Friday, May 31, 2013

May reflections

As promised in my post "May Calendar," here are our reflections and lessons for last month. We did pretty good accomplishing the goals I set for us, with some slight changes here and there. So, have a little looksie.


https://www.box.com/s/ktvs5zevks8tx6cl6y4f 

This is the first time I've used Box.com to share files. So, I have included a picture and a link and if it doesn't work for some reason, please let me know. 

I'm fairly satisfied with meeting most of our goals mainly because I feel I have developed a good sense for what the girls are capable of even when we don't really feel like doing anything for days at a time. I never wanted to put unrealistic expectations on them as a instructor or mommy, but I do know they are capable of great things if I allow them and guide them to it. 

I am also happy that maybe we have developed a balance of fun and play and learning and lesson. One of my greatest struggles, maybe developed from the life altering program I went through 4 years ago, I have a hard time seeing the big picture. The month, year or life as a whole. The girls' behavior and personalities over their actions. The struggles of going through "one day at a time," instead of seeing that there really are more days to do whatever it is I feel like we need to do. That this isn't my last day. When I see what we have accomplished at the end of each month and how fast they are learning and growing it really helps me adjust my perspective and really makes me quite proud of my montessori girls. 

June calendar

This past week, while the girls were taking it easy and recovering from all the events the week before, I was busy getting next month's calendar ready. It normally takes me 3 nap times to create, plan and map out each days lessons for the following month. So roughly 3 days of nothing but planning. 

Again, as mentioned is my post "May Calendar," this is more of an outline and a shopping list for me that changes frequently as the days go on depending on the eagerness of each girl.



I share this to give people new to the Montessori concept an idea of what kind of activities are done, how often, and how a child progresses. I also do it so you can see what kind of format works for us in case you want to try this type of calendaring for yourself. 

When I first started this journey over a year ago there were no free montessori based scheduling programs or apps to give someone an idea of how to put together a timeline or an expectation of what activities a child could do. I had to start completely from scratch and it was a little difficult and there were a lot of changes. In fact, I still haven't found a calendar format that might be helpful or beneficial to our journey. 

So I hope these can help someone, but if not at least you can get a sneak peek of what we might be doing in any given day.

DIY--nut & bolt board

The nut and bolt board can be found with 5 to 7 nuts and bolts in varying sizes going from largest to smallest sticking up or through a board. It is a practical life activity that develops fine motor skills and the pincher grasp for indirect preparation of writing. 


The bolts do not move so the sole action in the activity is removing and replacing the nuts. We did not know about this activity when Delores was 2 so when Lydia mastered opening and closing lids to jars and lids to boxes it was time to move to this activity. 

Now in my last post "DIY--Sandpaper numbers," I stated it was more cost efficient to just buy it. In this instance however, that was not the case. Plus Josh was looking forward to doing this himself when I told him about it.

Here was our supply list:

Wooden block measuring 8.5 in long x 2.5 in wide x 1.5 in deep--FREE from Lowes. I'm not saying your Lowes will give this to you for free but if they can just give this piece of scrap wood away I can't imagine it costs very much.

5 nuts & 5 matching nuts (1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 1/2, and 5/8 of an inch) from Lowes--under $10.00. 

Small bottle of Gorilla glue from Lowes--$5.00

5/8 spade (wood-boring) drill bit from Walmart--$5.00**

Total: $20.00

The cheapest one I found (pictured first at the top of this post) was from Early School Materials for $19.50 not including shipping.  (http://www.earlyschoolmaterials.com/practical_life/five_bolt_board.html).

Another one I found (pictured second at the top of the post) was from JMPlearning.com for $31.95 not including shipping. (http://www.jmplearning.com/JS_2068_Seven_Bolt_Board_p/js-2068.htm)

We already had the 4 other drill bits so we didn't have that additional purchase. If you don't already have the drill bits you may come out better buying the block unless of course you want to add to you collection of tools and want a project. 

Josh made a grid on the back of the block with pencil to mark where each nut would be placed. A line in the middle the whole length of the block and then 5 lines the same distance apart intersecting the first horizontal line. Then drill through the back at each intersecting points. Put some glue in the holes and insert the bolts. 

After drying we notice the heads of the bolts caused the block to lay lopsided because the 5/8th was so large. To fix this problem he used some scrap pieces of wood to glue to each side of the bolts to level out the block. 
You could just use two pieces along each side but for some reason he wanted to do it this way. It works fine so why nit pick? Put the nuts on the bolts and... Ta da! 

