Montessori Elementary Homeschool Blog - with documentation of our infant Montessori, toddler Montessori, and primary Montessori experiences; as well as preparation for the upcoming adolescent Montessori homeschool years.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Child-created Materials

Here is an example of what I mean about the children creating their own materials - we adults do NOT need to kill ourselves making everything FOR the child - especially the elementary child.

power switch
(crop image for "safety lock")

Earlier this week, I allowed my son to use our new video camera to experiment with - take some nature pictures and the like - he's been working on a nature book and we were at Grandma and Papa's home, with 60 acres of land at his disposal. I thought he could take some pictures of some things he'd seen on the property. He didn't get far on the nature book because of the new technology in his hands. He's really been working at perfecting his photography skills (the video camera takes stills too), getting interesting angles, working on lighting and such.

Today, we're not officially back to doing school again - but our Montessori way has allowed learning to take place anytime. We've also not entirely cleaned up from our trip away from home; and the old scroll saw (it's dead; it had been in my car trunk before we left; then placed in our living room while we were gone) is still sitting in our living room.

My son decided to make a "Parts of the Saw" booklet for our co-op class. And away he went.

He will organize the photos (with me) in a file, with the titles (he will type it in) and we'll print them out and make a booklet. I am with him, guiding him, but it is he who is looking at the object, noticing the details, deciding what is important, discussing with me any areas of disagreement, coming up with a definition or using resources (yes, I count as a resource) for finding a definition; organizational skills; leadership (he will present the work to the younger children so that he catches his own errors or just finds something that could be explained with more detail or less detail). This is HIS experience, HIS learning, HIS growth.

And I'm right here with him, enjoying the journey, but respecting his space to explore and discover for himself.

He's only missing the blade ;)




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