Our situation is that we’re currently in a Montessori program that has been wonderful for him. He’s 4, and academically, he’s mastered most of the primary curriculum – he can read fluently, he sounds out words and writes, he can do addition, subtraction, fractions, and he’s starting to learn multiplication. He knows more about geography than I do. But, socially, he is still very much a four year old – he’s more concerned about himself than others, can be very silly and has trouble sitting still.

I talked to his montessori teacher and she thinks the third year of primary is particularly important for my child because he’ll assume a role of responsibility in the classroom that she thinks would really help his social development. Right now there are 7 four year olds in his class, and I’ve talked to all but 2 of their parents, and so far they are all staying – so he’ll also still have a good social group of 5 year olds there. In Montessori 3rd year he’ll begin to move from concrete to abstract – so, from physical representations of math to pencil-and-paper-only math, which his teacher thinks is enough to ready him for public first. She is also very concerned that he’ll be bored in public K (and he is definitely trouble when he’s bored.)

Then there’s our public school option. I talked to the K teachers and the K classroom uses a lot of manipulatives, and they have systems in place to help kids move at their own pace. They seem to be used to dealing with kids who come in at very different levels – they said they keep work folders for kids that are ahead (but it sounded a lot like worksheet busy work.) But, there are work stations, and a lot of movement around the room – no desks. The kindergarten room definitely feels more similar to montessori than a structured 1st grade classroom. And Montessori has lots of freedoms that he’ll lose when he moves to public – like being able to choose his work, and to go to the bathroom whenever he needs to, and being able to work inside or out – which again, might be easier to figure out in K than in first.

So we are agonizing over this. I’d love to hear an update on what people decided!

Also – We are in DeKalb County, but were not happy with the public montessori option when we visited (we looked at Briar Vista.) We LOVED City Schools of Decatur, but can’t afford to move, and they’re not accepting tuition students for K this year. So I think we’re going to have to settle on our decent, not great elementary, which we liked alright.

If you’re interested, please let us know! jhatchermartin@gmail.com

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