DIY--Walking on the line

Walking the line is a typical circle time activity found in most Montessori classrooms. The typical shape is an ellipse that is either painted, taped or, in some cases, made into the floor. The point is to helped children achieve balance and grace by walking the line in rhythm to various music. The child starts by walking heel-to-toe, then learns how to keep a respectable distance between himself and another person and then they move into variations of movement like skipping, walking backwards, sideways, jumping. Sometimes the child holds a bell, a flag, a full glass of water or balances something like a bean bag on top of their head. Then there are games like Simon says, red light green light, musical chairs, etc. The extensions really are endless.

Children will naturally find "lines," in their environment to walk on so it only made sense to Maria Montessori to implement the idea in a learning environment so the child could enjoy it and refine his balance whenever he pleased. See my previous post Thinking outside of the mat--walking the line for Delores' insight to walking the line.

I have found movement songs that encourage children to get up and dance are good for walking the line as well as classical music. Depending on the child it might be best to start with classical and move into a quicker tempo or dance song. For others, like Delores, they might prefer quick tempo music and dance and then end with more mellow classical or instrumental. You just have to play around with it and see what works best.

I have attempted several times to put a walking line on our living room floor with no real success.

My first line was on our faux hard wood flooring with masking tape that had two long parallel lines connected by half circles at each end. It looked something like this:


That worked ok but the masking tape wasn't dark enough or wide enough and when our floor had to be ripped up due to water damage so went the line.

My second line was with chalk on our now concrete floor. It made it easy to put down and if I made a mistake with the shape it came right off with a little water. My intention was to use red duct tape but it did not work well when I needed to go around a curve. I ran out of tape half way through and I ripped the whole thing up out of frustration. The chalk shape stayed on the floor for about 3 weeks but stained quite a few pairs of socks and our cat.

This time I set out to make it permanent. I only wanted to do this one last time and that was going to be it! How? Paint! Hey, why live with a hideous concrete floor if you aren't going to take advantage of it?

So I had a way, now I needed to find a how. I prefer the ellipse shape over shapes with all straight lines and sharp angles so I started researching, but it turns out there isn't a whole lot of advice on how to make an ellipse on your floor so I had to figure it out my self by looking at pictures.

Since I know there are some of you out there looking for the same advice I'd like to share how I did it.

Find your center point of the area you want your ellipse and make a dot.
Then make a long line and and short line forming a cross using your dot as your intersecting point. You may want to get out a measuring tape to make sure each arm of the cross is the length you want.


The next part is optional depending on the shape you want to achieve. Make two vertical lines perpendicular to each side of your horizontal arm of the cross.


Next draw a slight curve connecting each end of your cross.


If you did it without the perpendicular arms it would connect like this:


Here is the finished image of each:

With the additional lines

Without the additional lines.

Now you have your ellipse! Of course you would have wanted to draw the shape with something you could remove easily if you made a mistake. You can play with it a little to get the exact shape that fits your area. The closer the lines are in size the more it will look like a circle. The longer they are the more it will look like an ellipse, but also the more narrow it will become. When you get the shape you want you can use tape or paint, if you want something more permanent, to trace over your sketch. Only tape or paint over the ellipse. The child would be confused if you were to go over all those intersecting lines in the middle.

I hope I've helped with your "line," making. I know Delores has been enjoying ours. Happy walking.

4:1

Yesterday I watched two additional children along with my girls. It was a house full of estrogen. 5 girls total along with our female cat (including myself).

The two other children were a 7 month old and developmentally delayed 2 year old. She is behind by a year and has the motor skills of a 1 year old. She can't speak but can understand most of what you are saying.

I haven't had much interaction with children younger than my own since mine were born. It seems like all the children we were around were in their same age range. Or maybe that is just what I gravitated toward because those children were interested in the same things my girls were interested in. It was a good experience to remind me what activities children their age are capable of doing.

When my girls were infants i didn't implement Montessori activities. I thought of it as more of homeschooling for preschoolers instead of a way of life. So they missed all the cool mobiles, pull up bars, and large mirrors at crawling level. I just didn't know all that stuff was out there. With my change in thinking I found myself observing what each child liked to do over and over again yesterday with the thought of what I could provide for them the next time they are here.

For example the older, yet developmentally delayed, 2 year old found the wet washcloth to be very entertaining and she mimicked washing her hands, wiping her face and washing a surface. She also enjoyed trying to put objects into containers. Crayons into a cup. The cylinder blocks and putting the knobbed cylinders into an empty medicine bottle. She also loved things that produced a sound upon an action she made. Pressing a button on a fridge toy to make music. Pressing keys on a small keyboard to make the sound of a piano, organ and even meow (it's a cat keyboard. Lol).

So for next time I'm thinking I will supply large knobbed puzzles, open and closing boxes, some stacking rings, maybe matching some animals and a sponging activity.

The infant was of course interested in mouthing things. She was interested in feeling different textures and object permanent games like peek-a-boo. So for her I may have a basket of things with varying textures, a rod from another set of stacking rings with just one large ring, a wet sponge, and if I could somehow get a hold of an object permanence box that would be great.

