Primary Language Materials: Photo Journey

In no particular order, language-related photos I have - some with materials we've made - some with materials we've purchased or borrowed or were gifted:

Zoology and Botany classification cards
with definitions
A few samples of these are nice to have in the classroom or homeschool
focus on keys, then add an interest or two
Thereafter, find outline pictures online and invite the child to
"do research" to find the names of the parts
(so books on the subject would be great!)

small movable alphabet -
punctuation marks are missing from these boxes
the backsides of each letter should have the capital as well
perhaps if I'd made them with the capitals,
Legoboy wouldn't have struggled with them as much ;)
****This material carries over into elementary -
have blue, red, and black on hand for sure*****

wooden grammar symbols - genius!
****Carries over to elementary!*****

Our original handmade metal insets
Not so metal - they are foamboard
do it again? I would either buy them or cut from wood
or from mat board (picture frame backing)
***ALTERNATIVE: just get the geometry cabinet and use
the shapes from those drawers!****

Now, we also had beautiful living books, focused on reality - with a variety of beautiful artwork (nothing cartoon-like).

We read from the Bible - not from Bible storybooks.

We did a lot of artwork, which helps with handwriting and strengthening those muscles, thus the fraction insets (circles, squares and triangles) were utilized in various setting (we did not have these at home at the time, but I wish we had!). The circle fractions begin in primary and continue into elementary mathematics, with the squares and triangles presented in elementary geography.

We spoke whole-language - real words, full sentences. Yes, we played silly word games at times, but our usual conversations were imbued with respect for the child's intelligence - something hard to fight against in our culture that uses the wrong verb tense and pronouns for the youngest children. Mother-ese is WONDERFUL - but it shouldn't be used on a 2 year old except briefly in silly-snuggle time for just a moment. ;) "Him so beautifuls" being not quite right for a child over a few months old who is absorbing the rules of language. hehe.


These things (pretend stories, awful artwork, poor language) won't destroy a child, but they sure won't build him up and they could certainly slow him down. Everyone who asks my advice because they have been doing these things and have older children - just adjust now. Slowly purge the old books by adding in or emphasizing the good ones; remove the least loved of the others first, and faze out the usual favorites. But save the good literature for elementary! (Beatrix Potter, Wind in the Willows, Fairy Tales --- these are all moral tales and have a profound place in elementary!) Speak in whole, rich language, with a large vocabulary - provide very simple and short explanations only when obviously needed (child asks). If the child says the wrong thing, such as "pretty kitty" instead of cat or kitten, you say, "Yes, this is a lovely cat (or kitten depending on the age of the cat!). So you are giving another name for pretty, teaching its meaning in context without needing a definition, AND providing the accurate word for the age of the creature. No correction necessary :)

Practical Life in Elementary - Primary works?

There are some primary practical life skills that can still be worked on in elementary - whether because the child needs extra practice or because there was no primary level experience - or because of a significant emotional event that causes a child to backslide a bit. In these cases, a specific tray for a specific skill could be set up. But clear it away as soon as it is no longer a work of meditation, development of concentration and skill practice. Once one of those three components falls away, remove the material and offer alternatives that use that skill and continue to develop concentration. We do NOT want the children "hiding" behind work or choosing work simply to be "busy". We do want them fulfilling their inner needs - and YES sometimes that means a simpler activity already mastered. We just need to have the proper balance of work options --- an older child wanting to do some simple pouring, could pour drinks for snack/meals, prepare various works for other children that require pouring, etc. At home, go play in the bathtub with some pouring items - and get clean in the meantime ;)

1st grader practicing pouring between two pitchers
Skill needed: not touching the pitchers to each other

For the most part in elementary, practical life just looks more practical. There are not a gazillion individual trays, one for each skill. BUT in addition to having perhaps 1 or 2 trays to work on a particular primary level skill, you might put together a basket or box of items that go with a research project or a chosen area of study - just to keep the materials together. One example might be a basket that has mapping skills pulled together as an activity box for the children. This would be more appropriate for at home rather than at school, where those same materials will be displayed differently (according to each school). At home: a nice activity basket :) 

World Puzzle Map at Home

Montessori teachers generally highly recommend not to have duplicate materials at home and at school.

For the most part, I agree.

But there are always moments that make you say, "hmm."

And this was one :)


Junior Legoboy (he had not yet discovered legos at this time of his life!) was in an AMI primary Montessori school for his 3 year old year. First thing of interest is that he started to write at home - writing out the letters to spell "thank you" on his after-Christmas cards - but he wouldn't write at home - OOPS! Meant to say *school* - he would NOT write at school - and it's not like we spent that much time at home that year for him to be distracted by duplicate materials at home. I had tucked away all of our Montessori materials so he would focus on them at school. But he just wouldn't write at school!


