Littles' birthday was last week and I was out of town on a business trip. She's only two and so I know she didn't know the difference, but I felt guilty not being there.
To make matters even worse, the meeting that I had to attend was really stupid and a waste of time. Yet it was timed perfectly to make it completely impossible for me to catch a flight that would put me home before bedtime.
Sometimes, being a working mom really sucks.
Normally, Littles' preschool asks parents to keep dropoffs short -- no lingering around. But since this is Littles' first week, the director encouraged me to stay a little longer in the mornings to help her settle in. I jumped at the opportunity to get a little taste of what her days will be like and observe the Montessori method first-hand.
We arrived right at 9 AM on Monday morning and went to the extended-care room for a few minutes while the teachers finished preparing the main classrooms.
Most of the kids who had been in extended care went to the school's older classroom (which is for kids who have had at least a year of Montessori and are potty trained). Littles and one other little girl went to the beginner room. Soon, a boy and another girl were dropped off. The teacher told me that one of the girls had just turned 2 in March, and the other girl and boy were both 2.5.
Each child was allowed to choose their Montessori "work" for the morning. Each "work" is basically a toy, but it has a very specific purpose/goal. Littles started out with a geometric sorting board. It is similar to this:
Except the one in Littles' classroom is in the shape of a clown, with the circle as the head, the triangle as the body, the square as the lower body/legs, and the rectangle as an arm raised to the side.
Littles loved taking all the blocks off the pegs and then putting them back on. The toy looks so plain and simple, but when you think about it, it's teaching:
After Littles got all the blocks off, she got up and went to get a different "work." Her teacher encouraged her to finish the one she had started, so she sat down and went back to it. She got stuck because she put some of the blocks on the wrong pegs. The teacher demonstrated how to put one of the blocks on the correct pegs, then took the block off and told Littles to try it herself. She picked it up right away and finished putting all the shapes back on the board. Then she was asked to put the board back on the shelf and get a new work.
The next one she picked turned out to be much more complicated. The teacher started to demonstrate it to her, but she lost interest midway through and wandered back to the sorting board. The teacher smiled at me and said, "That's really common at this age. This is a long work." She cleaned up the complicated one while Littles played with the sorting board again.
Meanwhile, the other kids were all concentrating on their own works. At one point, Littles tried to take some pieces of another child's work, and the teacher gently told her, "No, no. That's Stephanie's work. Here's your work." I know that Montessori students are encouraged to work together, and I've seen that in action in the older classroom, but I think that two-year-olds are a little young to "get" that concept :)
It was interesting to see Montessori in action. I feel like I understand a little better why it is considered to be "child centered" and "play based." The Montessori materials are fun to play with! It may be called "work," but it feels like play. And there is no organized activity during the Montessori time; each child chooses what to do. Littles could have played with the geometric shape sorter the entire time, if she had wanted. But each work does have a specific purpose, and the teachers do guide the children one-on-one to better understand the work.
In comparison, when Littles has "dropped in" at various daycare centers, I've seen that there is usually a similar playtime in the mornings, where the children have free roam of the room with no organized activity. But not all toys in the room have a specific educational purpose, like the Montessori materials do. Children are allowed to pick up a toy and put it down -- the teacher does not necessarily encourage them to "figure out" the toy or put it away when they are done with it. And the time really is "free play" with basic supervision by the teacher. The Montessori time feels like play too, but with a purpose, and with one-on-one guidance from the teacher.
That's not to say that the traditional daycares are "bad" or unstructured. I know that the daycares where we've done drop-in care do have plenty of structured educational activities later in the day. Nor am I saying that Littles spends her entire day at her preschool drifting from one Montessori work to another according to her whims. Her classroom does have a lesson plan -- for example, they're learning about the letter "B" right now by (among other things) blowing bubbles, bouncing balls, and listening to bells.
But I can definitely see the difference in the approach. Time will tell whether the Montessori approach is the right one for Littles, but for now, at least, she seems to be doing really well with it.
Before:
After:
That's what happens when you don't take a nap all day! She was asleep within 5 minutes of getting in the car :)
Aside from not napping, she did really well! She settled right in to the Montessori "work" in the morning and didn't even cry when I left! When we picked her up, she had something white (yogurt?) all over her shirt, something blue (marker? paint?) all over her hands, and sand in her shoes. I think those are signs of a good day :)
This post is part of an ongoing series on finding child care.
As I have explained previously, we started looking for a full-time preschool for Littles after her sitter informed us that she was pregnant and would not be able to care for Littles as she neared her due date. We came up with three solid preschool options: two Montessori schools (which I will call Montessori A and Montessori B), and a daycare in the Bright Horizons chain.
I initially visited each school on my own. I liked all three, although each had its strengths and weaknesses.
Montessori A
Pros:
Cons:
Montessori B
Pros:
Cons:
Bright Horizons
Pros:
Cons:
The decision
After visiting all three schools by myself, I was leaning towards Bright Horizons. I liked their curriculum, I liked their teachers and their director, I liked the idea of being able to start Littles part-time at first, I liked the idea of not having to drive so frickin' far to drop her off!
I then went back to visit all three schools with Hubby.
We went to Bright Horizons first, and he walked away saying, "Now I remember why we liked that place so much when we looked at it before." (We had come very close to placing Littles at Bright Horizons back around her first birthday. Full story here.)
