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.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Elementary Montessori Training - Reality Check

In a draft dated February 2, 2014, I had this:

Begin draft:

I had this to say in a previous post, then I deleted a portion of it to finish the post on the same topic with which it started:

I have to admit - I felt cheated. But that could be tied into the reality of the training center I was at and the treatment dished out there to anyone who is 1) Catholic 2) homeschool-friendly 3) uses Montessori principles in any form of faith formation 4) actually wanting to "get it" and not just regurgitate it - the list goes on, but that is a subject of another post.

This many years later, I am finally getting ready to truly write about that experience. 

End draft.


Now here it is June 20, 2015 - and I still haven't written about it. Yet the training center in question has chosen NOW to come forward to pronounce to the world I didn't finish my training there, thus I must be mis-representing myself.

Hm. Interesting. I have checked all SPAM filters - I have not yet received a private communication from them, or anyone for that matter, on this topic. All announcements have been public without any room for actual professionalism.

This is SAD. Truly SAD. Contact me first. I am happy to discuss the matter on a professional level. This training center has proven time and again a lack of capability of being professional. That does not mean there is NO HOPE! I hold out hope. Hope for peace; hope for the true work of Maria Montessori to blossom forth.

It can happen. It MUST happen.




Please note, I do not claim to have a certificate or a diploma from them - I did a majority of my training there and filled in with private AMI training elsewhere, without the benefit of a diploma or certificate. I did all my student teaching and observations; I am still awaiting receipt of my last few chunks of assignments (hand-made illustrations...).

Please also note, that I choose NOT to publicly bash the training center, ruin their reputation, or otherwise cause harm or pain to anyone. Perhaps by being silent I have allowed too many others (even one is too many) to continue to receive harm by this training center; I needed to look at the harm to my son if I took this to court. My family comes first.

And to explain all of this takes many words; words that cause confusion and dissension and a bad taste for this training cetner - then perhaps for others? I want to preserve what Montessori intended and share it with homeschoolers and with small schools who are working towards getting their teachers formally trained in a full training center. I currently work with several schools around the world who are sending one teacher at a time to full Montessori training while supplementing with the mentoring and support I provide in the meantime.

Want to create a strong adversary you'll regret? Attack me.
Want to control me and subdue me? Bring me in.

Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer. Isn't that what the non-Montessori world proclaims? Perhaps it is indeed good practice.
!?

Oddly enough, professionalism and civility might increase.

My prayers for peace!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Geometry Circles

In no particular order, some of the work Legoboy and I did together on geometry a while back.

This elementary Montessori work is done with a box of geometry sticks, the circumferences (half-circles), a pencil, some pushpins, and a geometry plane (corkboard with paper mounted on it).


the "plane"

drawing an arc - be sure to use a SHARP pencil!


















Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Montessori - When to Present

There are many questions about "mastery" of late - how to know when to move on to the next material or presentation. I would like to submit/repeat an idea to consider, to ponder.

At the primary age ("Casa dei Bambini" or Children's House) - If you are using an album set that has 4 subject areas (exercises of practical life, language, sensorial, math), and you present ONE thing from one album and wait a few days to observe your child's response, they will have ONE choice that whole time. Put yourself in their shoes/socks/bare-feet and consider what that is like. One activity to choose from? Seriously? As a child I'd be finding something else to do and the adult would be very disappointed.

So maybe you present one thing each day, 4 days a week. By the end of the week, the child has 4 options. Would you be bored? (those of you using albums that have more than 4 subjects will find that with this method you only touch on a subject once every 2-3 weeks - or longer).


Getting Started with Presentations and Work Choices: 

This work is not successful
until EPL and language are successful. 
So start out with a series of presentations - the EPL album has all the preliminary work, some of it is just practice carrying objects, practicing walking quietly (then in the kitchen and the bathroom be showing various skills as appropriate); the language album has all the spoken language games - go with it - "Let's practice carrying objects!" and do a series of objects - slowly, focusing on each one, but you might do this for an hour or two hours. Stop when your child needs a break. The first days of homeschooling will be full of EPL and language - and consciously involving your child in all aspects of household/family life. He should have some free time with his favorite toys as well.

Walking on the line; playing outside; singing songs; reading books; being involved in everything that happens in the home; keeping things neat and orderly.

Thus the first days will be ***busy***. They will be ***full***. It should be natural and fun. And there will be almost NO MATERIALS beyond what you have at home already.

This lays the foundation for when you do get into the "official" Montessori materials (or modified from at-home materials).

They can't do this until they have the focus,
the process,
the trust in the adult to show them something valuable.
All lessons learned from exciting Exercises of Practical Life
- many of them -
throughout the day
and over the course of weeks.

Continuing on with this theme of when to present and how much:

MASTERY - does a child need to master one material in a subject area before moving on to the next?

Short answer: NO! Let's apply the same logic as above. If you have 4 subject areas as AMI does, at 3.5, the child is likely to only have EPL, language and sensorial (math typically comes closer to the 4th birthday). That is THREE work options if you are waiting for mastery in one concept before moving to the next, within each subject. Within each album can be found a few threads that come together at various points (such as language as separate preparations for the physical side of writing and the mental side of writing), so in reality, within each subject are parallel "threads."

