Peace Montessori in Apex, NC is an exceptional school!! We have already put our older son through the 3-5-year old preschool program at Peace Montessori, he was there for 2 & a half years, & he is flourishing in 1st grade now! When he entered Kindergarten last year, not only was he reading at 2 grade levels above his peers, but his understanding of math & science concepts also far surpassed his public school classmates. And not only did he start public elementary school w/ a leg up in academics, he also displayed fantastic self-control & the consistent ability to follow directions & be a positive role model for others - characteristics that his Kindergarten teacher reported were incredibly rare in a child that age. He is now a 1st grader, having a terrific year, & already being recommended for AG services. Our younger son is currently in his 2nd year at Peace in the 3-5-year old program, also having an absolutely wonderful experience! He is drastically different in personality from our first son, which makes my recommendation of Peace Montessori's preschool environment even more powerful in my opinion. I say this because I handed these amazingly talented teachers 2 completely different children w/ varying strengths & weaknesses, & they used their nurturing instincts, kind hearts, & deep understanding of Montessori education to help guide each child toward developing his own individual intrinsic motivation for learning, & have thus fostered w/in each child a real sense of personal responsibility & a confidence to be self-sufficient that we were absolutely flabbergasted to watch evolve, particularly w/ our younger, more spirited child. It seems to us that the kind of child-centered education our boys have received at Peace has taught them how to be life-long learners, & more importantly, taught them the joy of learning! It takes a certain kind of commitment & faith in a child's natural drive to learn to be a Montessori teacher, & that is something that these teachers have even taught us, as parents. We do a better job allowing our kids to develop their own interests at home now, & to share w/ us anything they are curious about, & we know better how to help them explore any concept or subject that they are intrigued by. Discovering this important part of child development & understanding the importance of having respect for our children as autonomous human beings has deepened our relationship w/ our kids, for which we will be forever grateful to our sons' teachers, Ms. Susan & Ms. Karen, & to the Peace Montessori community as a whole. I'd just like to add that I knew some things about the Montessori system when we were originally researching preschools, & we knew that a Montessori education was our first choice for our children's preschool years, & just from the little bit I understood about how Montessori worked, it was evident from the moment I 1st visited Peace that it was an authentic Montessori school, not a typical play-based preschool program or even a hybrid of the 2. It was of course multi-age, a family-like grouping, as a true Montessori program ought to be, w/ 3-6-year olds together in 1 class. The younger ones benefit from observing the older children, & the older children act as mentors & leaders, & the kids can really develop at their own pace because the classroom has materials appropriate for 3-year olds all the way up to 7-year olds. There's a very deliberate selection of Montessori activities in our son's classroom; not the typical Legos-blocks-trucks toys we have at home, & it's clear the kids love to engage w/ them over & over again. By working w/ these materials, our boys have learned certain skills we can't imagine having found a way to ever explicitly teach them, at home or anywhere else - such as careful observation, hand strength, the ability to distinguish musical tones, the shapes of letters, counting, etc. All the materials build sequentially, enabling the children to progress from one to the next as their abilities evolve; & they're self-correcting, so the kids can work independently of the teachers & learn to problem-solve on their own. This has been a huge plus for our 2nd son specifically! He tends to get super frustrated very easily w/ even the simplest things, but the frequency & intensity of his impatient outbursts has decreased dramatically & incrementally over the last year & 1/2 that he's been at Peace. The angelic patience his teachers have shown him, along w/ the problem-solving skills he's picked up through his exploration during free work time, have undoubtedly given him the tools he needs to function more calmly & confidently throughout his daily life. All in all, putting our children in Peace Montessori for preschool was the best decision we ever made!! read more
