Should we stay for Montessori kindergarten or move to public school?
The kindergarten year is the third year of a three-year cycle and the year the two before it were building towards — leaving before it forfeits most of the return on the investment you have already made.
This is the single most common decision point in Montessori, and the free public place is a real argument that we are not going to pretend away. What families often do not realize is what the third year is: the year the child becomes the oldest in the room, teaches what they know, and moves from concrete materials into abstraction.
It is also the year that decides whether the next step is elementary in the same method. At Mills that option exists through fifth grade, which is unusual on this part of the Peninsula.
Where to go from here
Other things parents ask
Still deciding?
Call the school office at 650-616-9000, or come and watch a morning.