When my daughter turned three, everyone kept asking, “What preschool did you choose?” But I’d enrolled her in something called a “Children’s House” for ages 2.5 to 6. My neighbor looked puzzled. “So… that’s like preschool and kindergarten combined?” she asked. I nodded, though honestly, I didn’t fully understand it myself yet.
Two years later, I watched her confidently read books to younger classmates, solve math problems with golden beads, and help a three-year-old put on their shoes. That’s when it clicked. This wasn’t just extended daycare. It was a carefully designed three-year journey that builds everything children need for the rest of their education.
Montessori Kindergarten at a Glance
Montessori kindergarten is actually the third year of a three-year “Children’s House” program for ages 2.5 to 6. Instead of graduating to a new classroom each year, children stay with the same guide and community, progressing from observer to student to leader.
- Age Range: 2.5 to 6 years (mixed-age classroom)
- Core Focus: Independence, concentration, hands-on learning
- Learning Style: Self-directed work with concrete materials
- Teacher Role: Guide who presents lessons individually
- Key Difference: The kindergarten year is the culmination, not the beginning
- Average Cost: $12,000-$18,000 per year (varies by location)
What Exactly Is the Children’s House?
Most people think of kindergarten as one year before first grade. Montessori flips this completely. The Children’s House is a three-year program where kindergarten is the final, most important year.
Dr. Maria Montessori observed that children ages 2.5 to 6 share similar developmental needs and learn beautifully together. Rather than separating them by age, she created mixed-age classrooms where younger children learn from observing older ones, and older children reinforce their knowledge by helping younger classmates.
Think of it like building a house. The first year (age 3), children lay the foundation through practical life activities and sensorial exploration. The second year (age 4), they build the walls as they dive deeper into language and math. The third year (age 5, kindergarten), they put on the roof, becoming confident leaders who mentor younger children while mastering advanced concepts.
Why it’s called Children’s House: Dr. Montessori’s first school in Rome was literally called “Casa dei Bambini” (Children’s House). The name reflects the homelike environment where children feel they belong, not just visit. It’s their space, filled with child-sized furniture and materials at their height.
Why Three Years Together Matters
When I first learned about the three-year cycle, I worried my daughter would get bored in the “same” classroom. This is the most common misconception parents have, and I was completely wrong.
The classroom stays the same, but the child’s experience transforms completely each year. A three-year-old spends months on practical life activities, learning to pour water without spilling and button their own coat. That same child at four is reading simple words and working with math materials. At five, they’re writing stories and solving complex problems while teaching those same pouring activities to the new three-year-olds.
What Each Year Looks Like
- Year One (Age 3): Learning the routines, exploring materials, building concentration through practical life activities. Lots of watching older children. Developing basic independence.
- Year Two (Age 4): Confidence grows. Beginning phonetic reading. Working with early math materials like golden beads. More complex sensorial work. Starting to help younger children.
- Year Three (Age 5, Kindergarten): The leaders. Reading fluently. Working with advanced math. Teaching younger children. Demonstrating concentration and self-discipline. Preparing for elementary.
The stability of staying with the same teacher and community for three years creates deep trust. Children know the routines, the expectations, and where to find everything. This security allows them to take more intellectual risks and push themselves further than they could in a constantly changing environment.
A Typical Day in the Children’s House
Forget everything you know about traditional preschool schedules with group craft time and circle time every hour. A Montessori morning looks completely different.
Morning Routine (8:00am – 12:00pm)
8:00-8:30am: Arrival
Children arrive at different times within this window. They enter quietly, hang up their coats, put away their lunch boxes, and choose their first work. No group gathering or teacher directing them. Classical music often plays softly in the background.
8:30-11:30am: The Work Period
This three-hour block is sacred. Children work independently or in small groups, choosing from materials the guide has presented to them. The teacher moves around the room giving individual lessons, observing, and occasionally redirecting. No interruptions for group activities or snack time (snacks are available at a table whenever children are hungry).
11:30am-12:00pm: Circle Time
The class gathers for songs, stories, calendar activities, and group discussions. This is social time, not instructional time. Children practice listening, taking turns, and being part of a community.
What shocked me most during my first observation: how calm it was. Twenty-five children in one room, all doing different activities, and the noise level was barely above a whisper. One child carefully carried a tray of water across the room. Another traced sandpaper letters. Three children worked together building the pink tower. The guide sat on the floor showing a child how to use the moveable alphabet.
This wasn’t forced silence or children being shushed. It was genuine concentration. When children are deeply engaged in work they chose, they naturally focus. The three-hour work period gives them time to really sink into an activity without being rushed to the next thing.
