Continue Montessori for Kindergarten vs Sending to Regular Elementary

our oldest son was in an internationally accredited montessori for preschool... two years. our goal was to move him into a private school for kindergarten after his preschool portion of the montessori was over. to be honest... during the testing process... the private schools here didn't know what to do with him. he was writing in cursive and using the golden beads to multiply and divide, etc. he didn't fit into their "program". i blame us for not researching it more in depth before we fell in love with the montessori program. we ended up doing a kindgergarten year in the montessori while i tutored him on how to do more traditional school work on the side so he could test better at the private schools. he ended up redoing his kindergarten year at a traditional school... which has a montessori (american accredited) preschool.. they were used to transistioning montessori kids into a traditional program. so it worked out in the end. if i had to do it all over again... while we loved the montessori program... i would have looked down the line farther to what our final goal was, how easily he would/could transision and how we could best achieve that. i hoped that helps!

I agree with Hipmama. Our kids had a hard time being in a regular kindergarten after montessori. However, I would still do the montessori if I had to do it all over again, I would just prepare them more for traditional school. Our kids knew way more than their peers and it was hard for them not to progress in the areas where they wanted & needed to. We even had a teacher that was a bit upset with our daughter when she would write in cursive or when she would know all the answers during circle time. It was a bit silly and frustrating all at the same time.

If cost isn't a factor I would keep your child in montessori as long as you can. My kids started out in public school and then moved to a charter montessori school where they attended through 8th grade. Montessori allows each child to work at their own pace so if they excel at a subject they can move ahead and if they need more time on another subject that's okay too. My kids really benefited from this and from the smaller class size.

I agree with the mom who said, keep your daughter in Montessori as long as possible. The U.S. public education system, unfortunately, has been going downhill for the past 20 years. No factor is as important in building your child's future as a solid education, especially with the world trends toward a global economy. So the more resources you can give her to stimulate her mind, the better her chances will be in the years to come.

We were in the same situation but my son went to a private preschool. We toured the Public Elementary School and then weighed our options. We opted for Public School, he is only in Kindergarten but he is doing great academically and socially.