Montessori?

Not ment to sound um, yeah, well, but Why Montessori? What do you think makes it better than other types of ECE?


Only asking because I am a bit suspicious of it...here it seems to be all audi/porche/bmw 4wd mums...who send their kids to montessori because its the "in" pre school...then they all go to the same zoned well out of the way school cos its the "in" school.

We've had a couple of kids recently start at our place who were "turned down" as wrong fits for montessori and one who was "expelled"...seems a bit eletist to me, and not entirely in the manner in which the montessori method was created? That might just be ours, though.

Steiner don't teach to read til 7.

Yeah that bugged me too, liz, so you can't roll a ball down the slide.

Also if they go in dress ups they get asked to change and get sent home if they don't. Anthing, including dress ups that get brought into school gets confiscated.

I've only just started working in ECE but the imagination thing is what bugs me, cos thats how they learn. I don't think its bad, I just think its not suited to all children. They do a test too, before accepting you into montessori to see if the child will fit in with their philosophies.

The kids at our Casa de Bambini get invited to the plays our pre school do in the church (they are about 50m down the road from us) and they are very well behaved children, but seem a little devoid of personality and fun....a bit sad I think. JMHO though, cos I know lots of parents love it and for the right reasons you should love something (IE not cos its the "in" place) I just think they seem like wee robots.

I think they often go into year 0/1 ahead of the other kids but get levelled out with them all after about 6 months - so they are all on "even" playing fields.

do schools not teach reading until 6 here? I remember when I was 5 in first grade at primary school (in aus) I was asked to go and read a book to the grade 7s. (i dont know why. maybe some kinda big kid - little kid thing?) But i was hiring books from the library from my first day of school.....


and thats not right telling kids they arent allowed to use their imagainations!




but what are the main differences between Montessori, Steiner and 'normal' ECE?

Search for 'Montessori' - there are quite a few threads on this topic.

Clara is only at the playgroup stage (she's 2 years 4 mths), but it's been a good introduction to the Montessori approach, I've been to information sessions etc.

Overall I have been impressed by the approach. Pros:
- Encourages the children to be proactive (rather than passive) learners, and to take responsibility for their own education. It gives them a genuine love of learning.
- (I like that) classrooms span 3 years; the younger ones learn from the older children, and the older children become 'teachers'.
- The children are taught to be respectful of others (which suits my daughter, who is quite shy), eg, to wait their turn to use toys etc. I've been told regular preschools are more chaotic, that Montessori preschools are calmer and more ordered, which suits my daughter (who is fairly introverted and can't handle too much noise etc).
- The Montessori approach, and the accompanying educational materials, are based around studies into the natural developmental cycles of the child, and they make good sense to me.
- We've adopted many of their ideas into our home - basically encouraging Clara to do as much as she can for herself, and contributing to family life - and she seems to be thriving on it.

Also, the school she is going is great - it's a really strong community and they are very true to the Montessori approach. However, note that not all Montessori schools are created equal - it's not a brand as such, schools can adopt the Montessori 'label' without adhering too closely to the philosophies of Dr Montessori. (Oh and it's not Porsche mums down here - the school is located in a low-decile area, and while many children travel from outside the area, we have many local mums as well, and I love the multi-cultural mix of the school. But the hours are longer than kindy for example, so it does cost more.)

They "teach" them to read (phonetics) and write, spell etc from early on - but the inverted commas are there for a reason - like everything, they don't force it on them - they introduce it to them, but expect them to teach themselves (they have reading recovery programmes for later on, for children who do struggle). But it's Steiner that believes that written language should come later (around 7), once the oral tradition is well established.

However, I do have a few reservations about it. It's still very early days for us, but Clara is pretty uninterested in most of their educational materials, like puzzles, etc. (Though she does like things like preparing food, washing clothes etc.) At home she's very imaginative and either wants to read books or to play with dolls or combine her toys in creative ways, which makes me wonder how well suited she is to the Montessori ('one object for one purpose') approach.

She may be better suited to Steiner's imaginative approach - which I also like, but I have more reservations about it than I have about Montessori - and unfortunately you can't pick and mix when it comes to their philosphies! But I do like a 'holistic' (whole child) approach to education, of Montessori and Steiner, than the state school approach, which IMO was developed from a history of serving the state (making good workers), rather than the development needs of the child ... though many state schools are great, it's just finding the right one. (And I'm talking more about primary than preschools here.)

The wikipedia entry has a good overview on it, with links to further research on the pros and cons of the approach. Modern research seems to support the findings of Dr Montessori.

