Montessori school gave our daughter a great start. We still switched to a public school for first grade.

The author's daughter went to a Montessori school until first grade. aire images/Getty Images Our daughter attended a Montessori school for preschool and kindergarten.

Getting a Montessori education was great for her, but we still switched to public school.

While there are some things about it I don't love, it was the right choice for our family.

Kindergarten — a monumental milestone in childhood — was a dream year for our daughter.

She won the lottery to attend a public Montessori charter school , a schooling option we felt lucky to have in our small mountain city.

She had attended a private Montessori preschool, and so we applied to the charter, thinking it'd be nice if she could have the "capstone experience" of a primary Montessori classroom (ages 3-6) — and for free, at that.

So when our older daughter won the presumably prized golden ticket and the ability to continue a Montessori education , we were elated.

There were plenty of benefits to her time at Montessori schools The benefits were abundant: she learned to read, write, and perform fundamental math (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division).

She grew socially and emotionally by being a class leader and role model — she became the "big kid" in the multi-age classroom.

She regularly gave lessons to the younger kids and took on more classroom responsibilities .

But as we started connecting more with our neighbors who have kids in public schools, we began to wonder whether a "traditional" school experience would be a better fit for our family.

However, we were still interested in checking out a public school After her kindergarten year came to a close, we decided to tour the nearby elementary school to get a feel for the differences and to follow our curiosity.

Our daughter's eyes were opened to new, exciting possibilities: a larger rotation of specials that included art, P.E., music, global studies, social-emotional learning, and library; several outdoor playscapes; a cafeteria; and the novelty and delight of riding a big, yellow school bus with the other neighborhood kids.

And we saw convenience (the school was closer to our home), more resources (the school had a wider network of community partners), and an opportunity to deepen our own community (most families lived in the same area of town as us).