comprehensive lists

Montessori For Everyone sells these pdf. files that are "Comprehensive Lists" of all the main Monressori activites. They begin with toddler (18 mo. - 3yo) and move on up.

Ordinary Time

(sara): Easter Season is still upon us for a while... May 11th is Pentecost, the final day. Here's the "official" liturgical calendar for 2008 in the U.S. It's a pdf. file from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

While continuing to share and discuss the Easter presentations, feel free to begin posting about the Ordinary Time presentations also!

Pope's visit

Dave K. passed along this link as a resource for children about the Pope and his current US visit.

life

(sara): I am great at planning. So great, in fact, that sometimes all I do is plan, and never get around to implementing. :)

I like to plan "school work" in 4-5 week stretches. I plan presentations for both the 3 & 5 year olds, Monday through Friday, a couple things each day, plus violin practice. It really isn't a big deal, the presentations are all basic Montessori and easy to do... yet it's the doing that life just doesn't always permit. We're in week 3 of my latest batch of plans, and haven't done hardly a single thing!

Life has lately provided a very sick 1 year old, several sleepless nights and rainy days, immobilizing back pain, a crashed computer, and a very busy husband. Oh, plus these things want to move in for the summer, so I had to vacuum out every window sill in the house.

But you know what? My kids don't know about my plans. They wake up each morning, refreshed and just happy to be alive. I don't think I've ever seen them bored. I see them playing together and just stop and remind myself: perhaps their plans are better than mine. My ideas can wait.

goop!

(sara): I was reminded in a recent 4Real thread how fun it is to play with cornstarch & water. We had nice weather on Sunday so I sent the kiddos outside with a plastic tub, a bowl of cornstarch, a container of water with a large baster, food coloring, spoons, scoops, and so on. They had a blast. We've done a few presentations recently on states of matter, so it was a chance to review solid & liquid. As I was thinking about it, I decided that this was just the kind of activity to use with the word "magic" - because it is amazing, but obviously has an explanation. And my 3yo has been rhyming words lately, so when I picked up some of the goo and said, "I call this GOOP!" of course he replied, "that rhymes with... !" and they were overcome with a fit of laughter... Great fun.

on-line album

Someone at 4Real shared this link to a basic Montessori album free on-line. Maybe you've seen it? It was new to me - looks like a good resource for moms wanting to get started. I did have trouble getting to all the links, though.

Practical Life here

Music

Math

Beginning reading

Sensorial

Handwork

on-line store closing

I have NOT checked this out closely - at first glance it seemed too good to be true. There's a store on-line that is going out of business, and they sell Montessori materials and other quality toys. littlecitykids.com

what next?

(Sara): Hi, all, and Happy New Year!

Here at our home it seems I've been spending a lot of time trying to catch up from the holidays (which included 8 days back home), finding places to put new things, and just keeping up with the daily necessities. I have been spending time getting ready to "start school" - for lack of a better phrase - with my 3 & 5 year olds. I continue to clean & reorganize our classroom, purchase some last minute items, and make lesson plans.

I think we'll be ready in a couple days. I intend to focus on teaching my 3yo the "Montessori Rules" - keeping quiet, being respectful of his brother's work, only choosing materials he's been shown by me, and putting away his work when he is finished. I will be presenting 2-4 new activities each morning for a while, mostly practical life to start out with. Although my 5yo is mostly beyond many of the activities, I think he will enjoy watching them and trying some, to fill in "gaps" from his own formation. When I started with him 2 years ago, I didn't present activities in as timely or orderly a fashion as I'm prepared to do now with #2.

My 3yo has much room for improvement when it comes to self-control. As I witnessed with my 1st son, I look forward to watching him concentrate on work that he finds interesting, which naturally results in better self-esteem as well as self-control. He is ready, and I am trying to be, too! I'll post some of my lesson plans as time continues...

post worth sharing...

The first atrium I visited was in the home of my friend who first got me interested in Montessori. There's a post here on her blog with photos from her classroom and the Advent presentation in their current atrium, which is no longer in her home.