Montessori at Home

Zoology & Taxonomy

2011-03-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ah, science. Of all subjects it was my weakest in high school: chemistry specifically. I did alright in biology, mostly because my best friend and I were in the same class and studies together. If you listened closely during tests and exams you might have heard us humming softly. We found that the best way to remember the facts was to make up silly songs. If only I had begun learning science the Montessori way! Here is a sample lesson, one that can be repeated indefinitely without growing tedious.

Above you can see the (almost) completed lesson in zoology/taxonomy. I use it as a launching board to talk about all different kinds of plants and animals, but mostly animals. We begin with the most basic of categories: living and non-living. Ella sets out two pieces of paper, one labeled "Living" and one labeled "Non-Living."

I've made up many cards (just using Microsoft Word, eight cards to an 8 1/2 x 11 page), the vast majority of them animals, for Ella to sort. I've mixed them all up and divided them into small groups so she can grab a pile and sort through those that day.

Choosing items for non-living was very interesting. Most things I chose were no-brainers, i.e. they are obviously non-living, but there were a few that were more challenging. Fire is an excellent one as it has many characteristics of living things (can grow, can move, needs air, needs "food", leaves waste, etc.) and there are a few others that can catch one unawares. Above you can see that included in this pile are lightening, stalactites, rocks, and a compact disc. There was no doubt that the rocks and compact disc were non-living, but lightening has some similarities to living things as do stalactites. It took quite a while for her to decide where to put the stalactites because in an earlier stack she had coral, which appears to be like a rock, but is actually living. The sneaky ones are the most fun and they help reinforce the difference between the living and non-living.

I scoured the internet for the pictures I used for each card. While I tried to focus on variety, keeping in mind that the majority of cards would have to be vertebrates, I did make an effort to put in plenty of animals that are native to our area, such as the ruffed grouse (bottom left), which is a popular game bird in New Brunswick.

After separating living from non-living we take our pile of living and divide them up between "Plants" and "Animals." Yes, I know that there are more categories of living things than just those two, but as they are the most common and encompass almost every living thing with which a child is familiar we focus on them. Fungus, protozoa, bacterium, etc. can come later.

Most of this sorting Ella found very easy, but I tried to keep her on her toes. The Venus flytrap, being carnivorous, gave her a moment's pause. And she was convinced for a long time that coral must be a plant, which I grant you, is not an illogical conclusion!

This particular pile of cards only had three samples of plants. Our discussion of the tree trunk was interesting as the tree itself was dead, and therefore neither living or non-living, but it was covered in moss (which was my target species) and the moss was clearly alive. Ella decided that rather than having just two initial categories there should be three: living, non-living, and formerly-living/dead. After all, wood was once a tree, and the radishes can't really be living if they've been pulled up out of the ground, chopped up, and pickled! Smart girl.

After the plant/animal division, we take the animal cards and divide them between vertebrates and invertebrates.

Categorizing animals this way is a bit more challenging. Because you can't actually see the backbone or spine in a vertebrate you have to think through how an animal moves, how it lives, and what its surface feels like. Ella is just beginning to remember consistently to look for segmentation of the animals' bodies, hard exteriors such as shells (an exoskeleton), and over-all "smooshiness" (that the body is completely smooshy or soft, indicating that there are no bones).

Again, putting in tricky cards gives the opportunity to discuss the "why is it this one and not that one?" question. Above I included a sea horse. Ella concluded initially that it was an invertebrate because it appears to have an exoskeleton, even though it is a fish, though like catfish sea horses do not have scales.

Following the organization of the vertebrates and invertebrates we take the pile of vertebrates and then comes the real sorting fun!

With five categories to chose from there's a lot more room for error. Each animal has to be evaluated in several different ways: what kind of "skin" it has and/or if it has a skin covering (hair, fur, feathers), whether it gives birth to babies or lays eggs, if it lays eggs whether it lays them on land or in water, if the offspring look like miniatures of the parents or if they have another form entirely, if it has a mouth or a beak/bill, how it breathes, where it lives, if it is warm or cold blooded, and how it feeds its babies. There are hosts of conversations to be had as we work through these cards, and I frequently find that Ella and I end up laughing, especially at odd animal behaviour or appearance.

Amphibians. They have slimy skin, live in or near water, are cold-blooded, lay eggs in water, have babies that look nothing like themselves and whom they completely ignore, and usually can breathe right through their skin. Their appearances have little variation: frogs and toads look similar as do salamanders and newts. To give a bit more variety I've tried to include pictures of amphibians at various stages of development.

Mammals.* We are warm-blooded, have fur or hair, live all over, breathe air with lungs, give birth to babies that look similar to the parents (usually!), and feed our offspring with milk from our own bodies. Isn't it great to be a mammal? There are quite a few unusual mammals, like whales, manatees, platypuses, etc. It can be fun to emphasize the similarities between humans and other mammals, as well as the differences. Thank God for opposable thumbs! Plus, as a nursing Mum, it's interesting to discuss how other species nurse. In the case of whales, Ella would not believe me that they were mammals until I found a video of a beluga whale giving birth and nursing her baby!

Fish. They live in water, are cold-blooded, and breathe through gills. Some species give birth to live young, but most lay eggs. The level of parental involvement is usually low to nonexistent. Although there are three different classes of fish, for the young child and early elementary student so many details can be confusing, so I lumped all the fish together. When (or if) I ever have time to set up an aquarium again we will certainly get into closer examination of fish classes.

Birds. Feathers, beaks, wings, and two legs are the most easily recognizable traits. They are warm-blooded, breathe air with their lungs, lay eggs, and are frequently attentive parents. One of their families (the penguins) are even able to survive in the harshest climate on earth and one of their species (emperor penguins) stay in that climate during its harshest season in order to go to extraordinary lengths for the purposes of mating, bearing, and raising offspring. In my opinion, birds are way cool!

Reptiles. Some like life where it's hot and dry and others would prefer to stay wet all day long. But they all have scales, breathe with their lungs, are cold-blooded, lay eggs on land, and their babies look like miniature adults. They are also very good for frightening grandmothers and mothers when brought in from outside with a cheerful, "Look what I found, Mum!" (Please note: this refers to something my brother did to my mother and grandmother, not something my children did to me. I would not be so chicken-hearted... I hope!)

After all the sorting has been done, we clip each section together with other cards of the same category, to play with and discuss later.

Eli added his own artistic touch to the non-living card!

And, as is so often the case with homeschooling Montessori Mums, how to store materials effeciently is of great concern, so here's what I did. I found this tray and this box at the local Dollarama store.

The tray perfectly fits half of an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper (or cardstock), which is what I used for the category titles, and the small crate is perfect as a card holder!

*Please note: While all the photographs taken above were mine, the pictures in the photographs are not. They were all found online through Google search. The human family in the mammals is unknown to me, but it was the best photo I could find of nude humans that was neither graphic (in the negative sense) nor of poor quality. Since all the other animals were au naturel, I figured it was only fair that the humans were as well. For the record, I think it is a beautiful and tasteful photo... though I don't think I'd be comfortable with my family posing in such a manner, or at least displaying it!

Addition Table with the Bead Bars

2011-03-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

Here is a super-simple presentation of an addition table from one to five. It is mainly to work on memorization of basic addition, but it also shows the pattern of sums.

I printed a 6x6 grid (3x3 grids on four pieces of cardstock, cut and pasted together), though you could easily draw it out on bristol board.

We left the upper left square blank, representing zero. Then we put in our addends: one through five across the top row and one through five down the first column. I got her started by going across the second row verbally: "One plus one is two." (Then placing the green two bar in the square where the red ones meet.) "One plus two is three." (Place the pink three bar.) "One plus three is four." (Place the yellow four bar.) And so on.

Ella took over with the bead bars and when I came back I discovered that she had decided that because by six the bead bars were too long to go straight across the squares that she could bend them so they would fit in nicely! She doesn't do that anymore. I showed her (as you can see with the sixes and sevens) that they would fit if put diagonally.

This lesson can easily be expanded to 10 + 10 by expanding the grid. And let me emphasis the importance of saying aloud each equation. Ella cannot understand why I insist on this, but it does help with memorization and (very important for busy mums) you can hear what your child is doing while doing housework/writing papers/changing diapers/folding laundry or whatever else needs doing!

Working with Words and the 3-Period-Lesson

2011-03-04T16:29:00.000-08:00

Besides doing Montessori I'm also using a few workbooks with Ella which are grade-specific. Usually she enjoys doing them and it means that I can compare what she is able to do with what the public curriculum expects.

What she is learning in Montessori I supplement with the workbooks and what she is learning in the workbooks I supplement with Montessori. Here is an example of the latter.

The workbooks have been going over nouns and verbs. I have not yet got the material for grammar through Montessori (though I plan to), but I did make up a couple hundred word cards that she could use to make sentences.

I used cardstock in three colours. The nouns are on red paper, the verbs are on yellow, and what we are currently calling "helping words" are on blue. I have told her that there are a lot of different kinds of "helping words" and they have names, just like verbs and nouns do, but for right now we're just focusing on the verbs and the nouns.

To present the material I began laying out all the nouns that were the names of places. I asked her to explain what was the same about these words. Didn't take her long. Then I began to lay out nouns that referred to people or were people's names and asked her to say what she thought they had in common. Finally I laid out all of the words that identified objects and again got her to point out what was similar about them all.

"All of these words are called nouns," I explained. "Nouns name either a person, a place, or an object."

We repeated the lesson with verbs and talked about how verbs were an action or what someone or something is.

Then we began to make sentences. Very soon she knew how to use the cards and made longer and longer sentences, sometimes making them rather complex.

Although I had made all the verbs to be present, third person, singular she found that too confining and began to use the word that came after a verb to cover up the superfluous "s."

During our second lesson using the word cards Ella learned the difference between subject and object. For this I used the 3-period-lesson. If you're not familiar with the 3-period-lesson here it is in simple form:

First Period: Tell the child what he or she is touching/experiencing. E.g. This is the subject. In a sentence the subject is what does the action. This is the object. In a sentence the object is what receives the action done by the subject. The key to the first period is keeping it simple and to-the-point. With a younger child, such as my sons, I would endeavour to use as few words as possible and keep the emphasis on the word I am trying to get them to learn. So, when I am presenting the colour red from the first set of colour tablets, I lay the tablet on the table in front of the boy I'm working with and say, "This is red. Red."

Second Period: Get the child to indicate the correct object when you ask. E.g. Where is the subject? Show me the object. With my boys I'd ask, "Where is red?" or "Which is red?" (if I had already presented more than one colour. If the child has difficulty then you go back and repeat the first period lesson again.

Third Period: For this you want the child to do the explaining and to use the correct vocabulary without prompting. E.g. I would point to the subject and ask "What is this?" or "What part of the sentence is this?" Then Ella would answer "It's the subject. The subject is what's doing the action." With the very young you are simply trying to teach them to identify, they can learn to explain later. So I would ask, "What is this?" or "What colour is this?" Henry is my talker and he will usually answer verbally, "Wed!" Or, sometimes, "'Ellow!" and then I have to correct him. Eli may or may not answer and after giving him a chance I will give him the answer, "It's red!"

Square of Pythagoras - Some Extentions

2011-03-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

Yet again we used the square of Pythagoras, although this time we worked together at arranging it, Ella dividing up the pieces between us, although she always kept the squares. "After all, I'm the student!" she explained.

Ella and I have made the square of Pythagoras. Then I directed her to build the tower with the pink cubes.

Without any prompting on my part she took the smallest square and put it on the smallest cube of her tower and said, "Look Mummy! They go together!"

We then "related" the pink cubes with the square of Pythagoras. I asked how she knew where each would go and she explained that each side of a cube was a square and that therefore the pink cubes would go on the actual squares in the square of Pythagoras.

Ella then proceeded to relate the two materials in the same way as she had done with the red square and the smallest pink cube.

Then she did it horizontally.

After we had put away the pink tower and reorganized our square of Pythagoras I got out the bead square for her to relate them together. She told me that it was pretty easy since they all matched in colour.

Here she is almost done. I then extended the lesson a little by giving her an early glimpse into multiplication; though we are not yet "naming" it as such as I would like her to absorb the ideas sensorially first. I would touch each bead square, while it was superimposed on the square of Pythagoras and say, "One one is one. Two twos are four. Three threes are nine," and so on. After each statement I would pause for her to touch the square and repeat what I just said. I expect this activity will continue in a variety of ways until we are actually doing "real" multiplication.

Our "fancy" storage container for the square of Pythagoras - a plain wood tray from the dollar store.

Square of Pythagoras - First Presentation

2011-03-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who inquired. No, I'm not dead! It's been almost a year and a half since my last post, and while my life has been moving quickly onward I've been facing it mostly with glazed eyes and an air of confusion. Such is life with twin boys.

My sons are now 2 and are healthy, mischievous little fellows. I've begun to do some early Montessori work with them, which you will hear about in an upcoming post.

Ella is now "officially" grade 1, in that she is 6 and that is the typical grade 1 age. And there ends all that is "typical" about her.

Evidently she's doing some things on a grade 4 level, and she was teaching our 17 year old babysitter about geography. Her reading is about average, or perhaps a bit above average for her age, and her handwriting in abominable! Though much of what she writes looks like the hen-scratchings of a preschooler, what she writes is very well done. I guess we just didn't do enough of the sandpaper letters or the metal insets.

I have a vast backlog of photos and lessons to share and I hope to do so over time. For today, here was our afternoon lesson: the first presentation of the square of Pythagoras (also called the deconomial square).

The square of Pythagoras is basically the multiplication times table in visual form. The smallest square is 1x1 cm and is red in colour, which coordinates with the colour of the bead bars.

The next three shapes are green, like the "2" beads and are 2x1 cm, 2x1 cm, and 2x2 cm square.

The next five shapes are pink, representing "3" and are (2) 3x1 cm, (2) 3x2 cm, and a 3x3 cm square.

In the above photograph, Ella is laying out the 4s.

I find that she really enjoys making the square of Pythagoras as she thinks that the pattern is beautiful. I think so too.

The completed square (as done by Ella). As you can see it goes from 1x1 cm to 10x10 cm. It is meant to coordinate with the pink cubes, the brown/broad stair/rectangular prisms, and ultimately can be used as a guide to laying out the bead bars in the deconomial. Hopefully I will be showing these extensions in the near future.

As for the Square of Pythagoras material itself. It is really hard to find to purchase. Ideally it is supposed to be made out of wood, but I found it much easier to make it out of foam sheets using a large paper-cutter. (An office-sized paper cutter can be invaluable when making materials.) I've also seen beautiful square of Pythagoras lay-outs made of felt or other fabrics, plastic duo-tang covers (though I don't know how easy or difficult it would be to find the colours you want), and painted cardboard or bristol board (though they can tend to warp).

Initially I planned on making it using inches as a base, rather than centimetres. Bad idea! It was HUGE and very unweieldy. I'm very glad I downsized, though what I'm going to do with all that extra foam is beyond me!

The first presentation of the square of Pythagoras is not meant to teach the multiplication table, but like the binomial and trinomial cubes it is a sensorial introduction to a more complicated mathematical concept. Right now we call all the green rectangles and square the "twos," all the pink the "threes" and all the yellow the "fours." It will be some time before we begin to name individual rectangles 2x1 or 4x3.

To present it I simply named the material, "This is the square of Pythagoras." and I began making the square, beginning with the red, then the green, then pink, and so on. It didn't take long before Ella got the idea and just took over.

She was rather frustrated by the fact that her square of Pythagoras wasn't as "perfect" as mine, but with a bit of reassurance that it took practice she became satisfied with her results. I'm looking forward to her reaction to the extentions.

Montessori Mathematics: The Complete Bead Material - Part 5

2009-11-23T19:58:00.001-08:00

Making the Bead Squares

The bead squares are not much more difficult to make than the bead bars, but there's no quick-and-sneaky way to make them. There's no easy way to make the bead squares either, so you might as well get used to it! Keep in mind that when it seems that it will never end, you get to the bead chains and speed will again be a factor.

Many of the steps for the bead squares are the same as for the bead bars, so I'm not going to elaborate on those steps, although I've included the photographs for your benefit. There are some differences, though, and that is what this post will focus on.

Step 1: Gather your materials

Step 2: Cut your plastic canvas. You will need to cut two sections that are (1 square) x (N x 2 - 1). For my example, using 5, I cut 1 x 9 squares. (1 square) x (5 x 2 - 1 = 9). There is one exception to this. When doing your 2 square, you only need one piece of canvas cut.

Step 3: Cut your wire.

Step 4: Make a wire curl.

Step 5: Straighten the wire.

Step 6: Thread your first bead. It's really easy to forget at first that you're making a bead square, not a bead bar, and I've mindlessly begun to make bead bars while the plastic canvas laid right in front of me!

Step 7: Add your first piece of plastic canvas. You will need to thread the wire through the first square.

Step 8: Thread the rest of your beads, minus one. So, if you're doing five, you've already got one bead on and you need to bring the number of beads to four.

Step 9: Add your second piece of plastic canvas. Again, you put the wire through the first square.

Step 10: Thread your final bead.

Step 11: Twist the loose end.

Step 12: Clip off the excess.

Step 13: Make a tight wire curl at the angled end of your row of beads.

One row done!

Step 14: Begin your next row. Basically you follow steps 1-6 and when the time comes to put the wire through the first piece of plastic canvas you skip one square and put it through the following one. In the five bead square each row of beads threads through the canvas at squares 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9.

TA-DA! You've made a bead square.

Montessori Mathematics: The Complete Bead Material - Part 4

2009-11-19T19:58:00.001-08:00

Making the Basic Bead Bars

I know it's been a long time coming, but it's finally here! Details, with photos, of how to make the bead material. We'll start with the most basic: the bead bars. You will need to make 55 each of the bead bars 1-10. I'm using the "fives" as my examples because they're not too big and time-consuming to make, but they're are large enough to show some of the more complicated aspects of bead material making.

Step 1: Gather your materials. It's best to have your beads organised and your wire cutters, wire, round-nose pliers, and plastic canvas all in one place. That way, when you have a moment you can grab the supplies and work or you can pile them quickly in a bag to take with you. I found the car is a wonderful place to work on making bead material. Please keep in mind, though, if you decide to work in a vehicle, you should not be the person behind the wheel!

Step 2: Cut your wire. You'd think this would be the simplest part, but you'd be wrong. Not that the cutting is particularly difficult, but the judging of the right length is! There are two ways to go about this, the stupid way and the smart way. I did it the stupid way for most of my bead bars, but when making the bead chains I figured out the smart way and I've been using it ever since. The stupid way is quite simple. You unwind approximately as much wire as you think you'd need to make the bead bar, plus some length for the two loops, plus a little bit extra. To make things go faster, you'd cut a bunch of wires at once. The problem with this method is twofold: first, it's remarkable how badly one is able to judge the appropriate length, you always end up with several that are way to short or way too long; second, as a result of poor judgement, you find yourself wasting wire, it doesn't seem like much, but many little bits add up. The smart way to go about cutting the wire (and I highly recommend you do this, rather than my first method!) is to unroll yourself a long piece; how long depends on how much space you have and how high you are. Because you need the beads to go run down the wire as you string them lengths of wire that spool on the floor become awkward. So, while in the photos you will see me making a single bead bar on a short length of wire, it is best if you start out with something like this:

Step 3: Make a wire curl. The small metal loop at the end of each bead bar is what keeps the beads from sliding off and it keep little fingers from being pierced by sharp, metal points. The size of the curl results according to how high in your round-nose pliers you grip the end of the wire. It will take quite a few tries to get used to getting the size loop you desire. If you're a perfectionist you might want to practice first. I just hopped in and figured that it was good enough. If they were really way too big or small, I'd do my best to fix it and in a few very funny-looking cases I tossed the wire and began again.

Step 4: Straighten the wire. Once you've got the wire curl finished you will need to grasp the wire in one hand and use your round-nose pliers to put a twist in the wire where it meets the loop. Essentially, you are trying to make the loop meet the straight section like a lollipop (O---) rather than like a number 9 (O___), as is seen below:

Step 5: Thread the beads. If you are doing individual bead bars, then you would add the number of beads needed, in my example, five light blue beads. If you are making many bead bars and are using the long-wire method, then you keep adding beads until your wire is about 3/4 filled and then make another wire curl at the other end. If you get too many or too few beads it is quickly and easily fixed, so don't put too much thought into getting it just right. You will then need to slide the correct number of beads to this end.

Step 6: Twist the loose end. Putting the tip of your round-nose pliers as close as possible to the last bead, you will then twist the wire to at least a right angle relational to the bead bar. This will keep your beads in place.

Step 7: Clip off the excess. This is the next-hardest part of making a bead bar because it involves another bit of visual judgement. You have to use your wire-cutters to make a length of wire from that last bead which can be turned into a nicely-sized curl: too big and it will not look right, too little and your beads might come off. Doing this correctly takes some practice. It is difficult to tell in the photograph exactly how much wire I'm leaving. If you are doing individual bead bars, if you had cut the perfect length of wire at the outset (and it does sometimes happen) you may not need to trim the wire at all! If you are doing a length of wired beads, however, you will not be able to skip this step, indeed, you will have to add a little bit to it. After cutting the wire make sure you put another wire curl on the end of your long bead string or else you may find yourself picking up dozens of beads that slid off the wire when you were distracted by making the wire curl at the end of your new bead bar!

Step 8: Make a tight wire curl at the angled end of the bead bar. When I say "tight" I don't mean "small." The loop cannot be too small because if it gets at all squished the beads can come off right over it. However, the loop must pull tightly enough so that the beads are not loose. Loose beads on a bead bar means the bead bar can bend more easily and you'll find yourself spending a lot of time straightening them!

And VOILA! You've got a bead bar! Next up: How to make a bead square!

Extra Resources: Magazines

2009-09-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

The best classrooms I've been in have always had one thing in common: lots of age-appropriate educational reading material. Books are an obvious source of material, but magazines can be equally enjoyable and they provide something new on a regular basis. You can focus on a subject or topic based on the theme of your magazine and if the publication is well-designed you usually have a variety of activities and stories that can add a lot of interest to your everyday curriculum.

Here are some of our favourites:

top left: National Geographic Little Kids - A pretty good magazine for preschoolers, with collectible animal cards, super-simple science experiments, activities, and factual articles about animals and culture. It's not my number one choice, but I can definitely see the appeal and I occasionally buy a copy. That said, I have and will continue to, steer clear of National Geographic Kids (meant for elementary-aged children) as I've found it to be ridiculously heavy on the ads. There are much better science/culture/animal magazines for school children.

top right: Your Big Backyard - This is a marvelous contrast to National Geographic Kids. Put out by the National Wildlife Federation (American), this was a favourite of my brother and mine when we were growing up. It is ad-free, has been awarded with Association of Educational Publishers awards, and has an editorial advisory board comprised of 4 to 7 year-olds! There is often an emphasis on animals from North America, which is nice for those of us who live there, but it does not exclude exotic animals. There are both fiction and non-fiction articles, activities, simple science experiments, recipes, songs, posters, and reader response. This magazine is followed by Ranger Rick, for ages 7 and up, which I also enjoyed as a child. I just discovered tonight that they also put out a magazine for infants and toddlers now: Wild Animal Baby Magazine! I'm going to look into that one for the boys.

second row: Chirp - From the publishers of Owl and Chickadee came this little magazine on science and health for those under 6, and it's a favourite of my daughter. It is virtually ad-free (in one edition, for example, there is a contest sponsored by Mastermind Toys and Leapfrog, a one-page advertisement for a parenting magazine, an inside-back-cover ad for a reading and writing program, and a one-page promotion of "Chirp's Picks:" recommended books, toys, and DVDs). It includes comics, activities and crafts, science experiments, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, jokes, and reader response. I usually find myself reading and re-reading chunks of it to her.

third row: Zootles - Focusing on animals and having a theme which includes an animal, a letter, and a concept (example: high/low) in each edition, this magazine is full-to-brimming with activities and adventures. There is a pull-out section in the centre, one page each for parent and child, consisting of writing and drawing activities for the little one and resources and ideas for the adults. A word of caution, though. It claims to be for children aged 3-6, but when Ella was 3 it was still above her. It certainly wasn't wasted, though, because we kept them until now and they are just right!

fourth row: Ladybug - Our favourite! Ladybug is the best literary magazine for children aged 3-6 available outside the United States. (I've heard good things about Highlights High Five, but they don't ship to Canada.) It has a variety of stories, songs, poems, and comics, all with fantastic illustrations! There are a few activities, but mostly this is simply an excellent read.

fifth row: Babybug - Before we got Ladybug, there was Babybug! It was the only magazine for babies when Ella was born, and it is excellent. I cannot recommend it enough. The illustrations are amazing, the pages are durable, the stories, poems, and songs, extremely enjoyable, and the suggestions to parents for accompanying activities are inspired. We saved all our copies and now Eli and Henry are enjoying them too!

