survival mode...

(sara): Two of the most-frequent contributors to this blog have recently had babies. That means that our families are undoubtedly in "survival mode" for at least a few weeks (or months.) That's just the nature of life with a newborn: sleep deprivation, the need for physical rest, visitors, adjustments all around.

Before the birth of our latest child, we started having a book or feast of the day, as mentioned in a previous post. This project has turned out to be a big help in keeping the learning going as we navigate these crazy days we're in. It ensures that my 5yo has his "daily dose" of good literature and handwriting practice. The posters I ordered from the CatholicCompany were just what I hoped they'd be (except that they are too big for my handy-dandy planning binder!) There are interesting pictures of the feast day on the front, and biographical info. on the back. It only takes us about 5 minutes to read, but provides fruitful discussion for the whole day.

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.

A book or feast for each day...

(sara:) I recently bought a book-stand at Walmart. (The 2 round things on it are magnets.) Every morning we are picking a different book to be our Book of the Day. Although we (or the 5yo) read several books a day already, I'm hoping that this will help us remember to read a variety of books. We have accumulated quite a number of books in recent years, and some of them seem to get "hidden" in the bookshelves. Occasionally library books get returned that I haven't read with the kids yet. I think this will help.


Underneath the book-stand is a journal where the 5yo writes the date and title of each book, each day. He has always been a reluctant writer, like many boys his age I think, but this is a simple, short task to let him practice a little bit each day. As time goes on, I think he'll be proud of the progress he'll inevitably make.



Now alternately, I intend to occasionally substitute a poster to celebrate the various liturgical feast days. So far, I only have posters of the 12 apostles, which were cut from an old (free!) parish calendar and laminated. (11 onto red for martyrdom, John on white.) This Sunday we celebrate Peter & Paul, and instead of displaying the "Book of the Day", I'll display this:




I have long wanted a system to organize liturgical feast days. I'm starting with an accordian binder, large enough to hold posters. I know some moms actually use 365 manilla hanging folders for their work, but that was too much for me. I have ordered 2 packets of Saint posters from the Catholic Company - I've never ordered from them before, and hope I won't be disappointed. I also have countless holy cards that I'll eventually add to this collection.

Creation Presentation

Anne: Jen, Amy and I completed the Creation Presentation this past week. Here's my finished product with all the layers.To make the script better accessible for myself and to help my 3 1/2 year old do it on his own afterward, I made index cards for each layer/feature of creation that you are to add.
The front has a picture of the felt piece he is supposed to add next and the back has the 'script help' I wrote for myself.

organizing materials

I wish that I had started doing this 3 years ago!

I have a whole closet dedicated to storing "school stuff", which I know is a luxury not everyone has. Yet I let that closet became one of those from a comedy, where you open the door to a falling avalanche of unorganized piles.

Not any more!

I buckled down the past week, emptied out the whole closet, sorted materials by SUBJECT, put them in their own labeled containers, and put in shelving that actually works. Now when I want to get out something in particular, I can actually open the door and find it - imagine that!

low tide & handwork

I read a post recently by a homeschooling mom who chooses the phrase "tidal homeschooling" to describe her family lifestyle. Depending on all the different variables that affect a family from day to day and week to week, some seasons school is in high gear, some seasons it's in low gear. Instead of following a schedule ruled by the clock or the calendar, she just lets things happen according to whatever rhythms are set in place and out of her control, without stressing about it.

So far, this is how my own experience with raising our children has been. There have been months that I've felt great and we tried a lot of new things and learned in a very "Montessori" way. Other months, like the current one, we are completely low-key and in a very "unschooling" way of life. We're spending long hours outside, learning games like chess and checkers, finding new games to play on the computer, and listening to books on tape. Our latest favorites are CD recordings by Jim Weiss. We have 3: King Arthur and His Knights, Greek Myths, and She & He: Adventures in Mythology. I didn't know if they'd be worth the $, but my 5-year-old is completely captivated by these stories. He rested on his "new" bunk bed this morning and listened for an hour. When we get in the van to go somewhere, he asks, "can we listen to the stories about King Arthur?" And I am really enjoying listening, too. It takes my mind off everything else!

Speaking of distracting my mind, I decided out-of-the-blue to learn how to knit. Both Montessori and Waldorf schools encourage a lot of hand-work by the young children. They even teach their boys to knit and crochet, which I'm not sure my dh would think is a good use of our time here... but the point is to keep the hands moving, having interesting work to focus the attention on, having a functional product or gift when finished, and interacting with natural materials, like bamboo knitting needles and yarn of wool. Examples of sewing and weaving activities for children are here. My 5yo wove a hot-pad for me with his Aunt, and to this day when he sees me using it, he always says, "thanks for using the hot-pad I made, mom!" That's another example of a good self-esteem builder!

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!