Montessori?

Yes Nikki I think you should just go and have a look, observe a classroom. We spent a morning observing at the school (which goes from preschool through to high school) and that was the best insight into their approach.

Many of my misconceptions were corrected then; for example, like Freckle I thought Montessori was very individual rather than group focused, but if you go into a classroom you'll see lots of little groups working together, the older children 'teach' the younger ones, rather than the teacher (say in a primary school) leading the class.

Yes it does seem like 'work' but seeing how much the children love doing the so-called work (really, to them it is 'play'), and how much satisfaction they get out of it, changes your perspective on it. That's part of Montessori's key philosophy - that children learn best (and get personal satisfaction, leadership skills etc) through doing something productive, like we as adults get more out of doing productive work that is useful and rewarding, than just wasting it on leisure activities. The 2-year-olds at our playgroup race to be in first to make the bread for morning tea

anakk wrote: Many of my misconceptions were corrected then; for example, like Freckle I thought Montessori was very individual rather than group focused, but if you go into a classroom you'll see lots of little groups working together, the older children 'teach' the younger ones, rather than the teacher (say in a primary school) leading the class.

I know they do do group work at Montessori, however, from my experience they are more focused on individual work than mainstream ECC. I have worked in many ECC (as I worked with special needs preschoolers) of all kinds and in general that has been my experience.

MrsMc wrote: One thing to remember when worrying about how focused it is is that there is plenty of time at home to 'be a boy' so to speak, to run around dressed as superman. When you go to school, you go to learn, i think this is the way montessori works

I think that is sad - at preschool level children IMO should be going to preschool to have fun, play, interact with other kids, and as a consequence learn. There is plenty of time to get serious about academic learning once kids are at school...

Edited by freckle

freckle wrote: I think that is sad - at preschool level children IMO should be going to preschool to have fun, play, interact with other kids, and as a consequence learn. There is plenty of time to get serious about academic learning once kids are at school...

Agree! so true

Nikki wrote: When I visited the kids were all outside (which is what they apparently do in the afternoon, the morning is more about learning from what I could gather) and they seemed to be doing what they normally do at daycare, just a little calmer and no yelling or crying! which I don't think is a bad thing.

But kids are learning ALL the time, they don't need set times to learn... They are constantly experiementing with their environment and testing out their perceptions...

Edited by freckle

Oh yeah we don't allow toys either, but they do bring them, we don't encourage them. Dress ups, well, not sure we have such a huge range that maybe they don't feel the need to come dressed in them but there is one wee girl who often comes as something.
Our pre school dosne't hae much yelling/hitting/crying either, but that said it is for kids over 2.5, so more like a kindy. We do "extension" classes twice a week for kids over 4 1/2 to get ready for school foccussing on literacy and numeracy, and while we ahve soem structured "lessons" they are always about things the kids want to learn about - as in the week before Jake left it was bones and skeletons and the week before that, pirates and ships and stuff.

Having said all that I have about montessori and my fervent dislike of it, Im also not a fan of hugfe "institutionalised" centres either. I like small centres that have small rolls, so more scope for better/quieter/more foccused stuff.