What Happens During the Work Period?
Children might spend 5 minutes on one activity or 45 minutes. They choose work from the shelves, carry it to a table or mat, complete the activity, clean up, and return it to its place before choosing something new. The guide gives individual presentations (lessons) when a child is ready for new material. Older children often give informal “lessons” to younger ones.
What Children Actually Learn
This is what every parent really wants to know, will my child learn to read, write, and do math? The answer is yes, often earlier and more thoroughly than in traditional settings. But how they learn is fundamentally different.
Reading and Writing
Montessori children typically write before they read. This sounds backwards until you understand the approach. They start by learning letter sounds (not names) through sandpaper letters they can touch and trace. Then they use a moveable alphabet (wooden letters) to build words phonetically before they can physically write them.
My daughter was spelling simple words with the moveable alphabet at 3.5, though her “handwriting” was still just scribbles. By 4, she was reading phonetic words. By 5, she was reading chapter books and writing stories. The foundation built through tactile letter work and phonetic understanding made the transition to fluent reading feel natural rather than forced.
Mathematics
Forget flashcards. Montessori math starts with concrete materials that make numbers visible and touchable. The golden beads (one unit bead, a bar of ten, a square of one hundred, a cube of one thousand) give children a physical understanding of our decimal system before they ever see written numbers.
I watched a five-year-old work out 1,234 + 2,561 using golden beads. She laid out thousands, hundreds, tens, and units for each number, combined them, made exchanges (trading ten units for a ten-bar, ten tens for a hundred square), and counted the result. She wasn’t following an algorithm she’d memorized. She was physically doing the math and understanding why it works.
Practical Life and Independence
This area often gets overlooked by parents focused on “academics,” but it’s actually the foundation for everything else. Children learn to pour liquids without spilling, button their coats, tie shoes, clean up spills, set a table, and care for classroom plants.
These aren’t just life skills. Every pouring exercise builds hand-eye coordination needed for writing. Every buttoning frame develops the pincer grip for holding a pencil. Every activity that requires careful, sequential steps builds executive function and concentration.
Cultural Studies
Children explore geography with puzzle maps, learn about different cultures, study plants and animals, experiment with simple science concepts, create art, and play musical instruments. This isn’t separate from other learning. It’s all integrated. They might read books about penguins (language), locate Antarctica on a map (geography), and sort animal cards by habitat (classification).
The Special Materials of the Children’s House
Step into a Children’s House and you’ll see beautiful wooden materials arranged on low shelves. These aren’t random toys. Each one serves a specific purpose in building understanding.
Key Montessori Materials
- Pink Tower: Ten pink cubes graduating in size, teaching visual discrimination and building a sense of order
- Golden Beads: Concrete representation of units, tens, hundreds, and thousands for understanding place value
- Sandpaper Letters: Textured letters children trace while learning sounds (not names)
- Moveable Alphabet: Wooden letters for building words before handwriting develops
- Practical Life Trays: Real materials for pouring, spooning, buttoning, tying
- Sensorial Materials: Color tablets, sound cylinders, texture boards for refining the senses
What makes these materials special? They’re self-correcting. A child working with cylinder blocks can see when a cylinder doesn’t fit its hole. They don’t need an adult to tell them they made a mistake. This builds problem-solving skills and independence.
Why the Kindergarten Year (Age 5) Matters So Much
Here’s the dilemma many families face, their child completes two years of Montessori, and now kindergarten is approaching. Should they stay in Montessori for the kindergarten year, or transition to public school?
The kindergarten year isn’t just another year of Montessori. It’s the culmination of everything they’ve been building for two years. Five-year-olds in a Children’s House are the classroom leaders. They mentor younger children, work with the most advanced materials, and consolidate all their learning.
My daughter’s transformation between age 4 and 5 was remarkable. At 4, she was still finding her place in the classroom. At 5, she confidently helped three-year-olds with practical life activities, read chapter books to groups of younger children, and tackled complex math problems. Pulling her out before that year would have meant missing the payoff of the previous two years.
What Research Shows
Studies consistently show that children who complete all three years of Montessori early childhood education perform better academically and socially than those who leave after one or two years. The kindergarten year allows them to practice leadership, solidify concepts, and develop the confidence that comes from mastery.
Montessori Kindergarten vs. Traditional Kindergarten
Many parents wonder how Montessori kindergarten compares to what their child would experience in public school. The differences are significant.
Traditional kindergarten has become increasingly academic, but it’s still focused on grade-level standards. Montessori kindergarteners often work well beyond what’s expected in traditional settings because they’ve had two years of foundation-building and can work at their own advanced pace.