Magazine subscriptions can be very costly, I know, so when you're thinking about what will be best for your child and for your classroom, do your research. I'd recommending buying a copy before committing to a subscription, but sometimes that's simply not possible. In our family (both immediately and extended) we've found that magazine subscriptions make excellent birthday and Christmas gifts. They're appreciated when received and they continue to be enjoyed for a year, or more!

If anyone else has a magazine that they subscribe to for their children that they just can't imagine doing without, please add a comment and tell us the magazine title, what it's about, what age it is for, and why you love it so much! Obviously the periodicals I've mentioned are written in English and are published in North America, but don't feel limited by that. I look forward to hearing about your favourites, and I'm sure others will too.

My NEW Montessori Classroom

2009-09-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

it's finally here:

Montessori at Home

THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL EDITION

Ella on her first day of "official" homeschooling: Grade Kindergarten

Since February my life has been absolutely, positively crazy, but if I hear someone, anyone, tell me yet again, "You must be so busy!" or the other constantly-heard phrase, "You've got your hands full!" I think I'll sweetly inform whomever it is that in point of fact I spend most of my time most of my days sitting or laying around and reading. It wouldn't be far from the truth. I'm the nursing mother of two growing boys who refuse to take a bottle. Although I often try to do something else while nursing I've discovered that either my activities distract them from nursing or whatever I'm doing is so shoddy I have to redo it later.

And yet, in the midst of this I've been spending much of my non-nursing time getting ready for school. I've done a lot of paperwork, organising month-by-month and then week-by-week what I want to cover. I've also had to move our classroom from the church across the street into our home. This was not a small matter as our home is rather small, our family has just become much larger, and the "spare" room had to become a nursery. But with a wonder of a friend (Thanks, Sherri! You were a whirlwind of activity. I don't know where you get the energy!) and the sacrifice of a dining room (as our kitchen is galley-style the dining room table is our only table) we have created a new classroom.

The shelves (as seen above) lack something in aesthetic value, but are extremely practical. The main portion of shelves was my own bookshelf from my childhood. All the added bits and pieces are from a decrepit, dismantled desk transformed by Sherri. So, with no cost to me, I ended up with extensive shelving!

A glance ahead, three of the shelves up close:

Math Materials

Language Arts Materials

Sensorial Materials

Some of the materials and their uses I have written about in previous blogs. Items which are new I will be covering in the near future. Plus, I will very soon have completed part two of the Montessori Mathematic Bead Material. It has been some time in the making... In more ways than one! For some reason I got a bit off track around February. Can't figure out why...

Also in the works: Montessori and Montessori-type activities for infants. This post could also be termed "Keeping two boys occupied while trying to educate their sister." It's just going to get more exciting from here on in!

Are my hands full? Am I busy? Maybe just a wee bit, but my quiver is full of blessings, so I don't mind!

"The Absorbent Mind" Book Club

2009-05-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

For those who have expressed interest in The Absorbent Mind Book Club, it has begun! We will be reading the first chapter for Thursday, May 7th, 2009. If you have recieved an invitation and still want to be involved, please accept. If you have a look at the blog and decide that you are interested, please see the previous two posts on this blog to find out how to join.

"Absorbent Mind" Organisation - Plus Easter Photos

2009-04-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

Eli and Henry at Two Months Old

Eli (left) and Henry (right) on April 2, 2009

[If you just want to skip to information on the "Absorbent Mind" challenge, just scroll down to where I've written that in bold.]

It has been a few weeks of sickness, quarantine, and busyness but I have not forgotten about the "Absorbent Mind" challenge. I must apologize for allowing all the other interesting challenges to get in my way. Ella had a terrible 'flu, which meant separating her from the boys and Derek and me from each other. Derek and Ella got the living room. It's a good thing our couch is very wide so they could both sleep on it. Henry, Eli, and I got the master bedroom. Sometimes Ella would stand at the door to our room and ask, with the saddest, most pitiful voice, "Mummy, will you hold up Henry/Eli so I can see him and say "hello" to him?" Derek and I would occasionally meet up in the bathroom, him on a quest to empty and clean the (so-called) "barf bucket," and me to get damp facecloths, a glass of water, or more wet wipes. But if we were able to, and took the time to get in a hug or kiss, then I had to change my clothes and "scrub in" again before rejoining the boys. We went through a lot of instant hand sanitizer!

Then Derek caught the 'flu just as Ella was getting better. This resulted in my first-ever foray into the outside world with three children in tow. The normally simple trip to the bank and run for a few errands was greatly complicated by this, and took much longer than usual. But, we all survived. Everything took a lot longer with two babies and a preschooler, resulting in a late arrival home after a 9:00 pm supper at Subway. Since Derek had ensconced himself in the master bedroom, with frequent runs to the bathroom, Ella and I made up a "bed" for her on the floor. It turned out to be rather a nest of blankets and pillows, but it served the purpose. I took the couch and put the boys in their bouncy seats. Ella really enjoyed "camping out" in the living room. The couch did become rather squishy, though, when at some point in the wee hours of the morning I tried to move only to discover that there was no where to which I could move as all three children had somehow ended up on the couch with me. Ella I could understand. She at least has great powers of mobility. I'm guessing the Eli and Henry had contrived to get me to fall asleep while nursing them.

The next day the children and I evacuated the premises, putting Derek in solitary quarantine, and we retreated to my mother's house. Derek had no sooner recovered than he was thrust into Easter weekend. All's well that ends well, but it's a week past Easter and we're still recovering! Mum says that we're living in perpetual "survival mode." She's not entirely wrong.

In the midst of all this insanity, Eli and Henry turned two months. During Ella's first year we did a "photo shoot" every month, so how could I do less for my boys? We did simplify, but I got their pictures nonetheless.

Eli Derek, two months old

Henry Harold, two months old

It's not hard to tell that they've been gaining quickly since getting home. They are quite aware that they have unlimited access to food twenty-four hours a day, and they take advantage of the fact! How wonderful to see their bodies filling in all that excess skin. They really look like babies now, not just minuscule old men.

ABSORBENT MIND CHALLENGE INFORMATION:

Well, we've got ten people who want to read The Absorbent Mind together, and a couple who want to "audit" the discussions, so it's time to get started. There are two different options for our group. Please think about each option and vote for the option you like the best.

Have an Absorbent Mind Yahoo! group. That would mean that we'd communicate primarily through e-mails and/or at the Yahoo! group site. We could post files for others to download, and we wouldn't have to constantly be checking a specific website. It is easy, using this method, to make quick comments on something someone else has said. This format lends itself to briefer posts and would have more of a feel of an actual, spoken discussion. That said, it's less "tidy" in the sense that it would be easy to get multiple threads going on the same topic, which can be confusing, and there wouldn't be any quick-and-easy way to read through the discussion notes in order and properly organized.
Have an Absorbent Mind blog. I would create the blog and then invite each of you to join as authors. We could chose to make it an open or closed blog. Each blog entry could be on one chapter (or a specific portion of one chapter) and the discussion would continue in the comments. This format would work well if we want to have longer comments, lending itself to an essay-like first post with more complete responses, dealing with the chapter/book portion in a methodical way. Of course, this would mean having to check a website on a frequent basis, and more carefully considering such things as formatting and grammar.

One way sounds like it would be perfect for the free-thinking, artistic type and the other for the analytical, mathematical type. I'd say, "let's do both!" but it would be impractical.

The other think I need to know in order to get us started is your e-mail addresses. If we do a blog I'll have to send out a specific invitation to each of you, and if we do a Yahoo! group I'll want to know that those applying to become members are actually the folks who want to participate or listen in. (Oh, those who want to "audit" this group, so to speak, are always welcome to add their thoughts and opinions as well.)

So, I'll ask those who responded indicating that they wanted to be involved in The Absorbent Mind challenge to respond to this post, letting me know which way you'd prefer the group to "meet" and what your e-mail address is.

PLEASE NOTE: The comments you submit that contain personal information - in this case, your e-mail address - will be REJECTED and will never show up on this website. The only person who will see that information is me... or possibly my husband if he happens to download the e-mail before I get to it. The information will only be used by me and I will not be sending unsolicited mail to you.

Just wanted to make that clear! Now, for a few pictures from Easter!

Ella and Her Bunnies: Sarah and Myis

The Proud Big Sister and Her Easter Treat: Eli!
(Eli's not sure that he wants to be in the basket.)

Ella Enjoys Henry.
He is the spitting image of Ella as a baby.

"The Absorbent Mind" Challenge

2009-03-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

Eli (in blue) and Henry (in green)

It's almost 2 am here, and I'm up nursing Eli and am again thinking about something I've been wanting to do ever since the boys were born. I remember reading Maria Montessori's The Absorbent Mind and thinking that it really applied well to infancy. Many of the things I learned in that book I had already, instinctively, done with Ella. But it's time to brush up!

Books are always more enjoyable when you have someone to discuss them with, and so I'm throwing out a challenge (an easy one): who would like to read The Absorbant Mind with me? We'll be doing it at a leisurely pace, perhaps over 2-3 months, giving ourselves lots of time to absorb and discuss it.

There are a few different ways we can do this and I haven't decided which way we'd go yet. It would be nice to have the imput of others who want to be involved first. So grab your copy, or buy or borrow, and sign up! The more opinions the more interesting our reading will be. I have yet to get my own copy of the book, so you have time to get one too. Perhaps we can begin mid-April?

If you are interested, please respond to this post. In a few days (around April 1st) I will post again to co-ordinate those who wish to be involved. If you don't want to join in the reading and discussions but you do want to see our discussions, please let me know that too, just so I know whether our posts/messages should be public or not. Understand, though, that the final decision of whether our discussion is public or private will be up to the entire group, not just me.

Hope to hear from you soon!

My Boys

Photos by me. Beautiful afgan background by Zirbert's wife, she of the magic sticks and string!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jigg

2009-03-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

Ella, Eli, Henry, and Me

On their first morning out of the hospital

Well, it only took six weeks, and now our family is finally all together! Life has suddenly improved exponentially. Though we are still doing our share of running around, mostly to doctors' appointments.

Almost the moment the staph infection was under control Henry began to complain vehemently about his diminished rations. They began gavage feedings again, but he remained unappeased. He wanted to eat. But between the bowel infection and the staph infection it had been a long time since he'd nursed and he just couldn't remember how to latch. He was so frustrated because he knew he had done it before. So for a time breastfeeding became alternately trying to help him latch and trying to calm him down.

Until that time I had never had any problem with breastfeeding. I remember thinking shortly after Ella was born, "Why on earth did I go to a class to learn this? It's so easy!" Of course it was easy for me - and for Ella. She came out, looked around, and asked, "Where's the food?" and upon latching I could hear her thinking, "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"

Even though the boys were born "too early" to have the instinct to suckle Henry arrived already knowing how and Eli was just a day or so behind him. In Eli's case it wasn't so much that he didn't know what to do, but more that he didn't expect the usual results! The first time he latched and suckled his surprise was hilarious. Once he tasted milk his eyes flew open in shock, he yanked himself backwards, and stared at my breast as if to say, "What just happened?!" Eating by mouth took some getting used to in his case. After he had come to accept the consequences of suckling he picked up the skill very quickly.

Henry's difficulties helped me understand to a greater degree the plight through which many breastfeeding mothers go. Though I didn't become frustrated as he was attempting and failing to latch, I completely understood why other mothers, especially first-time mothers, would become extremely frustrated themselves. As I'd already had years of successful breastfeeding (2 1/2 to be exact) I really didn't have any fear that I couldn't, nor did I fear Henry being unable to feed. He had done so before, so it was just a matter of remembering and practicing. Part of his issue was impatience: being so frantic to get milk that he wouldn't stop bobbing around and trying to suck at anything he found, not taking the time to get a decent latch. That aspect of his feeding problem continues; if he'd just slow down and relax he wouldn't get nearly so upset! (I have told him this, but it doesn't seem to help. We'll have to continue with lessons on comprehension of the English language.)

Henry - trying to decide if his car seat is edible

Establishing breastfeeding was so important in the boys' cases because they needed to be able to have the energy and ability to take all their feedings by mouth, eliminating the need for the nasogastric tube. Because of Henry's infections, Eli met this goal several days before him. But by that time Henry was taking about 80% of his feedings orally, either by breast or bottle, so we knew they were very close to discharge.

As excited as we were by that prospect, Derek was worried about one thing - since Christmas (when I'd received a gift certificates both for the movies and for East Side Mario's) we'd been planning on going out on a date. My husband had been reminding me that it would be our last chance to go on a date for the next 18 years!

Ella and I get Eli into his car seat for the trip home.

So, the night before discharge we sent Ella to Mum's and we hit the town. Most dates don't end how ours did, however. After a wonderful evening we headed back to the hospital so I could go up to the NICU and pump! Home was just too far away and it was a frigid night so pumping in the car was not an option.

Ella - ready to take her brothers home

You know how, as a kid, you look forward to Christmas for weeks and weeks? You think, you plan, you anticipate the arrival of that day with so much excitement and joy. The day we brought our boys home was like that. The anticipation is so great that you don't think the actual event could possibly live up to it, but in this case it did.

Because of some vehicular issues, we couldn't take our boys directly home, but ended up going from the hospital to my parents' for the night. They graciously gave up their room to Derek, Eli, Henry, and me because the spare bedroom in their house is freezing (for some reason it gets very little heat). Although not what we'd expected, it was a blessing. My father got to hold his grandsons for the first time, which he had been looking forward to. And, after a long, mostly sleepless night, I got to sleep in as there were plenty of other folks around who wanted to take care of the boys!

Derek - tired but happily holding Eli

Having Eli and Henry with us all the time has been bliss - bleary-eyed, brain-fried bliss. Between them and Ella we are kept constantly busy all day and boy do they ever go through diapers! At nights, though, they aren't all that bad - especially when I compare them to Ella in infancy. Perhaps because we keep our room dark at night (compared to the NICU's constant lighting) they've been tending to sleep for four hours straight, then they wake, eat, and get their diapers changed, a process that takes anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, and again sleep for four hours. When I remember Ella's every-two-hours-without-fail night wakings (which lasted for almost two years!), I feel I'm positively well-rested.

It has been a joy, getting to know our sons in our own environment, without the constant presence of others. Henry is very demanding and impatient, wanting a lot of attention. If he's hungry and you have to first change his diaper he will protest loudly until he gets his milk. He also wants to be held all the time. If he falls asleep in your arms and you try to transfer him to a crib or pack-and-play you are almost guaranteed to hear him screaming within the next five minutes. He's also very strong and determined. He can manipulate his body in order to get himself into very interesting positions and places, so we have to keep an eye on him. And when he's awake, he is unfailingly curious. It's very difficult to hold him in the traditional burping position (vertical, against your chest) as he always pushes himself backwards with his hands so he can see all around himself. I don't doubt he'll keep us on our toes!

Eli tends to be more relaxed, most of the time. He does love attention, but doesn't always demand it. Like his brother he wants to be held a lot. I wonder if this is due to being in isolettes for so long while in the NICU. When there they didn't get nearly as much human contact as most newborn babies, and when they were getting attention it was usually because there was some medical procedure that had to be done, so it was unpleasant attention. Now they can get all the snuggles they want, and they want them a lot! Eli, provided he's not hungry and has a clean diaper, will generally lay quite contentedly in a bouncy chair provided someone is around touching him, talking to him, or even making noise in the same room as him. He just likes having folks around. When held in the burping position, Eli will just curl right up and snuggle, often enjoying himself so much he relaxes and falls asleep. He's also pretty good at self-soothing, having discovered that a thumb can be a pleasant appendage, especially when he's waiting for food. And if a diaper change is necessary before milk time, as soon as you begin to do the diaper change he settles down until the change is over before "reminding" you that he's hungry. Whereas Henry goes all-out crying to get what he needs, Eli will give a loud cry and then stop and wait to see if he gets the desired results. If not, he cries out again. Only if you ignore him does he really yowl.

They're both very smart, too smart in some ways! Eli figured out (sneaky boy that he is) that when he wants Mummy, no one else, just Mummy, all he has to do is pretend to be hungry. He did this in the hospital, refusing to accept the bottle that the nurse was trying to give him but rooting around anyway. When she finally gave up and handed him to me to try nursing, he did nothing more than give a little suckle and then he pulled away, smiled up at me, laid his head on my breast and went to sleep! I don't know if he told Henry about that trick, but now Henry's doing it too.

And on Tuesday, when we had a doctor's appointment for the boys, they had an uncanny sense that they were in a medical environment. From the moment that we entered the examination room until the doctor finally left, they both screamed. In fact, every time she came toward them with a medical instrument they howled even louder. They fought everything she tried to do, even something so innocuous as a stethoscope they tried to get away from. After she left the room, however, they both settled down quite happily! It was kind of spooky, and almost funny.

But, having that doctor's appointment made one thing very clear; feeding less frequently since arriving home has done them no harm, so they must be getting more than they did before! Eli had gained a pound - in just a few days! And Henry was up half a pound. They both weighed in at 5 lbs. 8 oz., making them positively hefty compared to when they were born. Getting to self-regulate their feedings, both in terms of frequency and volume has been a very good thing indeed.

Ella and her brothers - who are evidently feeling camera-shy!

Our next big challenge is going to be establishing a routine - one that includes such things as housework and getting the nursery ready.

One Month Old

2009-03-04T12:49:00.001-08:00

Henry Harold - One Month Old, 4 lbs. 4 oz. - and a very sick little fellow indeed.

Eli Derek - 4 lbs. - growing and thriving.

Ella holds Eli. She loves holding her baby brothers! She often asks, "Are Eli and Henry ever coming home?" We all look forward to that day!

Henry has had a rough time of it in the last week and a half. He had a bacterial infection in his bowels, resulting in a lot of blood in his feces. So he was separated from Eli, put on antibiotics and an IV (for food) and they stopped feeding him breast milk. A week later, when they resumed his feedings (albeit, smaller doses) the problem seemed to have resolved completely. He'd had several bowel movements with no blood. That night (Saturday) we'd heaved a sigh of relief and went home.

Shortly before midnight we were rung by the on-call paediatrician who told us that Henry had been having frequently repeated apnea episodes. Basically, his heart rate would slow down significantly and his breathing would stop. For a couple hours his nurse couldn't leave his side, constantly having to stimulate him to start his breathing again. These apnea episodes are not uncommon in premature infants, but since Henry had never had any episodes before, and he was only two days away from being a month old, they knew something else was causing this.

He was intubated (put on a respirator to keep him breathing) and he had a lumbar puncture (spinal tap), blood work, and stool samples taken. The doctor suspected a blood infection of some sort and he wanted to rule out meningitis. At issue was that the test results would take from 24 to 48 hours to come back which would give the infection (whatever it was) that much time to spread. So they began him on two strong antibiotics. Derek and I packed an overnight bag, woke Ella (who was less than pleased with the sleep interruption) and went to my parents' to drop her off. Then we headed to the hospital.

We arrived at 3:30 am, scrubbed in (standard procedure for the NICU) and went to see our boys. Henry was white as parchment, despite having been on the respirator for a couple hours. Evidently his hemoglobin was low as well. He was definitely a very sick little fellow. We stayed overnight (if you can call a four hour sleep "overnight") and most of the next day. There was a snow storm coming, so Derek left to go to Mum's so he could be with Ella and I stayed with Eli and Henry. We didn't want to be stuck at the hospital and unable to get to Ella and we didn't want to end up stuck at home and unable to get to the boys, so splitting up made sense.

Henry began to improve while on the respirator and antibiotics and the test results came back that he did not have meningitis but another kind of blood infection: gram positive cocci (commonly known as a staph infection or staphylococcal sepsis), which is pretty nasty, but not as nasty as meningitis. He began to get his colour back, at least somewhat, and by the time I left the hospital (Tuesday afternoon) he was much improved, off the respirator, and energetic enough to put up a fuss from 3:30 am to 5:00 am. Needless to say, I'm exhausted!

So we're all heaving a sigh of relief that the antibiotics are working, that he continues to improve (his nurse told me he's getting very active again), and that he's again able to have regular feedings of breast milk.

One of the nice side-effects of me being in the neonatal unit so long is that Eli got to do a lot of breastfeeding, establishing his ability at nursing very well. He still doesn't have quite enough energy to take all of his feedings that way, but he could take several feedings or half-feedings a day that way. And he was able to be transferred from an isolette to a regular cot. So now he's wearing real clothes and as long as he's well bundled up he's able to maintain his own heat. Occasionally he has gotten a little bit cool, but I told him if he'd only keep his hat on that wouldn't be such an issue!

It will be a glorious day when both boys are well enough to come home from the hospital. Until then we continue to do a lot of travelling back and forth to Mum's and to the hospital. It's tiring and stressful, but we keep reminding ourselves that, in general, the boys are doing well and that this too shall pass.

A humorous side-note:
On the night we rushed to the hospital, first dropping Ella off at Mum and Dad's, Ella evidently woke up a bit confused early in the morning. According to Mum she sat straight up in bed, looked around, and asked, "What is going on here?" Mum reminded her about Henry's illness and she laid back down and fell asleep again almost immediately!

Introducing...

2009-02-18T08:34:00.000-08:00

Henry Harold, born on February 2nd, 2009. 45cm long, 4 lbs. 2 oz.

AND

Eli Derek, born February 2nd, 2009. 40 cm long, 3 lbs. 11 oz.

Both boys are doing remarkably well considering their very early arrival. Neither needed to be put on oxygen and both are very active. Eli has gotten himself the nickname "Wild Man" by the nurses as he is so successful at removing all his IVs, monitors, and tubes. Henry is pretty good at getting them out too, but he is more interested in moving around his isolette and getting into interesting and awkward positions. Both are still being fed predominantly by gavage (a tube to the stomach) though Henry has figured out how to latch and has begun to breastfeed for up to half his feedings when I'm there.

The early arrival occurred when, on the morning of February 2nd, as we were preparing to head to the hospital for an ultrasound, Henry broke his water. Talk about a shock! As it turns out, I would have been giving birth ASAP anyways as I had been quickly developping pre-eclampsia complicated by HELLP Syndrome. I spent the day, following the boys' birth, drifting in and out of consciousness, pretty much unaware of what was going on. I was in the ICU for two days until they were able to stabilize me. Because my kidneys and liver had stopped functioning I swelled up like the Michelin man. For some reason that defies explanation, both of the boys and I also had high levels of pottasium. Evidently that can be bad!

Eventually with medication expirimentation it came down in all of us. All my organs are on their way back to normal again. I stayed in hospital for two weeks and now we're doing a lot of running back and forth to visit the boys who will be in the NICU until they have gained sufficient weight and are also able to take all their feedings by bottle or breast.

Montessori Mathematics: The Complete Bead Material - Part 3

2009-01-22T17:39:00.000-08:00

Nope, I'm not dead yet! It's been too long since my last post, but for me, at least, that time has flown. Between Christmas preparations, having our computer sent away to get fixed, and perpetual exhaustion, fewer things get time and attention, my blog being one of them.

That doesn't mean I've been skipping out on materials making. I've got a fair bit done, and now I have pictures! Here's my work to date:

My first priority was getting the bead bars ready so we could learn the snake game and do various additions and subtractions up to ten. Then it was getting one copy for each number of the squares and cubes (of course, I needed more than one ten square - I needed ten in order to continue with the golden bead material). My eight, nine, and ten cubes are not yet completed, but eight and ten are coming along quickly. And my short (square) and long (cubing) chains are just barely beginning. We won't need those for a little while though.

As you can see, I've been using the plastic canvas to steady the cubes and squares. Take my advice: when beginning a cube, start in the MIDDLE and spiral your way out. The first one I tried I began at the corner and that was a mess!

Also, for the long and short chains, you'd be wise to pick up some jump rings or split rings (they're in the jewelry making/beading section of any craft store among the other findings). I tried making them myself, but it's very difficult and time-consuming. If you buy the rings, you can simply make a bunch of bead bars and then link them together. Otherwise there's a bunch of fussing and fidgeting to get bead bars attached.

