Answers to Frequently Asked Questions: Q1. Why is it necessary to put your child in nursery school? A. It isn't. Although most children are ready at age three for some sort of program with other children, not every child is. The point is to know your child and what works for your child and for you and your family. One of the main reasons that parents do put their children in nursery school, however, is simply for the social experience. It's a very easy & regular way to get them together with other children. Q2. Why do you recommend sending a child to a Montessori nursery school rather than a non-Montessori nursery school? A. We don't necessarily. We recommend sending a child to a school that has a lot of great material of various kinds, that has teachers who love & understand kids, and that encourages both socialization and the ability to get satisfaction out of the work that they do. That might or might not be a Montessori school. Q3. What do you want children to get out of school? A. We want them to find friends that they love and we also want them to find activities & work that they love & take satisfaction in. Q4. So, what is Montessori anyway? A. Some of the aspects of Montessori education are: (a) Structure the environment, not the child. (b) Teachers are observer first, then teachers. (c) Early learning is sensorial, a literal hands-on experience. (d) All Montessori classrooms have five work areas: sensorial, practical life, language, math and cultural. The sensorial area is a preparatory area for math concepts, such as comparing and ordering. It is called the sensorial area because each ‘sense’ is isolated with a particular material. The practical life area is overall fine motor development and includes self care skills, such as learning to blow your nose. The language area is where concepts are learned and becoming literate is but one aspect of this learning. The math area is where kids learn one to one correspondence or numerical order. The cultural area includes topics such as science and geography. This is where kids begin to see themselves as part of the world. Click here for further explanation on the Montessori Method. Q5. What is the difference between a Montessori & a non-Montessori nursery school? A. Montessori schools will probably have more materials that appear to be specifically "learning" materials, e.g. math & reading or pre-reading materials. Otherwise it's not always clear what the differences are. Schools can vary pretty widely within the categories of "Montessori" & "non-Montessori" so you might well find schools between those categories that are more similar than schools within these categories. Q6. What is the difference between this Montessori school & West Side or Metropolitan? A. One of the basic tenets of a Montessori education is to structure the environment not the child. We blend structuring the environment, with scaffolding the child. In specific, we often extend a montessori lesson with an more typical early childhood material. Morningside did not make a decision to become deliberately different from West Side & Metropolitan. We just did what we were happy & comfortable with, and so evolved into the kind of school we are now.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:

Q1. Why is it necessary to put your child in nursery school?

A. It isn't. Although most children are ready at age three for some sort of program with other children, not every child is. The point is to know your child and what works for your child and for you and your family. One of the main reasons that parents do put their children in nursery school, however, is simply for the social experience. It's a very easy & regular way to get them together with other children.

Q2. Why do you recommend sending a child to a Montessori nursery school rather than a non-Montessori nursery school?

A. We don't necessarily. We recommend sending a child to a school that has a lot of great material of various kinds, that has teachers who love & understand kids, and that encourages both socialization and the ability to get satisfaction out of the work that they do. That might or might not be a Montessori school.

Q3. What do you want children to get out of school?

A. We want them to find friends that they love and we also want them to find activities & work that they love & take satisfaction in.

Q4. So, what is Montessori anyway?

A. Some of the aspects of Montessori education are:
(a) Structure the environment, not the child.
(b) Teachers are observer first, then teachers.
(c) Early learning is sensorial, a literal hands-on experience.
(d) All Montessori classrooms have five work areas: sensorial, practical life, language, math and cultural. The sensorial area is a preparatory area for math concepts, such as comparing and ordering. It is called the sensorial area because each ‘sense’ is isolated with a particular material. The practical life area is overall fine motor development and includes self care skills, such as learning to blow your nose. The language area is where concepts are learned and becoming literate is but one aspect of this learning. The math area is where kids learn one to one correspondence or numerical order. The cultural area includes topics such as science and geography. This is where kids begin to see themselves as part of the world.

Click here for further explanation on the Montessori Method.

Q5. What is the difference between a Montessori & a non-Montessori nursery school?

A. Montessori schools will probably have more materials that appear to be specifically "learning" materials, e.g. math & reading or pre-reading materials. Otherwise it's not always clear what the differences are. Schools can vary pretty widely within the categories of "Montessori" & "non-Montessori" so you might well find schools between those categories that are more similar than schools within these categories.

Q6. What is the difference between this Montessori school & West Side or Metropolitan?

A. One of the basic tenets of a Montessori education is to structure the environment not the child. We blend structuring the environment, with scaffolding the child. In specific, we often extend a montessori lesson with an more typical early childhood material.

Morningside did not make a decision to become deliberately different from West Side & Metropolitan. We just did what we were happy & comfortable with, and so evolved into the kind of school we are now.