As a Montessori educator, a question I get asked a lot is if it’s worth sending your toddler to a Montessori school. As a mom to a toddler, I get it. You want the best for your child. But before you start signing up for waitlists for Montessori schools and pay up to $20,000 a year for annual tuition, let me share pros, cons, and tips to sending your toddler to Montessori.

Pros

Exposing your child to any form of childcare early helps with the transition into school. This can provide an environment for your child to:

1. Form habits

2. Build social skills.

3. Boost their physical and brain development. 

It’s particularly helpful if you don’t have the time, resources, or know-how to teach your child at home in the early years. Plus, prolonging schooling can be detrimental to their overall development since these years are the formative years of their life. Another thing—buying Montessori materials can cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars. These are all things that schools can provide. 

Cons

First, Toddlers are active and dependent on adults—they need a lot more one-on-one time. Pre-CASA (or preschool) classrooms have a ratio of 1:5 (in some areas, like in Ontario, Canada). It can be difficult to give each child the one-on-one attention they need.

Second, childcare is expensive, especially in Montessori schools. If you’re not planning to follow through with the Montessori education in the later years, it doesn’t make sense to pursue the toddler Montessori program in the present. The Montessori toddler program focuses more on the preliminary aspects of Montessori. This doesn’t include teaching them about letters and numbers. Instead, it includes teaching them how to:

• Get dressed and undressed for outdoor recess.
• Sit down on a chair.
• Get Montessori activities off shelves.
• Sit for circle time.
• Eat in a group setting.
• Play with other children during recess (if at all - toddlers often focus on independent play, and parallel play - it’s not usually until they’re 2.5 yrs that you can see them really playing with other children.)

If your child already does these things at home, it might be better to send your toddler to Montessori school when they’re older.

So, should you send your toddler to Montessori school?

Here is my recommendation as a Montessori teacher:

If you’re able and willing to, I’d suggest keeping your child at home for at least the first 3 years of their life, teaching them to be independent. At around three to four years old, when they’re displaying more readiness to be independent and require more focus towards learning about language and math, send them to school under the Montessori CASA program. By doing this, you’d be saving thousands of dollars that might’ve gone toward the toddler program. If not, you might be wasting $20,000 sending your child to a Montessori school. I created a whole video about why here. I discuss 5 mistakes parents make when sending their child to Montessori.

Thanks for reading! Stay FRESH!