I'm sure that many of you have anticipated this: as I am having (soon!) two baby boys, my life is about to become much more complex. My plans as far as the blog goes are to leave it up, post when I can, and try to update the blog as materials are made and as pictures are taken. Perhaps as the boys age I will get to post more often, but better a little than none!

Montessori Mathematics: The Complete Bead Material - Part 2

2008-11-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I've had my Bolek's order for just over a week now. Wow! That really is a lot of beads! Beading has taken over Christmas preparations, baby preparations, computer time, and my bead stuff comes with me everywhere.

To keep things simple, here's the materials (other than beads) that you will need to make the bead material:

Round Nose Pliers (Usually available at craft stores in the beading section.)
Linesmen's Pliers or Diagonal Cut Pliers (Found in almost any pliers set money can buy - so check your toolbox, your husband's toolbox, or borrow from an obliging neighbour, and if all else fails, go to your local hardware store!)
Wire (This is not the exact wire I bought. I got Panacea Bright Floral Wire Value Pack 22 Gauge 8oz. I had been looking at the wire in the beading/jewellry section at Michael's, but it was all so thin. I needed something that would be able to stand up under much use by children, so I went to the floral section and found this. It's heavy-duty and I've got hopes that it won't tarnish - but who knows for sure?)
Plastic Canvas - (I got two 10 1/2 x 13 1/2 sheets for a dollar at my local dollar store. This is used to keep the squares and cubes properly positioned. I found that with 8mm beads - the size of "standard" Montessori beads - the hole size worked really well when using every other hole.)
Easy-to-sort containers for holding your loose beads. I just used four-section veggie tray containers from the grocery store. After we've eaten the veggies we usually recycle them, but for this we reused them instead. They keep the beads nicely separated, hold quite a few, and the covers don't come off too easily so I'm not constsantly re-sorting beads... Unless Ella's been "helping!"

There's a few other items that potentially could make beading much easier, but until my next trip to town to get a closer look, I can't say whether or not they're worth it. If I deem so, you'll be sure to hear about it in an upcoming post! But, since I've made squares, cubes, and chains, I know that those options are not absolutely necessary.

A couple thoughts about my Bolek's order. When I ordered the beads I chose opaque colours for all but the golden beads. My thinking was that the wire wouldn't show as much, and I was right. But I discovered an additional benefit: it's easier to find the hole! With light shining through and reflecting off of the beads sometimes that little hole can be elusive. No so with the opaque colours. Perhaps if I was used to working with transparent beads I wouldn't notice such a thing, but I'm not used to it so the easier it is to find the holes the sooner I'll get this done!

As for pictures, yes, there will be some in the very near future. My father and brother have been deer hunting and took Mum's digital camera. When they get back, I'll post photographs showing details on how to make the bead materials.

A Little More Math...

2008-11-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

1+1=3 ????

Doesn't seem to add up, does it? But that's what is happening in my house!

No, this post is not about Montessori math, just to give you the heads up now. If you want information about Montessori mathematics, pick one of the following:

There, that's out of the way. Now to explain my brilliant mathematical equation:

1 pregnancy + 1 pregnancy =

3 children!!!

At least, that's what they tell me! Evidently I'm having twins - two boys to be more specific. This explains a few things, like why I threw up so much during my first trimester when last time I never threw up - I only felt nauseated. Also, I started having nasty ligament pain ridiculously early in the pregnancy. And once I began to feel movement, I noticed that the "baby" seemed to be kicking either very low or very high, not often in the middle. I just figured that he really got around. But as for my size, it never gave the secret away!

You see, when I was pregnant for Ella, I popped BIG and I popped EARLY. At three months I barely looked pregnant, but by four months people were stopping me and making comments such as, "You must be due any day now!" When they found out I had five months to go, they would say, "Oh! You must be having twins!" Not the sort of thing that improves self-esteem.

Once I got that big, however, I pretty much maintained my girth until around 8 months, after which I put on a bit more weight until giving birth, and then promptly lost it all within 3 weeks. I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but the pre-pregnancy shape was a bit more elusive!

So, on the rare occasion that people commented, "Oh, you're big for only __ weeks!" I'd laugh and explain that I was positively tiny compared to my last pregnancy. In fact, I was rather pleased at the difference.

Well, that difference won't last much longer! Both boys have their own placentas and amniotic sacs, which is very good. And they're both at the weight and height that any normal 20 week-old would be at, so I've got two full-size fellows on the way. (This is not unusual for multiples - they tend to have normal measurements right up until nearing the end of the pregnancy when they often arrive a bit earlier, and lighter, than many other babies). No wonder my ligament pain began early - they're holding up twice the weight they normally should be!

The really marvelous part is that this pregnancy has been absolutely fantastic compared to pregnancy with Ella. Ligament pain and vomiting notwithstanding, I've felt great physically, and, even more important, I've felt great emotionally.

Though postpartum depression has been getting a lot of press lately, finally helping to normalize the illness, antenatal depression is still virtually unheard of. Essentially I was suicidal for my first trimester with Ella. Thank heavens when the second trimester came along I got all better - almost as if someone had flipped a switch. I was very lucky not to end up with postpartum depression as well.

My case had been so severe for that one trimester, though, we had a few doctors strongly advise us not to have any more children. But, at least as far as this pregnancy goes, our worries were all for naught. Of course, I'm being closely monitored by my Mum and Derek to make sure my hormones don't start to take me in that direction, and they will continue to watch me closely through the postpartum months.

So, if posts become more sporadic over the next few months, you'll know why: I'm madly working both on Montessori materials (I want to get as much finished as possible before the boys arrive) and on preparing for two babies' imminent arrival! And if, perchance, the boys arrive early, I'll probably "disappear" for a while. Don't worry, though, I'll be back!

Montessori Mathematics: The Complete Bead Material - Part 1

2008-11-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

When those who are not much familiar with the Montessori Method hear it referred to they often have interesting preconceived idea of what it entails. Some thoughts that I've heard are as follows:

--"Oh, the schools where they have no tests and they play with educational toys all day!"
--"You mean those really expensive private schools?"
--"Montessori schools are where the smart kids go."
--"Don't they mix up grades there?"
--"Children from those schools don't adjust well to 'regular' schooling!"
--"The teachers just leave the children to learn on their own."

If you are really knowledgeable about Montessori, then you can see how most of these statements have a grain of truth enhanced by a dose of ignorance. My usual response to the above includes such explanations as:

--"No, they don't have traditional type tests in Montessori schools, at least not in the early years, but the children are constantly being evaluated on what they have learned. And all of the educational materials used are graded as to difficulty, so there is a natural progression as the child learns to master each level."
--"Yes, many Montessori schools are very expensive, but in some places the Montessori schools have been adopted into the public school system. And if you cannot afford to send your child to an actual school, they can still have a Montessori education if you put your mind to it!"
--"Montessori schools are not only for children who are intellectually gifted. In fact the method began when Dr. Montessori was working in a mental institution with the severely disabled. A Montessori classroom is an excellent environment for learning for children of any age and of any intellectual ability. Whatever the level of intelligence, any child brought into such a place and taught accordingly will end up smarter, though, and at his/her own pace!"
--"In a Montessori school each classroom is composed of kids of various ages. The idea is that those who are more advanced can teach and help those who are just learning. It is a cooperative environment."
--"Children who learn through the Montessori method become used to active learning. This is the best way for children to learn because they learn best by doing, not by explanation and reading. It also engenders a love of learning so that as they grow they become independent learners, wanting to find out for themselves about subjects that interest them. Unfortunately, 'regular' schools don't often offer this to their students."
--"Teachers often work as facilitators, teaching a lesson, then re-teaching the lesson occasionally, each time becoming a little less involved in the 'teaching' as the child takes over. This continues until the child understands the lesson enough to 'teach' the teacher, or the other children!"

As for the materials themselves, if someone has heard of them or seen them the impression that they come away with is often, "that's a lot of beads!" The reason being that the Montessori method wants to start children off by learning things not in the abstract, but in the concrete. Teachers don't explain the difference between 1, 10, 100, and 1000; we show the difference! The way we do that is with beads - lots and lots of beads!

I got lucky on eBay and was able to buy the Decimal Golden Bead Material at an excellent price. Thing is, getting the complete math bead material is a massive investment. Its uses are almost endless and reach into upper elementary. It makes traditional math lessons look positively boring, and it makes it easy for children to grasp what are usually considered to be complex concepts. The decimal golden bead material is an excellent example of this.

Above, Ella and I are doing a lesson on the decimal system. The initial idea is for the child to visually and tactilely note the difference between a unit (1), a set of ten units (10), a set of one hundred units (100), and a set of a thousand units (1000). The unit bead is simply a single bead. The ten bead bar is ten beads identical to the unit bead connected in a line. The hundred bead square is essentially 10 ten bead bars connected into a square of beads. The thousand bead cube has 10 hundred bead squares connected on top of one another making (obviously) a cube. Both in appearance and in size there is a vast difference between the unit and the thousand cube.

The next stage of the same basic lesson is to bring together 10 unit beads and set them together by the ten bead bar to demonstrate the relationship between 10 ones and 10, making sure that the child counts them out. It continues by laying 10 ten bars together, counting them out, and then showing how the result is identical to the hundred square. And finally you put 10 hundred squares together so that they become visually the same as the thousand cube. (Note, though, that the hundred squares tend to interlock when placed on top of one another - so for the purposes of the demonstration, I held them up on their edges making the cube vertically, rather than horizontally, which worked very well.)

Thing is, the golden bead decimal material is all I have. And the time has come that Ella and I can't go much further in math, at least not using Montessori lessons, without getting more bead material. If you've done much searching online for Montessori materials, you know that they can be very expensive. And when it comes to bead material, there is a lot of different items you'll need. Deciding where to get it, when, how much, and in what order can be extremely overwhelming.

I've searched all over for the least expensive mathematical bead material and the least expensive buy-it-all-completed place I've found (though if you've found one less expensive, please do share!) is IFit Wooden Toy Supplier in Vancouver, BC (And at the time of this writing, they've got a good sale on - take a peek!).

If you want to get every component needed for everything - i.e. every lesson, game, and bead activity, you don't have to buy everything. You need only buy the parts that have enough components for every lesson, game, and activity. For example: the decanomial beads have 55 of each of the bead bars for the numbers 1 through 10. If you use material from the decanomial beads, you won't have to buy any other bead stairs, nor will you have to buy additional golden 10 bead bars for the golden bead material. Albeit, you won't have all the tidy boxes and cabinets for storage, but if you can contrive to make those you'll cut down on your costs considerably.

For enough components to do all bead activities, you'd need to buy:

the Decanomial Bead Bar Box
the Elementary Negative Snake Game
the Complete Bead Material
Forty-five Golden Bead Units
Forty-five Golden Hundred Squares

Today (November 6th, 2008) the price for the above materials from IFit Wooden Toys is $523.28 CAN or $422.00 USD - which is partly because of the fantastic sale they have on. But don't forget shipping costs when you make up your budget! For example, if I were to order it, I'd have to add 5% GST (Goods & Services Tax - Canada's national sales tax) and shipping costs ($62.86), so my total would be $612.30.

Unfortunately, that's a lot of money to spend all at once, and most homeschool families just don't have it! After all homeschool families rarely have two salaries! So even though this price is phenomenal considering what you get, it's still beyond many, myself included. Therefore you might want to consider going the route I've taken: making the bead material yourself.

My first piece of advices is: don't go tripping off to Michael's or a Wal-Mart and think that you can buy the beads there. I did and once I began to calculate I realised that it would be much cheaper, and much more efficient to buy the bead material outright! That's provided they even have enough beads in enough colours.

You'd do much better to order the beads, possibly from a wholesaler. Some of the least expensive places I've found online for buying ridiculous numbers of beads are as follows:

Lure Making - Yes, it's a fish-oriented place. But some fishing lures need beads, and they have a decent price!

John Bead - A Canadian company, although, as a wholesaler, they have some restrictions as to whom they will sell. But if you have a friend who works in a craft store...???

Consumer Crafts - Which seemed my best option until I discovered they don't ship to Canada! So, for non-Americans, you may as well just skip this link!

Bolek's Craft Supplies - The company I decided to go with for three main reasons: they will ship to Canada, and they were the least expensive, and they have a big selection of colours.

Now, before you say, "But pony beads are much cheaper! And they're available everywhere in bulk!" let me warn you: pony beads are marvelous for children's crafts, but because they are not round they cannot be used for bead material. Here's why. Pony beads work well for the unit beads, and even for the bead bars, but when you begin to make bead squares and cubes you'll notice right away that the squares are not squares but rectangles, and the cubes are not cubes but rectangular prisms! To make Montessori bead material you need beads that are as long as they are wide, as they are high, which limits you to either cube beads (and you'll never find enough of these in enough colours to use) or round beads. Faceted round beads will work as well.

The traditional colours for the Montessori bead materials are: red, green, pink, yellow, light blue/aqua, purple/lavender, white, brown, dark blue, and golden. And for some special-use beads you'd have to add: light grey, dark grey, black, and a second shade of pink. Obviously, not all companies have all these specific colours, so you might find yourself having to improvise, but if you do, you certainly won't be the first one to do so!

So, how many beads, exactly, does it take to make the bead material? And how many do you need of each colour? Well, you've struck a goldmine now, because I've already done all the figuring out for you! Hopefully all my figures are right!

55 RED BEADS
142 GREEN BEADS
273 PINK BEADS
35 PINK BEADS (for the pink/white bead stair in the snake game, you may wish to use a different shade of pink)
476 YELLOW BEADS
775 LIGHT BLUE or AQUA BEADS
1194 PURPLE or VIOLET
1777 WHITE BEADS
2488 BROWN BEADS
3411 DARK BLUE BEADS
10 LIGHT GREY BEADS
265 DARK GREY BEADS
8095 GOLDEN BEADS

Well, that's about all I can write for tonight! There will be other posts regarding the making of bead material in the future, as this is a topic that takes a lot of time, for the Montessori material maker, the Montessori teacher, and eventually the Montessori student!

For the Spouses that Support Us & Those Who Cannot Join Us

2008-11-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

Every now and then kids say something so unexpected, but so seriously and so much in earnest that you have to bite the insides of your cheeks to keep from laughing aloud and offending them. That happened a few days ago and I just found the scrap of paper upon which I recorded the moment. It was one of those things that you don't want to forget so you can tell your child when she's a teenager in front of all her friends. (Evil cackle!)

(Above: Ella and Derek enjoying her pool this summer.)

I used to be one who could be a real worrier. Then I married Derek and found that he could worry enough for both of us so I quit. He's done the vast majority of fretting ever since.

On this particular day he was working on more than his fair share of the family anxiety. Ella and I were headed up to Mum's for the day. Derek must have said something to Ella as he was snapping her into her car seat because as I pulled out of the driveway, Ella informed me that we had to pray for Daddy because he was having a bad day. I thought that a good idea and once we had agreed that yes, I should keep my eyes open since I was driving, I prayed aloud for Derek.

The moment I was finished, Ella began her prayer. This is (more or less) what she said:

Dear God, Daddy is bigger than Mummy, and Mummy does a lot. Daddy doesn't
do a lot but he gets very worried and has bad days. Jesus help him to be
safe and secure so he isn't worried and can have a good day and get stuff
done. Amen.

I kept my laughter at bay by chewing on the insides of my cheeks. The perspective of a child is so totally different than that of an adult! The part that killed me was "Daddy doesn't do a lot," mostly because it is utterly untrue. Derek (in my opinion at least) is Mr. Wonder-Husband. He cooks, he cleans, he does laundry, and he writes the grocery list. He is also Mr. Wonder-Dad. He baths Ella, reads to her, takes her for walks, puts her to bed, and takes her away when I'm about to pull my hair out. On top of that, he works full-time.

Now, he doesn't do all these things exclusively. Some he does a lot of, and some he does less of. It's a balance thing. But truth be told, if he didn't do a lot of these things there's no way I could homeschool Ella. We don't go over to "school" everyday, but when we're home we do "school" stuff (although she doesn't realise it). Often this is when our lessons for arts and crafts and practical life frequently occur. We'll also read books, do so cooking or baking, play games, and go exploring (which becomes biology, botany, construction - how many 4-year-olds know the difference between concrete and cement? - and anything else that comes to mind). Many evenings are taken up by making Montessori materials and planning lessons, and now that I'm pregnant, naps are often required at some point during the day.

But when you consider who does the most with and for Ella (in her point of view especially), it would be Mummy. Laundry, cleaning, and cooking, don't count as doing stuff! It's not directly for or involving her, so how can it be? As for working in the Pastor's study, or when Derek's home working, what she mostly sees is "Daddy reading," or "Daddy 'playing' on the computer," which in her view isn't working at all! So what does Daddy do? Daddy plays with her (or somehow keeps her occupied) when Mummy's napping. Daddy either reads to her or snuggles her most night, occasionally doing both. Daddy usually has breakfast with her in the mornings (he's a morning person, I'm the night owl). So Daddy does do some stuff!

When she's older, I hope she'll come to realise that if it wasn't for all the "other" stuff Daddy does, then Mummy couldn't be both parent and teacher. If it wasn't for Daddy's willingness to spend time with her when Mummy's tired and/or irritated, Mummy might just ram her head through a wall! If it wasn't for Daddy's hard work and acceptance of a single-salary lifestyle, rather than having Mummy all day, she’d have daycare or preschool and it certainly wouldn’t be Montessori!

I’ve heard people say, “Well, anyone can homeschool, if they really want to. They just have to learn to make sacrifices." I've also heard similar things said about being a stay-at-home parent. "We all know that if people weren't so materialistic every child could have a stay-at-home parent. Families don't need two incomes, after all."

I don't buy it. Life isn't that simple. There are a lot of single parents out there now and they have only themselves to rely upon. I have a great respect for those mothers who work hard to do the best by their children, even when they have to do it all alone. Because they need to work, homeschooling is rarely an option. And there are plenty of families where one of the spouses can neither work, nor care solely for the children because of a disability. The other spouse either has to work, or sometimes has to take over full-time home care, leaving them in a situation where caring for their children has to be shared.

Perhaps you've never witnessed this phenomenon, the superior stay-at-home mum or the homeschool mum who looks down on anyone who sends their children to public school. If you've ever been on the receiving end of such comments, I apologize now on behalf of stay-at-home parents and/or homeschool parents everywhere. Too often when we find out what's right for us, we try to make the point to everyone else that it's right for them, too.

Basically, I want to say "Hurrah!" for all the husbands (and in some cases the wives) who make it possible to be a homeschool and/or stay-at-home parent. Without their help, support, and constant love we couldn't be all that we are for our children.

And "Hurrah!" for all those parents who are stuck in situations where neither option is possible but they do their best to fill in any gaps that result from working away from home or from sending their children to public school.

In both cases, I hope that your children (and mine) grow up to understand and honour the decisions you made, the effort you put in to being the best possible parent, and the sacrifices you made for the sake of their education, care, and well-being.

Sex Ed.

2008-11-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

Got your attention, huh?

So, sex ed. isn't something that is covered in any of the Montessori curricula that I've ever seen. But we're starting zoology soon, so that may change! And honestly, there is probably little need for most parents to even consider the question of sex education until their child is a fair bit older. Typically kids don't register things like that until they're 9 or 10. Then again, I speak as a child of the 70's and 80's - nowadays you can barely get away from overt sexuality unless you join a convent, and even then!!! Advertisements, tv shows, magazines, even cartoons, for heaven's sake, are suggestive. I didn't want to be caught unawares, and I was prepared, even before Ella was born, to have a handy, simple answer when the question "Where do babies come from?"

You see, I really don't want to lie to my child, and I don't want her to ever go through the terror that my grandmother did when, at the age of 13, she believed that all her internal organs were beginning to fall out. Her mother hadn't bothered to tell her about menstruation.

My mother feels similarly to me, which is why I've never felt really embarrassed about sexuality and rather considered it pretty normal and natural. It never became a "big deal," at least not in the sense that it does to most hormone-driven teenagers.

I really wanted the same for my children. I didn't want them to be weirded out by their own bodies, or by the bodies of others, and I didn't want them to perceive the world as a place where sexuality was more important than the person, even though it does make up a part of each one of us. Basically, I want my children to know the facts, to treat them as facts, and to preserve their innocence until they are really ready to understand more.

Most people, when they hear a statement such as "preserve their innocence" would assume that means "preserve their ignorance," but often the opposite is true. If someone is familiar with something, then the deep curiosity and the rush that comes from it being taboo can't exist. And let's face it, procreation is something that inspires a lot of curiosity in all kids, and if that curiosity isn't met with age-appropriate explanation then curiosity will become experimentation.

I cannot express how surprised I was when Ella, who at the time was all of 2 1/2 years old, asked me how babies were made. No, at 2 1/2 she didn't phrase it that way! We had been with family visiting, and as usual, the men gravitated towards the kitchen and the women to the living room. Among the women was a cousin who was soon to give birth, so of course much of the conversation revolved around pregnancy and babies. Ella must have been listening closely!

About two nights later, while laying in bed snuggling, Ella asked, "Mummy, dere is a baby in cousin's belly?"

"Yes," I said, "Cousin is going to have a baby, and right now the baby is inside her growing."

Her face twisted up, considering this, and then she followed up by asking, "Mummy, how de baby get in cousin's belly? How de baby get out of cousin's belly?"

As I said before, I was ready for this, though I had never thought that I would need to be so soon! I told Ella I'd be right back and I grabbed the book, Where Willy Went: The Big Story of a Little Sperm by Nicholas Allan.

This book is written on two levels. The first level constitutes a very gentle and simple retelling of the facts of life. All the sperm are anthropomorphized, having characters, attitudes, and aspirations. Of course the greatest aspiration is to win the "great swimming race" and winning the grand prize: the egg.

Visually, it is anatomically correct without getting too graphic (although I suppose that depends on what you consider to be "graphic"), and it does get the general idea across without getting into the "nitty gritty." Outside of "sperm" and "egg" you won't see any other technical terms (penis, testicles, vagina, uterus/womb, etc.), leaving exactly how much to explain entirely up to the parent.

The same is true when the "great race" occurs. There are anatomically correct "maps" given to the racers, but as you "watch" the race all you see is the interior corridors, not how they're all connected. As for that is it carefully "slipped over" as the adult protagonists (Mr. and Mrs. Brown) are only shown in bed, completely and totally covered with blankets. What exactly happens beneath those blankets is up to the imagination.

The same is true yet again when it comes to the birth. Mrs. Brown gracefully goes from greatly pregnant to holding a baby in her arms in the hospital without reference to any pushing, stretching, or pain. So again, it's up to the parent to decide how much they want to explain to their child.

The second level upon which this book is written is an humourous, tongue-in-cheek perspective for adults. This is both a wonderful addition and a bit of a distraction. It can be tough to explain to a young child what is so funny when, buried beneath blankets during the great race, Mrs. Brown cries out, "Come on, Willy!"

Ella's reaction, at 2 1/2, after I had finished reading (and explaining some parts) was priceless: "Mummy, dat is amazing!" When I went on to draw the parallel that if you replaced Mr. Brown with Daddy and Mrs. Brown with Mummy then the baby would be Ella, she wasn't as impressed. "Oh no!" she said, slowly and seriously. Then added, a bit more adamantly, "No, no, no, no, no!" So we just left it at that!

Now that I'm expecting, Ella's had a renewed interest in reproductive health. And because we've done some anatomy in school, she also wants to know the names of parts and how they work.

Part of teaching such things is also remembering to teach when talking about such things is appropriate. It is not appropriate to tell one of the deacons, "Boys have a penis and girls have a vulva!" Nor is it appropriate to explain to your grandfather the way the placenta and umbilical cord work to deliver food, blood, and oxygen to the baby in the midst of dinner. On the other hand, it is okay to say, while helping me change a baby's diaper, "Mummy you missed wiping up some poop behind his testicles." Take my advice - don't forget to add this aspect to sex education, because if you don't, you'll end up embarrassed!

One other book we used a lot for reproductive education (in this case human gestation - though I didn't use those terms with Ella) was Peter Tallack's In the Womb: Witness the Journey from Conception to Birth through Astonishing 3D Images. I found this at our local library and Ella was fascinated by all the pictures. I'd simplify the explanations so she could understand, more or less, what she was looking at. She loved it so much that she took it to her grandparents, showed them the pictures and explained to them what the photos were!

Montessori Research & Development Teacher's Manuals

2008-10-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

If you've never browsed the materials at Montessori Research & Development, press pause on reading this article and go there to see their products. They offer high-quality teachers' manuals, curriculum materials, and books pertaining to Montessori teaching method.

