There is a time when parents of small children have to choose where their child will start school. I am an experienced mother as my son is finishing the second year in a Montessori preschool program which he joined when he was three and a half. I would like to share my experience of Montessori preschool education.

There were several reasons for my deciding Montessori. My son is an intelligent and an inquisitive child who was able to recognize numbers, shapes, alphabet, colors and numbers before beginning preschool and I thought he would get bored in a very conventional preschool. Montessori has a very personal program which offers challenge to the children making it more interesting.  My son being an active kid needed a lot of outdoor and indoor activity which was available in a Montessori program.  It gives freedom to stand, move around, or lie down when doing lessons in the class.

According to me, the biggest benefit of a Montessori is that the child propels the experience of education. The program is customized to the abilities and interests of the child and the lessons will not be the same for all children and this allows them to become enthusiastic and motivated students.

There are more advantages of the Montessori education program and the experience has math, arts as well as language, life skills and science.  My son actually impresses our family and friends regularly with his familiarity with science, sign language, etc. which are generally not a part of any preschool program.

There is another thing which I like is that his class has children of different ages and there are some who are younger while others are older.  He enjoys being in touch with the uncomplicated age students who are role models as well as friends.

There are many other benefits which I like in the Montessori programs like life skills. Students are supposed to be responsible for their personal hygiene and also the cleanliness of the place where they eat and the classroom. There is support from older kids and adults, small children learn to clean up the mess they make.  This has helped my son to be willing to help at home. 

Some time back I compared my sons experience with a friend whose child is doing his second year in a preschool which is considered to be the top program in our community. This comparison of kids skills was made on the checklist given by our school district and had  60 skills, such as listening, cognitive skills, fine motor skill, language skills, sequencing skills, social/emotional skills  and gross motor skills which help children move up to kindergarten. My son had all of them while her son was lacking in several of them.

According to me all parents must think about Montessori for their children as it has a more child-centric learning method which will give a very good base for the future of the child.