When I first heard the word Montessori, I had no idea what it meant. I was with my parents and my six-month-old son visiting relatives in Augusta, Georgia. While sight seeing, I saw an interesting building and asked my mother what it was. She told me it was a Montessori school. She then explained the Montessori school's basic ideas to me with a negative undertone. I found it odd that I had never heard of such a school as this. My mother knew very little about the Montessori methods. She described it as a free learning environment where children of different ages get together and learn in a different setting than a classroom with desks. She actually said I would probably find it interesting because I am so against conventional ways of thinking.
I felt her condescension of the Montessori ideas and wanted to know more so that I could form my own opinion. I was also interested in the fact that toddlers could go somewhere other than daycare to better prepare them for a rigid learning environment. Since having my son, I have been concerned about the transition he will have to make to begin pre-school. I wanted something more than daycare to better prepare him mentally and emotionally for the scary changes he would have to endure when starting school. I asked my mother if there were any of these schools in our area, but she was unsure. I began looking up information on the Internet, but I was unable to find any listings of schools in our area.
I somewhat put the idea away thinking I would not be able to afford it anyway. I am a single mother and even with government assistance, I am unable to pay my weekly daycare cost. I get help from my parents when I need it, but I would not like to put myself in a financial bind just for my son to attend a Montessori school. I have assumed that since Montessori schools are seldom heard of they must be expensive.
I periodically questioned various people and got a lot of different information.