Montessori at home with love

Montessori Sandpaper Lettters

2009-02-12T15:17:00.000-08:00

These are the Montessori sandpapper letters. In Montessori, all 5 senses are used to learn all academic subjects. Sandpaper letters are used to engage the child's tactile senses to help the child associate the sounds of speech with there written symbols. This process forms the first preperation, not only for writting but for reading. As the child traces the letter, the child says the sound of the letter. Sandpapper letters are used in teaching print, and cursive.

Children at this age are very sensorial, or sense oriented. They love to move, touch, feel, and manipulate. This is a natural sensitive period for this age. The Montessori materials have this sensorial aspect integrated into each material.

What an amazing day, when the child himself realizes he can write. Without even knowing, he was being prepared for all the necessary movements for writting. As Maria Montessori states, "But the day will come when he will write, and that will be a day of great surprise for him, the wonderful harvest of an unknown sowing". How beautiful that the learning of a child is not forced, or placed upon him but naturally unviels itself as the child perfects himself in each activity.

The age for the sandpaper letters is 3-6 years of age. Christian is 6 years old. He is already writing and reading. He still loves to do the sandpaper letters. This work is out for his younger brother, Joshua to do. Christian had 1 year of formal Montessori education by a certified Montessori instructor.

Although, I have read alot of Maria Montessori's books and I have the Montessori curriculum and all the materials. I am not certified in the Montessori philosophy or use of the materials. I have defiantly made mistakes. As soon, or maybe before I give birth I would like to get my Montessori certification.

I learned something very interesting today about the importance of preperation in the Montessori approach as I was observing Joshua. I put the sandpaper letters out for Joshua, but I noticed he was having a very hard time following the lines of the letters. It was a great struggle. Christian at this age had no problems with this. So, why was Joshua having such a hard time . . . .

Answer - lack of preparation. Christian was prepared for this work, Joshua was not. Joshua is not adequately trained in the tactile, 2 finger approach with the other materials and does not have enough practice of following the curves of objects. There is a whole suite of other materials that use this 2 finger touch approach to work. The knobbed cylinders, the metal insets, the touch boards to name a few. These materials are very easy for the child to follow with the 2 finger approach and completely prepares them for following the complexity of the letter symbols.
(Side note - the 2 finger approach is using the first 2 fingers to touch. The use of 2 fingers increases the tactlie sensation.)

Remember, Montessori materials are designed to work off of eachother in a orderly manner. They all lead to success in the next material, when each material has been successfully mastered. If you rush to the next work or the child has not mastered the previous material, this sets them up for failure in the next work. Maria Montessori's philosophy is rooted in proper preparation which puts the child in position to experience success.

My mistakes - First, I taught the knobbed cylinders work without having Joshua use the 2 finger touch around each cylinder. I made this mistake in a few other works as well. On a good note, he is still in the sensorial stage. He still has natural motivation towards these materials. I will go back and re-model the materials the proper way, with the 2 finger touch. He will self-correct himself. This will give Joshua's fingers the practice of following curves of different shapes. Now, when we go back to the sandpaper letters, his fingers will have the proper strengthening and the control to follow the complexities of the letter symbols.

You see, When I introduced Joshua to the sandpaper letters work, it was way to difficult for him to do. It was confusing for his mind, he had to concentrate on too many new things. He had to work to get control of his fingers and work to follow the lines of the letters.

When Joshua has strengthened his 2 finger touch and has had many experiences of following the curves and lines of different objects, the sandpaper letters will be much easier to do. His fingers will be adequately prepared for the complexities of following the letter symbols and will be able to imitate with ease and pleasure.

Something to think about . . . . the importance of remote motor preparation for writing and to realize the immense strain which we impose upon children, when we set them to write directly without a previous motor education of the hand!

