June 14, 2009 – Page 2 – Da Keiki Blog

Why a new school?

Posted by Sonja Posted on June 14, 2009 0 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Money certainly is a reason, but the bigger reason I summed up in my comments to this post below. Don’t get me wrong – her teachers were nice people, they genuinely love kids and are trying to do the best for them – but the method is flawed.

(Actually, according to Leilani the reason is the playground)

Pre-K Recommendation

Does anyone have a Pre-K class school to recommend? My son already attends a super school, but he has some learning delays, so our neurologist recommends something “more structured and smaller class size”. My son has already been in a play based preschool for 2 years…he’s 4 so we’re looking for a more formal Pre-K from here to as far as Northern San Mateo.

Thanks!

Comments

6/8/2009

I hear Millbrae Montessori fits that criteria.
Alisa

6/9/2009

Nurture and Nature is a great preschool in Millbrae. Please check out their website. I hear the teachers are fantastic!

6/12/2009

I saw that 2 of you recommended Montessori schools – I had my daughter in 2 different Montessori schools the past 2 years, and I could not recommend it any less. She will be attending Millbrae nursery school next year, which is more play based, so probably not right for you either.

I still would like to list my problems with Montessori schools:

1) Montessori is not a registered term – anyone can call anything Montessori, no matter how little it had to do with the original idea of Dr Maria Montessori. The ones sticking strictly to “real Montessori approach” ignore the past 100 or so years of research.

2) Frequently they have no, or very little playgrounds without equipment (“no room for it in education”)

3) No creative, free or pretend play, no dressup, no roleplay, no silly books. (“no room for it in education”)

4) Hardly any art, crafts, music – instead almost all of the kids “graduating” from Montessory preschools read, write (good spelling too) and do math at a level that will leave them bored in Kindergarden.

Our children have a lot of years of studying and work ahead of them. I don’t want to cut my daughter’s childhood short by taking these few years of play away from her.

6/13/2009

No recommendation to give…sorry, but Sonja – I wholeheartedly agree with you on the Montessori program.

6/13/2009

“Montessori is not a registered term – anyone can call anything Montessori, no matter how little it had to do with the original idea of Dr Maria Montessori. The ones sticking strictly to “real Montessori approach” ignore the past 100 or so years of research.”

THANK you! This is partly why I never work at them (I am an ECE Teacher) – I could open one in my garage and call it Montessori!

Michelle OP: Many play based classroom still have a focused work time. I think that would be a good option. Look for one that fit both – not just one kind of teaching.

HTH!

6/13/2009

My oldest son had some delays and we had a horrible experience with Montessori. We are having a fabulous experience with Calvary. My middle son just finished his kindergarten year and was very well prepared for elementary school with 2 years at Calvary under his belt, not only academically, but socially, as well. It is play-based and may not look as structured as some other programs, but all of the teachers are fantastic and well trained in providing a developmentally appropriate program. They are also very experienced in working with children with special needs/IEPs. Good luck!

There were a few situations when Leilani was talking about her school just as I was talking about my place of work (while working for cooperate america or pulling viruses of a client’s PC) or a high school student in the middle of a stressful test preparation – and most school days when Leilani asked her morning question: “Where are we going to go today?” (Monday Wednesday and Friday she went to school) she was then trying to convince me to stay home (“I’ll play nicely in my room and let you work”) or go someplace else with her. Somedays she loved her school, and certainly she loves her friends and teachers, but I think the negatives weigh much heavier.