How to Make the Transition from Public School to Montessori

If you have been considering making a switch to a Montessori program after your child has been in public school, you may be wondering what this transition will be like and what will help it to go smoothly. First, consider the reasons you are making this shift from public school. By focusing on the benefits your child is gaining can help you and your child to stay positive even during uncomfortable feelings that a new situation can often bring. Learning about the Montessori method and how it differs from public school can also help to make this transition a bit smoother. Understanding what your child’s main objectives will be in the classroom will make everything more clear during this change of path in their education. And finally, implementing the Montessori method at home can also help to make the Montessori classroom feel much more familiar to your child so they can relax and enjoy their new school.

Benefits of a Montessori education

The positives that a Montessori education gives to the students can be quite extensive and not always easy to quantify. A few benefits are:

• Students are placed in classrooms within a three-year age range. This allows older students to model positive behavior and also shows younger students different levels of learning can be achieved at each station.
• Students are also able to go at their own pace while working through the stations. They do not have to be doing the same thing as all the other students in the class the way they do in a public school setting. They can master a station in a few weeks or take all year working on a particular skill. This allows the child to truly master the skill while building confidence.

Main ideas of the Montessori Method

The Montessori method is centered around the idea that order promotes learning. Keeping an organized work or play area will help your child to focus on the task in front of them in a clean environment while also giving the students who use the station next to have a clean, orderly space to learn as well.

Interest leads a student’s decisions when they are deciding which stations to attempt. The idea is that if a student is interested in a subject or task, they will stick with it longer and be willing to learn about it more deeply because it has captured their attention.

Independence is also an important skill that Montessori programs focus on developing in each student. When a child is not dependent on waiting for the teacher to give them something or direct their every movement, a child is able to learn at their own pace.

Implementing Montessori at home

To help your child transition from public school to a Montessori classroom, before they begin, start implementing Montessori ideas at home so they will become familiar with the objectives. You can begin with their bedroom and snack time by:

• Organizing their toys and books onto a reachable shelf and allowing them to choose what they want to play with but only allowing one at a time. When they clean up the activity, they can move on to another.
• Give your child freedom to get their own drinks of water or have snacks in a place they can easily help themselves, while setting rules where they can eat and how to clean up.

By fully understanding what the Montessori method is and implementing the ideas at home, your child will have a smoother transition into a Montessori program.

In the Bay Area, give Fountainhead Montessori School a call today to inquire about admission and to schedule an observation of a classroom.