For anyone who is thinking of using the Montessori "way," for their infant see below for a diagram I ran across somewhere online:



The timeline is in another language but by piecing together the pictures and following the age range you can tell what activities are suggested for each developmental period of a child's life. Pinterest is also a great place for ideas and also Lisa Nolan's website, Montessori For the Earth, has curriculum for infants at a very reasonable price.

Providing activities to infants before they are able to walk or talk may seem silly or pointless even, but when I see a child at any age concentrating, absorbing, what they are manipulating I can almost feel the electrodes in their brains kicking into high gear and it excites me to provide more. For us Montessorians (yes, i just made that up, feel free to use it) doing these things, whether it be using a floor bed and hanging a high contrast mobile from the ceiling or just setting out a basket full of interesting, yet simple and plain, non-electronic toys, fills us with a sense that we are providing our children or students with opportunities to reach their potential, absorb the world around them more easily and use their senses in a way most adults have never imagined.

One on one time~Lydia

Being a planner doesn't always work out. God doesn't care about our plans so when things don't pan out and I end up having a 2 day school week I find ways to go with the flow. Although there is still that little voice in my head that wants to moan and complain about not sticking to a schedule.

My mother-in-law is on her spring break this week and asked if she could take Delores out yesterday and spend the night and bring her back today. Sure! I have no problem with that. Then wednesday night I realized, eek! No lessons on Thursday. Okay I can get over that, we will make it up on Friday (today) right? No, of course not. Delores is probably not going to be home in time for lessons. So, it's a short week. Oh well.

Now you may ask, why not just go ahead a give Lydia her lessons? Well she doesn't do so well when her sister is not by her side. She has gone her whole life with her sister within a yelling reach from her and on those rare occasions when they are not together, she is just not herself. I really don't want to disrupt her more by attempting to give her lessons without her sister because that is something she has never done.

So what did we do? We played of course! I don't get a lot of one on one time with either one of them because they are on the same schedule as far as sleeping goes. So it was nice to play with Lydia and spend some quality time with her.

Here's some shots of what we did before nap time yesterday:


I made her a "house," as she called it.



I didn't get a lot of photos because I was busy having fun with her. We listen to a lot of Mr. Eric music (author and songwriter of the popular Pete the Cat books) and sang and danced. Played a classic game of "I'm gonna get you." We stayed in pj's all day. We played Doctor and cooked bananas in her play kitchen. Then we chased the cat around trying to feed her pieces of food on little play dishes.

This morning we painted with food:



And intrigued the cat by Lydia pretending to be a cat herself


Whew! I forgot how exhausting it is to have just a 2 year old to entertain. Delores normally does that for me. But, it was a good reminder of how important play is as well as structure and learning. The joy and discoveries children find all on their own can be better than any given lesson. That is why the prepared environment is so important. So the child can roam free, be themselves, make discoveries and have fun in a safe, encouraging environment with minimal need for adult help.

And today my mother has asked if she can take Lydia for the afternoon. Now I'll have the pleasure of having one on one time with Delores. I can't wait to see what she gets into!

Guilty secret

As you may remember from previous posts on Wednesdays I take the girls to the library for story time and to check out books (for future posts I'm just going to call that day our "Freeday"). So of course we did not do lessons. I figured I'd take this other opportunity to let you in on one of my guilty secrets.

Everytime I put together an activity or plan a lesson I feel a little guilty that I can't provide traditional materials, trays, shelves and set up for my girls. One of Maria Montessori's points to her method of teaching is that the prepared environment is very important to give the child confidence and gain his (her) sense of independence. Also, using natural, mostly plain, materials gives the child a better sense of natural materials in the world around him and isolates the idea you are trying to teach.

I do believe these ideas are important and when I started this journey I wanted to do things by the book. Use everything montessori schools used. Be plastic free. Have all handmade natural materials. Then reality hit. Not only did I not have the money to buy expensive handmade natural products, but I also didn't have the time to wait on the shipments and I had no space to put them.

So what did I do? I picked one wall in our dining room and put up a shelf at Delores' arm level. I used Rubbermaid long containers for trays and bought a set of 4 baskets from Lowes. Then I bought my first glue gun and got crafty.

My first materials were a mess to put it mildly but over the past year I've also purchased a circular saw and a staple gun. Hobby Lobby, Walmart, Lowes and thrift stores became my material supply stores and now I can make something that almost resembles the materials you can buy off the Internet from specialty Montessori supply stores.

As the materials grew I had to figure out more storage systems and when Lydia turned 2 I had to figure out how to give her a shelf of her own for easier activities. This is how I've dealt with that issue:


Josh got a hold of 7 milk crates for free. I took 5 of those milk crates and zip tied them together and added a board of flooring we saved after our flood (hence the cement floor in the pictures) on top. This created another shelf for Lydia and five cubbies which I use for favorites that the girls aren't ready to have rotated out yet.

For our art supplies and pre-writing materials I used this:

An armoire given to me by my mom one Christmas.


I used a wire shelf for the top shelf and i used the remaining two milk crates with another piece of flooring on top for a second shelf and two cubbies.

