ended up having long hair and is a denizen of Berkeley, a loafer, and a member of the free shit army. Frown
 
Posts: 26852 | Location: Jerkwater, Texas | Registered: January 30, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Sound and Fury
Picture of Dallas239
posted Hide Post
My kids are in a Montessori public school. Probably not as free to do everything "The Montessori Way" as a private school would be, but they do their best. They have been at the school for three years, currently in lower elementary and upper elementary. The plan is for them to continue there through middle school. So far, it has been great. It really is a different way of teaching and learning, and I believe it's more natural than traditional didactic lecturing.




"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here." -- Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address, Jan. 11, 1989

Si vis pacem para bellum
There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
Feeding Trolls Since 1995
 
Posts: 18039 | Registered: February 22, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
In search of baseball, strippers, and guns
posted Hide Post
Hey man, just saw this

My 6 year old daughter is currently enrolled in renaissance Montessori

We originally decided to send her to Montessori instead of traditional public education because of her birthday is 9/29. In Virginia the age cut off is 9/30. She would literally be almost as young as you could possibly be in her grade

But she seemed ready for school. So we figured we would try her in Montessori, and if she didn’t like it we could always move her to “industrial” education (as they call it) the next year

She absolutely loves it

I, too, was hesitant about the teaching method. But it’s hard to argue with their results

The biggest thing I, as a parent, had to get used to was that, because a lot of the curriculum is self guided by the child’s needs, you have to let go of your preconceived notions of what kids should know by what age

For example, the industrial model is so focused in reading at a young age, and understandably so...and my daughter wasn’t really reading much

Because, as it turns out, she loves math

And she could multiply and divide multi digit numbers when she was 5

When new lessons come available, she eats up the math

And no, guess what, her reading is now catching up. And why? Because she needs to be able to read more to advance in math

My middle son is horribly dyslexic, and had a sight processing and sensory disorder, and really really struggled in school when he was younger

In public education, every hole is round. And if you’re square they will make you fit, or you won’t and you become more frustrated and fall further behind. And my son really struggled with this

In Montessori, the hole is whatever shape the kid needs it to be. That’s the easiest way to explain it. And even though my middle son has figured out how to make it work (he actually came home today with straight As for the first time ever) but had we done Montessori with him I think it would have saved us YEARS of tears


——————————————————

If the meek will inherit the earth, what will happen to us tigers?
 
Posts: 7796 | Location: Warrenton, VA | Registered: July 09, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata Page 1 2  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    The Montessori School

© SIGforum 2024