Celestial Almanack - AVAILABLE NOW

Celestial Almanack is available for this month!

I've posted about it before - it continues to be a fantastic resource for us as we study the day and night sky, explore the world and universe Montessori-style and just plain have fun with learning something our ancestors knew intuitively.

Perfect Montessori astronomy - multi-age, minimal equipment except one's own capacities, pertinent to the current time, yet entirely timeless.

Just like Montessori history and the way we present everything in stories, this astronomy resource helps connect us with our ancestors' knowledge of the cosmos as they could experience it; as they LIVED it. It gets reconnected back to something that has played not just an important role, but sometimes THE foundational role in historical events and ways of life of humankind.

No equipment is needed for most things, though binoculars and eclipse shades come in handy; the author also sells eclipse shades (MAY 20!!!!), a homeschool curriculum text, storybook, moon chart and more at  http://www.classicalastronomy.com/.

Unfortunately, production of the almanack will cease after June, so get the current and back issues while you can over at CurrClick - the sole distributor of the Celestial Almanack.

Don't have an account with CurrClick?
Perhaps if CurrClick didn't charge so much for selling items on their site (30% or so for being the sole distributor, they keep something like 60% of the sale price if they are NOT the sole distributor), the author of the Celestial Almanack could have utilized a wider variety of outlets, gained a wider audience, and made his time more worth it - he works full-time and needs time with his family too. In any case, setting up an account is easy, very safe, you can use Paypal OR use your own credit card.

International addresses work out great - because it's all downloadable.

$3 for the current issue; $2 for back issues.

Get them now while you can - the information is timeless!

Learning to Read - Montessori

I've been asked a lot lately about learning to read the Montessori way.

Well, there are two lines you could follow (and could partly overlap) - I tried both and ended up sticking with just one. It was easier to choose one or the other ;) Besides, with Montessori, you provide the keys, the main tools, and then there is the rest of the world to explore based on particular needs, interests and temperaments, using whatever individual components of anything else that make sense, fit and enhance the provided keys.

We officially tried:

• AMI (similar, not identical to Muriel-Dwyer)
• Pink/Blue/Green/Purple

and dabbled in others, including non-Montessori (this was a partial requirement, ie for my tutoring children).

Short post: We do not use the pink/blue/green (now purple too) series; my son never used it, though my daycare/tutoring children were my experiment with it. We used the AMI approach, which is more similar to Muriel-Dwyer but NOT identical, and we used the pink/blue/green cards in other ways.

The AMI way is a combination phonics/whole language that gets the children reading for real, very naturally. The lack of emphasis on 3 letter CVC words is FANTASTIC - as, if a child can read phonetically, he can read 10 letter phonetic words with the same ease as a 3-letter word. And once he knows some puzzle words - he is off and running!

I just could not wrap myself around the pink/blue/green/purple series. I do have some album pages now (thank you to the kind soul who shared them with me :) ), but I've not had a chance to really comb through them as carefully as I would like.

Now, I want to be clear - I am SURE it works for others. I think it is SO widely known because of AMS and other Montessori groups utilizing and promoting it. I am SURE it works! It just didn't fit for us, specifically me ;)  For ME, I have to agree with my trainer on this one, now that I'm further down the line (see tomorrow's post!).


Ginni Sacket has a GREAT series of YouTube videos that lead from the beginning activities for language into the first activity with the phonetic object box when the child makes the realization that he can read. I wish it went further than that, but I LOVE the content of these videos.

Further thoughts on Cursive

I've been asked about cursive in many places of late. While I have upcoming Montessori Nuggets on the topic, I thought I would share some of my own personal thoughts here. Yes, you may translate that phrase as "soap box." I won't judge your choices if you won't judge mine. I just ask that you hear me out. :)

My son just turned 8. In a regular school, he would be entering 3rd grade this coming fall. In our area, 2nd graders in their 2nd semester start learning cursive. It is a big milestone for the children.

The teachers also complain that academic work in other areas drops. Drastically.

Some random thoughts - in no particular order - hence random:
;)

• my son has been writing in cursive since age 4; yes we had some print experiences in there too (see Adventures in Writing)
• by 5 1/2 he could write anything in cursive; he just didn't; I continued to state "I'd prefer cursive and soon it will be a requirement" - one day he just started doing it - and has never gone back. 
• In January of last year, the 2nd graders (a year older than my son) in his atrium class were just starting cursive and writing on the chalkboard in the atrium. They were still learning and the results were interesting and quite beautiful, if not entirely legible. I loved their enthusiasm! However, all the children were just amazed that my son could already write so well, without thinking about it. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I learned when I was ready." (can't improve on that answer!)
• During that time of learning to write, he was in the strongest part of the sensitive period for language. While we were towards the end of the part when re-focusing on the cursive, we were still able to utilize it. 
• Older children just don't have that sensitive period. 
• Maria Montessori worried about teaching the children print (she'd taught them cursive first). Then they started reading Gothic words on the calendar. They taught themselves print. 
• If she stopped worrying, why should I worry?
• Since children are in a sensitive period, their interest and focus is right there; they learn easily in a form of writing that comes naturally anyway (curved lines allowing a variation of creation, versus straight lines being a standard of perfection that is hard to achieve). 
• Again, they learn easily - thus it doesn't take away from their other learning. 
• But in 2nd grade, it DOES take away from their other learning - because they have to consciously RE-learn everything know, RE-learn a natural instinct that was trained OUT of them in kindergarten and 1st grade (and preschool if they went). 
• Print is everywhere - but that does not mean I need to dumb down my handwriting for my child. I do NOT dumb down my vocabulary - why would I dumb down the handwriting? 
• Print is everywhere - more so than in Montessori's time - and the children figured it out all on their own then. Since my son was writing in capital block letters at 3 1/2 (noone taught him, except perhaps the keys on that laptop that Grandma gave him ;) ), it would seem that print is prevalent enough to be learned by anyone at any time. Why spend time teaching it? Time that is best served elsewhere? Like making cookies with my son. 
• we have to print on forms. Ok. Fine. But we don't fill out forms all day every day. We DO write grocery and to-do lists, letters to friends (e-mails aren't even printed - they're TYPED), thank you cards, all the copy-work my son does, etc. 

