Montessori Monday (or Tuesday)!
Well it is the beginning of the week again, so I am putting up my post of the work we did this week. I think it was a little more sporadic, but I am trying to get into a better schedule. Let me know what we think.
Botany book
Pup is always on the table trying to put her own work up. I need a bulletin board lower so that she can reach (this one was put before I found Montessori)
Parts of a leaf book.
Bunny’s drawings in her botany book.
Knobless Cylinders
Bunny made “wedding” cakes
Pup was really proud of her tower!
This is mystery bag sorting. I have two different shaped blocks in it. Bunny was all excited at the beginning of the week because she realized that she could “see” with her hands. She said “Mom! what I touch with my hands shows up in my eyes even when they are closed!” So cute!
Pup pulled out a puzzle she mastered some time ago!
Sandpaper letters. We really need to work on these more, but she just doesnt fell like it!I think I need a new way to present them. Any ideas?
Pup started with Pouring in a funnel and ended with table cleaning! 🙂
Bunny figured out that one of the Pink Tower cubes fits into the binomial box, and on the of then fits into the Trinomial box!
She thought this was awesome!
Pup was playing with our Honey Bear. Basically I have q tips that she put through the small hole in the top. But she learned how to twist open and close the top! She was very proud! So I also put together a quick open and close basket.
She really liked the open and close basket.
One morning Bunny asked to dust. Then she wanted to clean windows! I was willing to hand over the cleaners! 🙂 She even taught Pup how clean! I love Practical Life! 🙂
Later that day I found Pup doing this….she was concentrating very hard, so I let her finish. Then we wiped it off. She was “painting” her names.
She did double blocks again! It is really challenging for her, but she can do it!
See hard works pays off!
Bunny wanted in on the action too!
Pup also did one of the extension. She Love this game….and she loves yellow!
I love doing these post because it allows me to see that we did do work this week. Sometimes I feel like we haven’t done much of anything since we haven’t done many presentations. I think that Bunny is holding back, but maybe she is just preparing to move ahead. She really doesn’t want to do any work alone, she wants me to be there helping her all the time. This is the hardest part about doing Montessori at home, there are no other kids that need the teachers attention, so she thinks that she needs me all the time. For example, if she is doing golden bead, she needs me to sit there while she works. She get frustrated easily alone, even thought I don’t do anything. I try to not even talk to her. She can do the work, but she wants me there. Anyone have any thoughts about this? I want her to be independent, but she really wants me to hold her hand so to speak. Oh well, it will work out! 🙂 We will just keep trying!
Well that does it for May! On to June and our farm theme! If you want to see more Montessori activities, check out One Hook Wonder! Happy Schooling!
June 1, 2011 @ 4:05 pm
I had that issue with Bear and still have it, but to a lesser degree ever since she tried a “real” Montessori preschool for a year. I’m interested to see if anyone does have thoughts and suggestions, too.
June 1, 2011 @ 5:20 pm
I’m glad its not just us! I really wanted to send her to a school, but I know that I just cant afford the $10,000 a year. So we are doing what we can. I hope it gets better. Good luck with Bear! She looks like she is doing an amazing job! 🙂
June 1, 2011 @ 5:33 pm
I love the wedding cakes your daughter made with the knobless cylinders!! As to the sand paper letters, I often get the children to rub a white sheet of paper onto the the sand paper letter. They love watching the letter coming through. You could maybe let her make some rainbow letters (see my post on http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7674456627831082033&postID=2593436976304323384. Check out this activity I did with my kids in the classroom : (http://theguilletots.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-writing-exercises.html) .
I hope it helps a little bit.
June 2, 2011 @ 12:58 am
Have you tried doing some “work” of your own for a set amount of time. May be start with 5 minutes and slowly build. Make an agreement that neither of you will interrupt each other’s work. Just a thought…may be it wouldn’t work, but it might be worth a try and make you less available. Love the work you guys are doing. It’s so inspirational. I see your knobless cylinders actually fit into your blocks. I wish mine did. Oh, well.
June 2, 2011 @ 2:03 am
Hi Aude~ Great Blog! Thanks for the ideas. I think she would love rainbow letters! I will try that.
Lori~ Thanks for the idea. I think I may just try that too. Maybe that will help.