Thus far, I've discovered that there is one thing that even surpasses the excellence of their products: their customer service. Albeit, I only dealt with one of their representatives, but I was extremely impressed with how accommodating she was, going far away and beyond the call of duty.

The best example of this had to do with shipping to Canada. International buyers beware: contact the company directly via e-mail or phone when placing your order because their on-line shipping calculator is utterly daft. When I tried to place my order through their online check-out, the price of shipping was greater than the cost of my entire shopping cart! It was clear that something just wasn't right, so I e-mailed the company and found out that shipping to Canada had a flat rate of $32.85 per box (that being the least expensive option). Since my order didn't fill the box completely, their representative and I fiddled around with the contents, adding and subtracting manuals until the box was as full as it could get!

In the end I bought the following Early Childhood teachers' manuals:

What actually arrived in the box included the above manuals, plus CONTINENTS, FLAG PARTS, and PICTURE MATCHING- ORCHESTRA INSTRUMENTS. Naturally I was impressed and very pleased.

In addition to my order directly through Montessori Research & Development, I have purchased several of their items used from other Montessori parents. These items were:

GEOGRAPHY MANUAL
PHONIC WORD LISTS
SINGLE WORD BOOKLETS (please note: The booklets at this link are the blue series booklets; the booklets I bought are the pink series booklets. I couldn't find them on the Montessori Research & Development website, but this gives the general idea. If you are looking for details on the pink series booklets, please contact Montessori Research & Development directly as I'm sure they will be helpful in this regard)
INITIAL SOUND PICTURE CARDS
PHONIC PICTURES WITH WORD LABELS

Of all the products I have from Montessori Research & Development none of them have been less than excellent quality. The manuals are available either bound or in loose leaf. I opted for the bound when buying them directly, but the Geography Manual came in loose leaf. There are advantages to having the loose leaf: once you've hole-punched it and put it in a binder you can add in regular loose leaf pages between lessons to add your own notes. Having the manuals bound means that there's no chance of pages disappearing into the fourth dimension, which would be entirely too likely in my case! At any rate, I have no problem with writing directly in the manuals, since they are mine and now that baby #2 is on the way, I'll be re-using them rather than selling them.

The lessons themselves are generally short, clear, and rather easy. Naturally the manuals assume full access to Montessori materials, so I try to keep reading a few lessons ahead so I know what will need to be made. Thus far, I am making the most use out of the Mathematics, Language Arts, and Sensorial manuals, though I am branching further into Geography and am planning out materials for Zoology. Until then we're continuing with human anatomy - more on that later.

Initially I had thought the cost of manuals at Montessori Research & Development were too high (at least for my budget), but as I searched for other teachers' manuals I began to realise just how reasonable their prices were. For example, the Mathematics manual was $30.00 American. Even after having placed my order I still thought that particular manual expensive - until I received the parcel! Then, as I hauled out the Mathematics manual, which proved to be much heavier and was indeed much larger than any of the other manuals, I understood the higher cost. In fact, the Mathematics manual will not only be used during the preschool years but the lessons run for children from age 3 to age 8! In my opinion, that's value.

In trying to decide which manuals to order, I found reading the table of contents very helpful. They are available for almost every teachers' manual on the website and can be invaluable when trying to decide which level of Language Arts will be best for your child.

A couple of the wonderful consequences of having concrete teachers' manuals are that I can spend a lot less time online trying to find out what the appropriate next lesson will be after Ella absorbs the current lesson, and that I can carefully pick which materials I will most want to have at hand.

For example, the breadth of use of the Montessori bead material for mathematics in the Mathematics manual made it abundantly clear that having real beads as opposed to images of beads or stick-lengths coloured to represent the bead material would be worth the cost, time, and effort of getting real beads and making all the math materials. Having looked over the lessons I can see that they will get a lot of use and will be used for a lengthy period of time - at least into middle elementary.

Essentially, having the actual manuals makes it much easier to prepare lessons, figure out what is worth making (or buying, as the case may be), streamline your resources, and minimize the hassle of printing up hundreds of lessons from online and then having to sort and order them. The manuals make Montessori homeschooling easier - both for you and for your child. That is really worth it!

Please note that the photographs displayed in this review are copyrighted to Montessori Research & Development and each is linked to it's original source on their website. (At least I hope they are - I tried to link them properly!)

Questions and comments on this post are welcome and further discussion as a result will probably end up happening in the "comments" section. If they are too numerous and/or require more depth of discussion, I'll post a sequel to this blog with more details.

Happy Teaching!

Teens Board

2008-10-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

I had the brilliant idea of using foam board (like two pieces of bristol board with a layer of firm foam between) to make the shapes for the geometric cabinet and the metal insets. I scratched that idea when I began to use the foam board to make my teens board. I had all the measurements I wanted and thought I had settled in to watch a DVD while making it. I wished I had not begun the DVD until I had really settled in!

For a while I was up and down trying to find the right tool to cut the stuff. This was an exercise in frustration if ever I had one. After three pairs of scissors and a steak knife failed, I went on a quest for my X-acto style craft knife. That was the tool I finally settled on. I found it was easiest (and neatest) to do each cut in three stages:

First, I would cut the upper bristol board trying not to push down too far into the foam.

Second, I would push the blade out all the way and would slide it into my first cut. Then I'd use pressure along the entire blade to make a very smooth cut. Well, a somewhat smooth cut, through to the second piece of bristol board. For long cuts, I'd have to do this in stages at something of an angle. This was much better than my first cuts when I pulled it along resulting in clumps of foam forming and then the blade pulling over top of it just to sink in deep again and repeating the process. The results were uneven cuts and thousands of little bits of fluffy foam everywhere!

Third, I bent the foam board backwards along the cut to form a crease in the bottom bristol board. I'd use the blade at full length to slice up through the crease.

Then it was just a matter of writing on the numbers. And the joy of it all is: I get to do it all over again for the tens board! (Though for that, I must admit I'm going to re-use the board I made for the teens and just make new number cards).

Red Rods and a Visitor

2008-10-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of painting so the broad/brown stair/rectangular prisms and the red rods could be put into good use rather than waiting for paint in a big bucket. Well, the broad stair (brown rectangular prisms) are all finished and we've used them a couple of times, and the red rods, while not completely done yet (each rod needs another coat of paint on half), are usable. If you look closely, though, you can see the pencil marks I made for Dad telling him how long the rod is supposed to be.

(Yes - that is a rare photograph of me. Usually I'm behind the camera)

After we had organised the rods from shortest to longest, which was a pretty easy, we used the smallest rod (1 decimetre) to measure all the others to discover that they were 2 decimetres, 3 decimetres, etc., up to 10 decimetres (1 metre). We then proceeded to make the linear course, which we have done before with the mini red and blue rods, but it's so much more fun when you make a big linear course! With the small one, we used marbles to go through it... well, marbles and "little monster," but how much more fun to use big rods and be able to go through the course yourself!

If you're wondering what a linear course is, essentially you take the 1 decimetre rod and lay it in a central area. Then place the 2 decimetre rod at the end of the 1 at a 90 degree angle. Then put the 3 decimetre rod at the end of the 2, again at a right angle. Continue doing this with each successive rod. It's actually rather fun!

And to whom do those adult legs belong? (They're obviously not mine as they lack the tell-tale baby belly above the pants!) Well, we had a very special guest today at school: Auntie Janis is visiting! And oh, what fun we've had!

Auntie and Ella took turns kicking the ball through the course.

Then Mummy mixed all the rods up again, and Ella got to make her own linear course. Naturally, she didn't want to use the previous design!

She did, however, begin with the smallest. From there it went pretty wild!

The result were interesting, to say the least. But her course proved to be fun too.

And with a bit of pride, Auntie and Ella made it into the middle.

Homeschooling Philosophies - "Teaching HOW to Think, Not WHAT to Think"

2008-09-21T16:49:00.001-07:00

You know you haven't posted in too long when you get questions as to whether or not your blog has moved!

Nope, we haven't moved, we've just been on summer vacation! Having "school" got dropped for the summer, and the blog got dropped too. But we've resumed classes, and now the blog too. Not that I haven't been thinking about it. The next few posts will probably be a game of catch-up.

After our first day of classes, I knew I'd have to share a bit of Ella's perspective, which naturally leads into a topic I've put off far too long: my homeschooling philosophy.

Almost every time we go to school (our classroom is in the church across the street) we open our school day with the singing of "O Canada," saying the Lord's Prayer, and a Bible story. Though I think the memorization of the Lord's Prayer is important, I didn't want it to be "rote." So we've talked about each part of it until Ella has come to understand what it is she's saying. As a result of this, she has one of the most expressive and enthusiastic Lord's Prayer of anyone I've ever heard. I've managed to curtail my amusement so that I don't laugh aloud when she says, with much verve and expression, "For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and EVER! Amen!" When I put in the italics, exclamation marks, and capitalization, I'm not exaggerating. She could easily compete with a bouncing Southern Baptist preacher who laces his/her sermons with a, "Can I hear an Amen? Tell me, do you know it?" Who knows? Maybe that's what she'll become one day.

Well, since she's got "O Canada" and the Lord's Prayer well memorized, I decided to add Psalm 23 to our school openings. It wasn't all that long ago that I helped my husband memorize it, as he hadn't come from a faith tradition that emphasized Scripture memorization.

Just as I had with the Lord's Prayer, I would say a phrase and then Ella would repeat it, so she's really learning by repetition and as time goes on, we begin to discuss each section to add understanding. This method worked smoothly from verses 1-4. It was in verse 5 that Ella began to question what she was saying. Which, in my opinion, is a very good thing. You should never sign papers that you haven't read, and you shouldn't say something that you're doubtful about. [Please note: if you're not familiar with Psalm 23, the text is added to the end of this blog post.]

When I said, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies," she repeated what I said and then piped up, "But Mummy, why would you want to eat with the bad guys?"

I explained that by preparing a feast just for you, God was showing how much He loved you and how special you were to Him. And by letting your enemies see all this, then they would know that they were wrong to treat you unkindly. She thought this was an excellent idea, but seemed to get a bit too much pleasure about God rubbing the noses of her enemies in His honour of her. Vindictive little thing! But I didn't comment on her smirk, since the Psalmist often seems to have that very attitude!

Then I repeated the next section of verse 5, "Thou anointest my head with oil."

Ella didn't even repeat that! Her shock was evident in her, "WHAT???" She was so surprised I had to laugh and as I did, Ella added, "God wants to put OIL on my HEAD?"

When I had recovered, I explained that in the days that the Bible was written when a person had a special work to do for God and He wanted them to be set apart for this special work and for others to know how special the person was whom He had chosen, a priest or a prophet would anoint their heads with oil.

Evidently my explanation just didn't cut it with her. "But I don't want oil on my head! I don't like oil!"

"Well, that was just the way God showed someone that they were extra-special, that they were especially chosen by Him to do His work." I explained again.

Ella wrinkled her forehead, leaned back in the chair, crossed her arms, and said, "Maybe, but I'm not going to say that. No way!"

So, we skipped that part and went on to "my cup runneth over," which she liked very well - after all, who doesn't like having God fill their life with good things? And we finished the rest of the chapter without incident.

Which brings me to my homeschooling philosophy. After all, there's not a lot of "religion" in this blog. At least, I don't think there is, but when you're a pastor/pastor's wife, it slips in everywhere, often without me even realising it. But my purpose in homeschooling is not to give my daughter a "Christian Education." This fact, for some reason, can really freak out a lot of Christians who are homeschooling for just that purpose. To them, they cannot see the point of homeschooling if it's not for religious reasons - essentially to keep their children from being taught something against the family's beliefs and to separate their children from the negative influences of "the world." That is a legitimate reason for homeschooling, and I can understand parents who feel that way, but I happen to disagree.

You see, I've never seen the school system as being responsible for the Christian Education of my children. It's a terrible place for any child to receive "Christian Education." I am a firm believer in Christian Education, and took many courses in college on precisely that subject. But, for whatever reason, I think that the purpose for school is academic education, and that a child's Christian education ought to rest on the parents and the church. If we had decided to put Ella in the public school system, we certainly wouldn't expect her to be getting any Christian education there. If we had decided to put Ella in a private school, it would not have necessarily been a Christian school. Our decision, regardless of the religious (or lack thereof) orientation of the school would be primarily based on their academic program and how well said program would work for Ella.

For 90% of our school day, no observer would think that Ella was getting a "Christian" education. For now all of our subjects are academic, outside of our opening. Eventually we might get into learning Biblical languages (Hebrew with Mum, Greek with Dad) - but even those, while related to our faith are still academic subjects. There is a vast difference between teaching devotion (embracing the teaching of a faith) and teaching religious/Biblical comprehension (understanding and interpreting the texts of a faith and the theology of a faith). The two can intersect, but it is not necessary for them to.

I also have a fear of putting my daughter into an education situation which is not so much education but indoctrination. It's not too difficult to spot the difference. Those who have gone through Christian Education not only know what they believe, but why they believe it and can compare and contrast their beliefs with other beliefs. These are the people who want to hear what you have to say, are willing to try to understand it, and are not threatened by it. Those who have gone through "Christian" indoctrination (which truly should be an oxymoron) know what they've been told to believe and they believe it, perhaps even with some level of understanding. But they don't want to know what you believe. They don't want to listen to your defense of your faith. And when confronted with something outside their belief system they are often threatened and respond accordingly with "fight or flight." When something conflicts with their belief, it is obviously either untrue or results in a crises of faith.

I remember sitting (somewhat dazed) in an early-morning Hebrew class. (Every Hebrew class I've ever taken has been ridiculously early in the morning - don't ask me why!) We were translating the portion of the Torah dealing with the flood narrative, more commonly known as "The Story of Noah and the Ark." At some point during our discussion (it was a seminar class, and therefore very small, amounting to a professor and a group of students sitting around a table) our professor brought up the vast number of flood narratives occurring in almost every ancient religious tradition in the Middle East. Most of the students in the class had already read many differing flood accounts from ancient religious texts in another class, so it was "old news."

After class, however, I got into a discussion with a first-year student to whom the concept of Biblical narratives having pagan parallels was entirely new. She was an intelligent young woman who had just graduated from an (evidently) very conservative Christian school. She was, to say the least, shocked, horrified, and threatened by the idea. In her mind, the professor had pretty much just informed her that much of the Old Testament was copied material from pagan religions.

That had not been my take on the discussion at all. Firstly, because I knew the professor well and knew him to be not only a professor but also an ordained minister who took not only his academics but his faith very seriously. But he was also a man who would present an issue from multiple sides, explaining multiple interpretations, and left the decision-making as to which interpretation was correct to the discretion of the student. Some students left his lectures confused. I always left desiring to study more on the subject until I had come to my own conclusion.

Secondly, since I had already studied the subject previously, I had already had time to process the information and come to my own understanding. There was a reading room nearby, so we went in there (it was empty, so we weren't disturbing anyone!) and we had an interesting discussion which has stayed with me ever since.

"There are a lot of different ancient religious texts that have a flood narrative. We know this to be fact, right?" I asked her.

And though I could tell it cost her to admit it, she nodded her acceptance.

"Okay, so we have this fact, but have you thought at all about what that fact means?" I queried.

"I don't get it," she said. "What is it you're asking me?"

I thought for a moment and then rephrased the question. "So, there's a lot of different flood stories. Fine. But why does this upset you?"

"Because if there's so many other versions of a Bible story, that means they just all copied from each other! It really didn't happen at all!" By this time, she was close to tears.

"Is that what it means?" I asked again. "If there are multiple flood stories then they must have been copied from each other?"

At this point, she realised that I didn't think her conclusion was right at all, and I could see her trying to figure out what I was getting at. She didn't quite make the leap. "What else could it mean?" she wondered.

"Well, let's say that the flood account isn't true, then you'd be correct that it's just another retelling of an old, old story. But, if our premise is that the Bible is the Word of God and is Truth, then the flood narrative did happen, right?"

She nodded.

"And the flood narrative tells us that the "whole world" was flooded, right?"

Again, she agreed.

"Now, I can't say whether this means the whole earth as we know it, every continent under water, or whether this means the whole known earth, and I don't even care. That would be for geologist to figure out. All I know for sure is that everything that the writer of this portion of Scripture knew was under water, so the flooding must have been incredibly wide-spread. Could have been everywhere or just Eurasia and Africa. But there was flooding, and a lot of it."

"Tell me now, if there was flooding all over the place, and there was one family who survived, and they spread out all over the place, and raised their families, and generations passed, and they began to form their own religions, what would happen to the flood story?"

Light was dawning for her, "Then there'd be a whole bunch of flood stories, not all the same, but an awfully lot alike!"

"Bingo! And they wouldn't be copies of each other, but..."

"But they would all have the same root story!" she exclaimed.

"And so, as far as I'm concerned, the great variety of flood accounts doesn't prove the lack of a flood, but testifies to the truth of a flood!" I finished.

I graduated some time before she did, so I don't know how she dealt with the vast differences in Biblical interpretation or the varieties of theologies she would have been taught later, but I hope and pray that she remembered to be open to new ideas, to consider them critically (in the sense of skillfully judgment as to truth or merit, not as in being inclined to find fault or judge harshly), and to make her decisions and opinions based on sound judgement tempered with faith rather than rejecting any theory off-hand or (worse) losing her faith.

That's why I'm wary of "Christian" education. And, depending on how you look at it, not only do some "Christian" school try to indoctrinate children, it's not very different in public schools!

One of my friends is fond of calling public schools "Secular Humanism" schools, and another calls them "Darwinian" schools. I would have to agree with the first, on the whole, although many would point out that the latter led, quite directly, to the former. At any rate, public schools are "religious," even if their "religion" has no god, and the way they go about teaching their beliefs is not much different than the way I described my issues with most Christian schools, to wit, that they attempt to teach the children what to think, rather than how to think.

And on top of this, teachers are frightfully overworked, sadly underpaid, and usually very stressed out due to the pressures put on them by parents, the school district, the department of education, and their over-full classrooms. As if that were not enough, classrooms often deal with mayhem due to the "inclusion" and "no child left behind" policies.

Don't get me wrong, I think it extremely important that children learn to be friends with and accept those who are handicapped or disabled in some way, but while that interaction is important, when it interferes with the learning process, and it disturbs greatly during class time, resulting in lower grades and difficulty learning for children easily distracted, I draw the line. Education should be primarily about scholarly education, not social "education," which really is the reason why we send our children to schools rather than socials.

As for "no child left behind," I think that has failed miserably. What results is that highly intelligent children face a system that is "some children kept behind," and those who have difficulty learning face a system that is "some children forced forward." Often teachers find themselves forced to teach to the lowest common denominator, meanwhile the intelligent and very bored children have plenty of time to come up with smart-aleck remarks and have plenty of time to catch up on their note-writing and passing, or worse.

Education is so incredibly important. I've always wanted the best education possible for my children (although at this point I only have a class of one), and when I read about the Montessori Method I knew I'd found the kind of education I wanted my daughter to have. In fact, I think every child should be able to learn this way, and it's very sad that more children don't have the chance. The state of education in New Brunswick is currently in sad, sad shape. And truth be told, most families don't have any option but to send their children to public school. Many parents continue to educate their children at home and often augment their children's education with extra-curricular classes and/or activities. But I'm grateful that I do have the option, and I just keep praying for the discipline, to homeschool my children.

[Please note: that last sentence is not a typo. I ended up getting pregnant this summer, much to our shock and delight, and so I'll have another student soon enough. The best part about it is that now all this Montessori material making will be used at least twice!]

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Death becomes Him

2008-07-03T10:31:00.001-07:00

Just a few moments ago, my husband was sitting on the couch with Ella, reading. She crawled up on him, evidently putting pressure on his knee (his leg was straight out and resting on the rocking horse). He grunted and gave a jump.

"What wrong?" asked Ella.

"You've got to be careful when climbing around on Daddy," he told her, "I'm getting old and you might hurt me!"

She looked at him for a moment and said, "You're getting old?"

My husband nodded.

"Well, Dada, when are you going to die?"

I laughed myself silly; he looked horrified; and Ella just waited patiently for an answer!

Field Trips Part V - WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

2008-06-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'm impressed! Everyone who guessed did so correctly! So...

First Prize goes to...
SHANNON! Who sent in her guess remarkably early: 6:10am. (What time zone are you in???!!! Or are you one of those "morning people?")

Congratulations, Shannon. You have just won a postcard of the first edition cover of Anne of Green Gables which will be posted to you using the new Canada Post Anne of Green Gables 100th Anniversary Stamps!

Second Prize goes to...
REBELANGEL, who admits to using the internet to find out for sure if she was right!

Congratulations, RebelAngel. You have won a postcard of the first edition cover of Emily Climbs, another wonderful book by L. M. Montgomery. It will also have the new Canada Post Anne of Green Gables 100th Anniversary Stamps!

Third Prize goes to...

GINA, who answered in classic Jeopardy style!

Congratulations, Gina. You're postcard will be of the first edition cover of Emily's Quest. Can you tell I also loved the Emily books? And yours will also have the Anne stamps.

And finally...

Congratulations Janis! My mail-loving maniac of a best friend. Of course you can get another postcard, and I'm glad you liked The Blue Castle postcard I sent from the Island. Just don't hold your breath; I've got three other postcards to send first! :-P

And, may I advise everyone that they get out to their local library and find a copy of The Blue Castle this summer. It's a beautiful story, my favourite Montgomery novel, and is the only story that she intentionally wrote for adults. If you want a hint of summer romance, I highly recommend it!

[To claim your prize, please make a comment on this post which includes your name and mailing address. Rest assured, I will reject any comment that has personal information, so if you have something else you want to share (with more people than just me), please post that in a separate comment, which I will accept. Congrats to you all!]

Field Trips Part IV - Last Hint

2008-06-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the final hint for those who want to participate in the contest:

Field Trips Part III - Another Hint

2008-06-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

If you don't know what's going on, read the previous two posts!

I've been getting some good guesses as to the destination of our Super-sized field trip. But it's not too late to try (or try again)!

Here's the hints:

Field Trips Part II - An Additional Contest Hint

2008-06-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so nobody even attempted to guess where we went on our super-sized field trip!!!???

So, I'm giving it to Monday, June 30th. I'll post a new pictoral "hint" every day.

For more information about this contest, please go to Field Trips - Learning by Experience, and scroll down to the photograph at the bottom. Good luck! Oh, and if you're into stamp collecting - you really should try. Oh - and if you want to put in multiple guesses, you're allowed.

Here's your hints:

Field Trips - Learning by Experience (PLUS - CONTEST - see rules at the end)

2008-06-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Preview for the next post: Ella and I hiking during our most recent field trip:

One of the advantages of homeschooling is that not everyday has to be a "classroom" day. Because you only have X-number of children to deal with (in my case, an easy "1"), provided you have a vehicle that can carry you and all your gang around, field trips are limited only by your imagination and your budget!

Montessori is all about learning through experience, not (as is the common way) learning through lectures/teaching/observing. Let's consider these over-used methods.

Lectures
Almost any university or college uses this method either primarily or (in some cases) almost exclusively. This method can work extremely well or terribly poorly; it all depends on who is lecturing, and who is listening. Lectures work very well for me. I'm an aural learner (one who learns well by hearing). But, for visual or kinesthetic learners (those who learn by observing or those who learn by moving/motion), a lecture-only environment is useless.

Teaching
The difference between lecturing and teaching is a fine line, and one that often blurs. Where as a lecturer talks about a subject, a teacher tries constantly to engage the students, watching for response, inviting discussion, and trying always to bring about understanding in the minds of the students. Many teachers can lecture very well, but a lecturer is not necessarily a very good teacher.

Observation
This is the most common addition to any teaching or lecturing. Aural learners are simply not as common, despite it being the most frequent method of teaching, and so teachers add something (sometimes that can mean "anything" - however far they have to stretch it) for students to look at. Usually this involves a hand-out, picture, diagram, chart, object, etc.

But, despite most educational institutions depending on the aural method of teaching, almost every child ends up spending much more time being taught through observation, and the medium is probably sitting in your living room. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of excellent, educational programs out there, but ultimately your child is not experiencing anything! He or she is observing others experiencing something. Do you see the difference?

There are a lot of activities and places that you and your child will never get to experience, and for those things you can teach about it, read about it, imagine/role play it, or observe it. But there is also innumerable activities and places that you and your child can experience, and whenever you think of one of those, write it down and try to work it in as a field trip as soon as you think your child is ready.

