All About Montessori

[shuerei]

Hi vfong1,


Thanks for your reply.

Cheers,
Shuerei

[sunny]

[Moderator's note: Topics merged.]


I have shortlisted these 3 childcare centres to place my 3 yo gal there. can anyone share with me your experience with any of these centre, please?

[buds]

Heyya sunny,


Welcome to KiasuParents.
Mebbe you could provide some introduction
on yourself @ the Newbies.
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/index.php

Will be good if you can include child's age too, so other
parents can help you out better with selection of classes.
Different levels have different teachers for every centre.
Mebbe in future you can post Montessori school questions
here in an existing thread.
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=906&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[sunny]

I have shortlisted these 3 childcare centres to place my 3 yo gal there. can anyone share with me your experience with any of these centre, please?

[sunny]

buds:

Heyya sunny,


Welcome to KiasuParents.
Mebbe you could provide some introduction
on yourself @ the Newbies.
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/index.php

Will be good if you can include child's age too, so other
parents can help you out better with selection of classes.
Different levels have different teachers for every centre.
Mebbe in future you can post Montessori school questions
here in an existing thread.
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=906&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

hi bud
nice to meet you.
i have put some intro in the newbie thread.

[buds]

Nice to meet you too!

Any particular reason
you're looking for
Montessori schools &
not the usual mainstream
centres?

[sunny]

buds:

Nice to meet you too!

Any particular reason
you're looking for
Montessori schools &
not the usual mainstream
centres?

'cos the teachers teach the students according to the ability of the kids which i find it good as my kids might not be able to learn as fast as other kids or, they would be able to learn faster. then, the teachers can guide the kids along the way and help them to progress.

not sure if i interpret their method of teaching correctly.

you have any experience dealing with montessori schools?

[hairuliza]

dozalot:

Any follow ups on the Sengkang MMI? I am keen on the enrichment playgroup.

Hi dozalot
I'm also keen on sending my son to Sengkang MMI, but more for their half day care playgroup programme.
I called them some time back & they say that I can just come on any weekday (no appointments needed) for a tour of the place, so I was pretty impressed by their confidence of not having to so-call 'prepare' for it.
They only said I'll need to make an appoinment if it's on a Sat.
However, recently, when I wrote an e-mail to enquire more, I didn't get any replies & have yet to receive it.
Tried calling them also, and no one picked up my call.
What made me feel worried was reading all the bad feedback too.

[buds]

Opt for trial lesson, guys…

[buds]

Yes, i know quite a bit...


When the directress allows for relatively own pace of study,
the child has his own individual curriculum other than the
group activities, depending on the centre you're signing
your child with. Faster and slower depends on how observant
the directress is in capturing the child's sensitive periods -
periods where child can be fascinated with one thing for the
period of time.

For example, this child i worked with before was always pointing to the
world map on the wall. And she said her mummy showed her where her
company was going to send her to next - outstation work (IT company).
She cud point out exactly to the spot her mum showed her. She was
3yrs plus back then. So i took the Montessori material - continents jigsaw
puzzle and showed her how to work it. Followed by the smaller countries
and its states. I also worked with her children around the world -
costumes, festivals and how each said hi and bye in their country, etc.
We made puppets of the children of the world, looked at some pictures i
brought in for her, and made worksheets to further revise what we've
learnt... eg. colour the correct continent, etc.

After 2 wks, the mummy came to fetch which was very rare. She said she
had to meet up with me personally. I asked what's up. She replied, lately
Monica has been coming home and spouting all the continents and
country names and stuff, and she wondered where her girl picked it up
from. The girl said, teacher showed me where you are going.. The
mummy wanted to see for herself how Monica was introduced to early
geography, so i sat down during my lunch time to show her and she said
she was interested to follow up with similar lessons to further revise with
Monica at home and said she wants to keep in touch with the school more
often. Monica learnt what she liked at that period of time and hence she
learnt it fast and well. And that makes Monica a more confident learner.

Following that, she seemed more inclined to language as she
was seen working with our alphabets, and i tapped on that.
She picked up reading (very fluently) before she turned four years old.
And she started to come in for daily lessons instead of Mon, Wed and Fri.

Sensitive periods are like milestones. Like how milestones are provided
as a guide what children lean at which age and stuff... So, if we teach
the child activities age appropriately, learning comes from the heart of
the child. He/She will learn the stuff willingly and happily... and usually
fast as well, yes.

Such strategies are not so readily available in mainstream especially
with high student teacher ratio in one class. So Montessori classes
tend to be smaller to facilitate more of such learning - again depending
on the individual centres. Some centres mix age groups but others
may not. So, its really a matter of how each centre runs their activities.
The Montessori lessons will be similar - mebbe presentation procedures
differ a bit. But it doesn't matter.

Hope you find the Montessori school that you like, and that your child
will LOVE too!