Montessori Homeschool Schedule and Work Boxes

The last two months have been a time of transition for us. We typically start our new school year with Advent (the first Sunday of the new liturgical year for our church). While he started to tell people he is now in 4th grade and he's 9, Legoboy is one (wanting to be) confused little boy!

He is 8. But during this study of ancient civilizations we came across the Chinese belief that life starts at... conception. Ok, perhaps that's not so novel. What is novel about this teaching is how it is applied: the child is counted as being alive since conception, hence 9 months old (even 1 year old) at the time of birth! So Legoboy knows he began life in August and after 4 years running of being 5 years old (an age he wanted to be forever), he is now firmly decided that he is 9 and has been 9 since August. And indeed, I certainly now have more than 9 years of memories of this beautiful little boy, having seen him for the first time 9 years ago in early September!
(note on the link above - I can't find the book where we read that, and I am having trouble finding solid information on the internet about the belief - this article was the one that explained it the most, but it's not entirely my preferred article either - just saying: that's NOT the article Legoboy read!)

Well, so back to that time of transition - I had a LOT on my plate, we were just coming off of 3 months of non-stop sheer craziness of roller coaster experiences (I hate roller coasters, by the way) - and we just didn't get our new year in gear... until today! (this is being scheduled a bit out from the time I actually write this ;) )


Some background: 
Legoboy has been working with a weekly and a 2-weekly plan for 3 years now. At age 5 1/2 we started on a weekly plan, but it really more of laying out the plan for the week, then either at the beginning of the week or the beginning of each day, marking with an appropriate letter what was expected each day of the week. He had the option of doing more in each area as well, which he routinely did, but he was also learning how to budget his time, earn free time, get his responsibilities fulfilled, all while I was right there helping him.

By age 7, we were creating the weekly or 2-weekly work plan and he would rarely need to ask for guidance on what to do and when - he had the plan, we'd already discussed it, he knew the expectations and he had his personal research. There were times I would do as my training and theory albums suggests and ask during our planning sessions, "When do you plan to work on this?" or "What is your plan for this project?" and provide feedback based on his answer. If it's a great idea, call it what it is. If he has a not so great plan ("I'll do that one on the last day of the week" - translation: I am putting that one off because "I don't really want to do it" OR "I am putting it off because I need help and I don't know how to ask for the help I need despite my insistence that I don't need help"), then I provide a suggestion or even a requirement: "It is Monday 9AM; this particular aspect of the project or this math practice (or whatever it is) needs to be done by 2PM Tuesday." or "Let's meet about (this thing that is troublesome) at 1 pm on Wednesday and we will work on it together." I am telling him at that point that I am helping, not asking him.

This has worked well for almost 2 years! But I think he's hitting that odd pre-puberty thing that boys hit around age 9. Yeah. HARD. Oh the Rebellion! He still has a heart of gold, but there is a new creature living in that body!

So here we are at 8 1/2, re-adjusting how we do our Montessori work plan yet again. I love following the child - not a dull moment! During this transition time, he needs a lot more hand-holding, but at the same time, he needs to prove his independence, while continuing to cultivate proper relationship skills and practical skills to have a strong foundation for the adolescent years ahead (did I just think 'adolescent' and 'my son' in the same sentence? Oh, I'm going to cry.).



So here is what we spent 4 hours working out: 

Legoboy wants a specific structure. So we created a quick and easy chart: 

DAILY: We have listed the subjects that must be covered every day. This includes both new lessons and continuing the work himself (ie reading analysis would count under "Language" here). We went through our scope and sequences (ours are fully-detailed excel spreadsheets, organized by ages), selected and printed just what we wanted to accomplish in the next 2 months, worked out what would need to be done and approximately how often. He selected to do most subjects daily, figuring that even he does 20 minutes each day on sentence analysis for example, it will "keep it fresh" (his words!). 

WEEKLY: Next, we have the subjects that must be covered at least one day each week. This usually entails specifically doing something NEW or more intense or another nuance - not just repeating the same work (he is moving towards upper elementary when desired repetition is a thing of the past but is still very necessary. For this month, that includes a Latin lesson, performing a piano lesson for me (whether he moves ahead to the next lesson or not), and selecting a big chore or project to do around our home. 

DAILY PRACTICE: Then there are things under daily practice - that could very well be nothing new at all; current month's items here include: piano practice, Latin flashcards he creates during the weekly Latin lesson, tae-kwon-do practice, speech practice, some form of art (he currently has a cross-stitch project in-progress, is working on his own version of a Book of Kells, and frequently looks to learn other skills - this way, he has built-in time each day to develop these skills). 

With this plan in mind, we will still create a weekly or 2-weekly work-plan to show what the goals are for the coming 5-12 days as well as to evaluate the work done in the previous 5-12 days - see where we are in the scope and sequence, what should be practiced more, what areas we want to go more intense with and select a new biology or geometry topic (we are reviewing these subjects by topic area, now we've done the full albums, we'll review each area in-serious-depth and see where it takes us). 

     I am sometimes asked my thoughts on monthly work-plans. I personally and professionally cannot, in my heart, recommend them for any child younger than a mature upper elementary. Why? Because there is a longer time period to "see" the results of one's planning. There is a greater responsibility and maturity gained from making plans and seeing them through; evaluating and adjusting, with more immediate feedback. That is why we adults will look to the next semester or set of months, then make our plans for about the next month, then sit with the child to focus on the next *week*, and depending on the child's needs, let's just focus on each day, but the child is still visually exposed to the weekly plans - not the rest of it - that is too much for a 6 year old to truly learn from. Now at almost age 9, Legoboy is getting towards upper elementary and is ready to see the scope and sequence plans I have, but I *only* print out the sections that I think we can feasibly do in the next 2-3 months -- and even then we might not finish one area, but go far beyond in another area. 

