Shortly after I found out I was pregnant with our first, Delores, I started thinking about her future. If you couldn't tell from my last post I am a planner and my mind just goes crazy with details and scenarios when I'm pregnant. So I started thinking about how suppressed and how overlooked kids are today in the public school system and how many children miss their potential because teachers don't have time to nurture each child's individual needs. Nothing against school teachers, my mother-in-law is a public school teacher, and I know she works her tail off and gives it all her heart and soul. When it comes down to it though there is just not enough to go around.
I had a rough school experience growing up. My brother did, my husband did, and just about every one I meet that went to public school can tell you something they didn't like about going. The teachers, the material, the lack of opportunities, the bullies, the cliques, the fighting, the hours, the homework. There is always something.
I also kept thinking back to not being their to see the look on their faces when they learn something new. Sure we could probably send them to a private school and that would take care of some things, but I really wanted to be there to watch them grow. And another thing was we wanted our kids to go to school year round. We didn't like the idea or our kids forgetting a bulk of what they learned before because they had no focus on learning for three months in the summer. Besides you can learn more from those months by being outside than you can all year cooped up in a school.
Now I'm not naive enough to believe that by teaching my kids at home I can fix all of these issues, but I find comfort in knowing that if I screw this up I'll know exactly what happened and I can try to make it right. I'll know the learning style and interests of each of my children and can nurture and fuel their desire for learning.
For two years I researched homeschooling and curriculum and nothing really jumped out at me. Until one day my husband came home from his job as a delivery person (I won't say which company) and he was telling me about this school he had to deliver to. He said the entire school was silent. He said it was beautiful and one of the instructors told him the teaching ratio was 1:3. He got to observe some of the children and they were happily working away. They were polite and the whole place just felt cozy. The same instructor told him about a girl learning long division (preschool age) who just wanted to go on and on with it and when she decided she was done the long division problem was so long the instructor hung it from the ceiling and it touched the ground. They were nurturing, they were letting kids learn at their own pace and every child got individual attention. It was a Montessori school. And just like that, I was hooked!
That night I visited the school's website and they had a video on their home page that made me cry. I looked at Josh and told him this was everything I wanted in a learning environment. It was perfect.
Then I went to the tuition page and it was steep. My heart was broken. At the time I was going to school to be a paralegal, but I was also pregnant with our second child. I had only planned to work part time and I had no idea how much that career paid. For a while I let the idea go but the nagging hope of my kids being taught this way would not leave me. It also didn't help that the sweet school sent me this magazine. Tomorrow's Child.
One thing you might not know about me is that I am not only a planner but I also loved to research. After I couldn't shake my newfound love I began to research. Surely there had to be a cheaper way. A way that I could still implement these methods in my home and in my teaching. My research lead me to albums and courses for thousands of dollars. Well, that wasn't it.
More research lead me to Lisa Nolan's website Montessori For the Earth. A good starter curriculum for under twenty dollars for yearly access to one age group starting from infants ranging to 9 year olds. Jack pot!
I used her curriculum for Delores for her 2nd year, but my hunger did not end. Suddenly there was this thing called Pinterest and people were pinning all kids of extensions to activities that I had never even thought of. I decided Delores and I needed a break for me to prepare for her threes and during the months of October, November and December this past year I wrote down and pinned everything that felt montessori. Eventually I became overwhelmed and thought "how am I going to do this all?" So I put it all away.
One day I came across this blog post at Montessori Mischief and it opened my eyes. I was trying to make montessori about the activities, the lessons, the curriculum. Montessori is a mindset, a way of life and a set of principles. It didn't matter how much I wanted to introduce an activity I saw on the Internet or off the suggested timeline from Lisa Nolan's curriculum, if the girls weren't ready for it or I had already let the window of opportunity pass by it was going to do me no good.
After my revelation I figured there is probably some type A personality, just like me, out there trying to do this Montessori thing and is beyond frustrated because they are doing everything right but nothing seems to be working. And that's when I decided to make this blog. So, I hope I help someone, but this blog is also a reminder to me of our journey, my revelation and my love for ALL things Montessori!
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