Moving to Boston - need help with choosing pre-K school (Newton: new home, private school)

[pr2002]

We will be moving to Boston in a month with our active and bright 4-year-old. We will be living around Newton Center. Our daughter has been in a small private school which she loves. She is highly social and a quick learner. She is on the verge of reading independently, and we'd like to make sure she continues to be stimulated. We've identified a couple of schools that seem promising - Newton Montessori is very close to our new home so that is a big plus. We also visited the Atrium in Watertown which we loved and thought was fairly similar to her current school, but the big downside is a 20-30 minute commute each way which is not great and logistically challenging for us to pull off. We did visit Brimmer & May but were not particularly impressed. Someone told us that Walnut Park Montessori is pretty good, but we are looking for a non-denominational experience (they are Catholic-based). In terms of kindergarten next year we will most likely send her to Mason-Rice which we hear good things of.

So I have two questions:

- Are there any other schools in Newton we should consider?
- Are there any parents out there with any reviews of Newton Montessori - good or bad? Looking for personal experiences and any insight on whether it would be a good fit for our child.


Thanks very much in advance for any help/advice.

[Scriptkitten]

my best friend's daughter goes to newton montessori and they've had a great experience.