The Practical Side: Costs and Logistics
Let’s talk about the logistics that actually matter to parents making this decision.
Most Children’s House programs run from August/September through May/June, following a school calendar. Some offer summer programs. Hours vary, but typical options include half-day (8:30am-12pm), full-day with lunch (8:30am-3pm), and extended care for working parents (7:30am-6pm).
Cost Breakdown (Annual Averages)
- Tuition: $12,000-$18,000 per year (national average)
- Major Cities: $20,000-$35,000 per year
- Small Cities/Rural: $7,000-$12,000 per year
- Registration Fee: $100-$400 annually
- Materials Fee: $300-$800 per year
- Extended Care: $400-$1,200 per month
Many schools offer financial aid, sibling discounts (typically 10-20% off), and payment plans. Some states have school voucher programs or tax credits for private education. Public Montessori programs exist but are limited and often have waitlists.
What Comes Next: The Path to Elementary
After completing the Children’s House, most Montessori students move on to elementary education. Some continue in Montessori elementary programs, while others transition to traditional schools.
If your school offers Montessori elementary, the transition is seamless. Children move to a classroom for ages 6-12, continuing the mixed-age, hands-on approach they know. The curriculum becomes more complex, with greater emphasis on research, abstract thinking, and cosmic education (understanding how everything connects).
If transitioning to traditional school, children typically adapt well. They may need time to adjust to desks, standardized testing, and group instruction, but the independence, focus, and love of learning they developed in Montessori serve them well. Teachers often comment that former Montessori students are self-directed and curious.
Questions Parents Always Ask
After three years in Montessori and countless conversations with other parents, these are the questions that come up most often.
Will my three-year-old be overwhelmed by older children?+
Actually, the opposite happens. Younger children watch older ones and learn through observation. They’re inspired by what the “big kids” can do. Older children are gentle with younger ones, often taking pride in helping them. The age mixing creates a family atmosphere where everyone has a role.
What if my child doesn’t want to work during the work period?+
The guide observes and redirects gently. Sometimes a child needs time to observe before engaging. Sometimes they need a new presentation. Sometimes they’re testing boundaries. Good guides know when to step in and when to allow exploration. It’s rare for a child to genuinely refuse to work for long, because the materials are inherently engaging.
How do I know if my child is actually learning anything?+
Montessori schools typically provide narrative progress reports twice a year and hold parent-teacher conferences. Good schools also send home work samples or photos. Trust the process. The hands-on learning may look like play, but it’s building deep understanding. You’ll see the results in your child’s growing independence and capabilities.
Can we do Montessori at home instead of enrolling in a school?+
Yes, but it’s challenging. The social aspects of a mixed-age classroom are hard to replicate at home. You’d need to invest in materials, learn the proper presentations, and commit significant time. Many families blend Montessori principles at home with traditional or Montessori schooling. That said, homeschool Montessori families do exist and find success.
The Real Gift of the Children’s House
When my daughter finished her three years in the Children’s House, I realized something unexpected. Yes, she could read chapter books. Yes, she understood math concepts that impressed first-grade teachers. But those weren’t the most important things she gained.
She learned that she’s capable. She knows how to concentrate on a task for an hour without being redirected by an adult. She can identify when she needs help and ask for it appropriately. She approaches new challenges with curiosity rather than fear. She takes pride in her work without needing external rewards.
Those three years built something deeper than reading level or math skills. They built a foundation of self-confidence, independence, and love of learning that will serve her for the rest of her life. And watching that transformation happen, one carefully chosen work at a time, has been one of the greatest gifts of parenting.
That’s what the Children’s House really offers. Not just education, but the building of a capable, confident, curious human being.
Sources & References
- Lillard, A. S. (2017). Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190613976.001.0001
- Lillard, A. S., & Else-Quest, N. (2006). Evaluating Montessori education. Science, 313(5795), 1893-1894. DOI: 10.1126/science.1132362
- American Montessori Society. (2024). Early Childhood Programs. Retrieved from https://amshq.org
- Montessori, M. (1949). The Absorbent Mind. Clio Press Ltd.
- Denervaud, S., Knebel, J. F., Hagmann, P., & Gentaz, E. (2019). Beyond executive functions, creativity skills benefit academic outcomes: Insights from Montessori education. PLoS ONE, 14(11), e0225319. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225319
- Laski, E. V., Jor’dan, J. R., Daoust, C., & Murray, A. K. (2015). What makes mathematics manipulatives effective? Lessons from cognitive science and Montessori education. SAGE Open, 5(2). DOI: 10.1177/2158244015589588
- Montessori, M. (1964). The Montessori Method. Schocken Books.