Also, you can see that the gorilla glue expands and leaks out but you could easily shave this off with a razor blade. We didn't because I wanted to use it with Lydia immediately but we probably will take that step eventually. 

This is what it looks like now:
I still have plans to apply some high gloss polyurethane to it because I want it to look inviting, professional and because I'm a little OCD like that. 

Lydia has thoroughly enjoyed it and it was cheaper for us to make than to buy so all in all a win-win situation. 


** Josh just found one of these on Lowes' website for $3.78. So do all your research for the cheapest materials in your area unless you are a one stop shop person. 

DIY--sandpaper numbers

Sandpaper numbers are wooden tablets with, you guessed it, numbers made out of sandpaper pasted on them. They are used to teach the child the symbols of numbers 0-9 after they can count to 20, build the number rod stairs and can tell you the majority of what each number rod represents. The child is normally given three at a time starting with one or two he/she may already know. They watch you trace and say one number at a time and then they do it. You give a three period lesson on those three and then you either stop and wait for another day to introduce more, or you can try to introduce one or two more to the mix. Just depends on the child. 

Simple enough. The concept is that by feeling and saying and seeing the numbers the child is using most of his senses to learn and will retain the information more readily.

If you were to look up sandpaper numbers on Pinterest or bing it ( my preferred search engine) you would find a good bit of information on where to buy these, how to make these the traditional way and how to make these out of a type of fabric like felt. So, why do I feel the need to write yet another post on this topic to add to the plethora of information? 

Two reasons:

1. I assume that my readers are not familiar with the sandpaper numbers and what they are use for or even how to use them. 

2. Out of all the articles I've read not one of them mentioned or advised that  it might be more cost effective just to buy them. From making them myself, I can tell you I probably spent more time and money making these than I would have if I had just purchased them online and waited for them to arrive in their own pretty little wooden box.

For example my supply list looked something like this:

Sheets of 80 grit sandpaper (fyi use a 120, 80 is too rough) from Lowes--around $6.00

Two wooden boards from hobby lobby-- $ 6.99 each

One can of green spray paint from Walmart--around $2.00

Small can of high gloss polyurethane from Lowes--around $7.00

Four foam brushes from Walmart--&0.69 each

That's a total of $31.74.

At Allison's Montessori online (http://www.alisonsmontessori.com/Sandpaper_Numbers_p/m02.htm) you can get the same tablets for $16.50 with their wooden box.


As you can see making these myself was not very economical. These are what mine look like now:

Either way I'm happy with my numbers. If I were to do it all over again though, I would definitely buy them from Allison's because they come with their own box which saves room on my shelf and they are cheaper than what I would pay to make them. My moto is live and learn and then get luvs. I hope I've helped you from making your own economical mistake, but if you just want the satisfaction and a hobby here are some links below to help you do it yourself.

Good blog post from Living Montessori Now with several links and ideas and variation of the DIY versions.

Good free template of numbers you can use to print and cut out from JMJ Publishing. 

Good, detailed, instructional blog post on how to make a very traditional looking sandpaper numbers.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

(Trying to) Slow things down

Last week I talked about use getting out of the house more and socializing with other people, but this week I discovered that after all that busyness last week,and with the holiday weekend, we all felt like we needed to take it slow this week and just recover from all of it. Apparently the girls get just as worn out from going as I do. 
Pretending to nap on the couch. 

I still prepared activities and trays to put on the shelf but I let the girls decide when they wanted to work. I think we finally got to some on Thursday. Lydia wanted to do more than Delores but lessons still didn't last more than about 30 minutes. Here are some shots from this week. 

Musical sound bottles made from glass yoo-hoo bottles. 
They come 4 in a pack so they worked out perfectly and Josh and I got to enjoy a childhood favorite. :) Here she is playing only every other one on the musical scale. You can find information for how much water to put in for each scale on ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/how_5104489_make-music-water-glasses.html#page=0

Playing with the new fingerprint we got. Somehow she decided it would be a good idea to paint her body though. :)

Working with the nut and bolt board daddy made. 
She loved this. I even caught her standing beside her shelf and spinning the nuts on her shelf and then walking away. As a matter of fact she just came and got it off the shelf to work on as I am writing this. 
Realized she could wear the biggest one (5/8 of 1 in) like a ring.

Delores' turn

Working with sandpaper numbers mommy and daddy made.

She did well. She already knew 1 & 2, but did well with 3. Alas, she was done after a brief 3 period lesson.

Lydia's turn. She just had fun playing with these. 
Three period lessons don't work with her right now (very common for 2 year olds) so she just kind of did her own lesson.