I talk to many kindergarten and early elementary teachers in the traditional model of education. I find that most of the teachers find there kindergartners not prepared for writing. They come from home, or preschool into kindergarten and there little hands are not prepared for the rigors of handwriting. Traditional schools have no motor preparation designed to strengthen there fingers. There fingers are tired. Handwriting becomes a tedious chore. Handwriting suffers in quality because there little hands are not prepared for this work. To make matters worse, generally speaking, by the time children at age 6 are going into kindergarten, they have already passed there sensitive period for writing. So, learning how to write is not something they are internally motivated to practice. It is the diffrence between work being enjoyable and work being cumbersome.

If at all possible, the goal is to present learning concepts to children when they have a natural inclination and motivation to learn. Maria Montessori refers to this natural inclination as the "sensitive periods of learning". When work is iniated by the child, great learning is possible. Learning is not experienced as a tedious chore but a grand adventure!

A beautiful day of art work!

2009-02-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

Dinosaur Fractions

2009-02-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

This is what we call "Dinosaur Fractions". Christian,(6 years of age) loves playing with his dinosaurs. Somehow as we were playing restaurant with the dinosaurs, there was a need to explain fractions. From this point on he always asks to play dinosaur fractions and now he really knows his fractions!!!

This was a natural approach to learning. It evolved out of our play. :)

Here is how it works - We start with one dinosaur in the restaurant. Another dinosaur approaches. We only have 1 sandwich in the restaurant. First we must count how many dinosaurs we have and then figure out how may parts we need to divide the sandwhich to feed the dinosaurs. We pass out the labeled fraction parts to the dinosaurs. We show how the individual fraction parts equal a whole and then clean up. In comes, the next dinosaur. Now instead of two dinosaurs we have 3 and it keeps going all the way up to 10 dinosaurs.

In the picture above, we had 4 dinosaurs in the restaurant. So, we had to divide the sandwich into 4 equal parts.
Here, you can see how we show that 4/4 equal one whole.

Here are all the other fraction parts we use. These are magnetic fractions. I'll have to remember where I bought them and I'll post it.

Montessori Metal Insets

2009-02-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

There are 10 geometrical shapes. The frame is one color and the inset is a diffrent color. The ten shapes are: rectangle, triangle, curvilinear triangle, circle and ellipse on the top rack. On the bottom rack is the quatrefoil, pentagon, square, trapezium and the oval. Some, might find it strange that young children are being introduced to some advanced geometric shapes.

Although the direct aim is preparation for handwriting, the children are being introduced to shapes that they eventually will have to learn anyway. Instead of using silly shapes or designs, Maria Montessori is always thinking ahead! Children love to draw. They are preparing there little hands for the complexities of handwriting and learning geometric shapes!

The general age for this work is between 3-6. (Joshua will be 3 in May)

The aim of this work is to help the child acquire proficiency in using a writting instrument, including lightness of touch, evenness of pressure, continuity of line, control of line, and familiarity with the curves and angles found in letters.

To pick up the inset out of its holder requires the "pincer grip". A lot of the Montessori materials used in the 3-6 classroom, utilize this pincer grip. The child, without even knowing it, is strengthening and preparing there little hands for future handwriting. In traditional schools, children complain that there hands hurt while practicing printing or children's handwriting is poor because their little hands are not adequately prepared for this type of work. You will find with Montessori, that each work prepares the child for the next work.

Joshua is holding the pencil a little too high.
I gave him the first presentation of this work today. In Montessori, you never correct, you observe the child. I noted the observation and I will model the work again or he will see his brother doing this work and he will self-correct himself. If I correct him, I will disturb his train of thought, I will also crush his confidence in doing things himself. I will also teach him to look to me to see if he is doing it right. I can actually cultivate a need for approval. I want him to experience the joy of his work and to give him the opportunity to develop the self confidence of knowing himself if he is doing it right.

Keep in mind, the child does an activity for the joy and satisfaction of it, not to please the adult or for the adults approval . . .We must be lovingly careful not to interfere with praise and or criticism. Just observe the work, ask questions about the work.

