[oo0shiny]

I'm the product of a Montessori preschool environment, as are my 3 siblings. My mother owned a Montessori school, and my wife has taught in a Montessori school for over a decade.

The most common thing you'll find are Montessori preschools (3-6 years old). The biggest thing I got out of it was the love of learning. Children in a Montessori classroom are able to learn at their own pace, so if you gravitate towards numbers before reading, that's facilitated. Other way around? No biggie. It turns out child development at that age is pretty flexible, and most children all get to where they're supposed to be by the end of those 3 years.

The other benefit is the mixed-age classrooms. Younger kids are able to see the older children as role models, and the older children are able to _be_ that role model for the newer kids. All of this together creates an environment that often graduates children that seem to be more confident in themselves and in their innate abilities.

I will say that transitioning to a traditional school in first grade was a bit of a culture shock, but the lessons learned in Montessori definitely carried over. I still have that love of learning, and a strong inner voice.

My wife's school is Montessori through 8th grade, and her experience is that the children that graduate excel in whichever high school setting they go to, but this is of course anecdotal.