Parent Thread

Araysar said:

What kind of a place did you place your kid?

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Araysar said:

So I have some questions about Montessori schools...

My daughter is 19 months now and we are starting to look at where to place her once she hits the 2 year mark.

There is a Montessori school in our town and I've heard some of my friends in Chicago speak highly of the Montessori schools that they sent their kids to in Chicago suburbs. I've done some reading on the Montessori system and it seems reasonable but in this day and age I am highly skeptical of anything that schools and education systems proclaim or promise.

So has anyone placed their kids into one and were they happy with the outcomes? I think I saw Cad mention having his kids in one.

Any suggestions on what to screen for and evaluate?
Any suggestions on how to discern "good" Montessori schools from "bad" ones if that even makes sense?

Anything else I should be asking or looking into?

Is this some sort of commie Trojan horse that's ultimately all about "feels"?

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Reviews are good, but also just go visit the place and look around and see if it seems like the kids are having fun. Some schools are more like little prisons, others the kids are laughing and playing and learning. You can get a feel for it just looking at the demeanor of the kids. Don't walk in through for 5 minutes either, ask them to observe for 30-45 minutes and just hang out and chill and watch what goes on. You'll know pretty quickly if it's a place your kid can go. Obviously check cleanliness, watch what they do with kids who are obviously acting up, watch if there are any kids off in the corner that seem ignored, stuff like that.

Then just let your kid go and try it.. if they want to go every day and seem happy about it, then it's working. My two older kids both went to parents day out programs with our local church, my little one went to a Montessori school more full time, and they all loved it.

Cad said:

Reviews are good, but also just go visit the place and look around and see if it seems like the kids are having fun. Some schools are more like little prisons, others the kids are laughing and playing and learning. You can get a feel for it just looking at the demeanor of the kids. Don't walk in through for 5 minutes either, ask them to observe for 30-45 minutes and just hang out and chill and watch what goes on. You'll know pretty quickly if it's a place your kid can go. Obviously check cleanliness, watch what they do with kids who are obviously acting up, watch if there are any kids off in the corner that seem ignored, stuff like that.

Then just let your kid go and try it.. if they want to go every day and seem happy about it, then it's working. My two older kids both went to parents day out programs with our local church, my little one went to a Montessori school more full time, and they all loved it.

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Agree with this. We went to a few places first. One the lady had way too many age ranges in one room. The other the two woman working looks like they were about to cry.

The place we went, you could see my kids progress grow extremely fast once he started there. Could sing his ABCs around a year and a half old, sign language before he could talk, could figure out puzzles, matching colors and shapes, etc. pretty happy with what we did.

I’ll also say it’s still important that you’re still reading a ton to them every day, and working on stuff when they get home too. Those places help but they aren’t miracles that allow you to ignore your kid. There are a few kids in our neighborhood that went to the same early learning center he did but the parents do nothing but give them an iPad after school. World of difference between our kid and theirs. They will tell people it’s a waste of money and we’ll say “Idk, seemed to work out for us.”

Captain Suave said:

My daughter went to a Montessori pre-K. She didn't have any trouble transitioning to regular school beyond being bored because she could already read and do arithmetic at a 1st grade level. Her program was closer to a normal school, though, kinda Montessori-lite.

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The boredom part can be a problem if your school doesn’t have advanced classes. My kid went into kindergarten and already knew how to read and write and do math. Kindergarten has kids that can’t even do their ABCs sometimes so regular kindergarten is very basic. Our district had an advanced class so he was able to skip kindergarten material and go straight to first.

For some reason this year they got rid of advanced kindergarten, and next year getting rid of advanced first. They’ve also decided to remove spelling from 1st. We lucked out getting into the last year of it, he we have been bored as fuck in normal classes. Even the advanced one has to invent extra shit for him to stay busy. I feel bad for any parents with an advanced kid now, they’re dumbing it down so bad they’re just going to end up slowing those kids down.

Captain Suave said:

My daughter went to a Montessori pre-K. She didn't have any trouble transitioning to regular school beyond being bored because she could already read and do arithmetic at a 1st grade level. Her program was closer to a normal school, though, kinda Montessori-lite.

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Same, my littlest could read before he went to K, so K was pretty boring for him. He did play a lot and get along though, teacher didn't have any trouble with him.

The issue with montessori depending on how they do it is that generally the kids learn alone in montessori at their own pace, they have learning tasks and the kids work at it independently. Then you get to public school kindergarten and the teachers want you to sit and pay attention as a group and move at the speed of the group, and depending on the kid, they can have trouble.

Cad said:

Then you get to public school kindergarten and the teachers want you to sit and pay attention as a group and move at the speed of the group, and depending on the kid, they can have trouble.

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God I remember reading groups in 2nd grade. I had been reading E.B. White books and Peanuts books and I had to sit there waiting for some poor fucktard to struggle through Dick and Jane shit.

sakkath said:

Anyone know of any good online digital literacy training programs/videos aimed at kids? There's plenty which are about children's digital literacy but they're all aimed at parents.

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Not sure which age group you’re after.

I’m guessing any kind of learning materials related to that would just be common sense shit you can tell them yourself. Stories about girls ruining their high school life by nudes leaking. People getting kicked out of college or losing their job for racist shit they posted five years ago. Etc.

Hatorade said:

So things have kind of turned around, not holding my breath but threats of scorched earth and a real talk about what's going on seems to have worked. Been a week and so far no fuck ups.

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That’s good to hear. Make sure you follow up, just pop in her room when she’s not busy and just chat. How are things going, how’s school, whatever. Let her vent, keep communication flowing.

Friend of mine had a troubled daughter and those chats helped a lot. He’d just go sit and have a one on one every so often and let her talk about whatever. She’s one of the most well adjusted young adults I’ve ever met now.