I know it is hard and it sounds strange. It was a difficult change for my husband and myself.

Montessori homeschooling resources

2009-02-08T18:14:00.000-08:00

Lisa Nolan Montessori - I have used her Montessori activities. Great for a beginning Montessori mom!

Former Montessori teacher.
Designed for parents, homeschoolers & teachers who want to incorporate Montessori into their home, classroom, or daycare setting. These activities are easy to download & save to your computer. The programs and activities are homeschool friendly.
Lisa is happy to give email consulting to parents and guardians who want to teach Montessori at home or as an addition to their other curricula.

http://http//www.montessorifortheearth.com/

Montessori teacher with Montessori lessons on video and many pdf files for your use for home!
http://www.montessorimaterials.org/

Montessori teacher who offers all of her pdf files for a minimum price. I use her pdf files!
http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/

What is Montessori Education

2009-02-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

“And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.”

Dr. Maria Montessori: The Absorbent Mind

A Montessori education is designed to take advantage of sensitive periods between the ages of 3 to 6, when the child is most able to absorb information from his environment. Although Montessori education focus on the sensitive periods in childhood, especially early childhood, very early learning is neither the norm nor the objective in the Montessori philosophy. Montessori philosophy also continues in the upper elementary, being 6 to 9, 9-12, and 12-18. Education always flows from the concrete to the abstract in each area. This is a very organized way of learning.(much easier to).There are distinct areas in the Montessori room. The room is divided into a Practical life area, Sensorial, Geography, Mathematics, Language, Music and Art areas. I'll go into these areas in more detail in a later post.

Dr. Montessori spoke of 4 Planes of Development: birth to 6; 6 to 12; 12 to 18; and 18 to 24. During the First Plane the child incarnates the immediate environment; during the Second Plane, the child uses his creative imagination based on reality in order to psychologically conquer the world. Two sensitive periods during the Second Plane were discussed by Dr. Montessori: imagination and abstraction.

Maria Montessori developed materials based on each sensitive period. These materials are called the didactic apparatus. These materials were used with children all over the world and the children naturally gravitated to these materials on their own. The children worked with these materials with great concentration not usually seen. The reason children gravitated towards these materials and were able to work with such intense interest was because they were constructed around the children's natural inclinations or sensitive periods for that age.

HOW DOES MONTESSORI WORK?

Each Montessori class, from toddlers through high school, operates on the principle of freedom within limits. Every program has its set of ground rules which differs from age to age, but is always based on core Montessori beliefs-respect for each other and for the environment.
Children are free to work at their own pace with materials they have chosen, either alone or with others. The teacher relies on his or her observations of the children to determine which new activities and materials he may introduce to an individual child or to a small or large group. The aim is to encourage active, self-directed learning and to strike a balance of individual mastery with small group collaboration within the whole group community.

The three-year-age span in each class provides a family-like grouping where learning can take place naturally. More experienced children share what they have learned while reinforcing their own learning. Because this peer group learning is intrinsic to Montessori, there is often more conversation-language experiences-in the Montessori classroom than in conventional early education settings.

MONTESSORI PHILOSOPHY-

The Montessori method of teaching is founded on the premise that all young children pass through a well-defined sequence of steps to maturity, but at different rates of growth and in different ways. Growth is as individual as each child. Advancement within a child varies from skill to skill. Presented with the proper instruments and direction, however, a child's curiosity and eagerness to comprehend the world will motivate him/her to move from mastery to one task to another with tenacity seldom seen in adults.

The Montessori philosophy believes that before children can take advantage of a good education, they need to know how to learn. We need to train the senses in order to perceive and acquire knowledge through experience. Only then can we aid children in the development of basic skills and the ability to judge, think and create. The child is introduced to the joy of learning by providing a framework in which intellectual and social discipline can develop. When children learn how to think and reason, they can give intelligent responses.