And this list doesn't touch the practical reasons of cursive such as assistance with dyslexia, spacing of words, understanding of concepts of words (a word is connected as a single unit), etc. This list only touches on some of the thoughts running through my mind for OUR situation. 

Is it the end of the world if your child learned print first? No! 

But how much more wonderful use of their time to teach cursive first and not bother to teach print at all (since it just comes). 

Ok. So I know at least one reader of this blog will be thinking "why should we *teach* cursive at all if print is so much easier?"

BECAUSE: 

• cursive is for writing; print is for reading (we type print for books and computers; original printing press wasn't for handwritten books)
• cursive is actually EASIER at the primary age compared to print because children naturally curve their lines. Straight lines are perfection; variations on a curved line become an art form.
• Cursive is an art form. It is beauty. It is individual. It is expressive. 
• Print is actually harder to teach at the primary age, dyslexia or not. 
• Kids with dyslexia NEED cursive writing to help with the orientation of letters, groupings of words, and general confidence building. 

I hope this information helps! Or at least provides food for thought!

Making a Large Bead Frame

Do you have a Melissa and Doug abacus lying around? Ready to get just a TINY bit creative? :)
This one doesn't take much AT ALL!

The glue doesn't tend to be terribly strong on abacus, so you can wiggle out one leg removing it from the metal rods and the wood rod across the top.

Now. Remove the 4th and the 8th metal rods (counting from the top).

Now, rearrange the colors so you have (from the top): green, blue, red, (space), green, blue, red, (space), green. Re-attach the side leg.

Ok, you're going to be short on colors! So you get out some paint (washable child safe paint is NOT ideal here), and you paint 10 of those natural colored beads green. They can hang on the metal rod, with space in between, to dry. Polyurethane if you want (I never did on ours and it's fine, but I think I would have preferred the texture of the polyurethaned ones - plain paint feels different from the rest of the beads).

You'll also want to paint the sides with white gray and black, but I've not done that on this one; I tend to use colored paper taped on for presentations and remove it for other times (another story).

You can see our painted ones on the bottom;
polyurethane would have been nice. 

Leftover yellow and natural color beads? Give them to your younger children for stringing practice; or any of your children for jewelry or other just fun crafty project of their liking.

It's not a Montessori abacus - it's a large bead frame!

Want a small bead frame? Just wrap up the lower 3 bars, so you have only up to the thousands showing. For homeschool purposes, the large bead frame is much more adaptable - so if you have to choose just ONE size, make or purchase the large bead frame because it will extend from primary into elementary.


EDITED TO NOTE:
In AMI albums, the small and large bead frames can be used in primary; the large bead frame is used in elementary (even if used in primary); but the small bead frame does not need to be in place in elementary, since all the same work can be done on the large bead frame and the children are older and capable ;)

What if the world stops turning????

In our home, I've been known to say, "It's not like it's the end of the world!"

I've also always made a point of saying, "When the earth faces the sun" or "turns toward the sun" or "the earth has turned away from the sun" - rather than referring to the sun doing the movement.

I've just always wanted to be very accurate with my speech.

So one day, my just turned 6 year old son, comes to me a little while after some now-forgotten incident that prompted me to say, "It's not like it's the end of the world!" and asks, "What if it is the end of the world? It will stop turning! What will happen then!?" He was curious and thinking - now at the elementary age (second plane of development) of not just accepting everything on factual statement, but wanted to understand WHY and WHAT IF and HOW?

So, out of order from all elementary geography presentations, I said, "Ah! I have a chart for you!" This was his first official chart presentation, though he'd seen me painting them previous to this time.

We talked about it a bit. "What do you see here?"
"If this is the earth, where is this side facing?" (pointing to the flames)

• How do those flames feel? (hot) And where is the heat coming from? (the sun)
• I see something else! (icicles!) How do those icicles feel? (cold! because the sun can't give that side of the earth any heat!)
• I wonder if life could exist on this earth if it didn't turn and have times of heat and times of cold? (his response: I wouldn't want to live THERE!)

Now in the time since then he's had the "usual sequence" and we've come back to this chart in the proper scheme of things. 

It means something different for him than the children who only just saw it this year (in proper order); but every child took away what they needed, and brought to the conversation at their level, contributing to the growth of understanding in all the children. 

No, I would not show this to a child in the first plane of development - it might instill fear of the unknown and the what-ifs because their minds work in the concrete, right-now, here in the moment. We do not want to instill fear into a child, but trust, at this age. In the second plane, the child has a strong foundation and can contemplate the what-ifs in a realistic manner without inappropriate fear. 

It was ok that my son saw and discussed this chart out of order; our presentation did not follow the typical album page, because he'd not had the typical pre-requisites. Just because he'd not had the pre-requisites did not mean he was not ready! He was ready in a different way; and at the proper time, he was ready in another way.