what's in your backyard?

(sara): I thought this was a cute and helpful website with ideas for making the most of our back-yard nature...

misc. activity pictures

First, a couple pictures of some practical life work. The other day I said, "we've gotta mop this floor today, boys. Look at all the spots." And my ds5 responded, "oh, good! I love mopping floors!" Yes, he is still my innocent little boy! Did they get many spots off? No, but they did feel helpful, and got the spots soaking for me!

Ds1 loves the Bissel carpet sweeper!

And we finally got our bird feeder put together and stuck to the classroom window. (I meant to do this last fall!) It was free from a boy-scout momma I know. Also in the window sill are the 12 seeds we planted, in preparation for the presentation on the wheat. We are growing herbs for my kitchen. I looked for wheat grass seeds at a couple stores, but couldn't find any - that's what Marcia told me she uses. Last spring I wondered what to do about finding grown wheat, but I ended up finding some growing in our back yard...

Here's ds5 working with our new knobbed cylinders. There are 4 blocks total; ds3 still does them individually, but this child is up to combining 3 so far. This sensorial material is described here. [This is one activity which is supposed to be done on a table, not on the floor, so it's closer to eye level. It's a visual activity more than stereognostic. We don't have a table in our classroom, though, only 2 desks which aren't big enough for this.]

I have other, older photos of a variety of activities if anyone is interested. And btw, spell checker doesn't seem to be working, so excuse my mistakes! I hope teaching my son spelling will give me a good refresher!

Holy Week, anyone?

(sara): Just to get discussion going, I want to go a step beyond Moira's Lent & Easter presentations. We can also share the stories of Holy Week with our children, to the extent that they are ready and interested. Our Father's House.biz sells this:

"Patterns for Holy Week Figures $8.00 Patterns and directions for cutting and painting 57 wooden figures. Includes script and simiple directions for telling all the stories from the Palm Sunday to Easter."

I'm sure there are several books about Holy Week written for children out there. Let me know if you have one you like. Granted, the actual crucifixion is matter that must be dealt with simply and matter-of-factly with young children. It must be presented to them in a manner much different from sitting down and watching The Passion movie, obviously. Moira's Lenten presentations help the young child (and us!) begin to understand the idea of redemptive suffering ("unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies...") and makes excellent preparation for Holy Week.

Last year I prepared a Sedar meal for dh. It was a long and wonderful meal that we intend to repeat this year, with either friends or family. Hopefully I can post again soon about this and the above topics. Jump in with your ideas!

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

literature ideas I forgot to mention...

(sara): I forgot to mention one other helpful literature resource: Sonlight catalog. This is a home school curriculum built around "great books." It is distinctively Protestant, which is why some Catholics choose to not use it for religion or history. They sell packages for each age group which are very enticing: a big box full of great children's books can arrive on your doorstep next week! Hey, forget combing the library! Of course, you can find all those books cheaper at Amazon. I recommend asking for one of their catalogs just for the book lists. I haven't been impressed with ALL of the selections we've gotten so far based on their recommendations, but some are very good. One thing I've found helpful is that it has helped me get an idea of what grade-level C. is reading at. [The 2nd grade books are no problem for him, some 3rd grade books are fine, but some are too long for right now.]

Kolbe Academy has a home-school program I've been interested in, and they have some good children's book ideas on their webpage here.

More on literature "theory": (1) Years back, I borrowed the book Honey for a Child's Heart. I think this one is worth browsing, although I personally found the book lists too extensive to be helpful... where do you start?! From the author, however, I learned to look for original versions of books - the original Pooh, for example, instead of the nauseatingly dumbed-downed Disney versions. (2) The other book that really changed the way I view children's literature was A Landscape With Dragons by Michael O'Brien, an author whose fiction I enjoy. He writes about the evolution of symbolism and how to choose Christian literature as opposed to media which is anti-Christian, but so disguised as to appear acceptable. Well worth reading, for moms & dads both.

literature

(sara): Home schooling or not, we all want to read quality literature to our children, and if you've ever checked out a bunch of books from the library, you quickly learn that there are a lot of kid's books that AREN'T worth reading. So you begin to collect lists of books that other people like. Fortunately for me, our library catalog is on-line, so I can search for specific books before we even go there; with all the kids along, it's hard to look for books anyway. For an article explaining the Charlotte Mason concept of a "living book", click here.

Something we just started with C a few weeks ago is narrating his favorite books. I'm always a bit hesitant to start something new, but this has gone over very well. Basically, he just reads a book a couple times (to himself or me) and then we sit down at the computer and he tells me every detail he can remember while I type. He picks out a colored piece of paper and we print and hole-punch the narration, then he puts it in a binder and can illustrate the page if he wants. The binder is a source of pride for him! (We've done about 6 so far.) It's an excellent record of our favorite books. As he becomes able, he will eventually do the writing himself.

I wanted to share a few ideas for finding books. One, which is more for the home schooling crowd, is the Five in a Row program - so named because you are encouraged to read the same book to your child every day, for 5 days. Ironically from what I've heard, this is the one aspect of the program that most moms don't follow! The 19-20 books in the series were chosen for their quality, and each day after reading the story, you proceed with a geography, math, art, or other lesson pertaining to the story. For example, you read Madeline, and then find Paris on a map and learn what and where the appendix is in your body. There is emphasis on literary device and illustrations, to encourage even young children to be analytical about the books they read. I just received this book last week.

There's also a book called Catholic Mosaic which suggests 52 children's books to cover the entire Liturgical Calendar. I haven't purchased this book, but it's discussed a lot at 4Real.

Another book list I've liked is from the book Real Learning. You can find it here. One of the books listed for January is Owl Moon - a beautiful wintery tale which my hubby enjoyed reading to the boys very much. For some ideas for great books about nature, try this list. For specifics on particular books, the 4Real chatgroup has an entire category just for you here. Any other ideas?

M&M Math

(lynnette:) I remembered doing this in college when I was taking my "teaching math" course. It's not necessarily Montessori, but we had a lot of fun with it. So, I decided to do this with "C" one afternoon during snack time. I felt it would justify our M&M eating. :0) I didn't have this graph chart at the time, but I think it would have made it more clear for "C". I suppose you could also adapt it with jelly beans during Easter time.

First, she sorted by color. Then, we counted and labeled each color. Last, we talked about which had the most, the least, and the same.