Do we want to be presenting all day long? NO! But think about the classroom experience of a child - he may not get a new individual presentation each and every day, but he does get lessons in grace and courtesy during group time, he spends time observing his companions (a presentation in itself), and he works with some of these companions at various tasks.

In the home life, this equates to being involved in as many aspects of home life as possible, observing the doings of the various people in the home and the neighborhood, having real conversations using real language, and being shown new skills or materials that are appropriate for his age and development. This last part is where we look to the scope and sequence for what is typically appropriate, then modify according to the individual child in front of us.


How Often to Present Once Things Get Going: 

If you look at this post at Montessori Nuggets: Montessori Nuggets - Organizing Primary Presentations and you've actually then opened yourself to the true depth of the Montessori materials, you'll find that you're presenting something every weekday of a year-round school. Something. Sometimes more than one something. Some things are left for child-discovery (a good deal is), but there are enough direct presentations for a homeschool environment to do something with your child (who, after all, wants to be with you) every day. Explore with your child.

Every day.

That's not a new material every day - that's "let's look at something else we can do with the spindles!" (just one example - I have noticed many people forget the bundling stage, but this is actually crucial to gaining from the true depths of this rather simplistic-looking material). And it might even be a suggestion thrown out while you are washing the dishes ;) That happens a lot in our home - I say "I wonder if you could (fill in the blank) with (list a particular material)? And show me when I am done washing the dishes (or whatever I am doing at the moment)." And THAT might be my presentation for the day!

Given we typically have a daily social graces lesson or chat (grace and courtesy), lots of involvement in real life activities of the home, go off and play by yourself time, outside time, etc.


Three-Hour Work Cycle in the Home: 

I have recently heard from several individuals that they expected their child would work independently (which equates to being "alone" for some of these children) for a solid 3-hour work cycle.
  • Humans are social creatures. Young children learn their social skills from the adults around them. 
  • Our work cycles at home are 24 hours every day, not 3. If you want a set-aside school time where the materials are only available during that time, that is awesome, but your child will be learning throughout all of every day - and many of the Montessori "works" do not require specific "Montessori" materials (Exercises of Practical Life, art & sewing & painting, much of the language work, applying math concepts to real life, real life science exploration (cause and effect, asking questions and testing out answers, etc.) - so much more). *Most* of Montessori is about living real life, not about materials. 
  • During a school-based work cycle, the child is chatting with friends, having a snack, in the ideal Montessori environment the child is free to go outside and play/garden/watch butterflies, observing classmates, using the bathroom, etc. The child is alive and learning, but not always engaged with the specific material. And he has role models around him to guide him in his choices and possibilities. This needn't be any different at home! The child should be engaged in the environment and that includes the adult. If you have a block of "school time" use that time to prepare your materials, to practice with the materials, to explore for yourself - and be present when authentically needed ;) 
  • Will the adult get some "hey! my child doesn't need me at this moment!" times - yep! It will happen. But if you really want your child to work independently of you, you should be engaged in the materials (making them, practicing with them, organizing them, cleaning them) - or doing something else (household or family related) that the child can't "help" with right now, but that he can observe you doing during his own work time. 
  • Read more about the 3 Hour Work Cycle at Home at this Montessori Trails Work Cycle page. 



Making Materials Takes So Long: 
Mom and son
together at Montessori school
He had been sitting and staring at the math materials for 30 minutes.
Doing some mental math he was trying to explain to me 

Most of you - I'll be honest, I love you all, so please know that going in to what I am about to say - MOST of you are making way too many materials. STOP!
  • Your children should be involved in SOME of the material making. Extensions or ideas that they have? Let them help create materials! Primary aged children? Yep. Seriously, 3 year olds? Yep. And the 4s and 5s too. And if you have elementary children and teenagers - get them involved too. This is a lesson in creativity, using art skills in real life situations which is far superior than doing a craft just to do a craft. 
  • If the children come up with an idea - they should be making it - or involved with the making of it. Wait, I repeated that. ;) I wanted to make sure you read that ;) 
  • The children can SEE you making materials too. Let that be *your* work that they 1) observe and 2) makes you too busy to always be hovering like a helicopter. Your children might find they can problem-solve on their own sometimes, make their own decisions or get their own drink of water. YOU can do it! ;) 

Also see our Montessori Trails page on When Montessori Fails for futher insights into how the environment works.


Ask me other questions! I'll reply in comments and/or add to this post.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

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



Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Geometry in Nature

Recently, Legoboy participated in a class at the local-ish museum called "Geometry in Nature". Not a homeschool thing - this was on a Saturday so any children could come. 

I had this awesome post up - almost ready to go - went to edit just a TINY bit - and the whole thing was lost. That has never happened before and I was NOT happy. So 5 months later, here is what I was able to salvage. I didn't feel like (and still don't feel like) re-doing it all :( 


They mostly focused on Fibonacci and on fractals. 

The whole day led to lots of follow-up work and discussions. 



Alleged fractals in painting: 



Which calls to mind our awesome hallways: Elsa's Frozen palace!!!



Waiting for the other kids to arrive - he was the only one there ON TIME. Hm. 



Image of the swirl


Later we enjoyed this website: 
Fibonacci Numbers and Nature


Google these phrases!!!!

  • swirl in pinecone
  • swirl in pineapple
  • Fibonacci sequence image