How to Choose the Right Montessori Preschool
Choosing the right Montessori preschool for your child is a big deal. Not all Montessori schools are created equal. Montessori is not a copyrighted or trademarked term. That means that any school can use Montessori in their name without following the Montessori principles or following them partially. The good news is that with a little bit of research, you’ll be better equipped to recognize if a particular school follows the Montessori approach.
Things to Look for in an authentic Montessori school:
Photos courtesy of Centennial Montessori School (AMI)
Montessori Trained Teachers
A quality Montessori school will hire teachers who earned their certification from a fully accredited Montessori teacher training program. Two organizations offering Montessori training here in the US are Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and American Montessori Society (AMS). I prefer AMI because it was founded by Dr. Maria Montessori herself to preserve the integrity of Montessori philosophy and pedagogy. AMI diplomas are also recognized worldwide.
Montessori Materials
When you visit a Montessori classroom, you’ll see Montessori materials on shelves. Besides traditional Montessori materials, there’ll be materials created by the teacher. Most materials will be organized on trays or in baskets. They will be placed orderly on shelves that are accessible to children. If you’re not familiar with Montessori materials, you can visit the Nienhuis website. You can find all materials for the 3-6 classroom there.
Mixed Age Classroom
The Montessori preschool classroom is mixed-age. Children between 3 and 6 attend the same classroom. Having a mixed age group of children works surprisingly well. The oldest children often help the younger ones with their work. For example, you can see a younger child baking alongside an older friend. The older friend reads a recipe and a younger one listens to what to do. Or you can see one of the oldest children reading a book to a few younger friends. In this way, the oldest children practice their leadership skills while the youngest ones learn from them. As you can see, the teacher (the guide) isn’t the only person passing on knowledge to children. Children in the classroom learn from each other.
Montessori Classroom Set-up
A Montessori classroom is set up with children in mind. You will see child-sized furniture with Montessori materials accessible to children. Practical life materials are also child-sized. For example, you will most likely find a child-sized broom, a dustpan, and a mop for children to use. Children also have access to a sink with running water.
The Montessori classroom gives a peaceful and homelike vibe. It’s orderly and clutter-free. There is artwork on walls hung up on the child’s level. The pictures on the walls add to the beauty and the simplicity of the classroom.
Bright classroom decor or bulletin boards are not typical for Montessori classrooms. There is a reason for it. The colorful decor could distract children from the actual work on the shelves.
3 Hour Work Cycle
The three-hour work cycle means that children have this uninterrupted chunk of time for focused work. During these three hours, children choose what they want to work on. You might see a child doing flower arranging for the classroom tables. Another child decides to practice his writing. You might observe a group of children sitting on the floor playing a memory game of numbers.
Giving children enough time free of interruptions is crucial for their learning. Besides that, some of the advanced materials take a long time to finish—for example, the Thousand Chain. The Thousand Chain is a chain consisting of 1000 beads. This work includes many steps. The child needs to lay down a mat, place the chain on it, get labels with numbers, count the whole chain, and place a number label below a particular bead. The three-hour work cycle gives a child enough time to finish this work.
Montessori Math material - The Thousand Chain
Individual Lessons
In a Montessori classroom, children can use only the materials they got introduced to by their teacher (the guide). Each child gets an individual lesson on materials that are in the classroom. The teacher decides when to introduce a particular work to a child based on the child’s readiness. When the child is ready to get a lesson on The Pink Tower, the teacher will present it. If you saw a teacher giving a group lesson on the Pink Tower to the whole classroom, it would be a red flag to me. Each child is developmentally somewhere else, and individual lessons are tailored specifically to the particular child. There are materials that children work on in groups to make it clear. But each child of the group has to have a lesson on it first.
The teacher / The guide
The Montessori teachers are called “guides” because they guide children rather than teach them in the traditional sense. The guide is an important piece of the puzzle.
Besides being Montessori trained, watch out for the demeanor of the person. Is the teacher respectful to the children? For example, is she getting down on the child’s level when talking to them? Does she give an impression of being calm and collected? Or is she yelling across the classroom while talking to a child? That would be a red flag to me. When you visit the classroom for the first time, it can be hard to spot the teacher. They tend to blend with the environment, often working one-on-one with a child either on the floor or at a table.
If you have a few schools in mind that seem to fit your needs, you can look at the AMI or AMS websites to find lists of fully accredited schools and see if your school is there. If your school is on the list, it means that it meets the highest standards for Montessori schools. If it’s not, it can still be a great Montessori school that might not have the funding to get accredited. If your school isn’t on the list, make sure to get familiar with it so you can rest assured that it provides a quality Montessori education.
AMI accredited schools AMS accredited schools
Do you have any more questions about how to choose a Montessori school?