I understand that Montessori does not typically give homework. Does a child who attends a Montessori elementary school have problems in High School with homework?
To be honest, I use to not give homework. It was in accordance with the Montessori philosophy of work being on each child's specific level. I refused to give out busy work and just couldn't figure out how to differentiate homework assignments for 20 children without spending hours upon hours each evening after school setting them up. I also felt that since my students were working so hard during the school day, and many had a series of after school activities, they didn't need extra work to worry about.
But than I heard from many of my former students and their parents that the hardest transition they had to make when entering a traditional classroom was homework. I felt badly.
Today the children in our program all get homework. The younger children (k -1) have a lot of leeway, choosing from a long list of suggested activities.The older children (2 -3) have three parts each night to their homework:
*A sheet of 100 math facts at the level they personally are on
*A fluency reading passage where each night they read a passage through once and then see how many words they can read in one minute.
*A list of 20 spelling works with different activities for each night.
Additionally, for the 2008-2009 school year, I am adding a page of comprehension questions for the fluency reading passage that will be do each Friday.