MONTESSORI EDUCATION -

Montessori Education is both a philosophy of child development and a rationale for quality in that development. The special method, named for the Italian physician Maria Montessori, stresses the importance of the development of a healthy self-concept. Education, she believed, is a preparation for life, not merely a search for intellectual skills. The child has one intuitive aim - his self development. Maria Montessori has said" The child works to perfect himself, while the adult works to perfect his environment." He desperately wants to develop his inner resources and his ability to cope with a strange, complex world. The child who accomplishes this moves into harmony with his world and becomes a full person. The Montessori method pursues the fact that the mind of the very young child is absorbent and thus the environment should be prepared carefully to train his senses, to stimulate his curiosity, to satisfy his need to know and to protect him from unnecessary failure. Montessori's philosophy and psychological principles led her to devise carefully graded series of self-teaching devices that are now commonly accepted and supported by current research.

MONTESSORI ENVIRONMENT-

Each Montessori school provides a precisely prepared Montessori environment which fosters satifaction in learning by discovery and a joy in achievemet. The climate and selected activities are prepared to interest and motivate the child and to protect him from unnecessary failure.

All Montessori materials are self correcting. The montessori guide or teacher never corrects, she only observes and continually models the propper way through lessons. In the Montessori environment you will not see correction or praise. The child does an activity for the joy and satisfaction of it, not to please the adult or for the adults approval. We must be lovingly careful not to interfere with praise and or criticism. Just observe the work, ask questions about the work. If we are not careful, we can cultivate the need for approval. The child must be free to experience the joy of the work for himself not because we like it. He must be allowed the opportunity to learn how to confidently discern himself whether a work is right or wrong.

The Montessori materials develop basic problem solving and observational techniques. The child begins in the concrete and manipulative materials and gradually works toward the abstract. Montessori's recognition of the importance of a stimulating environment as a means of "freeing the child's potential" is now supported by a multitude of studies in early learning. The classroom is equipped with specially designed and sequenced materials which Dr. Montessori devised. These materials, together with highly trained and administrators, provide a classroom where the child is stimulated and challenged, but never pressured. In such a climate the child learns to feel good about himself. His right to dignity and worth are protected.

*Some excerpts in the above passage taken from The Montesssori group*

Additional Resources for further study of the Montessori Philosophy

http://www.montessori.org/sitefiles/Montessori_101_nonprintable.pdf

Christian's Creative Thinking

2009-02-03T19:12:00.000-08:00

I was pretty impressed with this game Christian thought of. He called this game, letter rocket. The picture is pretty dark so I will explain. He has a rubber ball secured to a string, which he put in between the railings. The other end, hanging down has a cube with letters on each side.

Christian would pull down this string and the cube would bounce up high and then come down. It was like a bungee cord. When the cube stopped moving it would land on a letter.

What ever letter it landed on, we had to find objects in the house that begin with that letter.

Love the creative ideas!!!!!!

Here is another activity Christian and I developed together. One of us would draw pictures of different shapes and the other person had to draw a picture using all of those shapes.

We had a blast and came up with some really neat pictures!

Multiplication with the golden bead material

2009-02-03T18:59:00.000-08:00

This is the Montessori golden bead material. It is composed of thousand cubes, 100 squares, 10 bars and units. The age for this work is 3-6 years.

We have already learned, how to exchange quantities, addition and subtraction. Here we are learning about multiplication. This is a visual representation of adding a number 3 times. This work gives the child a visual and hands on understanding of what multiplication looks like.

Multiplication is adding a number a series of times.

The picture you are seeing is pretty much the end of the work. In the beginning he had 3 horizontal rows of 1,232 laid out with the corresponding bead material. In the photo above, he has already combined all three 1,232 and is now calculating the answer, by counting the units first, then the tens, the hundreds, and the thousands. He will make the answer with the number cards and place it under the white bar.

