Dear Cathie.
I am looking for a preschool for my child, who will be three next summer. I hear good things about Montessori schools and plan to investigate them as a possibility. My friend said to go and observe. What exactly should I be looking For?
-A Mom Beginning the Preschool Search
Dear Mom,
Observing is a way to look at a classroom through your child’s eyes. Trust your mother’s instinct and respect your gut reaction. Montessori is a different method of education and is probably quite different from what you remember at school.
First, notice the classroom as a whole. Are the children engaged and busy? Do they look calm and happy? What are the adults doing? What is the level of the noise in the classroom? What are the adults in the environment doing? Are they the center of attention?
Now notice the shelves and the activities on them. Notice how they are arranged by area. You should see an area for Practical Life, Art, Sensorial, Math, Language, Culture, and Science. Do they look interesting and enticing? Are the activities physically beautiful?
Focus on the specific activity of one child. Look at what he is doing and how is it helping him to learn? Notice that he has to physically move objects from one place to another. He moves left to right, mimicking the eye movement necessary for reading.
Notice one of the youngest children in the classroom, a mid-age child in the classroom, and one of the oldest children in the classroom. How are their activities similar and different? Watch how children select, work with, and replace materials independently. Look for the interaction between children and spontaneous socialization. Notice the connections between children of different ages. Pay attention to the level of respect offered to the children by each other as well as the adults. Do you see confidence and independence displayed by even the youngest children?
If you are observing for the first time, you may wish to spend a significant amount of time just watching how the classroom operates. Allow yourself to be impressed with the children and the method. Now envision your child in this type of environment. Are any of the children doing activities that you think your child would enjoy? Are there some he can do already? Would he enjoy the stimulation of older children and benefit from a mixed-age group. Would he feel comfortable with the freedom to remain at a task until he felt it was completed? Would you feel comfortable knowing that your child would probably have the same teacher and peers for an entire three-year cycle?
List any questions that may come to you. Feel free to discuss those with your tour guide. Some schools ask you to write then down, and a teacher will call you after the children have left for the clay. Other larger schools have admissions directors, who are happy to answer your questions right after your observation and help you make sense out of what you have just seen.
Best of luck in selecting the perfect school for your child! Have a wonderful observation.
Tomorrow’s Child / Fall 2006
