Considering sending my daughter there (Thames Ditton to be precise, or maybe Chiswick). Is it expensive? Should the council pay (they pay for a friend's kid's private nursery)? Anything else I should, ought to, must know? Thanks!

Some kids benefit from it but not all.
It did a great deal of damage to our lad that has taken 2 years to undo.

I would say that our experience that girls seam to benefit more than boys

THS can you expand on what damage was caused to your lad as my 4 year old went to a montesorri nursery and he is a right pain in the arse !!

It has been fantastic for my daughter, who is 4 later this month. She was an early talker so started there at 23 months and has absolutely bloomed. She goes 2 mornings a week and then does 2 mornings at a normal nursery which is obviously more 'play' orientated.

She can now just about read and write and I am sure that Montessori has helped a lot with this.

My son is 22 months and is talking very well too, so we plan to send him after xmas. He went last week for a trial day and loved it!

I do think some kids will benefit more than others, and obviously there will be big differences between the schools/staff etc. I am unsure my son will benefit as much as he is much more of a 'boy' whereas my daughter is a bit of a swot and gives herself homework!

Would be interested to hear what 'damage' it did to your son THS.

The govt. scheme did contribute but it is more expensive than the normal nursery. From memory it is about £500 a term for 2 mornings a week, whereas the other place is £200 for the same time.

I get the nursery vouchers through work which saves 40% so is worth doing if you can.

I'll pop in to the nursery and talk to them in person, hate the phones really. My daughter is 2.5.o. and doesn't understand "sit down and have a rest". Might be good to get rid of her educate her earlier 🙂

My wife is Montessori trained and qualified. Both our daughters did a year from 2-3 before joining state nursery aged 3, and I think it was valuable although of course without having had either of them go through a year of 'normal' nursery we can't compare.

I think one issue is that 'true' Montessori teaching would go on beyond these very early years, and one caution my wife had while she was teaching was that if she was only going to have children at her nursery for a short period (like one year) to not try to cram them too full in one year. Particularly at a young age the emphasis is still very much on learning through play. In that way I think a school that uses the Montessori method as a technique within normal nursery rather than be purely Montessori based would be preferable at a very young age.

Done properly it is very self directed, so the children can opt to pick up the Montessori materials as much or as little as they want and the teachers will assist with what they are doing as opposed to direct what they do. My youngest spent as much time painting and drawing as anything else, my eldest was far keener on using the counting blocks and sandpaper letters, etc.