Montessori Academy of Illinois

I would highly recommend Montessori in Park Ridge. My son started here as an infant and is now 3 years old. I just had a daughter and she is now there as well. The teachers here are very caring and great with the kids. My son loves them and has learned so much. He knew his ABC’s, colors, and shapes before he was 3. His language skills are advanced and he was toilet trained before 3. Here you get the benefits of a nanny as the school is highly personal but also the assets of a school. It offers regimen, freedom, and high quality care for the kids.

I would not recommnd this daycare/​school. I went to the school and observed a class for several hours while I was searching for care options for my toddler son. The main teacher in the class was decent. She was clearly in control of the room and was very adept at redirecting the children if/​when there were conflicts. There were two co-​teachers, however, who left a lot to be desired. One co-​teacher disapeared into a small back room with two very young children (guessing in the 12 – 15 month range), I assumed they were going for a separate nap time and the teacher confirmed this but they only came out once in the 3.5 hour span ot have their diapers changed. The rest of the time they were in that back room with one of the co-​teachers… That was odd. The second co-​teacher was in my view for the entirety of my visit as she was asisting with the older children. She was not very skilled at dealing with children and I observed her arbistrarily taking things away from the children with no explanation as to why she was doing so (I couldn’t ascertain any necessary reason for her taking these items so I’m sure the toddlers were clueless). There were times when the child would throw a fit after she had taken something from them and then she would say, «here, do you want this?» and give it back to the child. She was also much too physical with the children; grabbing them by the face (in a freindly way but it was still inappropriate IMO), grabbing them by the arm to haul them off to a new spot in the room (I thought this was child-​directed care!), in one instance a boy was having a hard time focusing on the grouyp activity so she pulled him down inot her lap by the arm and wrapped her arms around him to restrain him so he couldn’t get up. He, understandably, became more and more upset and then totally melted down. I was also concerned at the fact that the main teacher left to take the potty-​trained kids for a bathroom break, leaving the terrible co-​teacher with 7 kids and then the owner of the school walks in and takes a little girls from the classroom without letting the co-​teacher know she had done so. It doesn’t seem safe to haphazardly take children from one room to the next without making sure everyone is on the same page. After my day of observing I decided I wouldn’t bring my son here even if they were paying me.