L ROBERT ALLEN MONTESSORI CTR

L Robert Allen Montessori Center is Chaminade University's lab school.  Located at the top of the campus, the school yard, while compact, provides an expansive view of Honolulu and Diamond Head.  It receives cross winds and so stays cool during the day.  With no air conditioning, this is important... the kids are not just sweating through the afternoons.  Our daughter attended from September 2008 until June 2009 when she turned 6.  We had her enrolled in our local public school for the first month of her kindergarten, and she had a terrible time adjusting.  While the public school preached about how important individual learning styles were, how the school was supportive of diversity, how it embraced parent involvement, the reality was much different and we had to act quickly.  We discovered Chaminade's lab school (L Robert Allen Montessori Center), kind of by accident, which is ironic because we both work at Chaminade (in fairness, we had just started).  How quickly the staff, from the student interns to the full time teachers and the wonderfully patient director, assessed our daughter's strengths and weaknesses, taking a long view on her development as a student and as a person.  Where the public school moved quickly to brand her (publicly, I might add) as a difficult child, the staff supported her as she learned to better work with other kids, how to transition from one task to another, how to follow directions.  We are now experienced "Montessori parents," and the L Robert Allen style of Montessori remains are absolute favorite.  Our only regret is that they don't have an elementary program. That said, the school needs some updating.   I wish that the school had a better location, more space for the kids. The school is located in the same building as a college dorm; although it is well separated, it is still off-putting.  The playground needs work. It is for these reasons that I gave the school a "B" for quality.  We work for Chaminade University, however, the L Robert Allen School is managed separately from the University and we have nothing to do with its management.  We are providing this review now because of our additional time and perspective with other Montessori programs.