What is the Montessori method exactly?
Montessori emphasizes a hands-on sensory approach to learning. Students use manipulatives in all academic areas. This is fantastic for the preschool years, but I wouldn’t leave my child in a Montessori school past the age of Kindergarten. The reason being that Montessori kids struggle to transfer their knowledge from the concrete to the abstract. They have problems doing pencil and paper work since they are so used to using manipulatives to solve all of their problems. The cool thing about attending a Montessori school in the early years though is that children really, truly learn to understand concepts. This is not the case in a typical preschool. A traditional preschool teaches the basics of learning to socialize, follow rules of society, etc, A Montessori school teaches all of that and a whole lot more.
