Article on Montessori Homeschooling

Lori at Montessori for Everyone has written a great article on Montessori homeschooling. I am honored to be quoted in it! Check it out here, it is on page 22.

Keeping Jameson Constructively Occupied Part 1

Here are some activities Jameson enjoyed this week: Pouring beans- this was a huge hit! He did this over and over just like the Montessori books said he would. I loved the clinking sound of the beans on the glass, which let me know he was pouring something he was supposed to be pouring, unlike the box of cereal he poured in the toilet a few weeks back.
Scribbling on the dry erase board. Jameson loves this, probably because the dry-erase board is something Mommy and brothers use for school and he gets to sit at the school table just like the big boys. Notice that he is my first left-handed child!
I found many great toddler art ideas in the book Young at Art, simple ideas that focus on the experience of art. Here Jameson makes a black and white collage by dipping cotton balls in glue and sticking them to black construction paper.
Here Jameson makes another collage with white stickers on black paper.
This last activity is low on the "keep toddler busy while we do school" scale because obviously it requires some supervision to ensure clothes, floors, furniture, doors, etc. don't get painted too. But Jameson really enjoyed it, he made four of these lovely black on white paintings and proudly hung them on the refrigerator. Each week I'll give him a new color of paint to work with.

Introducing...

Our new little one, due March 8th!

The Plan for Jameson age 2

The plan for Jameson is to keep him from damaging himself, the house and the other kids. I am going to use the Comprehensive Toddler list from Montessori for Everyone for ideas. I'm thinking lots of Practical Life!

Here he is doing a spooning activity:

I am also going to use the color of the week art curriculum from the book Young At Art. Each week there is a story, and project ideas for drawing, collage, painting and sculpture organized around a different color. Its very open ended and fun and messy for little guys.

This week Jameson learned about black, we read Ben's Trumpet by Rachel Isadora (with black and white illustrations), he made drawings with black crayon, a collage with white stickers on black paper, and a painting with black paint.

The Plan for Mary Gabriella age 4

For Mary (who begs for more and more school!) I am planning on lots of Montessori activities (I'm aiming for one or two presentations a day plus time to choose from the shelves) using the albums from Montessori Marketplace, and Lori of Montessori for Everyone's Comprehensive List of 3-6 activities. I am also going to do a letter of the week theme using some ideas from the Alphabet Path plans on the Serendipity website, Montessori materials, Explode the Code primers (phonics workbooks) and anything else I can come up with for stories, games, crafts, and recipes.
She'll also listen and narrate Bible stories twice a week with Avery.




I may also use the music ideas from the Play in Time blog.




Here is a summary of what we did for A week in addition to drawing pictures of things that start with A and reading lots of books with an A theme (Angelina Ballerina was a favorite!) :

Looking at pictures of things that start with A in our A box:


Building A with Handwriting without Tears materials:
Writing A in salt:Cutting A's out of pie dough: A is for apple pie!

The Plan for Avery grade 1

Avery will overlap somewhat with Reagan for History, Science, Religion, Art and Music, but Math and Language Arts will be his own.



Math: Right Start B daily.




Language Arts: Spell to Write and Read, Little Angel Reader A, First Language Lessons. Phonics will be daily, Grammar will be 4 times a week.




Religion: Bible Stories(I read and he narrates back), Image of God 1, Baltimore Catechism, Good News Planner. Bible stories will be twice a week, Image of God and other resources once a week.




History/Geography: Story of the World vol. 3 and First Timeline once a week.




Science: Real Science 4 Kids once a week.




Art/Music: Picture study using Museum ABC and composer of the month once a week.

The Plan for Reagan grade 4

Math: Right Start E. We've used this program since 1st grade, and I just love it. It is very hands-on, Montessori inspired and uses games for reinforcement. I gained a much deeper understanding of math through using it, and I was an Engineering major! The downside: it is very teacher intensive, you have to sit with the student and teach the lesson they can't just disappear and do it. Oh well, I think Reagan is going to be pretty independent in most of his other subjects. Math will be daily.




Language Arts: Language Mechanic by Critical Thinking Press (three times a week), Handwriting without Tears Cursive (daily), and lots of writing (copywork and narration) daily. My focus is on language mechanics, the area he was weakest in on the CAT tests. Daily Spelling will continue with Spell to Write and Read, and the McCall Crabbs books for Reading Comprehension once a week. For Reading I printed out the reading list provided by the fabulous Eliz Leone and put it write in his binder. He has to read at least 30 minutes a day from a book of his choosing, either from the list or the Picture Perfect Childhood basket. The he can write short book reports in the reading section of his binder.