Field Trip
In the past, we've taken Ella on field trips to the zoo, the aquarium, the museum, and (of course) multiple field trips to the library. We've gone hiking and talked about identifying trees (she's got cedar and birch down pat - easy to recognise their barks). We've looked at commemorative statues in the park, differing kinds of ships in the harbour, and how to follow a map when hiking in the woods or when walking around a city. All these things, regardless of whether they're typically taught in the public school system, are part of education, or should be.

But there's no control of error if you're doing them in the classroom. In the classroom you can look at videos or pictures of animals, either aquatic or terrestrial - but you can't experience them. In the classroom you can talk about history and look at pictures of the way things were, but you can't walk through and touch real models, and in some cases learn to do the things people did "back then." In the classroom you might be able to have a section of a tree to "experience," a small log showing its bark and a leaf perhaps, but it cannot compare to identifying a tree in it's natural environment. In the classroom you can study maps and write down directions, but you can't follow the maps and discover if you've arrived at the location that was your goal.

Because of the vast difference in observing or talking about something with actually experiencing it, field trips almost always trump classroom time. Please note: there are some areas in which field trips have limited use, namely mathematics, phonetics/reading, chemistry, etc. Often these subjects can be integrated with everyday life. Math can come in handy while shopping, phonetics/reading while you're driving down the road looking at signs, chemistry while baking, and anything else you can come up with using a little bit of ingenuity!

I began this post as an introduction to a post on our most recent field trip, but since it got so long, I'll leave it as a teaser for my next post: Our Super-sized Field Trip.

Can anyone guess where our field trip took us? If you are the first to post a comment and guess correctly you'll get a prize: a relevant postcard will be sent to you of this year's Super-sized field trip.

Don't leave your address in the comment, just your guess - whoever wins will be announced in my next post which will happen on Friday (if all goes as planned). At that time, the winner may submit another comment on the post titled "Our Super-sized Field Trip" that includes your mailing information and e-mail address. I will "reject" the comment, because I'm sure you don't want such information visible for all the world to see.

This contest is open to anyone who lives on planet Earth who does not know me personally. (Sorry to all those who do know me personally - but chances are you already know the answer, and so are disqualified!)

WHAT Did She Just Say???

2008-06-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

This post is not directly related to teaching or Montessori. It would fall under the category "Shocking Things Kids Say."

Picture this: we're getting ready to go to a party, and having been neglectful of laundry this week due to the ratio of actual time to things to fit into time allotted was way out of balance, neither Derek nor I have any of our "favourite" tops to wear. You know the ones? They're newer, they make you feel good, they make you look good (or better - at least!), and they're always in the hamper because you wear them the moment they out of the dryer?

Ella, evidently, overhears us disparaging our clean clothes (old, dreary, sad clothes that just don't look "good" anymore, and ourselves (old, dreary, sad mid-thirties parents that just don't look "good" anymore).

Then Ella said, "I'm pathetic."

We pause, staring at one another. My husband speaks up, "Did you just hear what she said?"

"Yeh," I answer, "She said, I'm prophetic."

"No!" he said, "She said 'I'm pathetic'."

We both turn to her and ask, simultaneously, "Did you say 'I'm pr/pa - th/ph - etic'?"

"Yes," she tells us, which really doesn't clear anything up.

This time only my husband speaks. "Ella, are you pathetic?"

She wrinkles her nose, "NO! I'm prophetic, but I'm not going to be prophetic no more! I'm going to stop right now!"

Math Breakthrough!

2008-06-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

Something clicked for me this weekend, and it clicked for Ella too.

All this time, I was frustrated with her counting - HAH! What was I thinking? Ella's problem had nothing to do with difficulty counting, or understanding the relationship between the number of objects with the numeral or the name of the numeral.

She had shown interest, the last time we did math, in trying to match two number rods to make the length of a third. So, using the first five rods we did a little bit of introductory addition. There was no frustration, no "I'm to tired's", no I don't want too's."

Up at my Mum's later while visiting with my visiting siblings, "Uncle" asked Ella, "If you had three kitty cats, and I gave you two more kitty cats, how many kitty cats would you have?"

"Five," said Ella, in a tone of voice which added the feeling that she was thinking, "Isn't that obvious? What a silly question!"

Uncle posed a few more addition problems, all which she answered promptly and correctly, until he asked two plus four, to which she answered "Five!" He cocked his head to one side and look at her, to which she responded, "No, no! Six!"

Earlier today, as we were still at my Mum's, and as a result of visiting aunties and uncles, we hadn't had "school" in a while, I noticed her playing with a group of her "Little People" animals. I laid down in front of her and told her we were going to play a little game. Since "little zebra" is her favourite, he and she were going to be on one team and they were going to figure out the mysteries I made.

I started with four little people in one spot, and one separate from them. I made up a little ditty and sang something along the lines of "How many animals do you see?" while pointing to the four animals together. She and zebra sang back at me, "Four, four, we see four!" Then I sang the same ditty while pointing to the solo animal. Zebra and Ella sang back "One, one, we see one!" Then I slid them all together while singing, "So four plus one makes ____." Zebra and Ella sang right out on cue, "Five!"

We did this for quite a while, when she began asking for harder "mysteries." We went through 2+3, 5+1, 5+2, 6+1, 3+4, 7+1, 3+5, and 4+4, when she (and zebra) asked for a really tough one. So I put out 6+6, which at first she said was 11, but when I said, "You'd better check again," she figured out it was 12.

So, now I'm going to have to buy/make the next stage of math materials, such as the mathematics bead material (now there's a huge project!), the teens and tens boards, and a second set of number rods. I'm really glad now that I received the Montessori Research & Development Mathematics Manual. (In fact, I got quite a few Montessori R&D Teacher's Manuals, and I'll be writing about them at length in a future post.)

I doubt my math woes are completely over, but at least now I know it wasn't that the material was too hard, but that it was too boring. I have a funny feeling that when it comes to making/buying Montessori material, I'm really going to have to work to keep up with Ella!

Colours, Colours, Everywhere!

2008-05-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

As those who have read My Montessori Classroom and Supplies know, I skipped over the first and second colour boxes. By the time we began a structured "school time," Ella would not have found them the least bit challenging. So I simply ordered the Third Box of Colour Tablets. I knew she wasn't quite ready for it, so rather than putting all the colours and shades out, I put two shades of each of the nine colours in a box.

I'm not specific as to what order she puts them in, as long as the two tablets in the same colour but different shades go together. She likes laying them out like a railway track. Here's Ella making sure that the "railway track" is nice and even.

As you can see, she has put every tablet next to the matching one:

The colours, because of the flash, are difficult to see, so I shall list them (from left to right): dark grey, light grey, dark orange, light orange, light purple, dark purple, light blue, dark blue, dark yellow, light yellow, dark brown, light brown, light green, dark green, light red, dark red, dark pink, light pink.

Because she now was finding the dark/light matching a bit too easy, I ran into the office next door (where I keep extraneous supplies) and got another shade in each colour - a medium shade.

Here she is naming the new colours. Then I had her add the third colours to her "railway track" in the proper position (between the light and the dark). This task proved a bit difficult because she wanted to keep her "railway track" perfectly straight. She started with the medium orange:

Despite how it looks, it's not really an easy task. Especially if you're working with all nine colours, each with seven shades. The darkest orange is remarkably close to an orangey-red, making it hard to differentiate between it and the lighter red shades. And the darkest pink poses a similar problem. The darker shades of grey and brown can be difficult to distinguish, depending on the light. And some of the shades of the same colour are so close that you can only tell which is lighter and which is darker when they are in context with all the other shades of that colour which are already in order!

For now, however, three shades each of nine colours is enough of a challenge. Here she is going after the reds:

Having already matched the darkest and the lightest, Ella had little difficulty putting the medium shades between the correct colours. I shall have to add a fourth shade soon!

The addition of another shade for each colour really seemed to add to her fun - and it made her railway track much longer!

Ultimately, I hope that she will be able to use the colour tablets to make more elaborate designs, such as the colour wheel I made:

Because we're not yet to the point where we're using all the shades, I bought a cardboard box at the Dollarama to hold the tablets currently in use. If I add one more shade, I'm going to need a new box!

Homeschooling Frustrations

2008-05-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

Some days go better than others. Some days Ella just drives me nuts!

I've mentioned before that for some reason (could be genetic - neither I nor my husband is partial to mathematics) Ella would choose almost any other activity over one pertaining to math.

Today, my Mum called and informed me that Ella can now count to 30. THIRTY??? In school I can barely get her to count to 10!

Here she is using the spindle box, as it is meant to be used. She always starts off very well, counting out the spindles to put the correct number in its proper section. But around 6 or 7 she still just mentally wanders off. From her behaviour, I'm guessing that she can quickly and easily visualize what number of objects makes the numbers up to six, even without actually counting, but beyond that, she just doesn't want to bother with the effort of counting them out, rather she just makes a guess and throws in about how many she thinks might make 7, 8, or 9.

Here she is still doing the activity correctly, dropping them in individually until the correct number of spindles are in the appropriate section.

And here she is grabbing a handful of spindles to toss in the 8 section! If I thought she was just having difficulty grasping the concept, then I don't think I'd be bothered by this, but she doesn't even seem to try. It's the same story with the number rods and the numerals and counters.

On the bright side, I was sitting, typing up a letter to my brother the other day while Ella watched Winnie-the-Pooh (the original) when Ella turned to me and said, "Bear! Bear starts with 'buh'!"

We haven't yet done "buh" in school. I was impressed and decided to see what else she could figure out. "And what letter makes that sound? What letter says 'buh'?" I asked.

She thought for a few moments and then exclaimed, "BEE! Bee says 'buh' and 'buh' is at the beginning of 'Bear'!"

Until now, she had been struggling with the concept that the sound that begins a word can be separated from the rest of that word to discover what letter begins the word. And today Mum also told me that they were playing a little "game" where Mum would say a word and Ella would tell her what sound began that word. Evidently Mum was quite impressed.

As frustrating as some days are, I have to say that when something like that happens, it's a real encouragement. I call them "breakthrough" moments, and they are as exciting for the teacher as the student. The moment when you see the dawning light of understanding overcome your student, the moment when everything "clicks" together and the student finally "gets" it.

Often these moments are followed by a sudden leap in the accumulation of knowledge, a period when the child, who until now has only been doing what he is expected to do, is able to absorb the information quickly and deeply, embedding it in himself to use for the rest of his life. Those breakthrough moments, and the rapid, exciting learning done afterwards are what makes homeschooling a joy, despite frustrations.

Now, if I can just get her motivated to count!

My Completed Pink Tower

2008-05-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, after sanding and sanding and sanding and sanding, going to Dad's to use his belt sander, then went home and sanded some more. In the midst of all that sanding I was repeated told by Dad, "Don't be so picky!" Can you guess which of the two of us is the perfectionist?

(If you happen to be looking for instructions on how to make the pink tower or broad/brown stair, go to Make Your Own Sensorial Materials, Part One and Part Two.

I gave all the blocks a coat of latex primer, then did multiple layers of "cherry blossom pink" acrylic paint. Finally, I gave them all three coats of acrylic varnish. Here's the results:

You can see more detail when I do the pink tower shell-shape:

From a distance, they don't look too bad. But if you take a closer look, you can tell that they weren't professionally made:

On the 10cm x 10cm x 10cm block, you can see the "dip" in the wood. If I had sanded much more, it would not longer have been 10cm x 10cm x 10cm, so I cut my losses and voila!

Here's another view of the 10cm x 10cm x 10cm block. You can tell here that one of the corners isn't really a corner. That was another fault in the log. Also (but not shown) is a large knot in the wood that, despite substantial wood fill and sanding, still has enough of an indentation to make it noticeable.

Just for comparison, I put the teeny-tiny 1cm x 1cm x 1cm block atop the 10cm x 10cm x 10cm block. Theoretically, it would take 1000 of the former to make the latter, and when you look at it this way, you can really see that.

Ella can do the pink stair with little-to-no difficulty, although sometimes it's hard to tell, as she often has a "friend" (be it little monster, Mayas the rabbit, Lambie, or some imaginary person) who just can't figure it out on his/her own, so mistakes are made which Ella has to correct! It's not always clear to me if she's making the mistakes deliberately in order to get to "correct" her friend, or if it happened by accident and she's just using her imaginary friend/stuffed animal as a scapegoat for her mistakes. In some cases, I can tell one way or the other, but sometimes... Well, let's just say I know her better than anyone, but there's plenty of times when I have no clue what's going through that little mind of hers!

DON'T Make Your Own Sensorial Materials - Part 1 - Knobbed Cylinders

2008-05-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

To Make or Not to Make - That was the question!
I cannot begin to tell you how many times my father and I talked about, measured, planned, and tried to figure out a way to make the Knobbed Cylinders! We have wracked our brains (or, more precisely, I have wracked my brain), and though initially Dad said (after I told him the price of the knobbed cylinders), "Of course we can make them! You aren't paying XX.XX dollars for four blocks of wood with little round things in them!"

But when faced with reality: meaning of course, after I had measured the sizes of all the cylinders, both width and depth, in imperial because naturally none of his drill bits would be metric, he said, "You need them to be that precise?" *scratches head while wrinkling brow* "Uh, I don't know about that." Eventually he caved an said, "Yes, order them, I can't make them!"

So here they are! (At least, half of them - I've only put out the first two as Ella isn't ready to add the third or fourth yet.) I took them up to Mum and Dad's after they arrived to show him, at which point he informed me, "Yeh, we couldn't have made those. At least, we couldn't have made them anywhere close to accurately, and they wouldn't have looked very good, either!"

Now you can all laud me for my grace and patience as, during the course of all this, I never even tried to strangle him for insisting initially that he could make them, and that I shouldn't waste my money, resulting in me actually ordering and receiving them long after I would have otherwise!

If you happen to live in an area where getting drill bits sized in metric is easily possible, then I would definitely recommend finding a friend/neighbour/acquaintance who has a drill press and make your own. But, if you have difficulties finding dowels in appropriate sizes, you might want to consider buying the knobless cylinders (also known as the coloured cylinders) sanding them with a very fine grit sandpaper, and then painting them brown. Then attach knobs with carpenter's glue. I found nice little knobs at a local hardware store. They weren't made to be knobs, rather they were actually little wooden knob-like hole covers that I found in the craft section. But - whatever works!

Why I Decided to Get Them in the First Place
When first trying to decide which materials I should make, which I should buy, and which I could skip altogether, the knobbed cylinders were the first to be scratched off the list, as I thought them unnecessary and expensive. No doubt about it, they are expensive, but as I did more reading, research, and observation of my own daughter, I changed my mind.

You see, individually she may be able to do them quickly and easily, but as she becomes skilled at performing this exercise, I will allow her to do two simultaneously, then three, then four. These are the extensions for learning to used the Knobbed Cylinders visually.

Then I will introduce the Knobbed Cylinders as a tactile activity. Essentially you start from the beginning, using one block at a time, but this time round, you wear a blindfold. Believe me, it isn't easy! I've done all four together as a visual activity, and that was difficult enough. Sometime soon I'm hoping to try it blindfolded.

By the time you've gone through all these activities, your child will probably be well into elementary school!

Oh, and after that there are things you can do with the Knobbed Cylinders and the Knobless Cylinders. I don't know yet what those things are, but when I find out, you'll find out too!

Dimensions of the Knobbed and Knobless Cylinders and Blocks
As for the size of the cylinders and the cylinder blocks, as you can see, their size is substantial:

The blocks themselves are 45 3/4 cm long and 7 1/2 cm wide. The cylinders are identical in size to the knobless cylinders with the exception of the knobs themselves. Their dimensions are as follows:

Block #1 - Cylinders begin with the largest being 5 cm in diameter and 5cm in height. Each subsequent cylinder decreases both in diameter and in height by 0.5 cm. The smallest cylinder is 1 cm in diameter and 1 cm in height.

Block #2 - Cylinders begin with the largest being 5 cm in diameter and 1 cm in height. Each subsequent cylinder decreases in diameter by 0.5 cm and increases in height by 0.5 cm. The smallest cylinder is 1 cm in diameter and 5 cm in height.

Block #3 - Cylinders begin with the largest being 5 cm in diameter and 5 cm in height. Each subsequent cylinder decreases in diameter by 0.5 cm, but the height of all the cylinders is identical. The smallest cylinder is 1 cm in diameter and 5 cm in height.

Block #4 - Cylinders begin with the largest being 2.5 cm in diameter and 5 cm in height. Each subsequent cylinder decreases in height by 0.5 cm, but the diameter of all the cylinders is identical. The smallest cylinder is 2.5 cm in diameter and 1 cm in height.

How to Present the Knobbed Cylinders/Cylinder Blocks
The initial presentation of the knobbed cylinders is fairly simple. The child is asked to accompany the teacher as she shows her something new. The teacher grasps the cylinder block with both hands on either end and carries it carefully to the desk or table. Then the teacher seats herself and begins to take out each cylinder, using the thumb, index finger, and middle finger of her dominant hand. As she removes the cylinders, she places them on the far side of the block in a random fashion.

When all the cylinders have been removed, the teacher begin to replace the cylinders in order, either beginning from the smallest or the largest. The teacher is not to touch the cylinder itself, but rather holds it by the knob, so that she is visually discriminating the size of the cylinder and the hole.

If the student wishes to try replacing the cylinders, then the teacher should step back and allow her to carry on the activity alone while she observes. If the student resorts to touching the cylinders or the holes, or is noisy when performing the activity, the teacher should make note of it, and during the following class time re-present the material noting aloud, "See how I hold the cylinder by the knob, using my thumb and two fingers? That way it's my eyes that are figuring out where they should go!" or "Listen closely as I put the cylinder in. I can do it very quietly! When you replace the cylinders, see if you can do it quietly too!"

Should the student be overly rough, simply take the block away noting that the materials are very special and if we want to be allowed to use them, we need to use them with care so they don't get hurt.

Here Ella is shown using the second cylinder block. The first and second are often offered within a day or two of each other as both sets vary both in diameter and in height, making them the two easiest to master. The next step would either be to present the third block or to teach the child how to use two blocks at once, which is done by placing the blocks in a "V," removing the cylinders as before, mixing the two sets together in the middle of the "V," and then trying to replace them in the correct blocks.

Where to Get Cylinder Blocks
The cylinder blocks were my third order from i-Fit Wooden Toy Supplier (aka Montessori Equipment) which has some of the least expensive Montessori materials I've ever found. Added to that is the fact that I've had excellent service from them. When I placed my order, they had run out of the Economy Cylinder Blocks, so they sent me the Premium Cylinder Blocks instead. Upon arrival, I was very impressed at their beauty. During shipping, however, one of the knobs had been knocked off its cylinder. That was easily fixed with a little carpenter's glue. When I e-mailed the company saying how pleased I was, I happened to mention the slight breakage. Their response was swift: that if it happened again, to let them know immediately and they would send a replacement knobbed cylinder. Needless to say, next time I want to buy Montessori materials rather than make them, I will be ordering from them again.

A Bit on the Funny Side If you look closely at the above picture, not only should you notice that Ella is not holding the cylinder correctly, but that she has it leaning toward another cylinder. The reason is that my daughter is very imaginative. Where others see knobbed cylinders, she sees a variety of interesting people, ranging (in this case) from short and fat to tall and skinny! Here two of the people are talking to one another! Ella's tendency is to anthropomorphise everything! Between that, and her dozens of imaginary friends, our schoolroom can get a bit crowded!

A while back, I promised to do a post on teaching the imaginative child: getting them to control their imagination during school time without stifling it completely. I haven't forgotten that, but as yet I haven't got around to it! As you can see, though, it is something I have to deal with on a frequent basis and much of the time I feel like I'm walking a fine line between crushing her imagination and encouraging her fun and fantastical world! And, as I said before, I will be posting more on that interesting balance later.

Ultimately, she does get the "work" done. And the wonderful part is, for the Montessori student most of their school "work" feels more like school "play," which is as it should be. My final goal is not merely to educate my daughter, but to plant within her a love of learning that will continue throughout her life. After all, if you love learning, then it isn't really "work," is it?

Our "Library Corner"

2008-05-05T21:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Ella finds herself in need of a little rest while at school. Basically, she just wants a break from more active schoolwork. There have been times that we've even laid down for a nap, covering up with quilts from the nursery and using stuffed animals as pillows. Sometimes, we just call it a day and go home. But there are occasions when she just needs a change of pace or some downtime. So we now have a "library corner" where Ella and I, or just Ella, can read, look at pictures, and explore our phonetic boxes.

Here's our library corner. It's pretty small, but it works. Plus, with the heater so near, it's one of the coziest places in the room. As for our current book choices:

We're talking and learning about seasons, so I brought over Ella's "My Very First Encyclopedia with Winnie the Pooh and Friends: Nature" which covers seasons, and since we're soon going to be doing some zoology, I also brought "My Very First Encylopedia with Winnie the Pooh and Friends: Animals."

For those who don't know, this year marks the 100th Anniversary of "Anne of Green Gables." Ella and I have gone to a tea party where we celebrated with other folks who love Anne, and made some new friends. We are also reading a couple of abridged versions of the novel. [I can't seem to find links to the books at this time, so I'll edit this post soon and add the information.]

Ella is very interested in Jesus' disciples, so I've added a book about them. Of course, the classic "Dick and Jane," which is a favourite of Ella's. Even after all this time, there is still something about the very simple presentations and the pretty watercolour illustrations that draws children to these stories. And we've got a very old edition of the story of "Thumbelina," that Ella wanted to bring to school to read. She heard a song about Thumbelina on a Raffi CD, and just loves the idea of teeny-tiny people! [A silly side-note: My husband thinks of Raffi as the "Bruce Cockburn of kid's music!"]

Ella is fascinated by Anne of Green Gables. She loves the movie, the books, and imagining that she is Anne "Cherlie." Of course, that usually make me Marilla and my husband, Matthew; or I get to be Diana and he gets to be Gilbert!

If Ella knows a story, it's not uncommon for her to "read" to herself, using the illustrations as cues for the story's progression. It's quite remarkable how much she remembers, even little things, like an odd turn of phrase. Sometimes it's very nice to have her "read" to me... and I get to rest!

We hadn't read this book yet, but she still could pick out parts of the Anne story by looking at the drawings. Hopefully we'll begin it tomorrow.

Both my husband and I are avid readers, and Ella seems to be following in our footsteps in that regard.

Language Arts - Early Phonics ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BONUS: Hammering, a Reprise

2008-04-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

If only I had known then what I know now...

Mums and Dads of babies, listen up:

DON'T TEACH YOUR CHILD THE ALPHABET!

Oh, I know that learning the alphabet is important, and that a lot of people think that how quickly your child can learn his letters and numbers is directly related to his/her level of intelligence, and to your care and attention as a parent, but rattling off a list of letters (or, more commonly, being able to sing the alphabet song) or even the ability to recognise letters and name them is still a couple steps removed from being able to read and write, and it is entirely abstract.
The Montessori method always strives to proceed from the concrete to the abstract, and to learn that the sound a letter makes is different from its name requires you to move from the abstract to the concrete. If only I had known a couple years ago, before Ella learned her letter names:

DO NOT TEACH YOUR CHILD THE 'EH' 'BEE' 'CEES'!

RATHER TEACH YOUR CHILD THE 'Æ' 'BUH' 'CKs'!

Do you see what I mean? Just in case you don't, I'll explain a little further.

A child who learns his alphabet by the song really doesn't know his alphabet at all! He knows how to make the sounds that are supposed to go with the music he hears. If he sees a letter, he doesn't associate that with the first sound in the song, nor does he associate that with the symbol 'A.' Most importantly, he doesn't associate it with the sound 'Æ' (the way 'A' sounds in the words 'cat,' 'tab,' and 'pad'). Eventually he will need to learn these associations in order to read and write.

A child who learns to recognise the letter symbols and to define them by their letter name, is still at least one step away from truly learning her alphabet. She might see the symbol 'A' and be able to identify the name of this letter as 'EH,' but she does not, as yet, associate that with the sound 'Æ,' or even the other 'A' sounds of 'ah' (the way 'A' sounds in "car," "palm," and "law"), and 'eh' (the way 'A' sound in "bay," "laid," and "take"). Granted, this last sound made by the letter 'A' will be easier to learn as it is pronounced the same way as the letter name.

