Both my husband and myself have Professional Doctorate degrees and corresponding careers. We value…read morea safe, educational and nurturing environment that will inspire an early love of learning in our child. After visiting and interviewing several private preschools, we decided to enroll our daughter at Community Montessori School (CMS) in Fishers, IN. There are only two AMI accredited Montessori schools in the state of Indiana. CMS is located in Fishers, IN and the other AMI accredited Montessori school is located in Carmel, IN. CMS starts at age 18 months, whereas the one in Carmel starts at 3 years old.
The CMS building is fairly new and was built specifically with the Montessori environment in mind. The classrooms all have tons of natural lighting and an open floor plan. All the Directress/Teachers have college or graduate degrees. Every Directress/Teacher at the school knew my daughter by name by the second day of school. I get daily reports via email on my kid, letting me know her days activities. The toddler classroom will help potty train as well.
Every personnel at the school I've come across has been courteous and informative. The diversity of the staff is a definite plus. Exposure to diversity promotes curiosity, creativity, and encourages the search for novel information and perspectives - something we want our child exposed to early on.
There is an entrance interview that CMS calls "an encounter" where the Directress spends approximately 30 min with your child in their respective classroom, observing them play with the particular "work" they chose and how they interact with their surroundings and other children in the class. I came to value a school with an entrance interview after I visited other preschools that didn't have one. The preschools that did not have an entrance interview take anyone and everyone as long as the parents have the means to pay the tuition. Preschool age children are sponges, quickly picking up social and behavioral cues from their peers and surroundings. The children at CMS, in general, seem to be more respectful of their surroundings and peers. I would attribute this to both the Montessori environment as well as the existence of an entrance interview.
There have been multiple social activities throughout the year, hosted by CMS, that allow the parents an opportunity to mingle and meet other parents. There is a real community feel for the parents and students at CMS, which we value.
Although we feel our daughter is in a safe, educational and nurturing environment at CMS, we are realistic about accidents that may happen from time to time. Having inspected her classroom, I know CMS does everything they can to keep the kids safe. However, children can still trip, stumble, or fall despite the safe environment. The child-to-teacher ratio is right in line with state mandate; in fact, in my child's classroom, the child-to-teacher ratio is better than state mandate.
In terms of fundraising, I agree with the other reviewer who said "of course, any private school will have fundraising activities." This is true for all the private preschools we looked into as well. And come to think of it, this is true for all the schools my husband and I have attended as well (college, grad school, professional school). Giving is always optional. If you do give, it's a tax deductible contribution that is used to further create and sustain the Montessori environment and education for your child. For this reason, we were happy to contribute.
I was not familiar with Montessori schools and methodology until I started researching preschools. Although my husband is a product of a Montessori preschool, I was not. It's one thing to read about Montessori online, but it's another to actually see and observe the classroom and environment for yourself. I'm glad I took the time to visit the various private preschools and observe the children in their respective classroom environments. CMS was the clear choice for us.
My daughter has been at CMS for almost a year now. What I like most about CMS is that my child loves it; she is excited to go to school every day. As a parent, you can't really ask for more.