We went to Montessori B next. I was really curious to see Hubby's reaction. It was probably the most "unique" of our three options, which can be a good thing or a bad thing!
The director took us into one of the classrooms and spent probably 30 minutes talking to us about Montessori, showing us the various materials available to the students, etc. Hubby seemed interested, but I wasn't sure if he was just being polite. Finally, the director left the room to get something else to show us and Hubby mouthed to me, "I like this place!" After we wrapped up at the school, we went out to lunch to debrief, and Hubby couldn't stop raving about it. He liked it more than Bright Horizons -- and after that second visit, I did as well.
Finally, we visited Montessori A. We had a less-than-impressive tour with one of the staff members. (My initial tour had been with one of the directors.) She admitted that she came from a traditional daycare background and really struggled to explain Montessori concepts and how they were implemented at her school. To give A a fair shake, I did explain to Hubby that the directors at A could talk about Montessori just as articulately as the director at B had done, but it didn't really matter. We were both completely sold on Montessori B.
So... Littles starts at Montessori B on Monday. I'm very excited about it. I think she'll really enjoy being in a larger environment, and I think she'll learn a lot. I am nervous about the transition, and I definitely think the first few weeks will be tough, with lots of tears at drop-off. But hopefully, she'll settle in quickly and start loving it!
This is my ninth post in a series on finding child care.
As I have explained previously, we started looking for a full-time preschool for Littles in early 2009, after her sitter informed us that she was pregnant and would not be able to care for Littles starting in the summer of 2009.
Coincidentally, our neighbors have a son who is just a few weeks younger than Littles, and they were looking for a preschool as well. They gave us recommendations for two excellent Montessori schools in the area, which I will call Montessori A and Montessori B.
I could easily devote an entire blog post -- or, heck, an entire blog -- to explaining the Montessori philosophy, so I'll try to be brief. It's an alternative educational method that is child-centered, rather than teacher-directed. Children are allowed to choose the educational activities that they participate in, with guidance from their teachers, of course. If you're interested in learning more, I found this "Montessori 101" guide to be an excellent introduction.
One important thing to realize about Montessori is that it is a philosophy, not a chain or a franchise, so individual Montessori schools can differ drastically. For that reason, I knew it was important to take a close look at both schools and see what I thought.
I had a 30-minute discussion with the director of Montessori A over the phone before I visited, and I loved everything I heard. She was able to clearly articulate the school's educational philosophy, and it sounded wonderful. She also put a strong emphasis on active parental involvement, both in the actual educational experience and in non-educational areas such as providing healthy food, ensuring that kids get plenty of sleep, etc. Finally, Montessori A had two campuses, one close to our home and another close to our sitter's home. That meant it might be possible for Littles to start out with three mornings a week in late winter/spring (with her sitter picking her up in the afternoon), then move to full-time in the summer, which was a nice option.
I looked briefly at Montessori B, but eliminated it early on because: a) it was significantly further away from our home than the other options (although still closer than our sitter's house) and b) it started at age 2, not 18 months, so starting Littles part-time in late winter/spring was not an option.
Then, I happened to attend a "preschool fair." (Basically, it was set up in a room at the local library, and a bunch of area preschools sent representatives. So you could go from table to table and talk to different preschools about their programs.) The director of Montessori B flagged me down and started talking to me about her school. Something about it immediately appealed to me. The director was just as articulate about B's educational philosophy as A's director had been, but there were some subtle differences. For example, A's director had bragged that most of her four-year-olds were reading. This made me wonder, "What about your four-year-olds who aren't reading? How do you feel about them?"
See, while I would love for Littles to be able to read at age four, I also don't see it as necessarily being a "goal" or a point of pride. The A-number-one most important thing to me right now is not that Littles learns specific skills (e.g. reading, math) but that she learns to love learning. I figure if she has a love of learning instilled in her at an early age, the specific skills will follow in time.
I had figured this out in my head long before talking to B's director, so it was neat to hear her talk about instilling the love of learning as well. She did mention that most of her four-year-olds are reading but was quick to follow up and say, "We work with each child individually on reading, and go at whatever pace they need." I just got a very good feeling from her, all around.
After that talk, I put Montessori B back on our list.
To round out the list, I also decided to look at a more traditional preschool/daycare. I chose the same Bright Horizons center that we had almost sent Littles to when we first moved to Dallas, since Hubby and I had both really liked it. I talked at length with the director about its educational philosophy and how it differed from Montessori. It was more child-centered than most of the other chain daycares I visited, which had a prescribed curriculum dictated by the central corporate office. At Bright Horizons, teachers were encouraged to come up with their own lesson plans based on the interests of their students. I definitely felt that the curriculum was well-thought-through and structured enough to ensure kids were learning while still allowing plenty of time for fun and play.
Another benefit of Bright Horizons was that they had immediate part-time openings, so Littles could potentially go two full days a week through late winter/spring (spending the other three days with her sitter) and then move to full-time in the summer.
I looked at a few other daycares and Montessori schools in the area, but these three stood out as my favorites. Hubby and I took a few days to go back and visit all three together, and then we made our final decision.
In my next post, I'll talk about which school we chose and why.
