Why Stay?

As I am sure all of you know it is that time of year for open houses and big choices. One of the biggest ones being where you will be sending your child for Kindergarten. As a Montessori teacher I have been taught the importance of keeping your child for the three year cycle and as a past montessorian I know the benefits of doing so.

I know that in the three years a child is in my classroom they go from a watcher, to a learner, to a teacher. That last step of the cycle in my opinion is the most important. What is the best way to test a child’s understanding on a subject? Watch how the teach and explain it to another classmate. Not only do they become the leaders of the classroom when it comes to academic work but they also help to set the standard socially and emotionally for the younger students. They model how to handle arguments with friends, how to sit in the circle, how to roll rugs, etc.

I personally also feel that when they are given the opportunity to stay for the third year they are able to comfortably learn new concepts in a way that doesn’t seem scary. For instance my students are learning the concept of exchanging and carrying over in with the same materials they used to learn to count their teen numbers. This familiarity helps the students to not be afraid to learn new concepts because they have already used the materials in the past.

I have attached twenty reasons to keep your child in the montessori classroom for the kindergarten year from the Montessori Children’s foundation.

1. Kindergarten is not the start of schooling. By five, most Montessori children will begin to read, and many will be introduced to multiplication and division.
2. The third (or Kindergarten) year is the time when many of the earlier lessons come together and be come permanent part of the young child’s understanding. An excellent example is the early introduction to addition with large numbers through the bank game. When children leave Montessori at age five, many of their still-forming concepts evaporate, just as a child living overseas will learn to speak two languages, but many quickly lose the second language if his family moves back home.
3. As a five-year-old, your child has many opportunities to teach the younger children lessons that he learned when he was their age. Research proves that this experience has powerful benefits for mentor and mentored.
4. Your child already knows most of her classmates. She has grown up in a safe, supportive classroom setting. And having spent two years together, your child’s teachers know her very, very well.
5. Five-year-olds have a real sense of running their classroom community.
6. Montessori children learn how to learn – and they learn to love learning
7. In Montessori, your child can continue to progress at her own pace. In traditional Kindergarten, she will have to wait while the other children begin to catch up.
8. If your child has been treated with a deep respect as a unique individual. The school has been equally concerned for his intellectual, social, and emotional development.
9. If your child goes on to another school, he will spend the first half of the year just getting used to the new educational approach.
10. Montessori schools are warm and supportive communities if students, teachers, and parents. Children can’t easily slip through the cracks!
11. Montessori teaches children to be kind and peaceful
12. Montessori is consciously designed to recognize and address different learning styles, helping students learn to study most effectively.
13. Montessori math is based on the European tradition of unified mathematics. Basic geometry is introduced at a young age.
14. Even in Kindergarten, Montessori children are studying cultural geography and beginning to grow into global citizens.
15. Our goal is to develop students who really understand their schoolwork. Learning is not focused on tote drill and memorization. Students learn through hands-on experience, investigation, and research. They become actively engaged in their studies, rather than passively waiting to be spoonfed.
16. We challenge and set high expectations for all our students, not only a special few. Students develop self-discipline and an internal sense of purpose and motivation.
17. The Montessori curriculum is carefully structured and integrated to demonstrate the connections among the different subject areas. Every class teaches critical thinking, composition, and research. History lessons link architecture, the arts, and science.
18. Students learn to care about others through community service.
19. Students in Montessori schools are not afraid of making mistakesbecause they have learned how to self-correct; they see them as natural steps in the learning process.
20. Students learn to collaborate and work together in learning and on major projects. They strive for their personal best, rather than compete against another for the highest grade in their class