The Decision

The decision to send Tristan to a Montessori school has been about a year in the making. Since my sweet boy was 8 weeks old until he was about 2 1/2, we were lucky enough to have my sister in law watch Tristan while my husband and I both worked. He was able to start his life growing up with his cousins, one who is 6 weeks older than him and the other who is 2 years older. We could not have asked for a better situation. My sister in law worked with them, taught them colors and shapes. And he loved every day.

But the time came when his older cousin was going to kindergarten and my sister in law, was ready to go back to work. This is when we had to start thinking about what was best for Tristan and what shape his future would take. Because we had to make a decision quickly, we moved Tristan to a, if you will, "chain" preschool. They talked a lot about what the kids would learn and their curriculum, etc and it seemed OK. We had a hard transition to the new school but then Tristan got attached to one of his teachers and things got better. And the teachers in that class were great. Tristan did very well. But then he moved to the 3 year old class and things went downhill fast. It seemed like he wasn't learning much but when I asked about his progress and how he was doing, his teachers said he was doing great.  They commented that he was very smart and picked things up quickly but that there was only so much they could give him to do.  A big red flag for me - because he was ahead of where maybe the other kids were or ahead of the school's schedule, he just had to sit there and wait because they couldn't get him anything else to challenge or keep his attention. Nope - not going to work for us.  This is what really pushed me to look into other ways to educate, other ways for Tristan to learn.  Nothing like a Google search to start you off!