Montessori nursery

[Mamabear12]

I am just curious your experience of Montessori nurseries? We are switching our daughter to a nursery closer to us because we have a new baby on the way and the 5 mins walk is much easier to deal with, then the 20 mins walk her current nursery is. We are very happy with the current nursery, it is just too far!

The Montessori one looks like it would be good, I just felt like there were not that many toys! Compared with her current nursery, which looks more fun! The Montessori one does look more serious and like she will learn a lot there...but as she is only 17 months, kind of wish it had more toys! I am thinking about donating some toys there! Or is it the Montessori way? To have less toys and distractions?

Maria Montisorry thought children should be calm all the time not excited. And it must be a good system because it's based on science from 100 years ago, when all the best science happened.

I think you really need to do some research into Montessori.

My 20 month DD attends a Montessori nursery and not only loves it, but is positively thriving there. Her language skills are excellent and I really believe that the nursery has had a large influence in that. The ethos is centred around educating the 'whole' child, and learning through play (inc role play). You may not see many plastic, noisy, bright coloured toys as Maria Montessori pro opted wooden and natural textures to enable children's imaginations. However, they aren't stuck in the 18th century - activities often include 'electronic' games and toys!

Basically, Montersorry nurseries now ignore what Maria believed in when she started and now offer what all nurseries should offer. Good quality child centred unrushed care.
BTW, she didn't like roleplay and kept children away from "The world of fantasy", and nobody knows what the Montisori method was. She wrote about the effects of it and her beliefs, but never wrote the actual 'method' down!

Surely the amount of noise is a function of mainly the kids and not the toys?

I visited 2 Montessori nurseries. One was very noisy indeed but it was in a very large room which was sectioned off. The other was quieter but was in a house setting.

My dts go to a Montessori nursery, they've been there over a year now and to be honest I still have absolutely no clue what it actually means! But they are happy, I am happy, the staff are lovely and they do all the messy stuff with them that I can't be bothered to do at home!

You need to check out each nursery. DS went to one that was a teaching college with a nursery attached, set up donkeys years ago.

It was lots of fun, kids had a great time - toys, painting, reading, puzzles, singing and music, cooking, gardening, computers, etc. The only difference was no plastic toys!

Our is excellent absolutely excellent. I mean if I could have ds stay there until he was 16 I would

However like any nursery it can vary so don't be swayed by the Montessori label.

DS's nursery looks quite "low key" but that's a good thing. I don't want him in a garish environment - home isn't like that, it would be too over stimulating etc.

He chooses what he does every day, they have a variety of activities, the staff love to know what interest ds has and they try and incorporate that into their activities. They have outdoor play, indoor play, visits etc etc.

It is brilliant. Ds loves it, I love it.

Hmm. Tiggy I'm not sure I would agree with you there. Montessori methodology is very different, especially in the specialist nurseries and schools.

However, many Montessori principles have been included into the EY framework, thankfully so there will be activities that children take part in that mirror those in the Montessori specific nurseries and schools.

^ ah yes. That's a very good point.

My DS attends a similar setting to Suffolk 's- a Montessori pre-school attached to an independent Montessori primary. He is starting full time in Sept but I have taken him to parent and toddler classes there where the children were intoroduced to Montessori activities and parents were educated about the method.

In a pure Montessori setting you would expect the toys/ activities to be 'zoned' (practical life- things like pouring and polishing, sensorial- colour discrimination, texture etc). The activities are laid out very neatly at the children's level. They are expected to choose an activity, take it to a work space, explore it for as long as they want with some modelling from an adult to introduce or extend learning, then to put it back exactly as they found it. This develops attention, self control and thinking skills. The idea is that, given time to focus, children will naturally choose activities that are at exactly the right level for their learning. My DS picked up the routines and was able to work this way a 2yo and it was fantastic to watch.

Running is not allowed. Shouting is not allowed. You have to clean up after yourself if you make a mess. Independence is the central tenet. The children are helped 'just enough' and no more.

A pure setting might thank you for a toy donation, but put it away for 'wet play' or similar. I wouldn't expect them to include it in a Montessori work session as the activities included in this are very carefully chosen to meet specific developmental aims.

A true Montessori setting, although it has to deliver EYFS, is definitely very different to a normal EYFS setting. I sometimes take my DS to play at the nursery attached to my school (Ofsted outstanding btw) and he is quite confused by it. He doesn't get that everything is laid out by the adults and it's ok to crash about and 'flit' from one thing to another. He wants to get something out for himself and sit at a table with it!! He is a real outdoorsy boy and loves to play with other kids- but he already thinks school should be for focusing and calm learning thanks to Montessori.

I can see that it wouldn't be for everybody. I love it though and so does DS.