For our practical life supplies

A cabinet in the kitchen complete with basin, pitcher, wash brush, soap, soap dish, nail brush, towels, washcloths, a bucket for putting dirty or wet rags in, cloth napkins and tool boxes.

And for my storage

A toy storage unit the girls outgrew.


A box with Delores' materials and a storage container with Lydia's materials.

For right now this works, but I'm always thinking of ways to make things more efficient.

As you can see my method of delivering Montessori methods are untraditional. But despite all of that and my guilt for not being able to give my girls the beauty of a Montessori school, I still implement the same principles in my home and give the same lessons and the opportunity to reach their potential and independence.

So is it really the materials and set up that makes Montessori what it is? Maybe for some people, but when I see my two year old clean up her own spill all by her self and then put the supplies away without any help, or even when I see my three year old button her own sweater, I have to say, not for me and my family.

A lite day

The girls have been catching up on sleep slowly this week from Easter celebration and a play date last Saturday and Sunday so I've been fighting with their attention span. Monday I couldn't interest Lydia in any lessons and Delores didn't want to work for more than about 20 mins.

Yesterday Lydia finally did two activities on the shelf but it was like pulling teeth to get her to clean up her activities and put them back on the shelf after she was done. Delores did pretty good but she still didn't want to work long. We did our beginning sounds basket for "C," so she wanted to color a worksheet, which lead to playing.

I was able to snap a few shots of the girls doing some lessons and other things around the house.

Brushing a toy pony's hair.



Matching cards from Color Box 1


Peeling a crayon. She started to get frustrated with me taking pictures and got up to move to a quieter spot. After that I stopped taking pictures of her.


Delores' colored "C," worksheet I got from First-School Activities and Crafts.


Helping put away the silverware.

So playing and recovering was the bulk of the past two days, but of course I thought of activities to make from watching them. For instance, I noticed Lydia loved peeling that crayon as much as she loved peeling eggs last Friday so a peeling activity may appear soon. Delores really enjoyed brushing that pony's hair so a hair care activity may appear on the shelf soon for her. Inspiration can come from anywhere!

How we got here

Some of you that read this blog may not know me personally. You either found my blogs on Pinterest, by searching for different topics on Blogger or just randomly stumble across it. That being said I feel like I need to tell you how we got where we are. That is, how I decided the Montessori style of teaching fit best for our family and why I decided to homeschool in the first place. Since the girls weren't really in the mood for lessons yesterday ill take this opportunity to go into all that.

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!

Our Easter Activity Day

At the end of every month I make a calendar for lessons or activities I would like to get accomplished for the upcoming month. It may change a lot depending on what the girls are interested in, what did or didn't work or the interruption of short notice appointments. I'm not a very spur-of-the-moment kind or person, which I am trying to change, so the calendar helps me to see a map of what they will be learning as well as what I need to buy in advance to make the lessons. Yes, I do make most of their lessons, but that is another post for another day.

So anyway, I've found the best place to find holiday themed activities is on Pinterest. Here are some things we did last Friday in celebration of Easter.

This first is a counting game. The object is the roll the die, which only has ones and twos on the side, and the child gets the corresponding number of Easter themed erasers. The first to count out 10 wins the game.

Checking out my homemade die.


Playing the easter themed counting game.


Lining up the easter erasers.

After Lydia won the game, Delores just wanted to line them all up and count them.

Counting the easter easers

After they had changed clothes, made their beds, brush their teeth and combed their hair they came back for trays I'd put out on the shelf the night before.


Tonging poms into an egg tray. I was tempted to use jelly beans, but this was the first time Delores had used any kind of tongs so I used the poms instead. It's a good thing too because she tried to tong a jelly bean and it was too hard and she became frustrated. Always trust your gut.


Using a "B is for Bunny," template I snagged from here: Making Learning Fun . I don't particularly care for templates but I thought it was cute and it was a holiday and we have been working on our "B" sounds in our beginning sound basket so I caved.

Switch!



And just for the heck of it, practicing the padlocks and keys.


After the mats were put away I set out the egg dying stuff. There was a lot of practical life and sensorial activities involve in this. For instance spooning the eggs into the colored water. Mixing primaries to make secondary colors. Washing the eggs. Straining the eggs. Drying the eggs. The intense look of concentration on their faces told it all.

Dying eggs



Peeling eggs


Washing peeled eggs. Like all toddlers Lydia loves to play in water. When I asked if she would like to wash the eggs her eyes lit up. Just one of the many things that keep me on the montessori path.

With the peeled eggs I took one and cut it in half for each of them to try for snack with a little salt. Lydia made it very known that she did not like it and Delores just liked the egg whites. With the remaining two I made egg salad which Lydia loved and Delores hated (oddly enough).

After naps they got to "trace" Easter themed clip art onto our back door. They didn't really trace but they had fun so, oh well. You may have seen on other websites that people use things like foam or shoe polish or window paint. All of that stuff has to scraped off with a razor blade. We used dry erase markers. They scribble, the rub it off if they want to do it again and it is easy clean up.


Easter themed window "tracing" pictures.

We had a great productive, fun filled day that I'm sure we will probably be repeating for years to come.