Must do more research.
In the meantime there is a really cool book I am going to pick up called, Basic Montessori: Learning Activities for Under-Fives , by David Gettman. There are a couple of more books I can get to help with the whole 'Montessori in the home' thing. I think my biggest problem is that the web subscription I have is geared for the actual classroom-and it's a lot harder to do most of this stuff at home.
In the meantime-while I am still trying to grasp the basic concepts of Montessori-I am doing activities with Sophie based on what I think might be the way to go--a child-driven curriculum, or maybe it's just child-driven activities geared toward a specific curriculum. See? I'm confused. But I think it means whatever she shows an interest in-is what we do at that moment or during scheduled 'classroom' time. I have different activities to go with areas of interest-arts/crafts, language, computer, math, and so on. I think my biggest challenge will be consistency--at least with sticking to a schedule. It's so hard here at home when I don't have a boss breathing down my neck or even a time-card to punch.
On Monday she was interested in painting so I brought out the finger paints and let her experiment for about a half an hour.
I tried not to 'teach' her but just to show her how to finger paint. Seeing as I have absolutely ZERO artistic abilities, no actual pictures were drawn. She did love playing with it though and she definitely loved getting messy! Then I went a little further and let her "clean up" in the kitchen sink, cleaning the tray and washing her own hands. Made a huge mess for me, but Sophie was so content when she was finished that she didn't throw a fit when I said it was nap time!
Yesterday was a different story. I have yet to master the whole 'circle-time' thing, considering it's just the two of us, so I thought that before I get out the calendar and teach her songs I would get her used to sitting with me and 'planning' her day by having her set up a schedule. First we needed to put some Velcro on the pieces that I already had made-she seemed to enjoy this, but wanted to keep going after we were done.
She did a fantastic job of picking out the activities to do yesterday and put them on the schedule board herself. We have to work on order though. That's OK. It's only our first try right?
She was so proud of herself when she was finished. I love that she put lunch first and wanted to take a bath before dinner and go shopping afterwards. It was cute.
I rearranged it to fit our actual schedule, thinking that maybe sometime I could follow her way of doing things and let her be in control. Not yet. I will be snapping some new pictures to make some more cards over the next couple of weeks. (I made this board after Sophie's first birthday, so all of the pictures are old, but she got a huge kick out of seeing herself doing things as a baby!)
I was starting to feel stress at this point because she started to play with all of the Velcro and then found her scissors. I got out the scrap paper and her 'fancy' pink sparkle glue and we cut and paste for about 20 minutes. Again, I attempted to make a dog, but with my lack of artistic abilities, it looked like a giant bunny. At least Sophie got some fine motor skills tuning time and giggled in the process. She is getting very good at working with the scissors. I think I'll try to get her to cut in a straight line next time.
Coming up later this week: music class (YEAH!), window washing ("practical life" skills to put up some Halloween decals,) and a tea-party breakfast. I might throw in the pumpkin patch if time just because it just opened and won't be that busy yet. We'll see.
7 comments:
Soounds like you are off to a good start! I taught at a Montessori Pre school.
Here are some other things you can do.
Pumpkin washing-get he small one and her wash them before you decorate.
Baby washing-juat have her give her baby doll a bath.
Pickle/bannana cutting. Use the Pamaperd chef kids knife.
Water pouring-use little glass pitcher have a couple with different colored water and watch the colors chage when you mix them.
We did the calalnder in English, Spanish and German(owner were German)
I could go on forever...let me know if you need any other ideas!
Wow. Looks like you are doing a fabulous job. I think undertaking anything like this is all about trial and error and finding out what works for you and Sophie.
Sounds like you are putting a lot of effort into making learning fun and interesting for Sophie. I think I am personally too Type A and have too many years of traditional classroom teaching under my belt to ever take on Montessori teaching at home. Good for you!
looks like fun...good luck! great job on the activities. and remember, it's not always how things turn out it's getting it done and being happy...ok, well not always, but that's what i'm going with today!
Love this idea. May have to borrow it! I'll be back to read more later.
Your daughter is too cute for words!! Looks to me like you're doing a fabulous job!!! And it definitely looks like she's having fun and learning plenty!!
I used to teach at a Montessori school and the one thing that comes to mind was the "jobs" where the kids practiced using eye droppers to transfer water between glasses. And then we would talk about which glass had more and which glass had less. Also, soaking water up with a sponge and then squeezing the water out into a bowl. The kids always had a blast with those activities!
Keep up the great work...it's very impressive!!!
Wow, that schedule is a great idea. I wish I had that before Hope went to school. You are a genius!
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