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All of our centers seem to claim education basis. I'm not sure they all really are. We are using one that is education based and accredited but is not a name already listed. We love it and it has been great for LO.

I'd say its popular here only among the 'crunchy' set. I love Montessori! Another deciding factor for us is that most other preschools here are religion-based and DH and I aren't comfortable with religious instruction in preschool.

Ah, now it's been mentioned We use Primrose. I've read up on Montessori, but never actually toured a facility locally.

We love Primrose. I'm amazed at the things LO learns there everyday.

@Locavore_Mama: While they don't pray at her school, they do say the pledge to the flag each morning. By 18 months, LO knew to stand facing the flag and where to place her right hand. They talk about different religious holiday (primarily in December).

One of my favorite things about Primrose is the whole school is on the same curriculum. So, if this week is "transportation" every class is learning the same topic at an age appropriate level. And the curriculum is all centrally prepared in Georgia so the teachers can "teach" and not spend their time planning. I think it also provides for consistency.

I'm probably going against the grain here but we looked at Montessori schools for my son (classic Montessori) and we just didn't think that the Montessori philosophy was right for him. I think we got caught up in the whole trendy thing (and I think @locavore_mama is right that Montessori feels very trendy right now even though it's been around for ages and ages). I think it just really depends on the individual child.

We took my son with us when we toured the preschools in our area (15 of them!) and we knew we found the right preschool for him right away. It's a wonderful project-based preschool, which focuses on learning from the environment. So they spend most of their time outdoors, even when it's raining. It's an indoor/outdoor classroom so the doors are always open for them to go play outside. The student/teacher ratio is 1:4 so if a group of children want to go outside, the teacher will always follow them. One thing that we didn't particularly like about the Montessori schools in our area was that they didn't spend a lot of time outdoors (maybe 1.5 hours tops?). Most of their "purposeful work" was done indoors. For us, we wanted something a little more open-ended and less focused on individual work. And outdoor time was really really important to us. My son starts in 2 weeks and we're SUPER excited!

@T-Mom: Our moderate SoCal weather makes this indoor/outdoor thing work well. I can't imagine this being too comfortable in states with actual season changes!

@Mrs. Jacks: Oh good.! I thought people would think I was crazy. No Montessori? What? Everyone loves Montessori! I guess I originally felt a little "pressured" (if that's the right word) to send him to a Montessori school because it seems like that's all everyone is talking about in the interwebs (Pinterest. hello.). I actually really love the Montessori method. We incorporate a lot of Montessori in our own home (taken from your posts actually!). But when it came down to finding a school that fit my son, Reggio felt more "right".

I have been in the child development field for more than a fifteen years, and have worked as a infant through preschool teacher and have been an administrator of a child care center in both for-profit and non-profit sectors.

Choosing a preschool can be confusing and overwhelming for many parents who are not aware of the many different teaching and philosophical preschool programs available. I always advocate parents to research preschool programs thoroughly and bring their child to the tour visit to see how their child would do in the setting. You get a feel for how your child will do base on your visit and ask many questions.

Also, I have observed in many places where they have "claimed" to implement a certain theory/philosophy but in fact do not practices it entirely.

When I was an administrator, while touring with potential families, I would honestly tell them base on the information they give me about their child if our program would be a good fit for their child. Not the other way around. The child comes first.