I've never heard of that, but I have heard of Waldorf schools. I am thinking that perhaps it's a similar idea.

Once upon a time, I went to a Montessori elementary school. I didn't stay there for long; my parents couldn't afford it!

From what I do remember (I was very, very young), they taught reading and simple math starting at the preschool level. I don't know if that's standard for preschools/lower elementary grades, but I felt that the expectations were higher. The youngest children were first taught how to count to ten, and then to 100, and then given little math booklets to do which taught "fact families" for addition and subtraction. They also taught us to read, and there was a little lending library of "Bug in a Rug" type books. Aside from the "academics", younger children performed exercises that developed fine and gross motor skills, like pouring liquid from a pitcher into a cup, perforating the outlines of a picture with a pin, etc.

Older children were given more complicated things to learn, like the names of all the body parts (predictably, the "private parts" were skimmed over). They seemed to always be up to something exciting, but I never found out what it was, as I transferred to a public elementary school before I could.

One thing I remember about the Montessori school I went to that I miss is the individual attention that the teachers gave each student. Every child was able to learn at his or her own pace instead of being held back or left behind by the "average learning speed".

The teachers also knew how to "push" students to learn new things. I remember being bored one day and going to the station where I poured liquid from one pitcher into another. One of the teachers stopped me and said, "No, that's for babies. You're old enough to learn something new now." And she found me something else to do. That's something that your typical public school classroom doesn't do, and probably can't afford to do. Of course, my knowledge is limited by both the short amount of time I spent at the school and how young I was when I attended.

If I could afford it, I would definitely send my child(ren) to a Montessori school. I'd probably do more extensive research first though.

My son went to Montessori school for a few years. We thought it was great. He did Kindergarten in both Montessori school (mornings) and public school (afternoons). I can't remember why we did that.

When it was time to sign him up for first grade we gave him a choice and he picked public school. But we have only positive things to say about Montessori school.

What's interesting is that during teacher conferences, his Montessori teacher said he was ahead in math and a little behind in reading. The public school teacher said he was ahead in reading and behind in math.

I went to a Montessori pre-school. I was so young that I can't remember a whole lot of it, but I do know that at age 4 I understood plant reproduction and the life cycle of bats, and I could read and do basic math. I remember being frustrated by the transition from Montessori to public elementary, where I was already so far ahead of the other children and was regularly pulled out of class for more advanced one-on-one classes. I'm not sure I ever fully adjusted. I feel like I personally would have been better served by Montessori-style elementary school, but I can't say what it would have been like for me had I not done it for pre-school.

We had one Montessori pre-school here, but the waiting list was astronomically long to get in, so we didn't send our kids there.

In brief -

Maria Montessori developed a system of education based on observation of children 100 years ago. She started by working with mentally deficient children. When they passed the school examinations with better results than regular school children she was wondering what was wrong with traditional schools. A question that many people still ask. Why are schools so bad, boring, frustrating and wrong for my child?

Montessori education is designed around the concept of "Follow the child." Observation of the child will allow the teacher to know the child and to provide the materials and lessons that the child is ready to learn the most right now. In other words - child driven rather than teacher driven. It focuses on choice and interest. When done right, it can have very high academic results.

As pointed out- there is a huge difference in the quality of Montessori schools. There are many reasons for this. As for cost, usually the cost of a Montessori preschool is comparable to a well-run traditional preschool.

Let me know if you want to know more, and I'm glad to hear your comments!