Coral Springs Montessori School

I sent both of our children to school at CSM starting in 2007 up until this past June (2013). Both children entered Kindergarten reading fluently. Our youngest daughter tested at a 2.5 (=2nd grader in their 5 month) reading level coming into Kindergarten. While I like to think that I had something to do with that; I also know that the education they received and the nurturing environment at the school helped them thrive. I highly recommend Judi and her staff. The reviewer above has posted her comments on numerous sites Perhaps she is unfamiliar with the Montessori method if she interpreted her childs time as being unsupervised. Children are encouraged to work at their own pace, according to their interests, and if a certain area of the curriculum is being ignored by a child the teachers offer gentle guidance back to that area. I have to say that neither of my children were ever put in "time out" in the 6 years we attended. If your child is not used to being held accountable for their actions at home then of course the staff has to control the chaos and reprimand as they see fit. Sounds like a parental issue not an issue at CSM.

For any parent(s) considering enrolling their child(ren) at this school, I'd urge you to reconsider. Although affiliated with the American Montessori Society, this school holds no accreditation with the AMS. Negative reinforcement is used on a regular basis, with "time out" being the preferential method employed to control behavior. We observed undesirable changes in our child's spirit, and visited campus frequently to observe different aspects of a typical day on campus. We witnessed numerous instances of our child being placed in "time-out", as well as much idle time spent unsupervised/unmonitored in the classroom. After observing over a period of time and meeting with administration to discuss our concerns, we determined it was best our child no longer attend. Any child-care or school environment, regardless of its care/educational precepts, should be supportive to concerns of the parents who pay to enroll their children there. We have since placed our child in a different preschool, and have seen a remarkable difference, both in staff accountability and in our child's eagerness to attend daily.