Bowie Montessori Childrens House

I had my children enrolled at the school for four years. In the earlier years the founder and headmistress, while suffering from declining health, was still able to foster the traditions and culture that originally made this school a success. When she was finally in her end stages of her condition, I am sad to say I was among the voices that thought the incoming administrative staff was a good idea. After the passing of the founder and subsequent ascension to power of the current administration, I learned of my mistake. In the very first parent association meeting, the administration informed us that parent input was not welcome at the school because it always comes with strings attached. Things rapidly declined from there. The following year, a number of highly experienced teachers were forced out, many of them nearing retirement anyway. This was supposedly because of a change in Maryland Law that requires certification by a Montessori body by 2015. With five years to go to that deadline, the administration proceeded to force out teachers because they were not AMI certified, but rather AMS, despite the fact that these same teachers had made the school in the first place.
—Submitted by a parent

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I have seen Montesorri soar and fall through a window. This has been a painful year in this school for our family and we should not have experienced it. In fact, NO ONE shoud have experienced it. I am relieved to FINALLY get out of this school.
—Submitted by a parent

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My 2nd grade son has been here for 1 year. It fits him and his style of learning. As a parent, I also provide him additional workbooks that are more traditional teaching so that he gets both the montesorri and public school style of learning. He has learned multiplication, division, fractions, etc. He reads a book in class and copies a page for handwriting each day which also incorporates sentence structure learning and identification. He learns poem structures. He learns about the world, countries, nature, etc. He gets play time daily, drama by older students, american history costume program, science experiments, garden growing, animals in classes, etc. Each quarter, the parents come in 15 min slots & kids demonstrate in class what they are learning so there is no mystery and you can assert for yourself what your kid is learning. They are introducing standardized testing options which I like too. Music teacher afterschool option to teach kid instruments. My experience has been good. "Some" teachers leaving (one retiring) but in my field folks leave jobs too. Looks like from their background, the new teachers are young with Masters Degrees so still tops public school crop.
—Submitted by a parent

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As a prospective parent trying to decide between the two AMI schools in the Bowie area, I find the comments on Great Schools confusing. They are inconsistent with each other and what the schools or former/existing parents say. We've made our decision, but I recommend parents in a similar situation ask the following questions: How is communication between the school and home handled? Is there a Parents' Association? What is its role? Does its meetings have minutes? Is there a school newsletter? Are there room parents? What is their role? How much volunteer or fundraising work are parents expected to do? How many school-wide family or parent activities take place a month? How often are parents allowed to visit their child's classroom during school hours? Can you visit other classrooms? Are there any conditions? Can parents walk around the school grounds during school hours? What security measures are in place? Cameras? Parental restrictions? Are there Montessori parent education classes? Is babysitting ever provided? What extra curricular activities or electives are included? Spanish? Piano lessons? Gymnastics? Chess? Dance? Then, based on the answers, go with your gut...
—Submitted by a parent

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