Montessori School of Champaign-Urbana Toddlers - Middle School

I am regularly blown away by the work my daughter comes home with. MSCU is a great environment with wonderful teachers. Our daughter loves going there and loves learning.

I want to set a warning here – not every teacher in this school is as good as you may expect despite many good teachers and staffs that I also saw in the past year. When anyone is considering this school and to sign the agreement, I encourage you to read through the agreement, and think twice about the conditions like “A minimum of two months notice is required for ANY withdrawal.” It happened to me that I had to withdrawal my son because of their fault and impossible settlement for class room change, but the school administration still threw the agreement to me and asked me to pay the two months tuition.nnLong story short. I had my three-year-old son in this school for almost eight months there from August 2017 to March 2018. One day about one month after he started there, my son got his butt hurt (some serious scratches) in school. It is very sad that he was too little to tell me what happened. I asked the teacher and eventually I accepted that it was an accident and won’t happen again. Of course I still chose to trust them in that event. However, one of his teachers (usually two in the class room) was often rude and I witnessed the last time she gave nonsense demand to my son right in front of me. Although I let my son follow her, I complained to the administration. The administrator met me and promised to not let the same thing happen again. However, as one can imagine, the tension went up, and I did not want to simply trust the teacher again, so I request to change class room. The administrator eventually could not manage to help, because the teacher was one of only two teachers on duty rotation in the bird room – an early bird program starting at 7:30 am. Okay, I had to withdraw my son from this school, but it is shocking to me that the administrator made very clear that we still had to pay the two more month tuition. Now I heard other parents withdrew their kids in the same class room, and I hope they learnt from my lesson and won’t waste their money.

Our daughter LOVES school. My husband and I are very impressed with the way the directresses (teachers) and assistant teachers handle the students and get them to love 'work'. Classrooms are neat and beautifully decorated. By the age of 4, my daughter knew all the planets, continents and could read through the BOB books. At 4.5 she was able to read The Giving Tree and Clifford books. We attribute her love of learning and her growth to her teachers.nnWe've tried other schools in CU in the past (Next Gen and Chesterbrook) and this is the only place we've found where the all the teachers are actively engaged with the students. All of the directresses have been there for at least 10 years and they all seem to love what they do. The tuition is more expensive than other places but our daughter loves it here.

I love MSCU, but more importantly, my daughter loves it, she loves to go to school!nMSCU makes the love for learning flourish beautifully by realizing that not all students are interested in the same topic at the same time, and different parts of their brains develop at different times.nA couple of weeks ago, my daughter came home psyched about moving up one level in her math work at school and could not wait to go to school the next day to do more math! This is how it happened. Earlier that day, she finished all the 'works' for the math level she was working on. Her teacher realized this and asked my daughter if she wanted to take that level's proficiency test to make sure she was ready for the next math level. My daughter said that she felt she'd done enough math for the day, would take the proficiency test another day. OK, said the teacher, whenever you're ready. An hour or so later, my daughter came to the teacher and told her she'd done everything else she wanted to do at school that day, so she was ready to take the proficiency math test. OK, said the teacher. When finished taking the proficiency test, my daughter realized she was ready for the next level math, and so she moved up. She now loves math! She wants to go to school to do math. How many children love to do math? I bet most Montessori kids do! Furthermore, on our recent Thanksgiving trip, my daughter wanted to take some math workbooks just for the fun of it. There is no homework, but she loves learning so much that she just wants to do it for the fun of it! No battling to do homework! She might no be a mathematician when she grows up, but like most Montessori students, she will not be afraid of math. I doubt this can be said about other schools.nThank you MSCU!

Forty years ago, my parents chose to send me and my sisters to Montessori School of Champaign-Urbana. As educators themselves, my parents understood the importance of early education. They recognized the incredible opportunity of having a Montessori school here in our community. I maintain the love of learning that was encouraged by the environment, the tools, and the teachers at MSCU and I often thanked my parents for the sacrifice they made in sending me to the school. A year ago I was proud to walk my three-year old son to his first day of school at Montessori School of Champaign-Urbana. Seeing the world open up to him as he uses the same tools I used and is encouraged to explore and learn the same way I was encouraged is a true joy to me, and I know my parents would be incredibly proud of his attending the same school they chose for me to attend. Our community has other options for early learning now—some very good. But none of them have a fifty year track record of helping to create and nurture intellectual curiosity that lasts a lifetime. If you are a parent, I encourage you to visit MSCU. Speak with the administrators and educators at the school. Watch the children as they work independently, confidently mastering tools and skills, each opening a new doorway of understanding, each guiding them to the next level, and the next. It is amazing.