The Montessori method to teach math is wonderful. Math is such an abstract thought. Much of the time when I was in school, I really did not have a visual understanding of many of the mathematical concepts I was taught. I memorized formulas and plugged in the numbers, but what did it really mean? What was I actually doing? This did not give me a solid foundation in mathematical concepts and hindered my progression in higher mathematics. Montessori math gives children a visual understanding early. They can really internalize mathematical concepts and in turn gain a great foundation in mathematical concepts.

The journey of Mathematics starts with concrete materials that lead to abstract understandings. Montessori Math materials provide many opportunities to experience number as quantity and measurement. Counting shells, objects and rods of graduating lengths gives the child a sensorial "feel' for numerical properties. Sandpaper numerals are presented for the child to trace and form a "muscle memory" for later writing of that numeral. When the child has mastered the concepts of `1-9, the decimal system can be introduced concretely by use of the golden bead material. Beautiful, hand made glass beads represent units, tens , hundreds and thousands. The child can construct 4 digit numbers using these materials in the Bank Game. They build quantities and match the symbols (numerals) to them. We do not expect children of this age to be proficient in 4 digit numbers, that is not the goal of these exercises. It is to form a foundation for future learning. Anything experienced concretely at this age will stay with your child. When they are in third or fourth grade and these concepts are presented in a abstract way, this early contact will be recollected and lead to mastery.

Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division are also introduced in a concrete manner. The child can experience the action of these processes e.g. addition is putting things together, subtraction, taking things away. In like manner, fractions are handled and understood. Long and short bead chains are counted introducing skip counting, preparation for multiplication. These chains are based on the square and cube of numbers, indirectly preparing them for future learning. Math in a Montessori classroom is dynamic and enjoyable, a first choice of many of the students.

Montessori students use hands-on learning materials that make abstract concepts clear and concrete. This approach to learning offers a clear and logical strategy for helping students understand and develop a solid foundation in mathematics.

Resource: Gettman, D., 1987. Basic Montessori: Learning Activities for Under-Fives. St. Martin's Press, New York, 159.

Here is a article on Montessori Math ages 3 to 6 - http://www.michaelolaf.net/1CW36math.html

Continent Mobile

2009-02-03T17:58:00.000-08:00

Christian is tracing all 7 continents using the Montessori Maps we purchased at Alison Montessori.
https://www.alisonsmontessori.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=montessori+map

We are going to color them in, label them and then laminate them.
Then we are going to construct a hanging mobile.

We will continue working on this all week! I'll post pictures of the mobiles when we have completed them! :)

Dinosaur Dig

2009-02-03T17:10:00.000-08:00

We received this dinosaur dig activity for Christmas. This is the coolest activity for kids. Christian and Joshua have been digging for dinosaur bones for months now. Thank you Aunt Heidi and Uncle Paul.

With this work, the boys get safety goggles and real excavation tools. You chip away at the minni pebbles looking for signs of dinosaur bones. Then you must brush away the pebbles.

We have found all of the bones except for one facial bone.

Christian is constructing the dinosaur.

Experiment with colors

2009-02-03T16:52:00.000-08:00

Today Joshus wanted to work withthe color tablets and test tubes.
Joshua first placed the individual test tubes into the test tube rack. Then he fills up each test tube with water. Next, Joshua places 1 color tablet in each test tube. As you can see in the next picture, the color tablets fizz into the water. This is a great way to learn colors and to also learn what happens when we combine certain colors.

The test tubes, the test tube rack and the color tablets, I bought from Steve Spangler Science -http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/1618

Steve Spangler science is a wonderful company. Steve was formally a science teacher. He left teaching science due to the obstacles the educational system puts on teachers. Out of his passion for teaching science to children ,he created a company that sells all sorts of cool, kid oriented science experiments. I have bought a lot from Steve Spangler Science and never have been disappointed!