However, a child who learns that the symbol 'A' represents the sound 'Æ' (the way 'A' sounds in the words 'cat,' 'tab,' and 'pad') skips the extraneous step of learning the letter's name, which has little practical use at this juncture. When she sees 'A,' she thinks 'Æ' which puts her on the road to forming simple "pink series" words. ("Pink Series" refers to words, nouns in particular, formed as consonant-vowel-consonant - hereafter to be referred to as C-V-C - such as pal, mud, dog, bin, and set)

After doing more reading, I've changed the way I've been teaching letter sounds. Rather than introducing letters 3 at a time, I've gone to having a 'letter of the day,' which follows basically the same format. (Please note: This is just the way I do it, and I'm not sure how close it is to the "pure" Montessori method... but I will find out soon enough, as I'm getting the Language Arts Manual shortly.)

Here you can see what I endeavour to have set up each time Ella comes into the classroom. Simply put it's a sequence of activities designed to either help her with phonetic pronunciation in context or to encourage her to write the letter symbol with concrete, tactile materials.

Ah, the classic sandpaper letters! Please note that the above photo is not proper Montessori. But, as I mentioned above, Ella already was familiar with her letters and their names.

If you're lucky enough to be starting Montessori before your child knows letter names and symbols, then you should start with lower-case letters. Yes, that is the opposite of how most children are taught the letters; most parents and teachers begin with the upper-case. Perhaps it's because the upper-case letters are larger and more noticeable. But, in almost every book a you read to your child, the vast majority of letters are lower-case. Beginning there means that your child can recognise whole words sooner, rather than just recognising the letter. If you begin with upper-case, you will still need to teach lower-case before your child can recognise a word, because usually only the first letter in a word is an upper-case letter!

So, rather than going backwards, I began by picking up where Ella was, using both upper and lower-case letters simultaneously. She practices both the sound of the letter and the movements used to write the letter by lightly running her finger over the sandpaper letter, using the same movement as is typically used when hand-writing, while saying aloud the sound 'Æ' at the beginning of each new line or curve made.

After she has done this at least once each for the upper-case and the lower-case, she moves on to unguided letter writing. This is her favourite part! I've put cornmeal in a square cake tin and she uses it as a tactile method of making the sound's symbol. The similarity of feel between the sandpaper letter and the cornmeal reinforces the concept of making a letter symbol.

When it doesn't seem to look quite "right," she goes back and re-traces the sandpaper letters, getting a feel for the movement necessary.

These two steps have been especially helpful with the handwriting of the upper-case letter 'A.' Until recently, every time Ella wrote her name, it looked like "EllH" because the two vertical lines in her 'A's never met at the top!

After our initial lesson with 'A', she began to form her upper-case 'A's in a more recognisable form, but she would do it with four lines rather than three. She kept the 'H' appearance, but added a line across the top so it looked like two squares, one atop the other, with the bottom square not having the final, bottom line!

Over time and practice, her 'A' has evolved into two downward-sloping curves, resulting in a shape similar to an upside-down U, with a line across it. Her 'A's continue to become more 'A'-like!

That 'A' is mine! I was taking these pictures on a day she was up at my Mum's visiting.

This is one of the ubiquitous "LeapFrog" learning toys. Initially I had the Leapfrog letters from Ella's Fridge Phonics in the basket with the other 'A' stuff, but I've since removed this element from our sequence of the letter-stuff line-up. I've removed it for two reasons:

First, it teaches multiple sounds for some letters, which can be helpful if you actually want to teach that way, but since I'm only doing one sound at a time (the other sounds for the same letter are introduced later, after the child has become accustomed to the first sound and is able to use it in words) I don't want her to be confused by all the potential sounds this letter can make and she doesn't need (yet) to distinguish between the letter name, and all the different letter sounds.

Second, it emphasises the letter name more than it emphasises the letter sound and this entirely without context. Essentially, it's trying to teach two or more things at once, but it's teaching it in an abstract way. Yes, "'Eh' says 'Eh' and 'Eh' says 'Æ'," as the little ditty goes, but that's three pieces of information that the child has to absorb, and the meaning of one 'Eh' (the letter's name), the meaning of the other 'Eh' (one of the sounds that the letter 'Eh' might represent), and the meaning of 'Æ' (another sound that 'Eh' might represent). Furthermore, even if this was the way you decided to teach your children to read, 'A' actually makes a minimum of three sounds, not just two. 'Eh,' 'Æ,' and 'Ah.'

Now, if you just got confused trying to figure out what I just wrote, imagine being a child trying to sort all this out, and they don't even have a context for the use of this information.

But with Montessori, the first thing you endeavour to do is to make what you're teaching concrete, using as many of the senses and learning methods as possible. So, after hearing/saying a sound and associating that with a symbol, the Montessori method puts it immediately into context.

Behold, my 'Æ' basket. If you're sitting there thinking, "But the 'A' in 'arm' doesn't make the sound 'Æ', it makes the sound 'Ah,' not only are you completely right, but you're also a very fast thinker! I gathered up these items late one night for the next morning's lesson and I just grabbed it because it started with 'A.' Oops! My Bad! I've since removed it. So our 'Æ' basket now holds: Annie (the name of the train car), apple, ambulance, and alligator. We examine the objects, name them, and see if we can hear the 'Æ' sound at the beginning.

Where the 'Æ' basket puts the sound into context as the first sound in a word, this last stage puts the vowel sound into context in the middle of a word. Essentially we look at the picture, say the name of the object in the picture, and see if we can hear the 'Æ' sound. I was lucky enough to get these cards second hand, but they are available new at Montessori Research and Development, as are many of the "Pink Series" classroom materials.

And that's it. That's what we've been doing for language arts. We've done a letter a day for five days: L, H, T, A, and P. I'll post some pictures of one of our consonant materials, so you can see the difference between presenting consonants and vowels.

Today we did a game that helped pull the ideas we've been planting all together. It's called the "Knock, Knock" game.

I kicked Ella out of the classroom for a few minutes, telling her sternly not to peek, which of course meant that she had to tease me by pretending to peek and I had to keep jumping up to chase her away with a growling, monster voice! Meanwhile, I put out the sandpaper letters arrayed in a semi-circle, and at the top of each pair of letters I put the objects that are in each letter basket (I'm in the midst of switching to letter boxes, since they can stack easier, and space is at a premium). Then I turned the sandpaper letters upside down.

When Ella came back in I would reach to a sandpaper letter and knock on it, as if knocking on a door. I'd say, "Knock, Knock! Who's there?" And then Ella had to figure out what sound was hiding away. She would use the objects just above the upside-down sandpaper letters as a reference. If she couldn't remember right off, I'd get her to say the names of all the objects and told her to listen for the first sound. Today she only got one wrong.

BONUS:

I promised a special bonus in this post: I've now got photos of Ella doing her hammering. She just loves it!

She is rather precise when it comes to placement. She knows exactly where she wants it so that it looks just so.

She really enjoys hammering, and while at home, with her little plastic hammer she bangs willy-nilly, when using the 'real' hammer in this kit, with real tacks, she concentrates on what she's doing and is meticulous in her aim. She's yet to bruise a thumb or finger!

This activity is excellent for fine motor skills.

See how she holds the piece of wood by the edges, rather than holding the tack itself? I think that's how she avoided banging herself. I never taught her that, she just figured it out.

She was very proud of her 'train.' Can you see it?

What a silly girl! Anyway, the train has two small, round wheels on each end, and two red squares, a green square, and a blue triangle for "cars." (Don't ask me which end is the engine and which is the caboose - I don't know!)

She's also got a beautiful, square sun up in the sky!

Okay, now for an extra-special treat (if this works right): Ella hammering!!!

Other things to read about Montessori Language Arts:

Oh, and today I'd like to say "Hello there!" to my Readers in/close to Denver, Colorado, and in the Greater Vancouver Area (including, but not limited to, my best friend). For the most part, I don't know who you are, but you've really plumped up my statistics, which probably means either a) you are loyal readers or b) you made a mistake, came to my site, and before you could change to another webpage the baby cried/Johnny hit Suzy/the dog wet on the carpet and you flew away to fix matters, leaving my website up on the computer... Hmm... Now that I think about it, statistics probably don't mean that much after all! Nonetheless, "Hello Out There!"

It's a Small World - A Geographical Interlude

2008-04-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Zirbert, and aided by the Dummies Guide to Google Blogger Bata, I've signed up for Google Analytics. It's been very helpful in that now I can see what people arriving at my blog are looking for.

For example, a lot of folks who come have done a search that included some or all of the following words: Montessori, sensorial, do it yourself, make, and materials. Many have also added what material, specifically, for which they are trying to get instructions.

When I discover which pages people are lingering on, I know that writing about the next step in that subject will also be of interest.

But what I really love, is being able to see where you are from, and there's some pretty exotic (to me) places where, if the statistics are correct, I've got loyal readers!

So this brief post is simply a "Hello! I'm glad you're here!" to those from Kandy, Sri Lanka; Batangas, Philippines; Ipoh, Malaysia; and Singapore. You are virtually on the opposite side of the earth, and yet you're reading something I write! It's humbling and exciting at the same time! Have a wonderful day!

These wishes are sent to South-east Asia from the far-north Canada!

Land, Water, Air Presentation & Cardinal Directions - Physical Geography and Preliminary Geology, Ecology, and Cartography

2008-04-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

Here is the second elaboration on my Classroom Changes. (To see what my classroom was like, go to my older posts, in particular My Montessori Classroom and Materials.)

There are two steps to introduce the idea of geography, maps, and globes. The first is learning the four cardinal points: north, south, east, and west. The second is the "Land, Water, Air Presentation."

To introduce the idea of cardinal points (please note: you are introducing the idea, not necessarily the term - until your child is ready to understand a collective word, just call the cardinal points the "directions" or "four directions") you will need to set up a routine for a number of days that will expand beyond any regular "classroom hours" you may have.

Take a couple of dowels or sturdy sticks and draw/colour/print two pictures similar to these: Rising Sun
and Setting Sun

I'd recommend putting the pictures in page protectors, to keep any rain or dew from harming them for a few days.

For several mornings and evenings, you and your child get to go outside to examine the position of the sun.

On the first morning, you take the sign for sunrise with you, and place it in the direction of the sunrise. On the first evening, you take the sign for sunset with you, and place it in the direction of the sunset.

To be able to push the dowels or sticks down somewhat in the dirt, it would be better to do this on a lawn or in a garden, not on a driveway or in other compacted dirt.

On subsequent days, you will go out as you did the first day, and you will ask your child, "Is our sign for the rising sun still in the right place, or should we move it?" Unless you have significantly changed what time you go out, the sign should still be in the right place. Repeat this process in the evening with the sign for the setting sun.

After a few days, you can invite your child to establish that the sun always rises from one direction, and always sets in the opposite direction. After this has been established (remember, a child may wish to do this experiment many times more than you think is necessary in order to establish that yes, indeed the sun always comes up and goes down in the same places), then you can move on to giving names to these directions.

So, on the following day, you can begin the Three Period Lesson on cardinal points. As the sun is rising, point towards it and say, "The direction where the sun rises is called "east." That evening, point towards the sunset and say, "The direction where the sun sets is called "west."

For the next few days, both in the morning and in the evening, as well as any time you're walking outside and happen to pass your signs, ask your child, "What direction is this?" (pointing one way), and "What direction is that?" (pointing the other way).

It is important to do this even when the sun is neither rising or setting, as your child will need to learn that east is still east, even when the sun is not rising; and that west is west, even when the sun is not setting. The directions refer to where the sun has risen and where it will rise in subsequent mornings, and to where the sun has set and where it will set in subsequent evenings.

[A note to those who live in or close to the polar regions: Obviously this exercise cannot work if you are currently dealing with nearly 24 hours without sunlight or almost 24 hours with sunlight! So, if you live in Norilsk, Russia; Resolute, Nunavut, or in South George and the South Sandwich Islands try to do this exercise when you are close to 12 hours each of daylight and night. Lessons on the earth's tilt and the circumnavigation of the sun can wait for a bit!]

When your child has become able to indicate east and west without help (using the signs as a reference), you can continue on to north and south. If your child knows the difference between left and right, wonderful! If not, you will need to help him/her to direct the hand that he/she writes with to the correct direction.

Have your child stand between the two signs and reach out his arms so that the left goes toward the east and the right towards the west. Then say something like, "When you stand with your left hand pointing to the east and your right hand pointing to the west, your face is looking south." Then get your child to turn all the way around and say, "When you turn all the way around so that your right hand is pointing towards the east and your left hand is pointing towards the west, your face is looking north."

From now on, as you pass your signs, you will want to ask not only "Which way is east/west?" but also "Which way is north?" and "Which way is south?"

The second step to introducing geography, maps, and globes, is the "Land, Water, Air Presentation." For this you will need three bowls, a small pitcher of water, blue food colouring, a clump of dirt, and something that can hold air, such as a plastic bag with no holes, a balloon, or some other inflatable item.

This is my little set-up:

Essentially, you present these three items as the non-living things of which the earth is made up , and then have your child understand their locations in relations to one another.

Hold up the first bowl and ask, "What is in here?" Let your child try to explain in his/her own words. Eventually you can add, "Yes, this is land, and it is also sometimes called soil/dirt/mud/etc.," using the terms your child used. Then ask, "Where can we find land?" After your child has listed a number of places where he/she can find land, say, "You know what, all of those places are right, because land is everywhere!" If you child says something like, "but there isn't any land in the house," you respond, "Maybe not in the house, but what's under the house? Land!"

Talk about all the things that men have made that land can be found under, such as buildings, roads, concrete paths, etc. If at any point your child mentions rocks in comparison with land, explain that rocks are part of land, the hardest part! And that when the rocks get crushed up, they look just like the rest of land. When your child has established in her mind that land is everywhere, and beneath everything, then you can move on to the next bowl.

Out of your small pitcher, either get your child to pour some of the water that has been dyed blue into the bowl, or if you know this will make a big mess, then you do so. Ask, "What is in this bowl?" Let your child explain and when he is finished say something like, "Yes, this is water. It is one of the other things that earth is made out of. Where can we find water?"

Give your child time to think and talk about where he has seen water, or where he knows he can find water. Although she may say something like, "in the bathtub" or "in the sink's faucet," then ask, "But where does that water come from?" Try to guide him toward natural sources of water, like the ocean, lakes, rivers, streams, wells, etc. After you have talked about lots of places to find water, ask, "And what is underneath the water?" Your child may have realised, after the land presentation, that land would also be under the water, but if not, talk about how if you go all the way to the bottom of any body of water, even in the deepest spot, you will find land!

After your child and you have discussed water enough, lift up the next container and ask, "What is in this bowl?" You're very likely to get the answer "Nothing," or "It's empty!" Then say, "Yes, it does look empty, but that doesn't mean that there is nothing in it! There is something in it, something that you can't see! There's air!" Give your child time to ponder this then ask, "What is air?"

If you have done any anatomy/biology and your child knows what lungs do, this is an excellent time to tie those lessons in with this by pointing out that air is what we breathe, and if we didn't have air to breathe we couldn't live.

Then blow some air into whatever inflatable object you have at hand and ask, "What am I putting inside this ______ to make it get bigger?" Then turn the object towards your child and let the air out so it gently blows on your child's face, hand, arm, or another body part. Make sure the place you choose isn't one that will frighten them! Ask, "Did you feel that? What was it?" Let her try to explain and then say, "Yes, that's what air feels like when it moves. Can you think of other examples of air moving?" If your child doesn't come up with something, guide them towards such things as wind, windmills, seeing leaves flying through the air, listening to the lungs with a stethoscope, or any other example that would be relevant to your child.

Then ask, "Where is air?" As your child lists places where air is, you can eventually point out, "Air is everywhere! Almost like land. Land is underneath everything, but air is over, in, and around everything, on top of the land and on top of the water!

You may need to present this lesson several times before your child fully comprehends it, which is perfectly normal. As he understands more, you should have to say less and less until he is able to explain the lesson to you without much help or guidance!

Leave the presentation items out for your child to use or examine at will. If she shows interest in going through the lesson again, then do so, encouraging her to take over teaching what she already knows.

Hammering - Practical Life

2008-04-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the first elaboration on my Classroom Changes. (To see what my classroom was like, go to my older posts, in particular My Montessori Classroom and Materials.)

Above is what my classroom currently looks like. If you look just under the table on the far left you will see what looks like a brown rectangle. That is our newest practical life activity.

About a month ago, while browsing in Toys-R-Us, I spotted a craft activity that involved a small hammer, tacks (large tacks, like those used in upholstering), a thick piece of cork board and geometrically-shaped wooden tiles. I filed it away in my mind under "Things to Consider for School."

A couple weeks ago, Ella was given a little bit of money from a dear friend whom we met at the mall. She used one dollar to go on the pony carousel (typically we don't let her use her money - or ours - for those rides in the mall, but we often will make an exception for this one), and then went to the Dollarama where she got "funny water" (Sprite - another thing she doesn't get much of) and a little tool kit. Pretty much the only reason she got it was because of the hammer. She did like, and continues to play with the other tools, but for the most part, what we hear is the little "tap-tap-tapping" of her going around "fixing" things. She loved the hammer so much, she insisted on sleeping with it the first two nights!

So, after that I thought perhaps the time was right for some slightly-more-realistic hammering, and I bought the Bojeux PlayArt Hammer & Nails kit. (If you click on that link, you'll have to scroll down almost to the bottom to see it.) Here's what it looks like (in the box): It was an instant hit! I didn't do anything, she got it, opened it up, and began to make designs with the tiles, hammering carefully and remarkably accurately.

Initially she worked rather randomly, in that she would hammer any tile anywhere. But as she has become more used to it, she's now making designs, or sometimes trying to make designs, and when she wants to make more elaborate things, she asks me to help her. I make a house, for example, setting the tiles in that shape, then she does the hammering.

I have it set out with the other Montessori Materials, and though it is not "strictly" Montessori, it is certainly a practical life lesson, and it lends itself both to artistic design, geometry, and mathematical thought.

There are multiple products such as this one. I know that HABA puts out a similar toy in a variety of ways. They have the basic Geo Shape Tack Zap, the Large Geo Shape Tack Zap (presumably for littler fingers), to expand either of these two, they have the Geo Shape Tack Add-on Set, and for those who may wish for more excitement, they have the Figure Tack Game. My understanding is that the HABA version uses tacks that are more nail-like.

In the future, I'll try to get a picture up of the Hammer & Nails while in use. All of us has suffered some degree of illness during the last month, so photos of stuff in action have been harder to come by. Having school depends on whether or not Ella and I are well enough to go!

Classroom Changes

2008-04-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

****Happy Birthday, Mum!****

That's the blog equivalent of when overwhelmed and overexcited folks get on television and wave at the camera saying, "Hello Mum!"

As per the title, I've done a lot of changing around in our room since I last posted photographs, so here's what our classroom looks like now:

As you can see, we've added quite a few new materials in various subjects. And, if you're doing Montessori at home, as am I, learn from my strategical errors: Don't put more than two new materials/subjects out at the same time! I made too many changes too quickly, and for a while Ella just wanted to bounce from one thing to the next because it was all so new and exciting. Now I know better. If you only change or add one thing at a time (or maybe two, depending on how long you have as "school hours" a day), that will give the child more time to explore each new thing, without trying hard to get to everything at the same time!

I don't have time to detail all the new items and their presentations tonight. Suffice it to say, I've got close-ups of all the new stuff and will be writing about their use (both in theory and in practice) in the near future.

If you have a particular subject/material that is relevant and you would like to hear more about that one as soon as possible, let me know, and I'll blog on it first. Here's a list of what's new:

Kumon workbooks (arts and crafts/math/writing)
Clock with movable arms (preliminary history/telling time)
Knobbed Cylinders Blocks 1 & 2 (sensorial)
Land, water, air presentation (preliminary physical geography)
Hammering (practical life)
Seasons puzzle (preliminary history/telling time/preliminary ecology/preliminary biology)
"Mighty Mind" (mathematics/logic/geometry)
Letter boxes (language arts/reading/writing/spelling)
Library corner (language arts/interdisciplinary)

As you can see, there's lots of interesting stuff coming up. The only problem is, I barely know where to begin!

Hyper-Parenting

2008-04-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

I just love radio! Television is all well and good, and has its place, but for me nothing can compare to being able to listen to shows while wandering around doing housework, among other things.

Truth be told, we don't actually have television. Oh, we do have a television, but it doesn't get any channels. If you sat there with a remote to flip through in order to see what's on, all you'd get would be fuzz and static. We like it that way. It's remarkably freeing.

When it comes to media in my home, I feel like I have complete control. There is no possibility of "accidents" that cause my daughter to see something she shouldn't, or that I don't want her to. This was particularly useful when she was going through a super-sensitive phase and would begin to scream and cry if something frightened her. Sure, the show that was turned on was fine for her to watch, but then came a commercial, and suddenly it would be one person scrambling to turn off/turn down the television and the other either trying to distract her (never an easy task) or calm her.

Obviously, such episodes weren't happening at our home, since we didn't have television, but they did happen.

Now it's not as likely that something horrifies or scares her, but that what she sees may not be appropriate for her age. In fact, most of what's on television isn't appropriate for children, even the so-called "children's programming!" And when it is suitable, who knows what the advertisements might bring!

A case in point: We went to see a movie, a funny, perfect-for-her-age movie called The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. We both loved the movie, and I would highly recommend it (just beware of the cheese curls), but there were previews! And, had I known what the previews/trailers were going to be like, we would have been a little bit "late" for the movie. But I didn't know, and so I found my daughter questioning me about why two semi-naked adults were sliding up and down all over each other in a bed that was situated in the middle of a busy street (yes, really!!!???) with lots of people walking by and staring! She accepted my answer that I didn't know why their bed was in the middle of the road, but that I thought it was a very silly place to put a bed. She agreed. But then, after there was a bit more of a close-up of the increasingly less-clad bed snugglers, she wanted to know what they were doing!

Hmm... what do I say to my 3-year-old who is asking, in all innocence, about sex, in a dark movie theatre? She is no stranger to adult affection, she finds it highly amusing when she catches my husband and I kissing and/or snuggling, and usually puts a damper on anything by immediately (and inconveniently, in our opinion) crawling in the middle to get and give kisses and snuggles too. And there have been occasions when she asks, "What you doin'?" to which we usually answer, "Having Mummy and Daddy loves," which, in our minds, can run the gamut from kissing and snuggling to "we-just-collapsed-together-on-the-bed-and-are-holding-each-other-to-comfort-one-another-because-we-have-been-having-to-deal-with-YOU-so-please-just-let-us-rest!" Needless to say, we usually don't get said rest until after she's asleep.

So, in the theatre, I whispered to her, "They're having Mummy and Daddy loves!" Which she readily accepted despite the fact that the woman had no stretch marks or dark patches under her eyes from lack of sleep and the man wasn't musing, "Sleep... sex... sleep... sex... I just can't decide which we're more in need of!"

What do we do, having no television channels? Ah... here is where the control comes in! We have videos and DVDs. Which means that unless you intentionally chose to watch something and physically put it in, there's nothing to get "sucked into." And what videos and DVDs are available for Ella to watch are ones that we have pre-approved. Thanks to grandparents, she has a good variety, so don't feel sorry for her!

But this media control has major benefits for parents, too! If my husband and I want to watch something with "grown up" themes (you know, where things blow up and everything!), we never have to do it at the convenience of the network. We chose what to watch and when to watch it (always after she's in bed), and if, perchance, Ella wakes up right when we're about to find out who-done-it, neither of us has to miss the moment of revelation. We can simply press pause while one or the other of us goes and gets her settled down again.

There are other benefits too. The big one being no commercials! I am at that point in life that I hate someone telling me what I need, or what I should want. I don't want to know about it! You offer a service? I don't care! You sell a wonderful, new product? I'm not interested! I have no money to waste anyway, so just go away! And the longer I've gone without television, the less tolerant I am towards advertising. I don't look at billboards because they make me mad. I dislike magazine ads because they're a waste of paper, and I hate television and radio commercials because they are a waste of my time.

Which brings me back (again... finally...) to radio. Though you will never find the television simply on and blaring in my house with nobody watching, you will often hear the radio, but not just any station, because, as aforementioned, I hate commercials, which leaves me with two options: CBC Radio One and CBC Radio Two!

Some of my friends (they shall remain nameless) disapprove of CBC, claiming they are extremely left-wing, and sometimes I think so too. That said, I'm a smart girl, I can tell when there is bias showing up in a program, and I feel completely free to disagree with the opinions of some of the interviewers, writers, interviewees, etc. It's not uncommon to hear my commentary right along with those views being expressed, either arguing back at them (yes... I know they can't hear me), agreeing completely (as I said... ), or trying to balance out their argument ("Yes... but you need to consider...").