*I'm going to try to do a separate post on both of the activities Josh and I made to go into more detail of how you can make your own.*

After that Lydia did some matching with paper clips and picture cards. 

Delores also did some name tracing with the new tracing paper we got. 
I made the name cards by typing their first and last names in Lucida Handwritiing font in the biggest size, cutting and pasteing their first and last name back to back on an index card, trimming down the index card and then laminated each side of the card using laminating contact paper you can buy by the roll where you find other contact paper and drawer liners (best purchase I ever made). 

Here's a close up
 
And her finished product. 

It feels like we didn't do much because we didn't spend much time in front of a mat, but when you look back through all the pictures we still did a good bit. This is really what montessori homeschooling is all about. For most of us having shelves everywhere and keeping all our materials out at one time just isn't practical nor do we have the space. When the principles are applied to everything in your life however, it doesn't really matter how much time you spend in front of a mat or how much money you spend or how much space you have the lessons still sneak themselves in somehow. I just love that. 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Feed the ducks and such

This morning we had a play date at Furman with a Greenville Meet Up group.  I joined this group in an attempt to get out, socialize the girls and meet some ladies that might have SOME things in common with me. It is very hard to find people who have the same ideals as Josh and I do and it has really been a struggle to make friends when you don't have anything in common with anyone you meet. We aren't really weird or have a strange religion or anything, we are just what you would call frugal hippies maybe. You know, homeschooling, pro breastfeeding, cloth diapering, healthy eating, stay at home mom. We joke often that we should just up and move to Asheville where we might fit in a little better, but our mothers would kill us if we even considered it. 

So anyway, I have a little social anxiety when it comes to meeting new people, but usually I push through it because I know there is an experience to be enjoyed in the end. Here are a few thoughts that went through my head as I was laying in bed last night, trying to sleep, to give you a better understanding of what I deal with every time I am approaching an event I know I have to interact with adult women.

I am terrified of meeting these people. 

I hate getting out of my comfort zone. 

I have no buddy to go with me. (Josh is usually my comforter)

I'm scared I will get lost. 

I'm nervous about being out of place. 

Worried my kids won't interact. 

Worried they won't have fun.

Scared I will have a bad mommy moment. 

Scared we will be late. 

So there it is. My thoughts raw and unedited. And you know what? Some of that stuff actually happened. I got lost, I was late, the girls didn't interact, I did feel slightly out of place but, as always, we did enjoy ourselves in the end and THAT is really all that matters. 

We fed the ducks, had a picnic lunch, played with bubbles, picked wild flowers, talked about pinecones and how they work and Lydia found a marble. I met some nice ladies and didn't make a complete fool of myself. No, they didn't have a whole lot in common with me, but that's ok. 

Here are some shots of our outing:



As soon as we got home I RSVP'd yes to 2 more events. I love introducing a variety of things to our girls because I feel it makes them well rounded and they see there is a world outside of their own. That may be the only thing that pushes me over my fears. One of my goals as a mother is to not pass that fear of interacting and doing something new onto my children. If I accomplish that I can say I did okay. 

It isn't pleasant stepping out to interact and doing something new to me but, really, isn't it supposed to be a little uncomfortable when you get out of your comfort zone? 

Glass/mirror polishing

This morning's lesson just sort of fell into place as though Delores and I were in sync. Which never happens. Delores has a will and passion as strong as my own so we clash more than we get along. So, maybe it wasn't that we were in sync so much as it was that the subtle selection and placement of the material made us both think we were in sync. 

Last night I sat out a tray for mirror/glass polishing. The tray consisted of glass top stove polish found in the cleaning aisle of the grocery store (if you chose to get this see if you can find a small bottle. This will probably dry up before it gets used up).

The other materials in the tray were a couple of q-tips, a few cotton balls, a rag, a small dish, a small glass bowl and Delores' play makeup mirror. 

Not too long after breakfast she announced she was going to put on makeup. He he he. She then proceeded to put on makeup, but wait, where was her mirror? And the introduction for today's lesson began. 

The child puts two or three drops of the polish into the small glass bowl and then uses a Q-tip to dip into the polish and apply the polish in small circular motions from left to right, top to bottom (indirect preparation for reading) until the entire mirror is covered with the polish and they can't see themselves. They then have to wait until the polish dries which takes about 30 seconds to a minute depending on how thick they have put it on. The girls and I sang a couple of songs while we were waiting. 

After it is dry they use a cotton ball to rub off the polish. Wa lah! A nice clean mirror they can see themselves in and what child doesn't love to look at themselves in the mirror. 

