Your kids don't need kindergarten.
We wanted our kids to love learning. So we didn’t send them to kindergarten.
Leaving preschool and joining kindergarten can be an exciting time for kids and parents.
Unless your kid attended a Montessori preschool.
Because at a Montessori preschool, children learn from an early age how to sit quietly, work independently, and clean up after themselves.
Skills that the average kindergartener has yet to develop.
Cue the scene of your kid, bored out of their mind, watching their frazzled teachers spend most of the year wrangling the other students.
But if you plan to send your kids to public school, it just makes sense to choose kindergarten… right?
Here’s why that isn’t true:
Montessori Children’s House vs. Kindergarten
Kindergarten was the invention of German pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel, who believed that children between the ages of three and six weren’t prepared for traditional schoolwork.
Instead, he argued, little ones should play, sing, and be “mothered” by their teachers, i.e., be socialized.
But according to Maria Montessori’s research, the normalized child doesn’t become highly social until their elementary school years.
Up to that point, kids are (or should be) busy figuring out how the world works.
With this in mind, Montessori designed the first Children’s House (a three-year preschool program) to meet the specific needs of little ones. This included:
Learning materials spanning math, real-world work, literacy-building, and sensory problem-solving (because kids found these more interesting than toys)
Low shelves (so children could access materials independently)
The introduction of phonetic sounds and symbols (which resulted in spontaneous literacy amongst three- and four-year-olds)
It’s an environment that teaches children to love learning.
Still, the kindergarten model persists because parents and school systems alike worry that without forced social interaction, children won’t develop properly.
Here’s why we’re not concerned:
The three-year curriculum
While kindergarten is over and done in a single year, Children’s House is a comprehensive, three-year program, with kids starting as early as 2.5 years old and staying until the age of 6.
By the time Montessori children venture into first grade, they know:
How to do basic math (such as addition and subtraction with numbers up to four digits)
How to concentrate for extended periods
How to access the tools and support they need to complete a task
How to read age-appropriate books (by identifying letters, sounds, sight words, etc.)
How to write sentences (and begin understanding grammatical concepts)
How to communicate (including engaging in public speaking)
And that’s only the beginning. When kids believe they’re capable and worthy of participating in life, they tend to exceed our expectations.
So, how does Children’s House cultivate intelligent, focused, communicative kids who love to learn?
The answer lies in its three-year curriculum, which is divided into five key areas.
Practical Life
What Children Learn
How to prepare their own snacks using real-world tools
How to zip, button, and buckle clothing using dressing frames
How to clean up after themselves using child-sized tools
Why it Works
Children long to participate in practical life — to use the same tools and accomplish the same tasks as their parents and older siblings.
A Montessori classroom makes this possible through appropriately sized tools and individual support.
In the third year, your child will…
Be able to concentrate for extended periods
Be able to follow increasingly complex steps to achieve a goal
Feel capable and responsible
Sensorial
What Children Learn
How to make detailed distinctions between colors, textures, and sounds
How to make connections and determine the implications
How to make precise judgments
Why it Works
Children are naturally drawn to learning with their hands, making Montessori materials the perfect complement to their curiosity.
By giving kids access to color boxes, thermic tablets, and other sensorial materials, they develop the fundamental skills needed to navigate and fully embrace the world.
In the third year, your child will…
Improve and attune their ability to perceive and make sense of the world
Have a strong foundation for advanced STEM skills
Language
What Children Learn
How to identify sounds, letters, sight words, and rhyming words
How to read age-appropriate books
How to write sentences and short stories
Why it Works
Kids are capable of building their literacy skills long before kindergarten. Every day, we see toddlers as young as 2.5 playing sound games. And when they graduate from Children’s House, they’ll be reading real books.
These outcomes are achieved by using sensory materials like sandpaper letters, the moveable alphabet, and grammar boxes.
And because we start early, while children are still enticed by how things work, reading becomes a thrill, not a chore.
In the third year, your child will…
Read and write long before their kindergarten-educated peers
Understand basic grammar concepts
Have a love for the written word
Math
What Children Learn
Abstract concepts at the concrete level
Addition and subtraction with four-digit numbers
Multiplication and division with four-digit numbers
Why it Works
As with language, children are capable of understanding basic math concepts years before they’re introduced in first, second, or third grade.
With easy access to sensory materials like number rods and the golden bead set, they learn abstract concepts like counting and place value with their hands. No boring flashcards or worksheets — just tactile materials that help their lessons stick.
In the third year, your child will…
Add, subtract, multiply, and divide years before conventional elementary schoolers
Have built a sensorial foundation for math concepts that will serve them in later years
Cultural
What Children Learn
Botany
Geography
History
Art and music
Why it Works
Our cultural curriculum integrates seamlessly with the rest of the classroom. For instance, kids might build their literacy and botany skills simultaneously while working in the garden and learning the names of various plants.
This way, cultural awareness is built organically, in ways children can easily (and literally) grasp.
In the third year, your child will…
Be able to identify states, countries, and continents
Improve their literacy skills alongside growing cultural awareness
Why all three years are important
Studies indicate that it’s this three-year curriculum that sets Montessori students apart from conventional kindergarteners, be it in terms of academic success, social development, or overall happiness.
To truly reap the rewards of Montessori’s research, it’s critical to enroll your student in all three years of Children’s House.
If we’d sent our kids to kindergarten after their first two years in Children’s House, they would’ve missed out on so much.
That’s because most of the results of the three-year curriculum appear in the third year, including advanced language and math skills.
“A family leaving for their child’s kindergarten year… is like pausing a song before you get to the chorus,” says Samantha.
Just like your favorite works of art, every piece of the Children’s House curriculum is crucial. Skip just one, and you might never see the full picture.
It looks like this:
The third year is the culmination of everything our kids have learned so far. It’s where the magic happens — but it’s not really magic, is it?
The Children’s House curriculum is designed to help kids flourish. It’s designed to foster independence, academic prowess, and cultural awareness.
So — don’t send your child to kindergarten and force them to socialize.
Let them follow their innate curiosity instead. Let them learn how the world works.
The confidence they earn will be with them not just for the first grade, but for the rest of their lives.