My darling husband used to mock me. He listened to music (well... that depends on your definition... but we won't go there!) and found great pleasure in teasing me when I wanted to discuss "something I heard on CBC this morning when I was doing laundry." But, then he lost his job, and it was quite a few months before he got another. In the interim, I got pregnant, and he got addicted to CBC Radio One, too!

When Ella was very young, CBC was a real life-saver. The mornings seemed long and lonely. I didn't have a vehicle, and we lived in the middle of nowhere, so I was stuck home with a newborn. During that time, CBC Radio One was a marvelous companion. For a mum, alone much of the time with an infant, it provided intelligent (usually) adult conversation. It kept me from being bored to tears, and reminded me that there was more to life than just baby.

The afternoons were great. My bedroom radio was set to CBC Radio Two, and nap time almost always came right when Disc Drive with Jurgen Gothe began. Ella and I would snuggle down in bed, all wrapped up and cozy. She would nurse, and I would read and eventually we both fell asleep with Disc Drive playing softly in the background.

That was a long, and incredibly rambling, introduction to my point, which is, simply, I was listening to Sounds Like Canada, one of my favourite radio shows, and they had a very interesting interview with Carl Honore, the author of Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting, which my husband and I found fascinating.

If you want to hear the entire interview, and you happen to be reading this between April 21st and June 15th, 2008, go to Sounds Like Canada-Interviews. (They keep their interviews up for one month.) But, in case you happen to be reading this after June 15th, I've made a transcript of the pertenant (to me) parts of the interview. Yes, it was that good, I listened and took notes. But since Mr. Honore spoke very quickly, I had to listen a few times to get it right!

As I said above, I add my own running commentary to the show - even though they can't hear me, and as this particular interview both fell within the purview of this blog (parenting/schooling) and had me talking very enthusiatically at the radio, I wanted to share... and have my say!

Let me preface my transcipt by pointing out that this is from a verbal interview, so the syntax and vocabulary reflect that. Also, since it was verbal, any punctuation, emphasis, editing, etc., have been done by me. I tried to use them in a way that reflected Carl Honore's own emphasis and speaking patterns, and tried to maintain his meaning, even with the addition of edits, but if you are able to listen to the interview, please do so. Then you will be able to hear it "straight from horse's mouth."

So, without further ado (yes, I know that was a lot of "ado"!), Carl Honore...

[Quotes by Carl Honore will be in bold italics, the regular print is me.]

Every parent has that natural and noble instinct to do the best by their children but in the current climate, that reflex has morphed into something very extreme so that we find ourselves feeling immense pressure to push, polish, and protect our kids with super-human zeal. We feel that we must give them the best of everything and make them the best at everything, and the end result is that we end up micro-managing every aspect of their lives in a kind of stifling and, ultimately, counter-productive way.

That, I think, is one of the great dangers of parenting magazines! As a parent, we feel constantly evaluated by others, who are looking to see if we are doing enough for our children, and then they turn to evaluate our children to see if it is paying off the way it should! If, perchance, they don't think it is, then they are most ready to jump in to suggest something more that we could do, or sign up for, become involved in, take our children to... So many parents program the life out of their children, and render themselves exhausted, for what? A few more certificates of completion? Another activity to put on their application for university? Ella has been in Kindermusik, which is a fantastic program. Why was she in it? Because she loves music. But that was all she was in. She's also taken a swim course, but she didn't like that very much. She just wanted to play in the water - not have to do specific things. She's never been in a swim class since, although we still go to the Aquatic Centre for the Tots Toonie Swim, on occasion which is entirely unstructured. The day will come when swim lessons will be required for her, since we spend a lot of time at the lake, and she needs to learn to swim well, because Mummy won't always be there to make sure she's safe. But at 3 1/2, she doesn't need to know how now! I see parents constanly trying to teach their children things that they are by no means ready for! Do we really want our children to grow up so fast?

There is a culture of competition now, you know, the post-Berlin Wall globalization, there’s a lot more insecurity and uncertainty out there in the workplace. And I think when parents, especially, feel unsure their reflex is to push the children harder, is to manage them more thoroughly.

Why does it always seem that everyone is competing with everyone else? In a world where so much is topsy-turvy, and security is nominal at best, it's not surprising that we feel that we have to push our children in order for them to have even half a chance at a decent job. But this backfires because kids end up getting so sick of constant work that they end up burnt out and unwilling to do anything!

A lot of parents now come to the parenting table after many years in the workplace, and that means they bring with them this professional, almost management-consultant, ethos, this idea that you can make anything better, you can do anything better by professionalizing it, by pouring expert advice, spending more money, and investing more effort and work in something, and that has, I think, affected the way we think about children. We take a kind of mechanistic view of child development now, that you have input “X,” you get output “Y.” And of course that’s not the way child development works. It’s much more complicated and nuanced, layered, fuzzy, blurry, and all the more interesting and thrilling for that but I think we take a very simplistic view and that or that causes us to fall into that hyper-parenting trap.

And while this is hard on kids, it's hard on parents too! We end up viewing parenting as more work, so rather than enjoying our children, we have to improve them. And rather than letting them discover and explore the world, and discovering and enjoying with them, we have to train them, teach them, work to maximize their potential. We've forgetten how to play, and everyone is bearing the brunt of our skewed priorities. We see age/development charts as a checklist, and we want to make sure all the items are checked off in a timely manner. Kids don't work that way. Ella doesn't work that way! When I look at such age/development charts, I always see that she is far ahead in some areas, and way behind in others. The fact is, THAT'S NORMAL! She's ahead in areas that interest her, and the rest will catch up eventually. And unless a child is far behind in all areas, or doesn't seem to be progressing at all, then there's really not much to worry about. [Please note: if your child is behind in many areas, or doesn't seem to be progressing with his/her peers, chances are that he/she is just a late bloomer, and will catch up in his/her own good time, but it might be wise to get your child checked out by a doctor, just in case.]

This paradigm of child-rearing has been set in the broader culture... and then there’s the bigger picture, which is that when we’re talking about children and how we approach them today, it’s not just parents, I mean this is the whole culture has moved into this hyper-management of kids. You look at school systems over the last generation, they’ve become very mechanistic where schooling has become almost like an assembly line, a high pressure-cooker assembly line where kids are stuffed with information earlier and earlier and then tested, tested, and tested until the marks almost become more important that the learning itself... driven by the general ethos that predominates at the moment which is this idea that somehow that children are projects rather than people.

There is just so much truth in this statement, that I have to break it down, point it out, and explain how these truths have affected my parenting.

They’ve become very mechanistic where schooling has become almost like an assembly line.

This, folks, is one of the main reasons I'm homeschooling, because children are not all the same, and children do not progress at the same rate, especially if you break schooling down into subject matter! I recently posted a comment on another blog (Zirbert) that described my opinons on this subject, in particular as it relates to this province's "no child left behind" policy:

"As for "no child left behind," I think that has failed miserably. What results is that highly intelligent children face a system that is "some children kept behind," and those who have difficulty learning face a system that is "some children forced forward." Often teachers find themselves forced to teach to the lowest common denominator, meanwhile the intelligent and very bored children have plenty of time to come up with smart-aleck remarks and have plenty of time to catch up on their note-writing and passing, or worse!"

A high pressure-cooker assembly line.

I know some teachers who have worked in the public school system a long time, and they often express great surprise at what they're supposed to be teaching younger and younger students, and if they don't teach it right, then it'll show when the standardized tests are given!

Kids are stuffed with information earlier and earlier and then tested, tested, and tested until the marks almost become more important that the learning itself!

How true! "But," you say, "your daughter's only 3 1/2, and you have her in school! Yes, it's homeschool, but still!"

That's where the importance of Montessori comes in! When my husband and I were first talking about homeschooling I told him quite clearly that I was not cut-out to be a homeschooling mum. I'm not the best teacher because I tend to want to just take over and do it right, rather than take the time and energy of showing the other person how to do it for themselves. I had visions of myself as the kind of parent Carl Honore descibes: pushy, demanding, overbearing - the ideal hyper-parent. That was before Montessori.

Some of the basic principles of the Montessori method have to do with child-led progression, and child-chosen activities. Her theory was that children are innately curious, and they can learn with littler-to-no adult interference if they are given a "prepared environment," that is, an environment that encourages a child's interaction, that invites children to explore and experiment. Although the teacher does teach occasionally, her role is more as a fascilitator. Initally, she shows the children how to use a specific material, and after that the children get to do so on his/her own. Only if a child has not learned how to do it by himself does the teacher step in and repeat the lesson, and even then, she is encouraged just to leave the child be and see if he/she can figure it out alone. Children are allowed to progress at their own pace in every subject, although sometimes the teacher may have to remind him/her that they haven't done this or that subject in a while. With Montessori, the lines between work and play become blurred, and the child, while she knows she is "working at her school lessons" feel like she's playing, because she's the one who has chosen what to do. She is never held back because someone else hasn't progressed far enough to join her, and she is never pushed forward prematurely, because she gets to move forward when she feels ready to try the next activity.

Montessori doesn't allow for hyper-parenting, and so, while it does emphasize the importance of early education, it redefines what education looks like, making school about concrete child-driven activities, not about abstract teacher-given concepts.

Personally, I find that the more I read the works of Maria Montessori, the easier this hands-off method becomes. I provide the tools; Ella provides the education. I'm not tempted to push her, because she's the one determining the pace. I don't think I'd be a very good homeschool mum if it wasn't for Montessori.

There is never any teaching-to-test (there's hardly ever tests!) and the emphasis is very much on building a life-long joy of learning, rather than marks.

For the last generation we’ve been told that the way to teach children and to get them ahead academically is to start earlier, to pile on the homework, to pile on the toil, and to test them.

It's almost scary, the amount of homework that children have now! If you happened to have clicked on and read the Zirbert blog on Education Confrontation Part 1, you'll have read that he was unimpressed that his son, entering kindergarten, was expected to do homework. "The first problem I noted was that this school seems to think it's acceptable to send homework home with five-year-olds," he said. And it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes astounded at the amount of homework is sent home with his son. I remember having, on average, four hours a night in junior high school. It wasn't unheard of for Mum to send a note with me the next day explaining that I hadn't finished my homework as I had piano practice/lesson to attend to, which she considered as much a part of my education as other courses. Some teachers didn't like this. Some teachers understood.

From what I hear, though, the homework situation has become worse. Remember the old "add a zero to the grade and that's about how many minutes of homework a child should have a night" rule? That's no longer applicable. And I, for one, think having six-year-olds spending an hour a night on homework is too much.

Most children who are taught using the Montessori method do not have homework assignments. (For an interesting discussion of this, take a peek at Do Montessori Kids Need Homework?) Although in some cases, children at the upper elementary level do begin to take homework home, it is unusual for it to be very much or very long.

A lot of parents find themselves laying down the path that their child should follow and marking out and mapping out the future for them and this micro-management, I think, really ultimately backfires.

If the ultimate goal of parenting is to raise indepentant adults who can think critically, act autonomously, and behave rationally, then the micro-managing approach will definitely backfire! Part of parenting is giving children increasing amounts of independence and control over their lives, little bit by little bit. It is this slow shift from dependence to independence, on the part of the child, and autocrate to advisor, on the part of the parent, that allows the world to continue as it should. If this shift doesn't take place, one of two things tends to happen. Either the child continues to depend on the parent as an authority long after he/she should be making decisions on his/her own, or the parent "steps away" when he/she thinks that the child should become independant, and with all structure and safety in life taken away suddenly, the child cannot deal with the world he/she has been forced to face.

[Referring to Canada in comparison with East Asian nations] It’s not as intense here but we’ve moved a long way in that direction in the last generation. I mean I’m now forty, so I grew up in Canada in the late seventies and eighties and it was a very different world then. You know, we did academics and we had homework and so on but we had a lot of freedom and free time and I think that’s something that’s been squeezed out of modern childhood, and I mean squeezed out of childhood in Canada. I was back in my own neighbourhood in Edmonton recently, and the streets are, well, it’s like a ghost town. There are no kids outside. You know, you used to see children playing road hockey and shooting baskets and jumping through sprinklers, and now the only time you see a child is he’s strapped to the back of an SUV being ferried off to his next extra-curricular activity.

"Modern childhood" isn't, really, any more. It has morphed into some kind of a pre-adulthood, where the importance that adults put on their jobs are expected to be the same kind of importance that children give to their schooling. We often forget that which was good in our childhood wasn't school or extra-curriucular activities, but playing with friends, imagination, adventures, and discovery, almost always made by ourselves with no adult help whatsoever.

I think that kids lose out on a lot of things, and the horrible irony of course is that we’re putting in all of this effort, into our children, and with the noblest and best of intentions, but it’s not working. If you consider how much time, energy, and money we’re pouring into our kids, we should be, really, raising and seeing the emergence of the healthiest, happiest, brightest generation the world has ever seen. But let’s be honest, that’s not what’s happening. You look around now and kids are more obese than they’ve ever been before, you see athletic kids suffering from sports injuries that you only ever saw in the pro leagues until recently. Kids now, the number of children on medication designed to control their mood or behaviour has tripled over the last fifteen years. Child anxiety and depression, and the self-harm and drug abuse and suicide that often goes with it are now is now most prevalent, not in the urban ghettos, and in the “underclass” if you like, but in the leafy neighbourhoods where the go-getting middle classes are project-managing their children and piling on the pressure.

*I'm applauding!*

It’s very true that every generation has the childhood that reflects its own cultural context, its own prejudices, but also its own fears and hang-ups, and there’s no doubt that children growing up now are growing up in a very different world and they have to learn how to manage technology and they have to learn how to, you know, cope with a world that’s more global, they’ve got to cope with more open and unsure economy and more uncertainty. There’s no doubt about that, but I think that doesn’t mean that they need to be brought up in the way that we’re bringing them up. Because it seems to me that children are hard-wired to develop both their brains and their social capacity and their characters in the same way as they have always done. I mean, the ecosystem of childhood may have changed, but children haven’t changed. We haven’t experienced an evolutionary great leap forward in the last fifteen years. That’s simply impossible. So kids have the same basic needs for their development that they had twenty years ago, when you and I were growing up, fifty years ago, when our parents were growing up, and eighty years ago and even two hundred years ago! They need time and space to explore the world on their own terms. They need the room just to play, you know, just simple play without adults jumping in and ordering them around and telling them what to do. Because that’s how they learn to think creatively, that’s how they learn how to socialise, that’s how they learn to take pleasure from things. That how they learn to stand on their own two feet. And it also, maybe most importantly of all, how they learn who they are, rather than what we want them to be.

Yes, eventually children are going to have to grow up. They will have to face an insanely and increasingly technological and competitive lifestyle, but that doesn't mean that they have to face it now. Right now they're children, and they should be allowed to remain so for as long as possible. The last thing children need is exposure to things or subjects that have, tradionally, not been explained to children until they were older.

Not that I advocate lying to children, or not answering their questions, but when they do have questions, how much better it is to explain it to them at their level, only giving addional details if asked.

I was rather shocked when Ella, at only two years old, wanted to know how the baby got in Cousin J.'s belly. Uh... Er... At that moment I was very glad that I had on hand a funny-but-basically-true book called, "Where Willy Went: The Big Story of a Little Sperm." It told her what she wanted to know, in a way that wasn't 'gross' and didn't go into the details she doesn't yet need to know.

There’s this weird paradox where on one hand, we’re too hands-on, and we’re too pushy, and we’re too insistant, we’re too involved, and on the other hand, I think we kind of go a bit soft and wobbley and we back off and we give kids, I think, too much leash, if you like, or too much room. Because children, actually, although adults don’t necessarily thrive on having boundries and people saying “no” to them, children do, because that’s how they learn, you know, about limits, it’s about regulating their own needs and behaviours, its about how they learn how to get along with other people. And I think if children don’t have that, then they miss out on some pretty useful life-lessons.

Ah, the notorious flip-side of hyper-parenting, lack of discipline! And let's face it, we all fall into this trap on occasion. We either are too tired or too weak, and we give in to the children. While telling them that we're the boss, on one hand, we are willing to do almost anything in order to keep them happy and calm.

I don't often have this problem, luckily. Ella's a pretty good little girl, most of the time. She's never been given to tantrums, but at some point she's learned to "wheedle." Do you know what I mean? She opens her eyes very wide, looks very innocent, and says "Please? Pretty please? I'll be very good!" Sometimes it works, but usually it doesn't. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when she's a teenager, trying to get the car. "Mummy, if I can have it Friday night, I'll give you a back massage and I'll pick up your dry-cleaning!" (I don't know that Ella will sound like that, but I know I did!)

Ultimately, it comes down to what matters, how much it matters, and how allowing this behaviour, activity, or attitude will probably affect the future. And if it matter, remember, you've got a foot! Put it down! (Yes, I know... so easily said, so hard to do!)

After all that, keep in mind that parenting doesn't always have to be hard work! You are guarunteed that sometime it will be hard work, so don't make more for yourself! We have the chance of enjoying our children and building them up into independent, whole adults, ready to face the world, and knowing that, as always, they can call when they want your opinion, but that they don't have to take it.

"Make Your Own Sensorial Material" - Part 3 - Sound Cylinders

2008-04-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post. I've been very busy trying to keep everyone in the family healthy, as we've been beset by late-winter colds, etc.

I've also been doing a lot of sanding and painting. The pink tower is almost completely finished, and I now have some excellent new materials and manuals that I will be writing about at length in some future post.

But, for tonight, I'm just going to show you my latest finished product - the sound cylinders.

I found an excellent explanation of the sound cylinders and how they work at Educational Video Publishing in their article "An Introduction to Montessori Philosophy and Materials" which, if you go to their link to see the full transcript, is definitely a good read. It reads as follows:
"Building auditory skills is an integral part of the Montessori curriculum. The sound cylinders come in two sets of six hollow cylinders that are color coded blue and red. The child chooses a blue cylinder and tries to match the sound it makes with one of the red cylinders. The materials inside the cylinders are chosen to make louder or softer noises when shaken. By using the sound cylinders, children learn to distinguish subtle changes in volume. "

But, buying them is a ridiculous expense, so I made them.

This is how they turned out. It was one of the simpler items to make. Which was good - I needed something simple for a change! For materials I used:

14 film canisters - Kodak, to be precise, because you cannot see through them
a pretty cardboard box from the Dollarama
latex primer
high-grit sandpaper
acrylic paint
acrylic varnish/sealant
glue gun
a variety of random items

To put them together, I lightly sanded the covers of the film canisters, to "rough them up" in the hopes that the paint would stay on the plastic all the better. Then I primed them with the latex primer, for the same reason. It took multiple coats of the acrylic paint (3, if I remember correctly) for them to look "good." I sealed that finally with the acrylic varnish, which make the claim that it will not yellow over time. Then came the fun part: stuffing them! I just wandered around the house, trying to find stuff that would make a variety of sounds. I used:

rice
pasta
tiny crushed and rolled-up bits of paper
toothpicks cut in two
some spice - whatever we had a lot of... might have been thyme? maybe sage?
pennies
glass stones

Once they were stuffed, and tested to make sure they were both similar enough in sound, but not too similar, I glued the covers on. And to finish, as you can see in the above photo, I made a control-of-error on the bottom by putting a different colour of paint dot on the bottom of each matching set.

And I know, I know... the question everyone wants answered is... Why seven sets? Why not the "six" as prescribed in the Montessori method? Here's why:

Silly? Yes, I know it is! But the box I bought could hold only seven sets, with one blank spot (which I stuffed with a piece of material so they don't all fall over). Truth be told, Ella has loved using them, but her ear must be pretty good, because she doesn't seem as challenged as I'd hoped she would be. So I might just have to get a bigger box and make some more!

What Do These Two Men Have In Common?

2008-03-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Now, most of you should be able to identify the Person depicted in the second portrait as Jesus. But the first one? It's Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (a.k.a. Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen) who was one of the first men to circumnavigate the continent of Antarctica, but he is considered the first man to have spotted the mainland of Antarctica.

So, what do they have in common? Hold on to your seats, it's coming!

It was late Thursday night, we were driving out from town to my Mum's, which meant a 40 minute drive, and Ella was tired. So I decided to tell her a bedtime story, the story of Bellingshausen and the voyage of the Vostok. (Ah, there's nothing like sneaking in "school work" during "fun time!" We're doing a unit on Antarctica.)

I expected to be talking, tops, ten minutes, but for the next thirty minutes, despite yawns and lots of eye-rubbing, the little turkey stayed awake asking questions about Bellingshausen and the adventures he'd gone through until about 10 minutes before we arrived back at Mum's!

Despite having fallen asleep, Ella woke when Dad was carrying her into the house, and the first sleepy words out of her mouth were, "Can you tell me more of the story about Bellingshausen?" And, since she also said she had to go to the bathroom, I ended up not only partially re-telling the story, but sitting on the little stool in front of the toilet drawing a very poor picture of the Vostok, with Captain Bellingshausen at the helm, a couple of stick men to be his sailors, an iceberg, a whale, a couple penguins and fish, and the volcanic island that they explored where they were shocked at the warmth of the ground and at the stink of the place. (She was quite delighted and amused with the fact that they thought the stench came from the penguin poo, when it was actually caused by the sulfuric fumes of the volcano - plus she got a mini-lesson on what a volcano is, since it was a new concept for her).

So, you're still wondering what Bellingshausen and Jesus have in common? I'm getting there... really, really!

Fast forward one day. Mum and I are zonked out on the bed, recovering from a wild day of running around town trying to get the errands done, and what does Ella want? She wants us to play, play, play, play, play.

"Wake up, Mummy! Nanie, aren't you done your little rest yet?" And though I tried to explain that Mummy and Nanie are just old and decrepit, she still was trying to get us energized.

So, I did what every mother does, I closed my eyes and said, "Ella, will you tell me a story?" Since she's a creative, imaginative little girl, she was more than happy to tell Nanie and Mummy a story. It went something like this:

Thaddeus von Bellingshausen took his ship on a fishing trip on the Sea of Galilee and met Peter, James, and John. He joined the disciples (did you catch what she caught??? We've got Thaddeus the disciple in with the gang!) and in the midst of sailing adventures on the Sea of Galilee and some wild trips to Antarctica, where Jesus kept the Vostok from running into icebergs by calming the seas near the Mount of Transfiguration, which was a volcano, Bellingshausen proved to be more than just a ship's captain, but in a rage after the bad guys killed Jesus on the cross, Bellingshausen caught the bad guys and killed them in revenge, because Jesus is God and since they hurt Him, then He filled Bellingshausen with power to fight against the enemies of Israel, and then Bellingshausen took his sword and cut off their heads. But Jesus didn't stay dead, He rose again and the angel sat on the stone and said to Mary and Mary, "Why are you looking for him here?" So they ran back to Peter, James, John, and Bellingshausen to tell them that Jesus wasn't dead any more!

I thought that was a fascinating story! I didn't get to sleep, since I was laying there chuckling at her outrageous blending of the two narratives, and I noticed Mum's shoulders shaking too! One person I told Ella's story to was rather horrified, although I assured her that Ella understood the difference between the real stories and her "tend" story. (In fact, whenever she tells us anything, we usually automatically ask her, "Is this real, or pretend?" She's very good at clarifying, but if you don't ask her, you'd probably end up quite concerned!!!) And she knows most of the "typical" Bible stories very, very well, though she's not above offering a "tend" interpretation!

Speaking of children knowing their Bible, which I believe to be very important, it really does make you realise:

a) How violent the Bible really is - "I goin' to kill you! And den I will chop off your head!" Ella told her father not long ago. He was shocked and horrified, until she gave him a "sword" (one of her longer wooden instruments), and she showed him her "sling" (a long scarf), and told him, "You be Goliath and I will be David!"

b) How bloodthirsty children are - "Is he going to kill him?" or some variation of that question is now asked often. Also, "Did he die?" "Is he dead?" etc. If these things were asked with compassion and concern, that's one thing, but she asks with a level of excited relish that I find hard to account for! We're now doing more stories from the New Testament, which will hopefully offset her fascination with war, murders, death, plagues, and violence, but despite a few talks about the changes in faith that happened after Christ was born (for example, we no longer see sinners and think, "Evil sinners! I must kill him!"), but it makes her very mad that nobody bothered to kill the men who killed Jesus! Whenever we see a picture of the tomb with the stone rolled away, the angel sitting atop it, and the guards scattered around on the ground in dead faints, she always asks, "Are they dead?" And I tell her, no, they just fainted, like falling asleep except so fast that you fall down. She'll get that look on her face, the one of serious disapproval, and say, "The angel should have killed them, they hurt Jesus!"

