(Sara:) welcome aboard, Lynnette! I know you've been busy with your move. I just want to tell you ladies that the past couple weeks I have not felt well - zero energy - and unlike most of you, I don't have pregnancy to blame it on (well, I'm pretty sure...) I finished a strong round of antibiotics last week and since then I have been completely wiped out. I've done some "golden bead" Montessori math with C., and that's about it! Just trying to stay sane. So if you don't see many posts from me for a while, that's why. I'll try to catch up when I can.
The golden bead materials are great. I didn't really understand how many extensions they can be used for until Karen's albums showed me. We've been adding numbers like 582+316... then moved on to adding with regrouping like 649+485. Then we subtracted & multiplied numbers in the hundreds. And this is just for fun! It isn't "school work" or anything he has to do! I have a haunch that doing "big" numbers like this, from the beginning, will make doing math on paper less intimidating later.
Finally, just wanted to share this idea: I've read that in "real" Montessori schools, the school room gets emptied out at the beginning of each new year. I fell in love with this idea, and plan on clearing off all our shelves in January when we begin a new year in our home. (That is, if we're still living here. Still don't know about that yet.) I think there are many advantages to this. Plus ds # 2 will be turning 3, and I'll need to make room for his work also. Hopefully I'll be full steam by then...
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sorry if this is obvious?? what are the advantages to clearing out the room at the beginning of the year?
I might post about this extensively some day if time permits. I have found it to be a wonderful experience this week, clearing out our room.
(Anyone wanna borrow all of my materials for a few weeks?!)
Montessori materials are supposed to be presented to the child when they are ready and interested... the material fills a need that the child has by teaching the child a concept. And once that need has been met, then the material is no longer needed, and it's continued presence will only serve to clutter the shelves and be a distraction.
Yet, humanly speaking, it's a lot of work preparing and presenting materials, and I have found it hard to "let go" and observe when something is no longer needed.
Emptying out all the shelves also is the only way to get everything really cleaned up for once. We will be presenting many materials again soon, (after Christmas) and I'll be able to reorganize things. Our families are always in flux; children are aging and new children are ready to join in.
It's good for me to see which materials C. really misses having, and which ones he doesn't care about. It's good to have room for a Christmas tree, and to take down all of the artwork that was taped up on the windows. This will definitely be an annual tradition for us, and I've found this week between Christ the King and Advent to be ideal... preparing for a new Church year with a clean slate!
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