Thanks for all the ideas! Its grea to have so much support!
June 2, 2011 @ 3:38 am
Steph,
Remember that she is at a stage in both reading and in math where much of the work IS done one-on-one with the teacher. If you want confirmation on this, read the Montessori by Hand albums. She mentions it specifically. A lot of the works have a note “There is no independent work. It is interactive with the teacher.” Meg also points out that this “second group” takes a long time “As an area the second group is a long process. The child must practice a lot. From beginning to end, this section might span a year. In math, the child can’t really discover anything on his own that lies ahead. The teacher’s plans are what keep the child moving ahead at an appropriate pace.” She also mentions at one point that it is easier to cover more ground when working with multiple children. We only have the one so will be slower. Her age range given for the onset of these activities is 4.5-5. Both of our families are at the back end of the range, but still within it. Don’t worry so much 🙂
When you have so many teacher-directed activities going on it helps to have the culture and practical life areas really fresh so that they are drawn to those works in-between.
We are at a stage where I am basically taking turns doing one-on-one with each boy during a work period (Me Too can’t work on sandpaper letters or play ‘I Spy’ alone…). When I am not working one-on-one I choose a challenging work as Lori does or I am making a material. If the boys start to wander off during those times I know I need to freshen things up.
June 2, 2011 @ 3:42 am
As regards to sandpaper letters, Bunny is REALLY past the sensitive period for these. I think if you miss that, you miss it. You might have to look into something like Handwriting Without Tears instead. Kal-El did the sandpaper letters at the appropriate time, but has trouble transferring that knowledge to paper. He traces them properly, draws them in the sand tray properly, draws them on the chalkboard properly… Then you hand him a piece of paper and he uses five separate lines to draw a capital ‘H.”
To conquer this we do all five activities in a chain. Each day we do a couple letters (one or two stay the same, one changes). I demonstrate the trace. He traces. He draws it in the sand, He draws it on the chalkboard. He writes it on squared paper. He really likes this but probably would not sit and just do sandpaper letters.
June 2, 2011 @ 12:33 pm
Thank you SO much for taking the time to write up that long comment. 🙂 I think that you are very right about me pushing. She is slower and we did only start in the fall with montessori. She is fine compared to the average student her age. Thanks for the idea that things will be slower here because it is just us. I dont ususally mind helping her it just seems that she is not wanting to do anything by herself (to be honset most of this was because of the long weekend with the late nights sine she refused to even dress herself alone:))
You are right about the sandpaper letters. I just started too late. She did do most of the pink and blue ones, so I at least know that she knows those. 🙂 I have had a few suggestions to to rainbow letter, so I think we will try that. She LOVEs to write, so I just need to tap into that.
I do have a question for you. How do you keep playing eye spy? I start to run out of ideas and she looses intrest? Do you do some trational PBG stuff too? She is getting there with the sounds, but needs more practice, I just am out of things to spy! 🙂
June 2, 2011 @ 7:29 pm
I am still playing I Spy with Me Too, but not with Kal-El. He completed all of the I Spy stages (with single letter sounds) before his fourth birthday. As soon as he got his hands on the movable alphabet he was writing and reading phonetic words of ANY length with single sounds. He was THAT solid on word analysis (beginning, end AND middle) when we introduced the movable alphabet. Then he lost interest because he still couldn’t read or write anything he wanted because he didn’t know any double letters. He could only read the materials I prepared. That is why I now prefer the Dwyer to the PBG because I think it is important to learn all 40 sounds from the get go. Kal-El will instigate I Spy with me frequently when he notices a word contains a sound we’ve talked about recently (“peach ends with ‘ch’ Mommy!). When I switched to Dwyer I quickly introduced all the double sandpaper letters. His interest was reignited when he had a way to write what he wanted.
If she has lost interest in I Spy switch over to doing sound sorts. FIll a pretty box or treasure chest with say objects that end with “sh” and objects that end with “b” and have her sort them onto the appropriate sandpaper letter. Change them every day or so until you’ve covered all 40 sounds. Then do the same with say objects that have “o” in the middle versus objects that have “u” in the middle, etc., If she can demonstrate being able to sort any sound in any position there shouldn’t be anything holding her back.