Montessori vs preschool ?

I am moving to the other side of town in a month so i need to find a new childcare centre for dd (she will be turning 2 the day before the move ). she has always been in a preschool environment but while on my search for childcare i noticed that there is a montessori down the road from the new house and on the way to work and as i dont really know anything about montessori i thought i might ask my fellow ob mums what your thoughts are and if you have any good/bad experiances with montessori ? dd is VERY energetic , loves talking and picks up new words and sounds very easily , she loves painting and craft and thrives in a structured environment , she is also VERY independant .

Edited by julz85

Im moving over to hoonhay side of christchurch and i was looking at the airdmhor montessori in hilmorton which is in between home and work .

 

thanks Ange :)

I have just done a paper on Montessori as part of my teaching, it depends on the child, but mainly if they like imaginery play then Montessori don't do this, they only allow children to role play real life situations so no superheros etc.
Also what the others have said about the order of doing things, Montessori believe that equipment should only be used for its intended purpose and everything must be finished and put away for moving on to the next thing.

For my children I know that it wouldn't be the right choice, but deff go and check it out and see how you feel.

My younger sister went to montessori, starting when she was 2yrs old and I have to say it was incredible how switched on the wee kids were!! My sis read from a crazy early age and she has always done really well in school.
Also - one of the coffee group mums is a m teacher and she was talking about how it is a real independent style of learning where the are consequences for actions etc.. Real life stuff..

As for any type of schooling - if the teacher isnt right for your kid then it wont work as well.. So that would be an important consideration.

We will be enrolling our girl in to start at 2yrs as well as I personally like the teaching style.

Haha - this is really strange - Maybe my little sister was at a different type of montessori - she was/is a cheeky little terror who absolutely adored her teachers and 16 years on still keeps on touch with one of them! Maybe I should visit the one here before enrolling my baby then to make sure!

I found this link (it is obviously written by a montessori teacher so a bit biased) but you might be interested; http://www.montessori.org.nz/myths

Do a search on here - there are lots of threads on Montessori.

Personally, I love the Montessori philosophy, but our local one is fantastic and unfortunately they do vary.

For enrolment in our school it is compulsory to spend a morning observing, and I think this is really important. What we observed was quite different to what Ange saw, re:the play squares, it was definitely the exception for children to be playing alone, most of them were working with other children on the play squares, and I liked that it was older children mentoring the younger ones. However, I am a little concerned about the lack of imaginery play as my daughter is very imaginative and creative, but I love everything else about it so we'll give it a go when she turns 3 in a few months' time.

Like Amelia, my DD is very independent and I love that it gives them control and responsibility for their own decisions, instead of trying to squash that independence and give control to the teacher, as the traditional model of schooling does (although I know most modern schools are moving away from that model).

My 9month old has just started in a nursery montessori,

We chose it because of a few things including thinking about schooling for her .. montessori preschool = entry into the school (which we will most likely so), it was on my way to work, it was cheaper then alot of ones we looked at and we arent able to get the subsity so it mattered lol, I personally like the small 'class' they have 17 babies (7 month - 2) and 7 teachers/helpers! which i think is great!