In a previous post, Christian used a color mixing pitcher from Steve Spangler Science. Christian learned a great deal about combining colors with this pitcher.
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/1805

In this photo you can see the color tablets at the bottom of the test tubes. We love Steve Spangler Science!!! http://http//www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/1156

More Fun with salt and water

2009-02-03T16:11:00.000-08:00

Christian decided to make under water volcano's with salt. This summer we did a volcano lapbook. In our lapbook we put together a page of different types of volcanoes. Underwater volcano's were one of the volcano's we studied. I'll have to post pictures of our volcano lapbook. If you are interested in learning about lapbooking for children here is a great website. http://www.lapbooklessons.com/

Christian added a crater to the top of the volcano.

Rocks around the perimeter and color tablets to resemble lava flowing out onto the ground.

Salt & Water Experiments

2009-02-03T15:51:00.000-08:00

In this experiment the boys observed that the salt in small amounts absorbs the water on the plate right away. The salt was neat to look at under the magnifying glass.

We also measured water in measuring cups and added specific amount of salt in a 2 different containers. This time we used a lot of water .We put one container in a very warm area and one container in a colder area. We are going to see how long it takes the salt to absorb the water or maybe the salt won't absorb the water at all.??????

The boys love science. We do a lot of science projects. After we complete the science project the boys are free to explore in any way they would like to. This often leads to a fun research project or even another science experiment.

The best part of all of this is - the boys are learning to love and enjoy learning. This love of learning is nurtured because most of the time we are learning about things that interest them. When learning is motivated by there individual interest we are able to go into greater depths.

The amazing power of a Montessori education

2009-02-02T20:02:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I was reading one of my blogs and came across this article about the power of a Montessori education and I wanted everyone to see it! This women's son did this work at home after watching a child receive a lesson on it at Montessori school. First thought that comes to mind, is the power of modeling. Second, the Montessori classroom is such a inspiring place for a child. Every child is doing something different, they are not all doing the same thing.

Great article!

http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/my_montessori_journey/2009/01/the-amazing-power-of-a-montessori-education.html

Some of you may be wondering What is Montessori anyway? I'll answer that question tommorrow!

Peace be with you and make your days great!

Teresa

What is Montessori -

Here is a great article about the Montessori philosphy. It is a long article.

http://www.montessori.org/sitefiles/Montessori_101_nonprintable.pdf

February 2 2009

2009-02-02T17:45:00.000-08:00

Today we played, did our "lessons" and visited Cousin Michael and Marissa!

Here we are visting cousin Marissa and cousinn Michael.

Joshua likes to spin the earth slowly on the table. As the earth spins, christian is reading a book!

Christian is painting!

Joshua is looking at the pictures in the North America minni book.

Joshua has learned where North America is on the globe. He likes to show me and say "I live here".

Christian is doing some cleaning work!

Joshua is working on his pattern boards. He made a butterfly.

Today we did an experiment with cornstarch and water. We are learning that certain types of matter can be a liquid and a solid at diffrent times. Cornstarch gets very hard and sticky as you add water.

very sticky . . .

Christian is playing in the rice bin and Joshua is building a truck with his alphabet lego blocks.

Science Museum - Making Sail Boats

2009-01-29T19:23:00.001-08:00

This room is called "Connections". It is filled with stations for exploratory work. We settled in with making sailboats and sailing them for about an hour. What fun. There is a big fan at the end of the water channel. We learned that the strength of the wind and the shape of the sail affects how fast the sailboat would go.

When learning is fun and iniitated by the child much learning occurs. Priceless learning moments . . . . .

Science Museum - Exploratory Room

2009-01-29T19:03:00.000-08:00

Tree Slide. Joshua and Christian loved going down this slide on their bellies!

This is super cool. The boys can construct any type of structure they want. This one was already built. Christian modified it slightly, so they could actually go inside it. They wanted it to be a helicopter. Joshua is the pilot and Christian is building the propeller on top.

Joshua is using the microscope looking at different specimen slides.

This is a sensory table filled with sand and buried dinosaurs.

Here is one of the exploratory rooms. Christian is working with a labyrinth puzzle.

