I hadn't thought about this, but I know a few moms who kept their kids at our Montessori school for kinder and then went public for 1st grade. I guess the rationale is that public kinder is a little crazy with everyone coming in at different levels, but that things are more normalized by 1st grade? Thoughts?
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LittleK asked about this the other day!
http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wohm-private-kindergarten-or-half-day-and-then-after-care#post-1165265Our daughter will go to kindergarten in either the public or private school, whatever we decide. I think another year in what is essentially daycare is too much.
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@mediagirl: ooh thanks! I am also concerned that another year at Montessori would be too much!
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@Andrea: oh boy. Montessori is expensive! My co-worker is sending his kids to Montessori and plans to keep them in through Kinder because he likes their teaching methods.
While I don't think keeping them in Montessori through Kindergarten is the worst thing ever, I do think keeping them in through 8th grade is tough. Then they have to learn a whole new way to learn and be taught when they go out in the "real world" to high school!
Yikes, sorry. Didn't mean to go off on a tangent.
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@mediagirl: No, it probably wouldn't be the worst thing in the world either way. It just wasn't something I considered and now I am thinking about it. So I get ya!
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The Montessori program is designed so that the KG year re-inforces everything that you've learned in the previous two years. It is said to be really important to the process. At our Montessori, you need to commit to the 3 year program to get in.
We're staying.
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@Mrs. Jacks: and then you plan to move on for 1st grade?
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@Andrea: Yup. At our Montessori, the class size gets really small in first.
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@Mrs. Jacks: Same situation as you...
My DD is currently in Montessori for her Kindergarten year, which is the last year of early childhood. It's kind of the culmination of everything they have been working on for the past few years. Our school also does special things with the Kindergarteners, like special field trips, library trips, PE class, stuff like that. Next year the plan is to go to public 1st grade.
ETA here is the Montessori recommendation about the Kindergarten year. Read with a grain of salt since you can pretty much consider it propaganda, but it worked on me
http://www.montessori.org/imc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=260:why-montessori-for-the-kindergarten-year&catid=16:articles-introducing-montessori-education&Itemid=44 -
@T-Mom: it was the outcomes data that convinced me.
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@Mrs. Jacks: Do you have a link to that data handy? It's nice to know that the propaganda that worked on me is backed up by data
. I would say also that it was more a gut feeling for my DD.. just felt right to keep her in for one more year.
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@T-Mom: there is a decent paper, I'll try and find it if I can. Probably after work.
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@Mrs. Jacks: only if it's really easy to find. Please don't spend a lot of time looking. Thanks!
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@T-Mom: I didn't pull all the articles, but this master's thesis has a nice summary of the montessori data starting on page 14.
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@Mrs. Jacks: Thank you! interesting reading.
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Here's another telling quote from that summary of studies... I think that Maria Montessori has determined that there are learning cycles and disrupting a cycle to move a kid can be detrimental.
"an increase in behavioral problems associated with Montessori prekindergarten students when they enter a traditional classroom has also been noted (Magnuson et al., 2007). Magnuson et al. noted that this effect was present in both Montessori prekindergarten students and traditional prekindergarten students but almost non-existent in students who did not change schools when they went from prekindergarten to kindergarten."
Another link:
http://www.montessori-science.org/montessori_science_journal.htm
. I would say also that it was more a gut feeling for my DD.. just felt right to keep her in for one more year.
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