Edited by anakk

I should add that it's not that Montessori discourages the child's use of their imagination - what they discourage is 'fantasy', which they believe is something adults impose on children through fairy tales, monsters, superman etc. They believe imagination should grow out of experiences grounded in reality - which is why a child might get sent home for going to school wearing a dress-up costume. Montessori is ok with fantasy for older children - who have developed a grounding in reality - but not the under 6s.

I haven't decided my POV on this either, I need to read some more (here is some light reading for your weekend - scroll down to the sections on 'fantasy' and 'imagination')

I found it helpful to hear the imagination vs. fantasy discussion rephrased as "creativity vs. imitation" ... so if the child is simply acting out superman, he or she is merely imitating a storybook character, not actually creating his own original character (according to Montessori theory) ... but like you say, what looks like just an imitation of superman could be much more, and fantasy/imagination was such a big part of my early life that I find this aspect of Montessori challenging.

Both my daughters attend Casa Dei Bambini here in Christchurch and I think it is the best thing. It has given them a headstart in life. It may seem more advanced than normal mainstream kindys but we wouldn't turn back the clock.

Go and have a look and see for yourself :)

I intend on sending Clodagh to the local Montessori pre school, it's gorgeous and very into nature and learning to care for animals etc as well as their emphasis on teaching children self respsonisibilty.

Having said that, I also LOVE the Steiner approach...very much and so much so that if we had a local school here I would send her there in preference probably. But the closest one is too far, half hour drive and that seems illogical to me given some of the reasons I want my kids to attend these types of schools lol.

I don't think they're ness better than other ECE's...just different approaches. I've also dealt with many parents and children of all ages from BOTH these schools and tbh have found them almost without exception to be empathetic, kind, outgoing with great social skills and very attuned to the natural world around them. Of course this could be luck on my part hehe but it certainly helped shape my views on these schools.

Thanks for all the opinions. I'm certainly not looking into it as a "fade" or because its the "in thing" where I live - we're way out west, so far from a "bmw/audi" type area, not a porshe in sight out here! lol. (and to be honest its actually in a lower socio-economic area than their current dc)

The reason I started looking is because my kids are in a daycare a wee way from where we live, and I'm thinking when Jake gets to school it would be nice to move Morgan to a closer centre. Our options are one we sent J to briefly and took him out of (long story), one I didn't like, one I really liked that started at 2yrs so wasn't an option when Jake first started -- which I recently visited again (it has a great rep and ero report and I know a few kids going their, but seemed so chaotic compared to their current one) and the montessori one (also starts at 2yrs) ... so I popped in to check it out and she wants me to come back and observe for a morning.

From what I could see I actually think it would suit Jake better than Morgan in some respects .... he is a very respectful child and hates other kids hitting him / taking toys etc as he doesn't do that to others. He is also really into counting / numbers and gardening, baking etc so I think could like some aspects. But it seems very focused on learning (ie they can read/write quite well when they start school) and I'm not sure if its so much fun!! And being a typical boy he just loves to run and yell and kick balls and vrrmmm cars!

So since I didn't know much at all I thought i'd ask opinions. I liked some of the things Anakk likes. I like the learning focus, and I like that the children are very settled and calm and respectful (I wonder how they achieve this though!! lol).

It would be a huge decision to move him, as hes very settled. But I get the impression they would push for him to start, not just wait til M turns 3 to start her (and he starts school). I also have to consider the hours (longer than kindy, shorter than daycare).
I am still considering going to have a proper look though....

I'm not a fan of montessori preschool. I think the things most people are mentioning as being great about montessori are the basic skills that all ECCs encourage (e.g. fostering independence, being respectful of others, looking at the child holistically, etc). TeWhariki is the curriculum document that guides ECCs in NZ, and all these skills are covered in this document.

The fantasy/imagination thing seems silly to me - children learn through imitation, yet imitating fantasy is not acceptable??

What I don't like about montessori is the lack of focus on group work - children need to learn to work in groups, yet montessori's focus is on the individual...

I also think doing table top, structured kind of activities is very unnatural for preschool children. I think the claims that it is child directed are false as the types of activities and resources are more limited.

I think preschool kids need to be kids, and sometimes kids make lots of noise and can be a bit chaotic, they play together, and they learn from play and imitating what they see from others... to me Montessori isn't meeting these needs.

I also think if you want to introduce more academic type stuff (like reading etc) you can do so at home, but many ECCs do introduce the basics of numeracy and literacy - however, I believe the focus at this age, at preschool, should be learning independence, social skills and learning through play - which you will get at any good centre.

Edited by freckle