Science Museum - More Vertebrates

2009-01-29T18:59:00.001-08:00

More fun with Robots

2009-01-29T18:41:00.000-08:00

Robotic Experiment

2009-01-29T18:34:00.000-08:00

Christian's Robot is a floor washing robot. Water comes out of the pipe at a high amount of pressure which would clean the floor.

Here we are trying to figure out a way to create enough pressure to push the water up. We thought about combining vinegar and baking soda. After I though about this I thought we better wait for my husband to get home. I was thinking this could be a possible I love Lucy episode! :)

For now, he had fun tipping the bottle upside down and watching the water flow out of the pipe.

When Jeff got home they tried the baking soda and vinegar. This reaction did not create enough pressure. If anyone has any ideas, please leave a comment below!

Science Museum

2009-01-29T18:32:00.000-08:00

Here we are at the Science Museum. We had so much fun. The boys are still talking about our day. The museum had alot of open ended, creative and exploratory play. This is our kind of place.

This is a room dedicated to vertebrates. How they preserved these animals is amazing!

My Two Robots

2009-01-29T18:26:00.000-08:00

The boys constructed robotic shells made out of cardboard. The robotics did all kinds of work. They cleaned, organized and calculated inventory of books, dvd's and vcr tapes!

The Robots

2009-01-29T18:23:00.000-08:00

Robot work

2009-01-29T18:17:00.001-08:00

Boys working on their robots!

Robot Fun

2009-01-29T18:03:00.000-08:00

Everyday, I strive to educate towards the boys interests. The majority of our day is spent nurturing there own interests. I let our day naturally evolve. Sometimes we tackle many different areas of study and sometimes we stick to just one. It all depends on them. At some point, usually late afternoon we have about an hour to do what we call "lessons". Each day we focus on one of the main subject areas and they can choose from activities in there subject area.

Wednesday we had a totally Robotic day!!! All day we played robots. They had a blast. We incorporated math, reading and science into our fun filled day without them even realizing.

The other day, we watched a program called, How things work on TV. We learned how toothpicks are manufactured, how a helicopter is constructed and how plastic toys are constructed. All throughout the show we noticed many robotic machines being used. The boys loved this. I found a box of unused pipes and stuff and recalled a article I found in family magazine about making robots. I mentioned it to the boys and they loved the idea.

January 18 2008

2009-01-19T21:18:00.000-08:00

Moments at work 2007 - continued again

2009-01-19T20:41:00.001-08:00

Moments at work 2007 - continued

2009-01-19T10:34:00.001-08:00

In December of 2007, christian drew this boat on a dry erase board. We enjoy drawing. I taught the boys to just look for shapes in what ever it is that you want to draw. It has been working great.

This is a lap book I made on the Montessori 6 Kingdom charts. I used Velcro and pictures I laminated. I will be adding a pdf file for this work soon and some better pictures.

This is Joshua in December of 2007. I bought some frogs at the dollar store. Joshua loves to match the frogs by color. He also enjoys placing them in a strait line and carrying the frogs in a basket.

In December of 2007, the boys are separating the colored erasers into categories.

In November of 2007 Joshua drew this picture and then said "Mama angel". Joshua is 2 and every so often he will draw a very advanced picture for only being 2. His favorite color is red. Joshua as well as Christian love to write and draw with the dry erase board. I only recently allowed them to use dry erase after I establish a proper "pincer grip" with pencils only. The dry erase markers are very bulky to hold and if a pincer grip is not established, it can deter the child from a proper grasp.

In November 2007, Joshua is working with the Montessori thousand cubes. He enjoys stacking them. This work is for Christain to learn the decimal system. Whatever christian works on, Joshua wants to work on also. I don't see a problem with this ,as the first part of learning the decimal system is being able to visually distinguish between the unit bead, 10 bar, 100 square, and thousand cube. So, he is being accustomed to these and learning these every time he stacks them

Again the Montessori method works within the child's interest. It is the interest that makes learning fun and when learning is fun it tends to be much easier than when it is forced. If it is forced and child shows no interest, learning becomes tedious and not enjoyable.

