[island_dude]

My daughter has been in Montessori since four (she is going into first grade at 6 now). Like anything, the teacher makes a huge difference, and it is good to see how your kid interacts with the future instructor. One of the great things about this system is that mixes multiple ages in the same clasroom and focuses on independent projects. As the kids get older they work on colaberative projects more. The mixture of ages does two things that I like: It avoids forcing kids to work in lock-step (so that they can rise to whatever level they are able to), and it allows them to make friends younger and older than each other. The elementary aged kids come visit the preschool kids and they read and hang out to them. Its great for all involved. The kids learn to get along at different levels and they make lasting friendships. So far he are pretty pleased with how it has worked for our daughter. It is not a perfect setup though. The kids need to be pretty self starting. They don't really force a structure on kids that can't stay focused.