A Day in the Life of a Montessori Homeschool Boy

Our days have been looking more unschoolish as Legoboy gets older. Not just unschoolish - but more "practical". Like making popcorn - daily. ;)

Some previous "Life in the Montessori Homeschool" posts - just a sampling of what Montessori life can look like:


Final Upper Elementary Work Plan

LegoBoy's Doings: June 2015

Montessori Homeschooling Week - February 2015 - this post has the links for each day of the week

A Week in the Life of Legoboy 2014 - this post has the links for each day of the week

A Day in the Life of Legoboy

Elementary - Sample of Our Day - 2012 - towards end of lower elementary

Tacklebox Montessori

Just a sampling of the tackleboxes used in our Montessori homeschooling...

Inspiration by Ms. Suzanne over at Livable Learning and Teaching from a Tacklebox.


As I go through each chapter of each elementary album, I am updating, refreshing, cleaning out and re-posting all of our materials - providing downloads of all that is possible, posting images of organizations, etc. I am really striving to streamline the process for Montessori elementary homeschoolers.

For the fun of it, here is some for everyone!


Retiring the old fractions box... It has served us well, but after 3 children sitting on it.... well, it was time for something that has a lid ;)

Plano 3750

The new one - with space for sample fraction problems.
If you make these pieces, please use red (the unit broken into pieces). NOT yellow ;) 

The box needed for the numeration chapter (early math). We call it a numbers/operations box. I would like to call it the Numeration Box because we have a separate box for the actual Operations chapter, but this one has the operation signs, fractions, decimals, etc.

Plano 3700

Operations Box

Holds the bank game, guides to create a child's own problems, stone for group division and more.
This is also a Plano 3700 

Not a tacklebox - but how we store our decimal system cards from primary - materials that are used into elementary and a bit into adolescence.

We also have a Plano 3500 for the Notation of Squares and Notation of Cubes.

And a Plano 3700 for our geography stamps.

Grammar Boxes in Action

Montessori Grammar boxes in action in a home setting - no particular order :)

Our original storage: Each filer box contents in an envelope; all envelopes stored in a larger envelope. Command cards and any additional exercises in their own envelopes (commands cards are paperclipped into smaller groups inside the envelope). All envelopes stored in a mail holder or small basket next to the grammar box. Takes up FAR less space ;)
Would prefer plastic pouches. 

Introducing grammar box 2 - before introducing the name of the part of speech. 

Symbolizing with the grammar symbols. Not a color match because the cards are different colors! 

Legos come in handy. 

And we take a creative break ;) 

Longevity of Montessori: Mathematics

The Montessori approach meets the needs of children where they are at - both collectively and individually. Therefore, it is an approach that meets the needs of ALL children. The only limitation is the preparedness of the adult to meet those needs ;)

A recent post at MariaMontessori.com introduces this concept as it applies to primary (3-6) and elementary (6-12). Montessori is Developmental

Even in our material,


Let's look at math specifically - just some highlights: 

With infants and toddlers, we do a lot of natural one-to-one correspondence. Few toys, each that belongs in a particular place. Matching activities in sizes, shapes, colors. Helping to set the meal-table using a diagram of what goes where.

We can also give the language of numbers (counting), and children love language at this age, so most do pick up on counting numbers, although they typically skip a few numbers or repeat a few sequences ;)



Primary Mathematics:
While we don't typically start math in primary until around age 4, we begin with a few materials that extend into primary mathematics as well as into use at elementary and adolescence. Sensorial and Mathematics materials are both noted here:

• Red rods - extend into the number rods 
• All the groups of ten we have extend into the decimal system
• Pink Tower and Brown Stair can be used in geometry at elementary
• Binomial Cube and Trinomial Cube (elementary and adolescence)
• Geometry Cabinet and Solids (elementary)
• Golden beads (elementary and adolescence)
• Bead Cabinet and contents (elementary and portions in adolescence)
• Snake games (if you purchase the negative snake game, it includes all you need for primary as well as elementary and adolescence)
• Decanomial bead bar box (elementary and adolescence)
• Stamp game (elementary and adolescence)
• Short Division with Racks and Tubes becomes Long Division with Racks and Tubes (elementary)

Common Threads: 

• Place value color-coding remains consistent throughout all levels - into the checkerboards that are the visualization of the multiplication process, the bank game (just numbered cards, no beads), and more.
• The bead cabinet colors also remain consistent through all levels - even into the solid wood blocks of the cubing material that is used in elementary and adolescence. 