In November of 2007 we had a cotton ball bowing game. This was fun. We blew thru the straws and then measured each of our distances with our animal measuring tapes!

In November of 2007, I bought these little erasers at the dollar store in packages of 100. The boys love these! We bought ladybugs, turtles, crabs, flowers and so many more. We use the erasers to count with, to separate into categories , make up stories and make random piles and guess the amount.

November 2007 - Joshua is very interested in any type of matching work. He is playing memory by himself. I created a variety of matching work. I created a continents of the world matching work, animals matching work, and construction trucks matching work.

In October 2007, Our microscope broke. I thought this would be a great learning opportunity to take a part the microscope and put it back together. Christian really enjoyed unscrewing all the parts, seeing how each part affected each other, and putting it back together. He did put the microscope back together successfully. Boys seem to enjoy the process of taking things apart. So, this seems to be a a work they enjoy greatly. I can certainly bring out old toys or objects from the goodwill that they can take apart and put back together!

In September of 2007, Christian did some bug research work I called "What Am I". He had his own basket of bug research books and had to figure out the name of each bug and write it down. After he figured out what each bug was and wrote it down on paper, we constructed a "What Am I " bug book!

These are the Montessori landforms and a landforms minni book we made. The tupperware containers contain a playdough representation of each landform. The Strait and Isthmus.

In September of 2007, Joshua is doing a color work I created. I filled a papermache container from Michaels with colored pom poms. He has to fill each glass container with one of the colors.

This work also strengthened his finger muscles by taking each top on and off. This work also satisfies his enjoyment of dumping, which is

Moments at work 2007

2009-01-18T20:53:00.000-08:00

Here are the boys last year. We had so much fun. It is such a blessing and a privilege to observe their learning moments.

This is the demo tank. We use this for all sorts of different activities. Here we are creating different shades and hues of colors. Watching how colors affect each other.

Using wiki stick to interpret with art a picture of a volcano.

Last year Joshua loved any type of "pouring work". he also enjoyed tasting the water out of different colored cups. Maybe he thought it would taste different?

Mixing bubbles and water and washing the table with Minni scrub brushes.

Joshua loved and still loves to wash fruit and eat it up!!

Smashing and mixing egg shells.

Yum pizza.

Matching phonetic word to pictures. Wow, how far he has advanced since last summer. Thanks to the Montessori systematic approach to reading!

matching numbers on the Montessori 100 board.

One of Christian's favorite things to do! Ride his "HOT Wheels".

The brothers playing in the backyard!

Working on the Montessori map of the U.S.

Matching work.

Mixing colors and placing colors in minni plastic cylinders using a eye dropper. Christian enjoyed this work. He used different colors and created a

cool art piece!

Mixing colors and poring into test tubes.

Water colors with their cousin Michael.

Painting on canvas with roller.

Matching picture puzzles.

Welcome to our Montessori journey

2009-01-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

Here is a collection of the beginning of our Montessori journey at home. Our son, Christian attended Montessori preschool for 1 year at age 4. We absolutely loved it!! We were so impressed with the level of concentration and interest the children had in their work. The children were allowed to do and enjoyed immensely, adult like tasks. The children executed these adult like tasks with such precision. The children in this room were independent, motivated learners. They had the freedom to chose work they were interested in. If this interest lasted for days, then they were allowed to continue and delve into greater depths of knowledge in this area. We loved Montessori soooooooo much it began a passionate study of Maria Montessori, other childhood educators and why our childhood education was so different. I'll get into more about these things a little later. Right now, I am eager to get my blog started and to post these precious pictures of Christian and Joshua immersed in "their work".

What I have learned . . . . If you quite yourself and observe your children, they will show you what excites and interests them and then it's "our work" to "prepare the environment" with activities to foster and encourage there individual interest. Where there is great interest, there is great learning. Learning then becomes fun and not a tedious chore!

I absolutely love my days with my boys.