Homeschooling Frustrations

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 Montessori Classroom and Materials

EGAD!!! I haven't posted since 2006, which is very, very sad. So, I've changed the name and the focus of this blog, so that (hopefully) I will remember it exists.

I'm now homeschooling my pre-school daughter using the Montessori method, and I would like to use this as a pictoral and written account of this adventure.

Here is my homeschool classroom:


My daughter, now 3 1/2 is fascinated with geography. She just adores studying that map. We're now learning the location of the continents while doing a unit on Antarctica. Hopefully this will counteract the winter "blahs" that have been invading our household.


Here you can see my Montessori materials. Some I made, and some I bought.

Now for the detailed close-ups, plus how I use them...

Above, you can see the yellow knobless cylinders and my version of the colour tablets box #2. I bought both the cylinders and the colour tablets - although the box of colour tablets I bought was box #3. Rather than going to the expense of getting both box #2 and box #3 (box #1 would have been way too easy!), I have taken out a dark and a light tablet of every shade in box #3, so that she can match two differing shade of the same colour before sorting a range of shades.

This is our geography set-up. I bought the map of the world on e-Bay, and then traced and cut out each continent/piece on black bristol board and glued them onto a piece of cardstock onto which I had printed the name of the continent. The National Geographic "Our World" 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!) - and the pictures are actually deliberately made to look like puzzle pieces (did they hear about Montessori???) and the "Antarctica" book is from Usborne. Soon we will have a little globe:

I've been painting (and painting and painting) this globe for her, and it looks so good. But I've come to hate South-East Asia and the Arctic - WAY too many TEENY-TINY islands!!!

My miserable failure of sandpaper letters. I went about it entirely the wrong way, and the only difference between the red and the sandpaper letters is the colour - the painted area is WAY too rough. Next time: I'll mount red bristol board on the wood and then mount the sandpaper letter on the bristol board. MUCH easier!

Practical Life activities: pouring rice and using a turkey baster to transfer water. She LOVES the turkey baster activity.

Dressing frames. I made them with "paint your own" photo frames and tea towels from the dollar store, a variety of buttons from Mum, some hook-and-eyes from I don't know where, pretty white upholstery tacks from the hardware store, and belts from a different dollar store. I have a few more in the making now.

Four little cups and a variety of buttons for a sorting activity. Note the oh-so-classy Cheez-Whiz bottle as a holder!

My number rods (small) in a tin. I nagged my father into cutting a square dowel into the right lengths for me, but I measured them in inches, rather than centimetres. Mostly for his sake (Dad refuses to use metric), but also so they would be a little larger than the classic small number rods.

A little peek into our phonetic "mystery bags." Letter, lion, and letter; Tambourine, train, and towel; Hat, heart, and horse.

Ahhh... the teacher's corner - the messiest spot in the room. What can I say??? I try!

Next time: pictures of activies in progress...