Shall we say, "Original Sin???" (More on that in a later post!)

"Make Your Own Sensorial Material" - Part 2

2008-03-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

I would like to explain here 1) the reason why I decided to make "authentic" Montessori materials as opposed to going with the "good enough" funny blocks (which I think are an excellent toy, and I will continue to use, by the way) and 2) how I wish I had been able to make the sensorial material.

Why Using the Real Pink Tower and Brown Stair Matters
My initial contact with the Montessori method came through Elizabeth Hainstock's excellent book: Teaching Montessori In The Home: The Pre School Years which is fantastic for beginners, especially those who are looking for that "something more" to do with their preschool child. It does not delve deeply into the Montessori method, but gives a simple overview, and provides plenty of "lesson plans" that a parent can easily do with their child. She even includes instructions on how to make your own Montessori materials, which is very handy. But it is preliminary at best, and there is so much more to the Montessori method.

If you are not planning on homeschooling your child using the Montessori method, and you are not going to be able to send your child to a Montessori school for the elementary years, then this book would be perfect. It allows a parent to use the ideas of Maria Montessori without having to spend hours researching and studying, or thousands of dollars buying materials. But for many, once they get a taste of what Montessori is all about, they can't help but delve deeper, study more, and (like me) see the benefit of the actual Montessori materials.

I initially bought the funny blocks to replace the pink tower, but as I read more, and realised how many important things we'd be skipping by relying solely on Hainstock's work, I branched out, both in my reading and in my lesson plans.

There is a beautiful simplicity to the pink tower, and obviously, if you don't have the correct dimensions, it cannot fit with the brown stair for the sensorial extensions. Once I saw the ideas for the extension activities, I realised that I would have to buy or make the pink tower because there was more to it than I initially thought.

Furthermore, there is a beautiful logic to the metric system, that corresponds to the decimal system, and that becomes more and more clear as a child (or an adult!!) uses the pink tower and broad stair.

The dimensions of the pink tower make it perfect for further use in elementary mathematics and science. The smallest cube in the pink tower is 1 cm3 (1cm x 1cm x 1 cm). Every cube thereafter become one centimetre larger in all three dimensions, so the second one is 2cm x 2cm x 2cm and so on up to 10cm x 10cm x 10cm.

For those who are unfamiliar with the metric system, it becomes remarkably simple to use once you understand that it is entirely based around the most common and important element on earth: water. So, if you had 1cm x 1cm x 1cm of water (1cm cubed, or 1 cm3), it would weigh 1mg (milligram), and its volume would be 1 ml (millilitre). As for the 10 cm3 (the largest cube of the pink tower), if you had those dimensions in water, it would weigh 1 kg (kilogram), and it's volume would be 1 l (litre).

You see the same logic with the centigrade (Celsius) measurements of temperature. 0 C (0 degrees centigrade/Celsius) is the point at which water freezes and 100 C (100 degrees centigrade/Celsius) is the point at which water boils.

When you realise this, it makes virtually a limitless number of uses in mathematics for the pink tower and the brown stair, even up into the later elementary years - and if you're inventive, it has applications for science as well. For example: How many of the ___ pink cubes would it take to make a row 1 kilometre long? Or, when studying chemistry: What would the weight of ___ pink cube be if rather than imagining that it was water, we pretended that it was mercury? Or, which of the broad stairs, if water, would weigh 1 kilogram?

If You Want to Make the Pink Tower and Brown Stair
I've got them made, and although they are adequate, they are not as good as I'd hoped. By the time the painting is all done, though, you wouldn't (probably) be able to tell the difference. But if you're thinking of doing it yourself, make it easy on yourself, and do as I say, not as I do!

1) Get good wood! Hardwood would be preferable, but isn't necessary if you get a decent piece of softwood. Look for cracks, fissures, knots, and rot. Some of these are easier to take care of than others, but the better your wood, the less your work!

2) Think about your wood dimensions! Cutting a log down to a 1cm x 1cm x 1cm piece is ridiculous. Make it easy on yourself and for the two smallest pieces, get square dowels. I used a 1/2 inch dowel and trimmed it with the table saw down to 1 cm for the smallest pink cube and brown stair. For the second smallest I used a 1 inch dowel trimmed down. For the next group of sizes (3-8cm), ideally you should have a good 4x4, but make sure it is not pressure-treated!!! That will save you a lot of gluing. Depending on your saw size, you probably could get away with a 6 foot piece, but you might want to error on the side of caution and get an 8 foot piece instead. And I know what some of you may be thinking: "Why can't we use the 4x4 to make all the pieces up to the 10cm x 10cm sizes?" Here's what I learned, not only does the lumber industry use inches and feet rather than centimetres and metres (even in Canada), but they also lie!!! When you say you want a 2x4, they give you a piece of wood that once was a 2x4, but has since been cut down and smoothed off, so it isn't 2x4 anymore! In theory a 4x4 should be able to make the largest cube and stair, but it's really only a 3.5x3.5. Now, if you are really lucky, you might be able to find a 6x6 that's not pressure treated, but you'd probably be going some (I tried and couldn't fine one), so instead stick with the 4x4 and buy an additional 2x6 that is at least 8 feet long. This wood you will need to cut into thirds and glue, one atop the other, so that you end up making you own 6x6 that's just over 2.5 feet long. Out of this you can make your 9cm x 9cm and 10cm x 10cm cuts.

3) To do the actual cutting, you will need a table saw, a mitre saw, and (if possible) a belt sander. Use the table saw to get the width you want (e.g. 1cm x 1cm) and sand it smooth. After you have done that, then use the mitre saw to cut off the lengths you need (one 20cm length for the brown stair, and then another length that matches the width). When it comes to the 4x4, you might want to cut it into appropriate lengths first (e.g. 35cm would be long enough for the 8cm x 8cm size. You would need 28cm, 20cm + 8cm, plus the width of the saw cuts to make the piece, so you'd have some wiggle room in case of making a mistake). This may be stating the obvious, but if you decide not to pre-cut the 4x4 into easier-to-deal-with lengths, then make sure that you work from the largest (8cm) to the smallest (3cm)! And while you're at it, seriously consider making a few extra cubes of the smallest sizes. 1cm x 1cm x 1cm is very tiny and can get easily lost!

4) Finally, all you will be left with is the fine sanding and the painting!

"Make Your Own Sensorial Material" - Part 1

2008-03-25T19:02:00.001-07:00

Above is my dearest Dad. He's an incredible man, very giving and kind, but he's also stubborn and has his own unique way of going about things. Without him, the sensorial materials described and shown below would not have been made; but making them with him was sometimes a frustrating experience too! (He'd probably say the same about me!)

In the past week I've been facing a very great challenge, making the pink tower, the brown stair (also known as the broad stair), and the red rods, which (along with the knobbed cylinders) are supposed to be the first sensorial materials to be presented (in theory).

Until now, I've only had the yellow cylinders and my version of the colour tablets set two available for her. (I'm working on some sound cylinders and smell cylinders, and I've completed the touch tablets, but these are considered more advanced sensorial materials, so they're currently messing up my spare bedroom - with help from my scrapbooking stuff.)

The greatest challenge wasn't making the materials (as I thought it might be) but dealing with the "help." Please note, I'm incredibly thankful for my Father! If it wasn't for him I would have had to pay a ridiculous price for a few slabs of wood cut to the right sizes. That said, he has great difficulty listening (that doesn't mean he has any trouble hearing, though)! His "help" has been questionable at times, and invaluable at others. He manages both to drive me crazy and to make me so grateful for and to him!

One of the first things I discovered about Dad when we went out to work with the miter saw, table saw, and belt sander, was that it is MUCH wiser to NOT tell him what you want as the "end result" because he'll go about getting that for you in the most "Newfie" way imaginable! (For those who aren't Canadian - "Newfies" a.k.a. "Newfoundlanders" are folks from the province of Newfoundland, an island whose population is often thought of as less-than-bright, which isn't true at all, but having known and loved many Newfies, I can vouch for the fact that they do have different thought processes than the "rest of us" - and though some claim this is because of their time zone, which, rather than being one hour behind the next nearest, is a half-hour behind... but I digress...)

For an example of Dad's "different" way of doing things, I would have a piece of wood that I wanted cut down into a 2x2x2 cm cube and a 2x2x20 cm rectangular prism. Logically, you'd cut the piece down to a 2x2x *whatever length of piece you've got* and then cut off your 2cm length and your 20cm length, right?

Not Dad! He wanted to cut a 20cm piece, then make it 2x2, and then make a section of the wood 2x2 and then cut off another 2cm length! He also claimed that he had a 4"x4" that I could make the 10x10x10cm cube and 10x10x20cm rectangular prism from. He didn't... He was going to "make" it - which is all fine and good, until he realised that would mean his piece of wood would have to be, at a minimum 10x10x32cm (leaving saw space). He had only thought about the cube, and hadn't even remembered the rectangular prism of the brown stair!

Now... I had SHOWN him photographs of what I wanted... I had WRITTEN DOWN THE DIMENSIONS I needed... I had TOLD him exactly what it was I wanted and how it needed to be done! Nonetheless, we were still wandering around looking for wood that was "good enough" (i.e. not rotten and/or too small and/or to cracked up). So, after the first fiasco of him trying to make what I said I wanted, I stopped telling him what I wanted as the end result and would just hand him a piece of wood, already have set the table saw to the right width, and would say "cut this." Next I'd hold the wood steady and tell him "Get the belt sander," and we'd sand it smooth. Then I'd put two little lines on it on it and say "use the miter saw and cut here and here." While he did that, I'd set the table saw to the next size. As long as I only told him one step at a time, it would get done correctly and (perhaps most tellingly) efficiently.

That said, it only took him the smallest five cubes and rectangular prisms to get the idea of what I wanted... and it was kind of funny to see him stand there, scratching his head, saying, "So what you're saying is that you want not only a 10x10x10, but a 10x10x20? And you want a 9x9x9 and a 9x9x20? Plus I gotta make you an 8x8x8 and an 8x8x20?..."

I answered, "Yes, and we also need to finish the 7x7x7, the 7x7x20, the 6x6x6, and the 6x6x20."

"Well..." he said slowly and thoughtfully, "We're going to need some more wood, then!"

After we had finished the first 5 of each, I went to the hardware store and got a 2"x6" which they claimed was spruce, and Dad and I planned on using that, cut in thirds and glued together, to make the 8x8-10x10cm pieces. I brought it in to dry overnight, but found it was quite cracked and splintery, unlike the other spruce we had used for the 5x5x5 and the 5x5x20. I took it to Dad's, and sure enough, it wasn't spruce, it was fir.

At any rate, Dad used the power saw to cut a log of firewood down to the size where he could use the table saw and make it into the 10x10x10 and the 10x10x20. And we used carpenter's glue to put together other pieces to make the rest.

We still have to put wood fill on some of the pieces (old nail holes, wood faults, and whatnot), and I'm doing the fine sanding now, before priming and painting, but the "big" stuff is done, and I'm heaving a sigh of relief, because after months of talking to Dad about the project (I guess I was talking much of that time into thin air), and asking him, "When can we do it?" and getting vague answers about the snow falling, plowing, freezing rain, sanding, and getting the wood cut and ranked, I finally cornered him and we got it *mostly* done!

They're not "perfect." It's rather funny, actually, because I had tried to explain that they had to be identical in size in order to do the things I want to with them (pictures below of some of the sensorial extensions using both the pink tower and the red rods), and Dad kept saying things like, "Well, I'm no carpenter!" It was funny but also irritating because I had asked him outright if he could make them accurately enough or whether I should just buy them, and he said, "NO!!! For heaven's sake don't waste your money!" But when push came to shove, often his "close enough" wasn't! At the very least, the way I told him to do it, the two corresponding pieces (one cube and one rectangular prism) would be identical at least on two sides, so we would be able to do the extension activities.

All that to say, this is what we've got done, (minus the red rods, I guess I'll talk about them later):

They are certainly not perfect, and I doubt they would pass the "smallest prism" test (see HERE, and scroll down to Exercise 2), but they do match up adequately with the pink tower.

You can see here that some wood fill is definitely needed. The largest stair and cube were made out of a log that, when cut, was discovered to have imperfections. Once it's been filled, though, it should be fine. And the second largest stair, as you can see, was clamped too tightly, resulting in a deep "footprint." This too will be filled.

Here they are shown vertically. Not a bad match... Albeit, there's quite a few different types of wood in there! Poplar, cedar, and spruce for sure. But it will be pretty hard to tell once they've been painted (other than by weight).

Here is one of the sensorial extension activities (there are many more) that caused me to re-consider using the nesting/stacking Funny Blocks as a replacement for the pink tower. There are other reasons as well, which I will address in a later post.

This was a bit of a challenge to make, especially on a floor that is less than perfectly flat, but it was a lot of fun, and if it was fun for me, as an adult, it will probably be awesome for Ella! (To see the correct presentation of these items, plus some more extensions, go to this Sample Lesson.)

So, You Want to Teach Geography?

2008-03-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

Make it fun!!!

I said I'd talk a little about how I teach geography, and so I shall. But let me say first that I am not a trained Montessori teacher. I'm just a Mum who has done a lot of reading and research. Furthermore, I have not (as yet) received any "official" Montessori teaching guides (although I do have the Montessori Research and Development Early Childhood Geography Manual on the way - yippee!!!), but I know the the basics of the Montessori method, so I've applied them as much as possible to what I'm teaching. So what I write you can take as a guide, but certainly not as an authoritative approach!

Thus far I only have the World Continents puzzle map and the Canada puzzle map, but I'm eyeing the Planets and North America puzzle maps with longing!

And I'm so happy to be living in New Brunswick, where the public library system is excellent, making inter-library loans fast and easy! Through my local library I found the National Geographic "Our World" which is a fantastic beginner atlas (Canadians, make sure you get the Updated Edition so that you get a two-page spread of Canada and its provinces, otherwise you'll just get the U.S. and its states!); it was so wonderful, I went and bought it myself!

Rather than having a labeled or unlabeled control map, I made my own "control" by tracing each puzzle piece on black bristol board and cutting them out. I printed the name of each continent on a piece of cardstock (a very handy item to have around) using a very simple font (my preference is "Century Gothic" in bold). Then I glued the bristol board pieces to the corresponding piece of card stock at (approximately) the same angle as it appears on the map. I slipped these into page protectors to make for easy storage as well as keeping them in good condition.

Now, I had it easy when it came to geography. Firstly, I love geography. I can play with a globe for ages, even at my advanced age! And second (and more importantly) Ella is fascinated by maps! Since about a year or so ago, once she understood what a map was, she's really enjoyed looking at them, following the lines on them, and "explaining" them to others ("See Grampie, we hiked from here to here..."). When we go hiking, she loves to see where we've gone, and where we are going to. And when she first got the atlas (which was a while ago) she wanted me to identify places that she'd heard of, like "Uganda" and "Calgary"!

So, we'd been looking at it for some time, and she had been getting used to the ideas of maps and directions ("left, right, up, and down," as we haven't begun "north, south, east, and west"), when one day, while in town, her father needed directions on how to get somewhere. Now my husband is an extremely intelligent man, and if you want to discuss the intricacies of some abstract, complex theological subject, he's your man, but if you want directions, DON'T ask him! He is forever getting lost, and it's not uncommon for him to ask "Where are we?" when driving along. I'm usually the navigator and the driver, which doesn't bother me in the least. So I grabbed a piece of paper and pen and started to make him a little map. Ella, who was just getting out of her car seat to head with me to the library, climbed forward pointed at the little drawing and said, "Look Daddy! Mummy drewd a map of Nort America!"

A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE THREE PERIOD LESSON
Much of Montessori's method was built around the idea of the three period lesson. Each period represented a different level of learning, moving from directed learning to independent learning. The first period includes the teacher/parent introducing the material. The form in which they (typically) present the information is in a simple, straightforward statement, doing the lesson as they hope the child will learn to do it. So the teacher would say, "This is ______." The child may repeat the statement.

The second period is when the child has learned to identify those thing defined in the first period. In this period, the teacher/parent will be asking a question such as, "Where is _____?" or "What is ______?" or "Which one is _______?" And the child can then point and respond verbally, "This is ____."

The third period is the beginning of independent learning. This is when the child, with little to no direction from the parent/teacher applies the knowledge him/herself, doing as the teacher did in the first lesson. To start this period, rather than asking "What is _____?" the teacher/parent would rephrase the question to "What is this?" or "Where is this?"

Ultimately, the teacher will not have to ask any questions, because the child has learned the material already, they can do it on their own and can begin to explore with the material, discovering other things they can do with it (such as putting the puzzle map together as a jigsaw rather than in the wooden puzzle frame, or trying a new way of organising the red rods, perhaps in one long line rather than one above the other).

PRESENTATION - FIRST PERIOD
So, Ella already had some understanding of maps and map usage when I got the puzzle maps. And I went with simplicity when it came to presenting them to her. I sat out the puzzle, and fanned the control sheets out from the map in a semi-circle. Then I sat down and slowly and deliberately took out one of the puzzle pieces and ran it over the control sheets until I came to the correct sheet. I placed the puzzle piece carefully over the shadow and then ran my finger along the word beneath while I said, "This is North America," so she would get the idea that the letters below read "North America." I did this with every continent/piece, and then I did it again in reverse, essentially putting the puzzle back together.

SECOND PERIOD
I invited Ella to do the puzzle with me. I had her sit on my lap and I would say, "Show me North America" and she would try to choose that particular puzzle piece. If she didn't get it right, I would invite her to find the control page that the puzzle piece fit on, and when she did, I'd say, "You found Asia!" while underlining the place name with my finger on the control. Then I would repeat "Show me North America" and let her try again.

If she got it right, I would say, "See if you can match it to the shadow," indicating the control sheets. When she found it and had set the puzzle piece over the shadow correctly, I'd say, "That's right! You did find North America!" again, while underlining the words "North America" with my finger as I said the name.

We repeated the second period over a number of days, letting her get used to the placement of each continent, and when she was getting the idea with relative ease (though still not always doing it perfectly), we moved on to the third period.

THIRD PERIOD
This is the period of independent work, with as little parent/teacher direction as possible. I will help her by carrying over the map puzzle (it's a bit heavy and awkward for her yet), but she can do the rest pretty much by herself. If she gets the name of the continent wrong (naturally, she can get it properly placed on the shadow) I will guide her again by saying, "This is North America" and underline the word.

It hasn't taken her long to become fascinated even by the words. She will run her finger along beneath the word, just as I do, and say the letters aloud. She'll usually say something like this: "This is Asia," (she places the puzzle piece, then begins to run her fingers slowly along the word), "A - S - I - A, dat spells Asia!" So not only is she learning geography, but she is also learning spelling and reading!

Above, you can see Ella placing the piece for "South America" on the control page.

Stacking Blocks and a Little Monster

2008-03-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't yet finished my pink tower (more on that later), but in the meantime Ella's been using "Funny Blocks" made by Djeco which are a lot of fun!

Until recently, I had only put out five of the blocks (every other one) to make it easier for her. She quickly mastered that, and on Friday I put out them all. It was a hit! She worked with the blocks for over 20 minutes.

She didn't get it perfect on the first try. She skipped one of the blocks, which she tried to add in as she went along, but (ah, the "control of error") it was obvious to her that it didn't fit, so it just ended up being left out. No problem, though, she just took it down and tried again. The second time she tried, she got it, and was just delighted with her accomplishment. Here's she's doing a little "victory dance" in celebration!

Because this was the first time she had completed the tower with all the blocks, she just had to run into the study and grab Dad to show him too!

For some reason, known only to her, Ella loves to arrange things horizontally. I've yet to explain to her that when we store/place things horizontally, it takes up WAY more room, which can be bad in a small house! Here she is counting the blocks, which she likes arranged as "stairs!"

This is the first appearance in the blog of "Little Monster." Ever since Ella was a very little baby we've played an ongoing imaginary game about "Little Monster." He started just as something fun to keep her occupied while we were waiting, or when she became bored and no other toy or book was handy. Basically, I used my thumb, index finger, ring finger, and pinky finger as four little "legs," and my middle finger was the lengthy "neck" and "head." He would crawl all over her, making little noises and "talking" which was an "Err, errr, er, errr..." sound. Ella adored Little Monster, and for a brief time wanted him CONSTANTLY, much to the annoyance of myself and her father. Well, as she grew and became more dexterous, she began to have her own "Little Monster" (but using her index finger for the neck/head rather than the middle finger) and my hand graduated to "Mummy Monster." It's handy on long trips to have a built-in imaginary friend to chat with!

At any rate, Little Monster often shows up at school, "helping" Ella do her work (I'll occasionally hear her scolding him saying, "No, no, no, Little Monster, not like that! Her brain goes up here!"), or taking advantage of the work she has done, as he is in the above picture. Once Ella has done the work correctly, Monster gets to play on it, in this case he is running up and down the "stairs." (He does similar things with the yellow cylinders when they're placed horizontally.)

If Little Monster becomes too much of a distraction (as little monsters are sometimes wont to do), I tell Ella to tell him that he will have to settle down and be a good monster and help her with her schoolwork, or he will have to go away! Somewhat surprisingly, this works!

Coming soon:

3-Part Geography Lessons

Reigning in the Imaginative Child (While NOT Squashing the Imagination)

Make-Your-Own Sensorial Materials (And Learn from My Mistakes!)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!

2008-03-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

I was going to post some more pictures of different activities we've been doing in school, but got sidetracked by someone else's blog, wrote a LONG comment there, and decided that I'd post that comment here. I was responding to the blog written yesterday, March 16th, by "Zirbert" (whom I actually know in real life, but don't expect to hear his name around here!!!). If you want to read what he wrote, go here: http://zirbert.blogspot.com/2008/03/grinch-humbug-scrooge-ive-heard-them.html

This is part of how I responded to that post:

Today (Saint Patrick's day) reminded me why it is important for us, as Christians, not to "write off" even minor religious holidays... especially when they've virtually been appropriated entirely by the secular world. Much can be said by the way we celebrate.

To give a concrete example, during high school (when some whom I know and love were trying to alienate as many people as possible... I'm not naming names...) my best friend and I took great delight in celebrating even obscure holidays (I'll never forget the joy of Waitangi Day!). But whenever a recognised semi-religious holiday came round (one that most people wouldn't know had any faith component, despite the "Saint" at the beginning of the holiday's title), we used it for our covert evangelistic operation.

It went something like this. We bake TONS of cookies in a fun shape (shamrocks, one Saint Patrick's Day, with green frosting, of course), divided them up, and took them with us to all our classes, asked to be allowed to hand out one to each person there (this offer was NEVER refused) and if we could tell the history of the holiday. Almost inevitably we were accepted on this second offer as well - we were telling a free history lesson, after all!

Naturally, in telling our stories, somehow the Gospel just "slipped" out!!! Which isn't surprising when you're talking about Saints and Martyrs. Since the mini-sermon happened to be combined with a history lesson and a yummy cookie, nobody ever complained. In fact, we were complimented on the cookies and frequently told something like, "Oh I never knew that! So there really was some dude named Valentine?"

It's really amazing with you see someone who lives a distinctly un-Christian lifestyle, thinks morals are things of the past, and listens to music that would have instantly gone in the fire had I even considered bringing it home to listen to, come up and ask, "Can I get one of those things you were giving out?" He was refering to candy canes with attached little tracts that had a Bible verse relating somehow to Jesus' birth, which we had been given in bulk by our local Protestant nuns (yes, they exist - and so do Protestant monks). We had dressed up as elves, itchy tinsel and all, and handed them out, but had run out of the candy canes, and told him so. But he still wanted his own little Christmas verse!!!

Now, Zirbert, I doubt that ANY amount of money could convince you to dress as an elf, let alone hand out candy canes to strangers (even with a verse attached). And if you ever did something so silly, I can't even begin to imagine the reception you'd receive. (Okay, I can, but let's not go there, okay???) It's not your way. Deep theological discussion, tough questions, and points of logic you'd be all over, which is cool. I've gone that direction sometimes too, and will again when the situation calls for it. But the Lord calls all sorts, and that's because He uses all sorts, in their own ways, to minister and evangelise to those who wouldn't "get" it any other way.

Just don't let the pagans who have tried to suck all of the faith-basis out of our holidays have all the fun! And never, ever, ever let them forget (insofar as you are able) that there is a reason for and an history of the holiday, and that perhaps they should let a little of that reason speak to the way they choose to celebrate it.