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, April 7, 2012

Montessori Music - Piano Lessons

Our music has not been entirely Montessori - and that is as it should be!

In a school setting, the primary child has the bells, as well as rhythm activities, group songs, and cultural music. The elementary child continues with these activities, studies music in history and other cultures, and is introduced to the tone bars.

Then that child will have other musical influences outside of school, varying with the family and living situation.

For us, we have had the following influences and experiences:

Primary: 
  • Full Montessori primary level music: bells and rhythm specifically
  • Can You Hear It? 
  • Our Musical Year - Level 1
  • 1 year of Montessori school with the group singing; 1/2 year at another Montessori school; 1 year at a local non-Montessori preschool (lots and lots of songs)
  • Church hymns and prayer time songs
  • Atrium music - 3 years

Elementary: 
Is Montessori music curriculum enough? No. Music needs to be part of a child's life and for the most part, we can assume that music IS a part of the child's life, in some manner or another. It is written in their souls. 

Therefore Montessori music presumes that music saturates a child's life and the materials are designed to hone in on certain key aspects in order to enrich the child's experience elsewhere and fulfill his inner soul. 


Recently, my son received his long-awaited big Christmas present (we're just over 3 months late): 


He started his first lesson the same evening - and is already 3 lessons in (the next day as I type this!).
(Editing just before this post goes live: he's halfway through book 1 because of his previous music experience)


We are skipping the entire activity book that corresponds with this level. Why? Because the Montessori primary music alone covered it ALL; but then he's had the other experiences as well. The only thing for which we'll pull out our music flashcards to reinforce are the intervals - which Montessori covers, we just didn't as much as we could have. Again - Montessori music was not meant to be the child's ONLY music experience - but if it is their only experience, they are still on strong footing. 

I like The Music Tree books, because they have a Montessori feel for them. 
  • They were developed at a music school in conjunction with the students (sounds like the history of Montessori, huh?)
  • Book 1:
    • it gets the children hands on the black keys immediately; using BOTH hands; and in multiple octaves (this is the first song!). 
    • The child immediately becomes adept at moving across the keyboard, using black and white keys (white keys are brought in just a couple of lessons in). 
    • The child is given exercises in playing the same patterns in multiple locations on the keyboards (using those intervals of 2nds and 3rds, etc!) - this is possible because the staff lines are not introduced until halfway into the book. The focus is on the pattern, not on just memorizing the location of notes. 
    • In this way, the child is playing real music with real patterns before focusing too much on the scale of notes; he'll be able to adjust to both bass and treble readily. (how many of us are stuck in one or the other because we played a single clef instrument in our youth? or our piano lessons didn't include bass clef until we had "learned" treble clef?)
  • Additional books: 
    • Corresponding activity books fit together and extend better than others I've seen, or those that I used to teach myself over the years, and even those I used in my own lessons. 
    • the second book as a full set of staff lines and looks more like a regular piano books
    • starting in the 1st book and continuing ahead, there is constant review on each page
    • AND the children write their own songs based on patterns they are learning

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Toys in the Montessori Home - Primary



Our toys requirements for the primary Montessori age - 3-6 years old:


  • real materials
  • real images
  • constructive
  • imagination development
  • develop real-life skills
  • aesthetics: something I can stand to look at
  • long-lasting (culturally, age-span, actual number of years in use)
And these lists are not including activities that don't require materials - this is just physical items.

So what did we have? A lot that has been very multi-age - we use a lot now in elementary, and had some of it in toddlerhood as well. 
  • Balance Beam - great extension for walking on the line (does not replace it!)
  • Lincoln Logs - cultural significance to North America, natural, limitations of styles encourages creative solutions to build various structures, those same limitations demonstrate what is possible or not possible with this particular material
  • Easel - double-sided with chalkboard and magnetic/dry-erase board
  • Art and Writing supplies: non-drying clay, a few kid water-colors, easel paper, various high quality paint brushes, a couple of junk drawers for random supplies to use for imaginative purposes, high-quality paper scissors, fabric scissors, tracing paper, some construction paper, glue, double-sided tape, Prismacolor colored pencils, white erasers, KUM pencil sharpeners, cheap sets of cards and envelopes, notepads
  • Craft supplies: yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks, cross-stitch and embroidery materials, felt
  • Schleich and Toob animals and scenery
  • Wood barn
  • Supply of cardboard for making own creations
  • Gardening supplies
  • Stuffed animals - nothing gaudy or entirely unrealistic
  • Wood train track with magnetic-wooden trains
  • Music: various percussion instruments from various cultures
  • Books - lots and lots of excellent literature selections
  • Wood pattern blocks for tessellations and patterns: we had these at the primary age, but they were not a big hit
  • Games: typical deck of cards, Skip-Bo, Uno, Bible Timeline cards, Mary Memory Match, Opposites Matching 
  • Building blocks
  • Blankets and pillows for making forts
  • Practical life items: child-size brooms and mops, cleaning cloths, spray bottles; yep, these were toys ;) 
  • tricycle (carryover from toddler)
This has actually been a difficult list to create because so much of our school and home/play overlaps, flowing from one to the other. Because of this overlap, this list actually looks longer than it feels. 


