As you raise your child, creating a loving, safe environment at home is the goal of so many parents. In addition to this, parents want to make sure their children are prepared for life after childhood, including for college. Enrolling your child in a Montessori program can strengthen key skills that can help your child thrive in a college setting. While developing academic skills is incredibly important, also strengthening a sense of independence, organizational skills, and seeking areas of study that they are truly interested in are benefits of a Montessori education that can help your child to be ready for college.

Three main reasons why the Montessori method helps prepare your child for college is because it strengthens foundational skills in social, order, and academics that will help your college student thrive.

1. Social: While you may want your child to be fully focused on academics at college, your college student may be more interested in the independence and social aspects of being away at college. Years spent in a Montessori program will give your student practice at keeping an orderly environment that your student’s future roommates will greatly appreciate. Skills in how to clean up after themselves and having a space for everything will not only help your child function better as they study and prepare for classes, but they will create positive relationships around them because of their practiced consideration for others.
2. Order and problem solving: Balancing multiple classes and full schedules can be a pitfall for many students when they first go off to college. Adding a part time job into the mix can be the tipping point, causing students to fail their first semester classes. If your child is used to Montessori skills of order and problem solving, your student will be able to keep their workspace organized, while keeping their mind uncluttered with their many tasks. Knowing how to focus on one thing at a time does not come naturally for many people. Many years spent in a Montessori school will have this skill sharp so your child will be able to focus on one assignment at a time, giving it their full attention and effort.
3. Academics: By learning subjects in a Montessori program until they reach full mastery, your child would not have been scooted along to the next subject or skill without having full understanding of what they have just learned. Letting students move at their own pace allows students to not only learn something for the moment, but it will stay with them as they have reached full understanding of the skill or topic. Students who have graduated from a Montessori program have not only read about subjects, but they have learned about it by using their hands, used problem solving skills and have viewed their education through their own unique lens of interests so that they can learn more deeply. As they continue their education at the college level, their approach to learning is based on the skills they have developed through a Montessori program so that they are still enjoying the learning process.

Give your child the gift of a Montessori program by finding a Montessori school in your area. If you are in the Bay Area, give Fountainhead Montessori School a call today to ask about the multiple different campuses and programs.