I know this has been covered a while ago, but I’m utterly confused. My 4 year old had been attending a montessori school in the states until almost a year ago. We are moving to TW in Jan, and I’d like for her to attend a montessori again but with mandarin being the primary language. I’ve seen sites for Taipei Montessori and Taipei New World montessori. Any opinions on these. We will probably be living in Tianmu (where I grew up). Any suggestions? TIA!
Any luck with either of these schools?
According to my research, the 2 “real” montessori schools (where the leading teacher of each class is AMI certified) are:
- ivy’s school facebook.com/pages/Ivys-Hou … 7187614160
- mrs lam schools montessori.org.tw/ => i visited the one in Xin Yi and this is where i will enroll my kids when they reach 2. Both of them use Mandarin as main language. English is only for 3-6 year and only when the kid shows interested in speaking with the English teacher. They both teach bo po mo fo.
Taipei New World Montessori did not appear to my search results when i was looking for information 3 months back… but seems close to our place, so will go for a visit one day. They also seem to have certified teachers and seem to emphasize more on English.
here is another taiwan forum with mothers discussing montessori schools
taiwanease.com/en/forums/eli … t6928.html
To update:
Since we moved to Tianmu we decided on Ms. Lam’s school, although it is very expensive for us. We are only doing mornings for now, due to the expense. From speaking with my daughter about her mornings there, I get the feeling that their work period may not always be a ‘true montessori’ work period. It seems like there is some teacher-led stuff. But maybe that is just because there is not only a language gap, but some new materials (like bopomofo sand cards) that she is learning. I really like the teachers, and I know that my daughter is picking up some Chinese.
[quote=“Artpen”]To update:
Since we moved to Tianmu we decided on Ms. Lam’s school, although it is very expensive for us. We are only doing mornings for now, due to the expense. From speaking with my daughter about her mornings there, I get the feeling that their work period may not always be a ‘true montessori’ work period. It seems like there is some teacher-led stuff. But maybe that is just because there is not only a language gap, but some new materials (like bopomofo sand cards) that she is learning. I really like the teachers, and I know that my daughter is picking up some Chinese.[/quote]
I would ask them about the work period. A lot of places do disguise their program with the word “Montessori” and the materials. Remember that the materials are there to be presented so that they inspire the child to choose the work, not something the teacher directs them to. One of the more frustrating things in Taiwan especially is seeing people use the materials more for direct instruction.
Sorry to necro-post, but I thought I’d share our experience FWIW
My son was 2 1/2 and just gaining command of English when we moved back to Taipei; he was mad as hell when we jerked the rug out from under him and surrounded him with Mandarin speakers who were, as far as he was concerned, DOING IT ALL WRONG!! So when we put my son in Mrs. Lam’s campus by XinSheng & ZongXiao, we told them clearly that Montessori work was great, but our #1 priority was that they get him speaking Chinese. They said OK, but as the months went by and my son’s fluency remained stalled at a low level, in teacher conferences I started getting pushback from his teacher that I was mistaken to overemphasize just this single aspect of his overall education, don’t worry children absorb languages quickly at that age, give it time and it will come naturally, etc. etc.
Then the teachers started telling me what a wonderful asset my son was to the school, because he was always speaking English to the Engish-speaking teacher placed in the classroom and engaging his classmates in English conversation - really bringing English-language environment to life in the classroom to the benefit of his peers. I started wondering if I should be billing them at NT$1,000/hr for the English lessons.
Despite my best efforts I was unable to get this addressed; my son was unable to learn Mandarin effectively in that environment. We ended up switching him to one of the church-related daycares (Precious Blood down off XinHai Rd) where there was nothing bilingual at all, and he did fine there… with the caveat that this wasn’t really a Montessori environment… we chose not to overemphasize just that single aspect of his overall education.
Another thing to be aware of at Mrs. Lam’s - it’s really quite poor value for the money in terms of daycare. After the kids do their morning Montessori work and eat lunch, they make them take unusually long naps, then give them a snack and make the parents take them back by 4PM. The entire afternoon is a dead loss really… and we started having problems with my son’s schedule; he was sleeping so much at school that we couldn’t get him to bed until 10:30PM at night. Since they don’t even accept the kids until 8:30AM (vs. 7-7:30AM at most places) anybody who works for a living is completely screwed - the assumption seems to be that all the families will just send their Filipina domestic helpers to get the kids and take them back home.
Perhaps it’s just that campus, but you also get mixed up in some bizarre rich-people politics… I especially remember receiving notice from Mrs. Lam that only one parent (and especially NO FILIPINA MAIDS) would be permitted to attend the annual Christmas play… I am somewhat used to the way wealthy Taiwanese husbands & wives tend to live essentially separate lives, but it was off-putting to see this enforced in an educational context.
The school director at Mrs. Lam’s (Vivian) is quite good though; the situation may be be different at other campuses.
Yikes. What an experience.