Columbia Montessori School 10508 Marble Faun Lane, Columbia, MD 21044

"Hidden gem! We visited so many places and were blessed to stumble upon this amazing school. Our older son has been attending for almost 2 years now and is academically far ahead of what’s expected for the age group because of their preparation. We love it and plan to bring our younger son when he’s old enough to start. Teachers are loving but structured and provide a warm, safe, and nurturing learning environment - everything you’d want. Our expectations were and continue to be exceeded here."

"We are happy with this school. my daughter is doing well in her class. I can't ask for more."

"Our daughter has been at CMS for about a year and a half and we are thrilled with the quality of education, care, and support she and we receive. All of her teachers have been warm, attentive, and deeply passionate about their work with the children. She is more confident and outgoing than she was before coming to CMS and her academic progress (which I'm not really that focused on) has been tremendous. Hey creativity has blossomed along with her social skills. Coming in, I was a little nervous about the shift (she was at a play based home daycare previously), but she is really thriving at CMS. We feel very lucky to have found such a supportive school and community."

"My two and a half year old attended school here for almost five months before we pulled him out of the program. After a few months off attendance my nearly three year old stopped napping. It was strange because he napped at home but than did not nap at school. The school had a big issue with him not wanting to nap and not wanting to sit still on a mat during nap time (what 2 year old will sit still for 45 min?!) I came to find out that the 2-3 year old class had the only bathroom in this small school as well as the only fridge. During nap time the kids in the other two rooms would come into the 2-3 year old classroom to use the bathroom and the teachers would come in to get their lunch from the fridge and use the small kitchen. The classroom is one big open room and my child would get distracted at the busy traffic in and out of the room during nap time and not want to sleep. What kind of school puts their most vulnerable age group ,which is expected to sleep, in the busiest classroom during naptime? Me and my husband were concerned, as we had committed to being members of this school. We were confused because our son had several really good months here and then all of a sudden was deemed as the problem child. Every day we came to pick up our son from school we were told by the main teacher, Edvina, that our son had not done well. That he was a disruption. "He did not have a good day today." This was all delivered to us with our son standing right next to us. So for several weeks our son heard nothing but negative reinforcement. Our son stopped wanting to go to school and started frequently saying things like "I don't like school." This really upset us and we noticed a difference in his behavior at home. The final straw came when I met with Edvina and Maria after three weeks of our son not napping. A week prior to this last meeting I sat in the main office and was told by Edvina that our son was doing really great in the mornings. She said that he only became a disturbance at naptime and in the afternoons when he was tired from not napping. During this last meeting me and my husband were surprised when Maria told us that she believed the program was not a good fit for our son and that he either had to disenroll or drop down to half days and be picked up before naptime. Me and my husband both work full time and to figure out a way to pick our son up from school at noon everyday was incredibly stressful. We finally got the support and help we needed from our parents to make half days work. I called Maria the day before our son's new half day schedule was to start just to clarify what time he needed to be picked up. It came as a complete shock when Maria informed us, for the first time ever, that our son was going to be placed on a two week half day "trail." I was really confused as to what this meant. Contrary to what Edvina had reported, Maria informed us that our son was not behaving well in the mornings and that after two weeks they would decide if he could continue to attend. Again, this came as a huge shock.I had spoken to length with Edvina, his primary teacher, just the week before about how well our son was doing in the mornings. Why was Maria, who I rarely saw in the classrooms, saying our son was not doing well in the mornings? Why did he need to be placed on a two week trial? At this moment I lost trust in Maria, Edvina, and Columbia Montessori school at large. We immediately withdrew him. It created a lot of stress in our family as we scrambled to find a replacement school program. I spent several months extensively researching schools in Columbia and Ellicott city and realized that this type of inconsiderate and sloppy practice is not common. Most schools expect 2-3 year olds to not want to sleep, to occasionally be disruptive, to be fussy, etc. They have solutions. For a school that prides itself on 30 years of experience it is lacking greatly. Good communication, trust, support, positive reinforcement, creativity in problem solving to name a few."