It was a simple query put out on Facebook and Twitter by blogger Louisa Claire Have any of you sent your children to a Montessori Preschool? What can you tell me about it??

Suddenly, I was transported back some fourteen years to when I was a young mum desperately trying to make my mind up about the best option for my children. While I may have been (still am) a little obsessive about my children’s education I remember clearly the stress of trying to find something we could afford but aligned with my personal values and providing a safe and happy place for my babies.

A couple of people had responded negatively to Louisa’s request with their concerns over Montessori’s suitability. I submitted my own response trying hard not to sound like some mad zealot attempting to convert all comers to my personal cult. But it was a struggle. I was pleased when others who had experienced Montessori as teachers and parents put forward some positive thoughts on Montessori schools.

As my girls are now 16 and 13 we’ve pretty much done the lot when it comes to education. They have been in mainstream daycare, attended a Montessori kindy, gone to a public primary school (and not some fancy schmanzy public school in a middle-class suburb but a rundown public school in a low socio-economic area), then finished up in the private system (albeit the lower end of the private system in a regional Catholic school).

At the end of the day, after trying all of the options, the Montessori philosophy most closely aligns with my personal beliefs on how a school should educate a child. It stands out as the system that best suited my children and if I’m honest I still miss it.

My decision to put my girls in a Montessori kindy, came down to two pivotal moments. The first occurred while sitting in a full lecture hall on day one of my Bachelor of Education degree.  The lecturer informed us our first focus would be on learning to teach students to read. Given I was in a Secondary Education Teaching degree I was shocked to hear “there will be students in your classes that can’t read, on any given day your student’s abilities will start from special needs and go up  to gifted and talented, you will need to cater for that entire range”. For the life of me I couldn’t see how that was going to be possible. Two years later I walked into a Montessori kindy and figured out the “how” in catering to range of learning levels and styles.

The second  “aha” moment in my moving to a Montessori education for my daughters was sitting in that kindy and watching the teacher demonstrate how to use the mathematics equipment. I turned to my husband and said “I think I would have understood maths if I had have been taught this way”.

The girls attended the one Montessori kindy for three days a week from two-and-a-half until six years of age.

This was our reality when it came to some of the criticisms of the Montessori approach.

The kids can do whatever they want, it has no structure.

In fact the curriculum includes grace and courtesy lessons, good behaviour is expected and reinforced. Our kindy had a specialist behaviour management expert work with staff to design a set of classroom “rules”. These were hands are for helping, careful moving, friendly listen, p’s t’s and e’s (please, thank you and eye contact).

The children could select whichever activity they wanted from the shelves but it wasn’t a “do anything you like” free-for-all. If children weren’t selecting anything the teacher would guide and direct until a suitable activity was undertaken. In fact it was highly structured with each activity building up to another. A lot of time and effort went into preparing the environment so that everything on offer had an educational purpose.

It is too structured there are no opportunities for play.

You won’t find a home corner or a dress-up box in a Montessori kindergartens. My girls never missed them. There was plenty of opportunities for dressing up at home and the practical life area gave them the chance to use real equipment in real scenarios which they loved. Grating, chopping, pouring, cleaning they felt very important as they mastered each task. There was a lot of play taking place in our kindy, in the sandpit, on the monkey bars and in the playground. The girls were both very happy.

Montessori inhibits creativity.

If that was the case Hippie Child was a real trial for them. The kid lived in a complete fantasy land for almost two years. At our kindy they were exposed to colour tablet activities, art appreciation tasks and a specialised music program. Both girls emerged with a love of music and a passion for drawing.

In testing out Montessori we delivered to them two very different children. Hippie Child the lack-of-focus dreamer, and Princess Child the anxious toddler with an attention span shorter than some children diagnosed with ADHD. They guided and adapted for the Hippie one and encouraged her to focus. They calmed the Princess and she blossomed in a structured, ordered environment.

I found the classroom to be a peaceful place (most of the time), with children given time to engage in activities. I think there were higher expectations for the children in the Montessori curriculum but they were given a lot of individual attention and support and their achievements flowed naturally as opposed to being “hot housed”.

In the end though two of the most important elements the girls took from Montessori were empathy and self-reliance. In the three-year-cycle the children remain in the same classroom growing from being the “babies” of the class to the “big kids” they were taught that as an older child you must look out for the little ones. They learnt about different cultures and were taught to respect others. They were continually given opportunities to be independent and self-directed and shown strategies for dealing with difficult situations,  they left confident and outgoing.

In the end every education system has benefits and negatives. Passionate teachers can overcome limited resources and inspire children to achieve. A load of fancy equipment can’t compensate for disinterested educators. As parents we take our leap of faith and hand our children over to others, sometimes it will see them thrive, sometimes it will see them struggle. We adapt and modify as need be.