Montessori or Preschool Villa Park

There are lots of books in the library or for sale on the topic of montessori. My favorite is : The Science of Montessori. Maria Montessori originally was working with children with disabilities but found that the methods used were universally applicable to children. The method does stress a certain amount of self directed activity and independence. In some senses it is a model in between an academic preschool versus completely play directed. The science of early childhood development doesn't support academic preschools - if you need a good synopsis of the science literature, "Einstein didn't use Flashcards" is a great book. If you become interested in montessori, there are two forms of accreditation: AMI and AMS. AMI is more rigorous. Some schools put montessori in their name and charge more but aren't really operating in the montessori method. One item that is up for some debate is montessori's larger class sizes. Advocates suggest this builds greater independence for the children. Others may suggest that children learn in a variety of ways and so having a lower ratio with more individualized attention is good.

I'm not sure what TCD is (sorry), but my son goes to Montessori Children's Academy in Villa Park. We have had many friends take their children there, and the place is wonderful. It's not a corporate type place (ie: fancy building, state of the art this and that), but the teachers are great, the director is wonderful and the children seem really happy. Tuition is very reasonable, especially for a Montessori school.

Our three kids have gone to the Growing Place too, and it is fabulous. Be sure to check it out.

We send our kids to the preschool within the Salt Creek school district (distict 48). It's off of route 83 across from Walmart. It is a four day a week program no matter what age. It is like a real school setting for them since it is in the elementary school, they have gym, art,music, library. They have a morning class from 8:30-11:30 and an afternoon class from 12:30-3:30. The teachers are fantastic. They are starting their registration right now. The phone number there is ###-###-####.

We considered a Montesorri program for our children. My mother and sister are both teachers at different grade levels (in different districts) and have both told us that kids who go into elementary school from a Montesorri program have a more of a difficult time when it comes to fitting into the structure of a school system.

They strongly recommended finding a preschool that offered a balance of teaching independence and learning at the child's own pace, combined with some structure to lessen the impact later on.

Just something to think about. Maybe talk with your elementary school system and see if they make a similar recommendation or if they're more accommodating or have seen problems.

We go to the Growing Place at Meyers and Madison and love it there. The teachers are great, the tuition is reasonable and my kids absolutely love going there. The other parents are great too and we get a lot of friends/playdates/birthday parties etc. PM me if you want more information on this school - their registration is the beginning of February.
As far as Montessori, I don't know why you'd want to go all the way to Wheaton if you live in Villa Park -- work there?? There are plenty of Montessori schools around here - in Villa Park, Elmhurst, Lombard. Also to pay a $250 fee without observing or deciding if that's the place for your child to go is absolutely ridiculous. I actually think to pay that high of a fee is ridiculous even if you wanted to send your child there. All places have a registration fee, but that seems excessively high. Anyway, we went to Oak Brook Montessori for one year in addition to The Growing Place. (on Summit just south of Roosevelt). I really didn't notice that she got anything more out of it than our regular school and it was 3 times as much money as our regular preschool for one less day. I don't think it was worth the extra money in my opinion. I also think that for our purposes - I really want my kids to go to preschool to learn and socialize - our montessori school wasn't the best choice for us - most of the kids enrolled were there all day (8a-6p) because both parents worked outside of the house -- so it was more like an education based day care. Because of that, it seemed like there wasn't any time for playdates etc. and we just didn't become friends with anyone there. For my daughter's 5th birthday we actually invited everyone from both schools -- everyone at the Growing Place came except 1, only 3 people from Montessori came and the others didn't even respond. I'm not saying they are all like that - but I also have friends who had kids in montessoris in wheaton and elmhurst and had the same experience.
If you do go the montessori route, know that all of them are independently owned and operated so they are all a little different - if you didn't get a good vibe at one of them, that doesn't mean that the montessori concept isn't for you - you can just try another one. I wouldn't be paying a fee at all of them though that's for sure. Go and observe and talk to the teachers and then try out another one. Only pay the fee at the school you choose to go to.
I have no idea what TCD is so I can't comment on that.