     With that said, I find that 6 year olds without a work-plan at all, are missing out on a *huge* piece of Montessori elementary. See this upcoming post for more information. 

We have always held to a daily routine, which is difficult to put onto paper at times because every day is different. For now, we finally have some morning consistency because Sunday mornings are our only morning out-of-the-home commitments (starting in February we have twice-monthly Monday morning homeschool classes at a local-ish museum, which we will then count as "morning work cycle" for those days). Afternoon activities might be more work time, or speech, or tae-kwon-do or atrium. 

Finally, we have reached an age where the workbox system is much more readily modified into a Montessori environment. Others have modified Montessori to make the workbox system fit; we've modified the workbox system to fit elementary Montessori. Essentially we have ONE box (could be two or three), with the usual supplies needed for the day and for the week - it is essentially the "hard-copy" of the work-plan. If a larger material is required, those can be placed nearby, or noted on that week's work-plan and he knows to go gather the materials. This works great for those pre-puberty boys are losing EVERYTHING, ALL, THE, TIME. 

At primary age, we would do something similar when traveling, in a backpack, to keep skills going. Or if I were sick or had a big project and wanted him "occupied" he'd have a planned out box to go to if he had nothing in mind. Typically, he didn't use it ;) In elementary, if he were to be spending the day with another homeschooling family or when I traveled for a week for a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd training, I packed him up a box and a notebook with a list of assignments we created together - enough to keep him busy when needed, but if it didn't get done the world wouldn't come to an end. 

But now, he developed this solution to keep us on-task and not "forgetting" to do things each week. We have one place to store the small items that are used daily. Like the tae-kwon-do breaking boards, the books we want to read together this week, pencils and erasers and sharpeners in a nice pouch not buried in his desk somewhere, but actually available ;) The clipboard with the work-plan. It might hold the Life of Fred book we are currently reading. 

So there's our January plan. We'll see how it holds into February!

Patterns in Homeschooling

Over our years of using the Montessori approach both in schools and in our homeschooling, we have found some patterns emerging:

We always start our "new school year" with the Church's new liturgical year - the first Sunday of Advent (4 Sundays before Christmas). This is a time of new beginnings and lends itself well (for us) to the avoidance of burn-out that others experience much more strongly. We also school year-round, so we have natural rhythms and breaks that allow us to take advantage of various opportunities without compromising the integrity of our homeschooling.



Patterns:

Thanksgiving and into Christmas and January precipitates a season of "games" - board games, dice games, card games. We always re-institute our "game-night" which we fall away from in the summer time. Strategy, logic, etc. A recent discovery at our favorite kids' game store (Once Upon a Child) yielded up "Where in the United States is Carmen San Diego?" - and suddenly Legoboy actually *cares* about learning US geography and history ;) He gets a kick out of the time-traveling agents!

By February, we are back to a LOT more hand-work such as crafting, crochet, weaving, and the like.


While we really hit the botany album HARD every single spring, we typically start the basic presentations and experiments again every Christmas-time. We have a south-facing balcony, with sliding glass doors; thus we have a very sunny living room in the winter time as long as it's not too cloudy. When it is cloudy, we still have a rather light living room space because the sun is still in that direction! The situation of our building on a hill allows the sun to rise in our window, shine all day, and set in our window. Can't beat that! This arrangement allows us to work on those "experiments" (this year, we are adding a lot more that he came up with himself or that were found in various books) in more focused isolation; then in the spring-time we can work on the main things we want to grow. Admittedly, our indoor tomatoes grow better in the winter-time than our summer outdoors ones - just because of the sun!

We tend to work on school more intensely on the bad weather days - super-hot and no fun to be outside; or super-cold/windy and I refuse to drive anywhere. These are the days we get the most school work done (and the days I get the most business work done!).

While we "plan" to do school 6 days a week, just to keep up the routine, in the end, we really "officially" do school more like 3 days a week. School gets done on those other days because there are certain projects that count as school or are extensions to previous presentations. I guess I say it's a school day if *I* have done something with him directly or have checked something off of a list. But he does school-related projects every day of the week. When we sit down every week or two weeks to go over the current work-plan, and set up the next week or two weeks' worth, we always find areas that we no longer have to "plan" because he already moved into those areas.

Autumn is our time for food preparation and looking at those home-making skills that every child learn. So we have the canning and the freezing of the jams, sauces, meats, etc. The food preparation and baking continues well into the winter time.

Summer-time is the time for him to get out his "boy-books" - carving walking-sticks, tracking weather patterns, cooking with the sun, preparing foods for long hikes and long camping trips. Legoboy has not yet been on a long camping trip, but he's been making sure he's ready!

Advent and Lent are always times for a focused study of our faith, though we have atrium and other studies throughout the year. This Advent we studied a Jesse Tree sequence in-depth. Lent 2012 we did an in-depth Psalms study.



School-work and other projects have a much higher intensity of work, completion rate and satisfaction rate when our home is de-cluttered and organized. Always. Every time.

Advent and Lent, as well as mid-summer seem to be our seasonal times to clean up and ship out. Transitioning from one time of year to another and we want to be prepared.



Daily Lego time. He *needs* daily Lego time ;)