Religion: Image of God 4, Friendly Defenders, Baltimore Catechism, Good News Planner for liturgical year lessons, once a week.




History/Geography: Story of the World volume 3, Maps Charts and Graphs, and My First Book about Wisconsin once a week.




Science: Real Science 4 Kids, starting with Chemistry then Biology and Physics and once week.




Art and Music: Picture study using Museum ABC and composer of the month once a week.




Critical Thinking: Building Thinking Skills 2, Think-A-Minutes once a week.



I will also put choice time ideas on the white board for Reagan to work on while I am busy with someone else.

International Night

Last night the boys participated in a very fun offering from our local homeschool group: International Night! Each family or child presented a different country, complete with delicious regional snacks. Reagan did his report on Egypt and cooked Asbusa (Egyptian cookies) and Horoset (a date and raisin spread). Avery did his report on Japan and serves Sushi and green tea. Both boys did a great job on their projects, with not much help from me.

Lot's of families presented their countries of origin and had many traditions and cultural artifacts to share. It was a very fun and educational night, and the food was delicious!

Here is Avery rolling his sushi with a bamboo mat. We used steamed cabbage leaves instead of the seaweed coating and filled it with vinegared rice, shredded carrots and sliced cucumbers. Avery did most of the assembly and rolling himself. I tried to convince the boys to work together on a report (so I'd have to help less) but it worked out well having them each do their own and they both learned a lot and did a lot of "schooly" things (like research and writing and editing reports) completely voluntarily. Mary saw how much fun the boys were having and wanted to a do a report too, so Reagan let her color an Egyptian flag to put on his display and added her name to his report!

He caught a frog!

Great excitement descended on our back yard when Reagan caught this cute little amphibian! We identified him as a Copes Gray Tree Frog, he has sticky feet for climbing trees and can change color from green to gray.

We started!

Today was our first day of school! We had been off since July 1st and the kids were showing signs of being ready for more structure. So we dove in and it went very well.

At breakfast I introduced our letter of the week, A, and we read about St. Anne from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints.

Then we headed to the schoolroom and the kids all had fun drawing things that start with A on the marker board. The top half of the marker board is full of suggestions for "choice time" a great concept I got from Angela at Three Plus Two. It's a list of ideas for educational activities the kids can choose from while I am working with someone else.

After they finished their drawing I showed the kids their planners. We all got new Good News planners this year and they are full of great stuff!

My planner was a great help in keeping myself organized. Avery and Mary's have little activities (mazes, word searches) and are mostly for fun and to introduce the calendar and liturgical year. We found today's date, discussed the Saint of the day, and Reagan read the Sunday Gospel and we discussed the word of the week, "faith". In addition to all this great liturgical year information, Reagan's planner actually has his assignments, and he worked very diligently and non-fussily at completing his handwriting and grammar assignments and crossing them off while I worked with Avery on math, phonics, and grammar. Mary colored in her binder and Jameson colored with a black crayon (black is his color of the week). Then I read a Bible story (Creation) to everyone while they drew pictures, which were supposed to be related to the story (my idea was to have them create their own Bible books), but only Reagan's actually had anything to do with the story of Creation. Avery copied a drawing he made last night with crayon, only this time he used marker. Tomorrow I will have them tell back the story we read today to check their comprehension.

After the Bible story I gave Reagan a diagnostic spelling test to see what level he is at, and where we should start with the spelling words. Then we did Reagan's math lesson. Look at his face in this picture! You can tell he was less than thrilled to be solving math problems again!

Meanwhile, Avery and Mary colored some more and Jameson played with the blocks and things from the Montessori shelves. I had even set up a tray with playdough for Jameson or Mary to work with, but neither got around to it. I am hoping to change the tray daily to rotate through the Montessori practical life exercises.

Then we put away our books and binders (each child has a plastic bin under the table) and that was a morning lesson.

Reagan has chess camp this week, and the neighbors are outside to play with b/c the public schools haven't started yet so I think we are going to forgo our afternoon subjects (History/Geography, Science, Religion, Art, and Music) until September. A gradual start!