Montessori

[SeaShellsFiringUpTheQuattro]

Two of the best nurseries in our area are Montessori- has anyone got any experience or advice regarding the pedagogy etc? I have found the wiki etc but how foes this translate into day to day things?

Many thanks :)

Bump

Not much clue but am watching this for info :)

My son goes to a Montessori - its a fairly strict one in that they learn counting through beads, spacial differences through block towers and fine motor skills through polishing, cutting paper, other things. They learn courtesy and politeness, its a mixed age class 3-6 and they work in age groups at tables but play all together outside. He loves it, likes his classmates, his teacher, comes home with interesting questions about things they've discussed or had read to them. He is a normal lively boy who tends more to be cautious than extrovert so it was a good environment. I think if you have a boisterous, restless child it might not be the place to start - better to have a lot of games and activities outside (having said that, I know some mums have gone to Montessori to counter the boisterous ways....). Hope helpful in some way. The best thing is to visit and see for yourself what they do, what they're like and how happy / focused the kids seem.

Thanks aphraben :)

I do have that boisterous child-clever but lively so had wondered if it would suit him. He needs debouncing first but loves practical learning and I think many f the learning approaches would suit him.

I'm visiting one next week, but if course availability is useless (as with all the nurseries around here)

Not trying to be difficult, but really what do you think other nurseries do? Of course counting, cutting,social awareness etc is all learned through activities/mixing etc.
Perhaps age range slightly different, more 3-4/5. But really all nurseries are trying to achieve same objective.

Ds is already in nursery but we need to move him to one more conveniently placed hence looking onto the local Montessori, and am totally ignorant of them!

This might be useful to you www.montessori-uk.org/whatis.htm
Whatever method of teaching a nursery uses they stll have to follow the curriculum of the EYFS

Many thanks for the link purepurple, as you say, many of the objectives are present in all nurseries these days it seems.

Yes, seashells, there are some elements of Montessori in the EYFS.
That's why I love the EYFS, it has been influenced by lots of early years pioneers. It is a real recognition of how children learn.

The other thing SeaShells is that you MAY find its going to be easier to get a DS into Montessori. They tend to have more female applicants than male a lot of the time. I visited three Montessori schools and 2 of them offered me places on the spot when they found out I had a son as it would "help get the gender balance right".