Of course after they do that they have to throw all the used Q-tips and cotton balls away and replenish with new ones. Clean and dry the container holding the polish and replenish the rag used for drying. Put everything in the tray and put the tray back where they got it from. Leaving the material exactly like they found it so it is ready for the next person to use. The clean up in always more exstendive than the lesson and if you are starting out with a two year old it is best to start them out with clean up adding one step at a time until you feel they can handle doing it with just a small amount of reminders before you start giving lessons. 

But anyway, back on topic. So that seems like a neat way to keep some kids busy for a while, but what exactly is it teaching them? Well, several things. It is a practical life activity which means it gives the child a sense of purpose by having responsibilities and skills to help take care of his/her self, his environment and the world around him. This particular work is a care of the environment work and develops focus, concentration, encouragement to follow through with a task to the end, self control, fine motor refinement, respect for fragile objects and respect for those things in his environment. 

So here are some shots of the girls doing just that. 
Polishing the mirror

"I can't see myself!"

Wiping off the mirror

"There I am!" (Different mirror the second time around)

Lydia's turn:

There is always something I find that I want to change after doing a lesson for the first time. The polish bottle was a little heavy and difficult for them to open so I'm thinking I will find a dropper bottle to put a little polish in. Also, Delores broke the little glass bowl in her attempt to clean it so I'm considering a small metal bowl next time. Other than that the lesson was a hit and I'm guessing it will be on the shelf to be used over and over again for a while. 

Cleveland park

Last night in choir practice we had quite a few outbursts and some uncontrollable laughter. Our choir director said it was all because of teachers. Of course all the teachers in the room stood up ready to defend themselves, but then he went on to say that every person has been affected and ingrained by teachers in the sense that when the end of May rolls around suddenly we all start acting up because we've behaved so nicely all year long and now we just want to cut loose and be done already. That's another reason we decided to homeschool and to do it year round. I didn't want them to experience that feeling of just being done with learning already. 

I definitely have been feeling the lets-get-this-over-with way recently. The motivation I usually have to teach just isn't there and the itch to get out and go and have a vacation has been replacing my thoughts of formal leaning and I, of course, have been feeling guilty about that. 

I even joined an upstate mothers meet up group to get us out of the house to socialize and do fun things, but when it came to RSVP to some events I started feeling guilty if it wasn't on our Freeday or there was two in the week I wanted to go to. Then I was reminded by my attentive husband that they are just kids and they need that before they get to be school age and we have to start doing school. I also remembered that doing stuff outside of the house for learning purposes  during the summer was my intention all along because I believe children can learn a lot that way if they have some guidance and are pointed out things they wouldn't recognize or know on their own.

So yesterday I took them to Cleveland park's playground in Greenville for the first time. Take a look at how happy they are and I had a pretty good time too. 





It was right by the zoo and then I realized I could even take them to the zoo on a weekday and not have to schedule it on a weekend when Josh can go with us. But not that day. We spent so much time at the playground that there wasn't time for anything else. I hope this is the beginning of many more adventures and I can stay guilt free about not doing planned lessons in front of a mat. 

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Blog construction

I am working on adding tabs under the blog's title to categorize some of my posts. When I first started this blog I didn't really think about separating certain topics from each other, but as the blog is growing I feel the need to organize (as any good montessorian would).

For instance, I have already created a tab for music where I will be posting all previous and future posts related to Delores' music lesson since they really don't have anything to do with Montessori homeschooling. That being said, the previous links to posts on her music lessons will change so if you are looking for something and can't find it, please visit the music page by going to the drop down bar at the top of the blog.

I hope to have other tabs for my random off-the-wall posts, an "about us" page, and some answers to FAQ's (if anyone would ever ask me a question :) ). 

It will also give me a chance to blog about other topics besides Montessori homeschooling and put them in their place without feeling like those posts don't belong.

So bear with me while I make some adjustments to the blog and, as always, if you ever have any questions please feel free to ask. 

Mountains of art

My girls love to make art with any medium and I encourage it being an artistic person myself, but all that work makes for piles and piles and paper that just lay around for weeks or months (depending on how motivated I am at the time). 

In pursuit for organization I ran across an article in Parenting magazine that suggested you just throw it away after a certain period of time. I just could not imagine doing that. I kept all of Delores' art work from when she was 2 in a binder in chronological order. Looking back through it I can see how much she improved and see how her creativity blossomed over time. That binder is something I will treasure for the rest of my life and hopefully she will treasure it as much as I do when I give it to her.  So for that reason I do not thrown any of their art work away unless it was just some light scribble that didn't look like there was anything on the paper anyway. 

