Montessori

When you’re checking out schools, especially at the very beginning of their education, make sure to put Montessori schools in the mix.

When my son was ready to start pre-k, I though that Montessori school was some obscure religious thing, full of spells and incantations. Which sounded great, so we checked it out. Turns out it’s none of that. It’s just a method of teaching/ learning that is different than traditional methods. On Day 1, I was hook line and sinker.

It’s far too involved to talk about everything, so here are some of the things that really set the hook for me.

The whole thing works on what they call “the whole child approach.” The focus isn’t only on academic development, though that’s strong (especially the math). The Montessori method looks to develop emotional growth and social skills too. Leadership, responsibility, teamwork (you don’t have to play sports to learn that), solving your own problems, the list goes on… even though I can’t think of any more I’m sure it goes on.

They use multi-age level classrooms. The class is made up of kids of varied ages, usually a 3 year group. I loved this. It serves a few purposes. Once an older child has mastered a task or a skill that they’ve been learning for awhile they can help to teach the younger children. Huge benefits to both kids involved.
Younger kids tend to look up to older kids so they’re often more open to what the older child is saying than to what the teacher is saying. It also lifts their self-esteem because an older kid is paying so much attention to them.
For the older child you, of course, have the reinforcement of the lesson, that’s always good. But the confidence and the feeling of responsibility that comes with helping to teach in the class is a real character builder.

The multi-aged classroom also keeps the children together longer, 1 to 3 years, to help foster relationships. Only the oldest kids, the class leaders, move out of the classroom each year. Then the others gradually move up into the leadership roles. The leadership experience was really important to me.

Self-direction in the classroom: Each class contains oodles of learning materials designed specifically for the age groups contained in that class. Children are not made to start with one material and progress to the next, they have the freedom to choose whatever it is that interests them, whatever holds their focus. They get a lesson on how that material works and then they are free to work with that material for as long or short a time as they wish.

We’ve been involved with Montessori for years now. I could go on about this stuff for a long time. But I think it’s sufficient to say that Montessori is awesome and effective and a great way to start an education.

Oh, and the name Montessori comes from Maria Montessori, the little old woman that developed it way back when.