One day, at home, he pulled out a world puzzle map we had there (yes out of storage, without my permission), and proceeded to do work he'd seen the older children doing at school.

This photo became the cover of my sensorial album!
Please ignore his clothes hanging in the closet behind him ;) 

Assembling the puzzle outside of the frame,
with no outer border reference. 

So in this case, we certainly had moments where he went deeper with the work at home than he did at school. I'm not drawing any significant conclusions from these observations - just something to say, "hmmm."


Yes, this material was in my sensorial album - not a separate geography area. I had sensorial aspects of the world in sensorial, with the appropriate language activities in the language album. I personally found this layout to be SUCH a relief after having spent several years finagling with multiple subject albums - 4 was such a blessed relief! It certainly helped me to organize the patterns and connections in a way I just didn't "see" before despite the number of years in Montessori environments!

Long Bead Chains - Photo Journey

Just browsing through photos looking for something else, and thought, "I should share these!"

Counting up the 1000 chain!

Drawing it afterward - elementary children

sample of elementary work with the long chains

the lighting was bad ;) 

1000 chain from my student teaching days
I still have that skirt!
And I still remember the happiness of the boy
who worked on this presentations
- the TRUE self-esteem -
the pride he took in his work
the complete turn-around in his behavior
having been given some REAL work to do. 

5 1/2 year old SO PROUD of his BIG WORK
(this boy did this work BY HIMSELF!)
It was probably one of the most fulfilling things
he had done in his life to that date!)

Lego day!

The morning of the day I write this post, my son wrote me a note:

can you come to the m(iddle) of the f(l)oor?
He's not been writing much lately - and despite all the
wonderful Montessori materials - if he doesn't practice,
it's GONE! So spelling skills are OUT.
Every child has their thing - spelling is his.
No spelling bee champ here ;)
(do they have an "Abbreviation Bee?" hehe)

(he'd been leaving me a series of notes - I have a PILE of them next to my computer - he writes them on scrap paper, folds in half, sneaks up, drops them in my lap or on my hands and RUNS, diving behind the living room chair supposedly before I can see him!)

We LOVE these CDs - very educational and very interesting!
Each CD plays the entire song through about 3 times -
once continuous with narration
once with starting/stopping and further depth of explanation
once just straight through with no narration
And LOTS of extras in between ;) 

This was right after he wrote a note asking if we could listen to "Carnival of Animals" from Maestro Classics.

Well, it's Friday and most of his work from this week is already done - so why not? ;) 

By why the middle of the floor? Legoboy has spent the last two days' worth of free time creating a Lego game from scratch.

So we played. Who needs school? Who needs to work? We're listening to music and spending time together.

challenge cards and playing cards

Pieces to build figures and barracks within each field

I like this game. I don't care for Legos myself - I support his interest though - yet I'm winning! So I don't mind this game ;) I did need to call a break for a while so I could get on with more of my own work. We'll finish up this evening.

I love how much thought and effort he put into this game - so much so that handwriting and spelling suffered! But he is going back to make revisions - and in the playing of the game, he didn't get upset when something didn't work - he just either revised the rules in the moment because they needed to be done, or he made a quick list of items that needed adapting for future playing.

I am very proud of him for doing all this work :)




Shshshshsh! Don't tell him yet I found this blog this morning with a LEGO co-op plan - at Homegrown Learners. I am going to see if any local children want to join us for a short-term LEGO club in our home ;)

Maybe we'll combine with this 4-day LEGO lapbook at Walking by the Way.
Click here for her LEGO resources.



What would Dr. Montessori say about LEGOs? I don't know! They are plastic and she saw a much larger benefit to all-natural tools, and I'll admit I'm not always keen on the sound of them and they do GET EVERYWHERE (Legoboy usually works on a sheet which we then gather up and dump back into the big bin, after he pulls out the small pieces he wants to keep organized - that way, at least the LEGOs are partially contained and they don't make a terrible sound when he does work on tile floor).

They are really great for problem solving, engineering-type skills and just plain creativity.

Would I have them in the "school" area (whether a homeschool or a regular school)? NO! I would keep them separate from the usual learning materials, but I don't entirely consider them pure "toys" either. Much like our other "toys" they must have a strong reason to be here, in order to be allowed to take up space in our tiny home. So they are not frivolous play, but lead to creativity, imagination, problem solving and can be combined with other items.

Just my OWN two cents ;)