Yesterday I didn't have anything planned to clean during their nap time so I took that opportunity to organized this:

Intimidating huh? This is the instance where I had waited months to tackle this project. After 1 & 1/2 hours of separating paper into each girl's pile, then putting each pile in chronological order, 3 hole punching each paper and finally putting all the papers into their binders, this is what I have now:


Don't you just love that feeling of accomplishment that comes from organization? :)

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Turning out alright

I go through ups and downs as a Montessori homeschooler. There are some weeks when I feel the pressure to do school in a very formal way. I become stressed and I usually take my stress out on the girls. Then I get frustrated with myself and I am reminded it is about going with the flow and following the child. Not about sticking with a schedule or an outline. Then I relax and do just that. I spend some weeks just trying to enjoy my girls and then something happens and the pressure creeps up inside me again. I try more and more to stay in those easy-going weeks, but I have weaknesses and downfalls just like any other human being. If you want to know the truth I think it has a lot to do with my cycle and hormonal imbalance. I find myself going from one extreme to the next and, as hard as I might, I can't seem to get a grip on it.

This week however, I am going with the flow and while I still have that nagging feeling to do school I am pushing through it to be the mom and teacher I want to be for my girls.

Monday we had a busy day. We didn't do much "school" where they sat in front of a mat doing activities for hours at a time. They did the kind of school that I love to see blossom in them. The natural curiosity for life and the learning that comes from that. 

Here is the only shot I got of the girls doing mat work.
Delores transferring poms into a container with tongs.

The rest of these pictures are just of things that the girls asked to do.
Delores using our DIY version of the circle metal insets made from pink and blue foam board and dowels hot glued into the middle. 

Delores and Lydia washing the chalkboards. 

Drying the chalkboard

Delores cutting on the line to make a letter "H," beginning sounds booklet I got from here: 
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphaletter_p/h.htm

Then on top of all that the girls asked for turkey and cauliflower for lunch and asked for classical music as background noise after lessons. :) So no matter how bad I put myself down for being hard on the girls and being stressed out and not feeling like playing all the time, apparently they are turning out all right. Yay me! And yay them for putting up with me. 

Monday, May 20, 2013

1000 page views!!

So I just visited my blog's dashboard (profile page) and noticed I have over 1000 page views for this blog that I started writing 2 months ago. That's awesome! I'm so glad I am able to reach people with my writing even if it is to spy on what my girls and I do all week (ahem, family members).

I just want to take this time to personally thank you for tuning into all my posts and giving me the motivation to keep writing. 

Friday, May 17, 2013

Weekly highlights--5/17

We haven't been very motivated to do lessons this week due to the great weather we've been having. It rained most of last week so we were itching to get out of the house. I also had a good bit of housework to catch up on, hence the lack of activity here this week. Here are some shots of what we did. 

Observing our first frog of the year daddy caught for us out of our yard.

Painting with strawberries

Enjoying Mother's Day goodies

Fun at the park

And Friday we finally got to some lessons
Pouring/spooning lentils

Lydia was interested in how they moved

Delores got up to all 10 pairs of the memory game.

She was so proud of herself after she found all the matches. Here she is holding all the cards in the box beaming that she matched them all.

And Delores worked on the number rods. Last time we worked with the mini number rods she needed some help building it. This time she did it all on her own. We had to work on the rods 4, 5 & 6 again this time. Last time she worked up to 9, but this time she seemed tired and had a hard time focusing. I feel like she got it this time. 

The interesting thing about Delores is that she will do a new work one time and then she won't go back to it again for a month. She loves to do Lydia's works over and over again but she is not so interested in doing new works more than once. Sometimes the lessons sink in overtime and you can tell she didn't need the repetitive work you come to expect after researching Montessori methods. Then other times it really is because I've missed her window. She's either mastered something and I don't realize it so she doesn't repeat something because it's boring or it's too hard and she gives up, gets frustrated and won't go back to it. Every child is different. 

What I've learned from this is that the method is a good guideline but always let the child and his/her learning styles and abilities be your guide to what you introduce and how frequently you introduce something new. 

I hope to go into more detail about this topic on a later post of how teaching Lydia is so much different than teaching Delores. 

So we had a pretty laid back week. On weeks like these I have a some guilt for not doing "school." I catch myself thinking "when they are school age I can't have weeks like this," and I put a lot of unneeded pressure on myself. But I recognize I have got to start living in the moment more because I'm missing out on a lot of great moments worrying about what I could be doing or what is going wrong. I haven't quite figured out how to balance that yet but I am going to try.

We'll see what next week holds for us. :)