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Toys in a Montessori Home - Lower Elementary

Our toys requirements for the elementary Montessori age - 6-12 years:

  • constructive
  • imagination development
  • develop real-life skills
  • aesthetics: something I can stand to look at

So what do we have? A lot that has carried over from primary actually - just expanded and deepened, with a few things removed: 
  • Legos - yep, plastic - constructive, imaginative, aesthetics (good and bad), patterning - we do NOT utilize many specialized pieces; a friend has described his engineering college degree as "legos on steroids"
  • Lincoln Logs - cultural significance to North America, natural, limitations of styles encourages creative solutions to build various structures, those same limitations demonstrate what is possible or not possible with this particular material
  • Easel with chalkboard and magnetic/dry-erase board
  • Art and Writing supplies: non-drying clay, real water-colors, a few kid water-colors, easel paper, various high quality paint brushes, a couple of junk drawers for random supplies to use for imaginative purposes, high-quality paper scissors, fabric scissors, tracing paper, some construction paper, glue, double-sided tape, Prismacolor colored pencils, white erasers, KUM pencil sharpeners, cheap sets of cards and envelopes, notepads
  • Craft supplies: yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks, cross-stitch and embroidery materials, felt, fabric and thread, use of the sewing machine
  • Schleich and Toob animals and scenery
  • Wood barn
  • Supply of cardboard for making own creations
  • Gardening supplies
  • Stuffed animals - nothing gaudy or entirely unrealistic
  • Wood train track with magnetic-wooden trains
  • Music: various percussion instruments from various cultures; recorder with instruction book; CDs; CD player; 
  • Books - lots and lots of excellent literature selections
  • Wood pattern blocks for tessellations and patterns: my Montessori albums do not include presentations for these, so we count them as "toys"
  • Board games, card games, strategy and logic games: this is a whole post by itself! See this post for a few of our games
  • Building blocks
  • Wood yo-yo
  • 2-wheel bicycle
  • jump ropes, kites, sleds
  • Keyboard: newest acquisition - yes, it's for learning to play, but it's also for fun!
  • Kept the balance beam! 
This has actually been a difficult list to create because so much of our school and home/play overlaps, flowing from one to the other. Because of this overlap, this list actually looks longer than it feels. A lot of these items were primarily "school" at primary and are now toys; or are still partially used for school. 

And I want to include our science supplies as toys, because they are so much fun! But I'll hold back on that one! ;) 


Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Toys in a Montessori Home - Series

So not only does my son have a Montessori education, with the influence of such at home - we are homeschooling Montessori, so the influence is even greater.

I've had a few e-mails asking what kind of toys does my son play with? What do we allow or disallow?

Well. There's toys, then there are toys.

Yes, I have always made very conscious decisions about purchases and gift lists. Follows were the credentials:
  • small living space
  • not easily broken, yet encourages proper care
  • readily repairable when needed
  • limited budget for batteries and electric bills
  • desire for an actual attention span in my child

We have had more than our share of plasticy toys, items I didn't really want but somehow ended up in our home, whether because the previous tenant left a bunch of stuff, or the church nursery was closing and I received everything to use for my in-home daycare, or as gifts. 


Maria Montessori was not opposed to toys - she just found that the children *chose* not to use them when they were presented with more real-life items that fit their developmental needs at the time. 

What follows in the next few days is a series of posts about some of the toys we've had in our home over the years for various purposes. 

The second Mama-endorsed electrical "toy" ;) 
Toys in a Primary Montessori Home
Toys in a Lower Elementary Montessori Home


Sunday, April 1, 2012

Elementary Montessori Continuum - or Breakage


It is so great to see more information on elementary Montessori spreading across the internet :)

There are differences between AMS and AMI and other Montessori organizations; unfortunately AMI's stance of keeping themselves to themselves has allowed a proliferation of information on Montessori to spread that is not entirely "the complete picture".


One of those differences is in regard to the continuum or division of the elementary age.


Many Montessori schools (and training centers) divide up the elementary into lower and upper elementary - and the most readily accessible albums for homeschoolers are divided thus; however the presentations and materials used are the same and should not be arbitrarily divided - I've seen so many album options for this age group that become too much "curriculum" and not enough "fulfilling the needs of the child, encouraging independent research, and building community".

Just something to think about when we say "this work is only for upper elementary" when you have a 7 year old KEENLY interested and doing independent research on that very topic that surpasses what we would typically give to an upper elementary student.

At elementary, we want to give the most pertinent, necessary information; give them their place in human history through the key timelines; spark imagination and intrigue; so that they go off and discover new insights on their own, in community, and find their places in our society, in history. It looks chaotic, but if they are receiving the keys, allowed time to explore on their own, having certain amounts of outside expectations/requirements to fulfill, creating their own materials that are above and beyond the keys, and are truly going deep with their work, then we have a true elementary environment :) because then we have a community (which leads to the peace education and other aspects that we desire, without having to use a "curriculum" to get there).

My concern with splitting 6-12 to 6-9 and 9-12 is that we want to give too much, and the children are left with less to discover on their own; there will be less community-building; fewer opportunities for conflict resolution; fewer opportunities for self-planned Goings-Out (student planned field trips for a small group of children exploring a particular field of interest); less opportunity for building self-confidence and study skills;

Practically speaking, many schools may NEED to divide into 6-9 and 9-12; but then each classroom should have the complete set of elementary materials (and training) so that the children can be where they need to be at any given age, without that arbitrary division that will only hinder growth.

However, Montessori teachers who have a full class of children ages 6-12 find that they a true community and the children really teach each other, with the children having more freedom of movement within the continuum so that they can go back and forth as needed without worry of "being at the wrong level."

In our homeschools, the continuum should definitely be maintained, without artificial breakages; especially if you have children across age spans - otherwise you'll give up on Montessori before you really get into it.

I choose AMI elementary because of this continuum. I have the complete picture for the elementary range and my son moves along where he needs to be.

I know that if I had used the 6-9 and 9-12 albums available, we would be "too structured" and our love of learning would be entirely killed, given our family situation and circumstances. I still look at those albums once in a while, but we almost never use any of the presentations or "assignments" in them because either my son already thought of that work himself (as an extension) or it is superfluous to our family and life goals.

So I keep coming back to my AMI albums, and trusting them more and more each day, with each passing moment.

The albums I use are available through Keys of the Universe.