Additional posts of interest:

Toddler Exercises of Practical Life

All Montessori Trails posts on Mathematics

Mathematics Logic Game from Wff'n Proof

Review post on Adolescent Algebra Album

And that, dear friends, is today's show ;) 

Botany Studies: Herbal Remedy Kit

Just a quick post to show how much we LOVE our Herbal Remedy Kit from LearningHerbs.com.

LearningHerbs.com - Browse their website - they offer SO much more! (and so much is FREE!)

I think this was actually making elderberry gummies
(not included in the kit,
but the elderberries are!
And the recipe is easy-easy-easy -
we added some extras for specific ailments)

The Herbal Kit - price ranges from $67-97 with various promotions. WORTH - EVERY - PENNY.
In fact, after you have the kit and you get started - just getting your hands into it, you'll find that you can buy replacements or change things up through purchasing items from Mountain Rose Herbs (or elsewhere, but we love Mountain Rose Herbs too!).... and we do that! BUT we decided to buy a second kit too!

The kit includes step by step EASY instructions. Nothing fancy; nothing complicated. So don't let my out of order photos here scare you! Legoboy could do all of these himself - in fact, he does done much of it all by himself, when modifying or re-making some items later. He has been doing so since he was 9 years old. :)



We have now made everything in the kit - including the elderberry syrup which works SO great for the flu virus! (the FDA does not approve of that statement, just as a disclaimer - even though there are scientific studies done that strongly show the affect of eldererry syrup on flu strains)

By the by - when it comes to flu.... I had those dried elderberries for almost 2 years. Every time I'd open that cupboard, I'd think, "What is that smell?" It wasn't *bad*, it just wasn't a yummy kind of berry smell either. Well, the day after we fully moved into our house (the apartment was empty but still needed a final cleaning), I opened the new cupboard that housed the elderberries, and thought, "Oh, THAT smells SO GOOD!" When I realized what it was, I realized, "I am sick." Our bodies do tend to crave what they need, until we train them otherwise. And I'd been ignoring all the signs of being sick (blaming it on the stress of moving, the all-day training I'd done that Friday, then doing the final moving of stuff in the rain at the end of a long day, coming into the house (where carpet people were supposed to be GONE already) to find broken dishes in the sink and broken glass all over the floor --- apparently the pounding from above had shaken loose a light fixture, hitting the sink and shattering everywhere, I blamed my feelings on "that time of the month", and my son's own moodiness (oh wait - he was sick too!!!). Talk about ignoring all the signs!!!!

Elderberry syrup though. YUM. And when my body didn't need it anymore, it didn't taste so good anymore. Still good, but not something that I was craving. Same with Legoboy. He really noticed the change in desire for it as he got better.

The best part of doing all this learning together? He could take care of me when I was sick and I could take care of him - no worries!

The pictures below start with the second kit; then move to the first kit. In no particular order. I will try to identify what is going on in each picture, but this is not a narrative so much as a demonstration of what could be done with an herbal remedy kit!

Full contents before unpacking anything.
That white spot is a wrapped up bottle of Lavendar essential oil.
Chunks of beeswax
All the jars, bottles eyedroppers, and tins needed for this particular kit.
Dried herbs (see below)
DVD instructions (with online access and some printed instructions)

First Kit:

stinging nettle sitting in place to make an infusion (all the goodness goes into the water,
then you strain out the physical herbs and drink the infusion - highly nutritious - and EASY)

strained herbs - these can go into the compost or be used other ways, depending on the herb mixture

This is maybe the stinging nettle infusion - the top part looks right,
but the liquid looks the wrong color.
So it might still be the herbal healving salve
herbs when being strained. 

the completed herbal healing salve
once you know how to make one kind, you can make ANY

getting supplies ready for making the salve

further straining the herbs that had been extracted into warm olive oil
just the liquid/oil is then added back to the pan with the beeswax
The bag helps to squeeze all the rest of the goodies out of the herbs. 

the herbal healing salve setting up - just poured into the jars
warm is darker and more liquidy yet
the solid parts are cooler and lighter in color

just a pretty picture of the lavendar essential oil, the olive oil and the tin tops

the salve while setting up - some was still warm (darker)

the pretty box the herbal remedy kit comes in ;) 

overview of the kit contents

closer look at the kit contents

melting the beeswax