Montessori Elementary Homeschool Blog - with documentation of our infant Montessori, toddler Montessori, and primary Montessori experiences; as well as preparation for the upcoming adolescent Montessori homeschool years.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Learning to Read - changing the words on the page

As my son was allegedly "learning" to read, he would make some of the following changes to words on the page:


"three angles" on the page, he says, "triangle"
"Holy Trinity" on the page, he says "God" (or vice versa)
"Mary" on the page, he says "Mother of God"

His mind was seeing the words and interpreting them - and the words coming out of his mouth were on the same topic, and appropriate, but NOT what was on the page.


Makes me wonder ---- all these years later.... is it possible my son was already reading at 2 and 3, but because he wasn't speaking, he wasn't sharing what he was reading (and Montessori does not require reading out loud from the youngest children - they should read and match labels with objects, follow commands, etc. - other ways of showing their comprehension ---- or practicing the words away from the adult and reading the words aloud when comfortable).


I wonder if some of our angst could have been spared if I had adjusted my in-the-moment expectations and just trusted that he COULD read (even when he was reading aloud, then afterward saying he couldn't read because some girl at school told him he couldn't).....


Friday, March 14, 2014

Album Tables of Contents

My Keys of the World website is in transition right now - I thought the sub-folders were working but they are not.... so no-one can purchase on that site! And that means that all the Montessori album tables of contents are NOT available....

So for the time being, I am posted them here:
http://montessoritrails.blogspot.com/p/keys-albums.html

--- a new page on this blog. Albums are available at Garden of Francis (all ages) and Keys of the Universe Elementary (elementary and adolescent; individual albums or complete set).

Saturday, March 1, 2014

REVIEW POST: Primary Grade Challenge Math - Zaccaro

(UPDATE 10/28/14: We have added Upper Elementary Challenge Math to our repertoire and couldn't be happier :) See the associated Montessori Trail post.)


Legoboy has another New Love:

Challenge Math by Zaccaro

We are starting with this one - covering grades 1-4 for "gifted children".



I ended up purchasing the entire of books in this series for several reasons:
  1. looking for a good set of word problems to review earlier concepts
  2. Montessori math and geometry do not align with any other available curriculum (I group the Montessori-inspired curricula options somewhere in the middle)
  3. Something just didn't sit right with me concerning the other options. They are useful; I will not say don't use them (especially if they are working great for you! Keep going with what works!) - but there was a mis-match for our family, my principles and my understanding of Montessori. 
  4. This set of books (there are several in the series) are designed for gifted children - children of younger ages who have particular gifts that correspond with typically older children. 
  5. I wanted to review them for the sake of other families looking for a resource to fill a similar need. 
  6. This series also includes some of those allegedly missing concepts, perfectly tying them into the included album pages (associating money with decimal fractions, converting into percents, etc. (NOTE: Please do not flame me in comments regarding missing concepts - I've covered this topic before, I am not saying Montessori is wrong, and I'm not saying the concepts aren't there - I am fully trained, I know where the concepts are and where they fit in. Comments of a flaming nature will be removed. I'm done with flaming when I speak peacefully. Thank you for speaking respectfully.)


Word Problems: 
     A few people have shared a few solutions to the dearth of word problems - and the lack of time to create their own (and my lack of time to create my own!) for each and every concept. Especially in a sporadic co-op/tutoring, mostly homeschooled by himself situation, there just aren't classmates around to pull up the caliber - and I am one person unable to cover everything (stop laughing!). ;) 

Montessori Mathematics and Geometry Studies: 
     Montessori math and geometry use hands-on materials to bring the children to the point of abstraction. In some areas, it seems that the children hold on to the materials longer than their public school counterparts, but once they release the materials, they are almost always ahead in conceptual understanding. Where we have children not able to apply the concepts, we have a situation where the adult likely didn't assure the child was working with appropriately challenging work and likely didn't ensure there were appropriate real life word problems and experiences available. 

Not sitting right: 
     What is about the other options that didn't sit right? I think because they are geared towards public school curriculum, several of the options have already been re-written to correspond to Common Core (the dumbing down of our country's children), and I just don't want to participate. 

     In addition, I really wanted something that more closely resembled Montessori. Life of Fred is a great complement to Montessori elementary mathematics but there are few word problems. 
     I think this is my main thing - I don't want to dig into 4th grade books to find word problems to give to a 1st grader, just to find math skills that fit.  

Young Age - Older Work: 
     Isn't that the mis-match of Montessori to other expectations again? 

Perhaps my reason are the same thing over and over - with different words: I wanted something that better corresponds what we are doing as compared to constantly tweaking, reading, adjusting, pulling "7th grade" materials for a 2nd grader who isn't "special" in that way, but simply has been given the tools to go deep with his understanding.... I was (and am!) tired of tweaking already!!!!

What we are using: 
     Legoboy is 1st year upper elementary, or 4th year elementary - and I would NOT say he is gifted in this way. However, he has received the keys provided through Montessori throughout his life. As a "4th grader", we started with the primary level book to review past concepts - kind of catch up in the word problem category. We did great for 1st-3rd grade, but I'm done tweaking (have I said that yet!?) and I have to be done looking too. 

Legoboy loves it! He is actually working out the math in his head or on paper as needed, then he challenges me with it. Even with Life of Fred, I have to "encourage" him to record any work, or answer out loud. He just wants to read the story (although he can do the math in the books). 


How it is set up: 

Each chapter contains some background/how-to-solve information on a particular topic - most is review for Legoboy, some is new or said in a new way. Then there are 4 pages of problems - 1-2 page(s) for each "level". The chapters can be done in any order, but easier concepts are towards the beginning. Chapters can cover a variety of topics but are generally somewhat grouped together.


The four core books we will be using are the following: 
  1. Primary Challenge Math - grades 1-4: Includes chapters on Sequences, Problem-solving, Money, Percents, Algebraic Thinking, Negative Numbers, Logic, Ratios, Probability, Measurements, Fractions, Division. This book includes topics that Montessori has in upper elementary. Guess what? That tells me it is likely to trust a child's abilities and correspond well. I am NOT disappointed. 
  2. Upper Elementary Challenge Math - grades 3-5 (this is available for pre-order, shipping in April)
  3. Challenge Math - grades 4-9: Includes chapters on Astronomy, Algebra, Problem Solving, Percents, Fractions, Decimals, Ratio & Proportions, Physics, Statistics, Probability, Metric System, Perimeters, Area, Volumes, Trigonometry, Calculus
  4. Real World Algebra - grades 4-9: Includes chapters on Language of Algebra, Geometry and Algebra, Proportions and Algebra, Physics, Levers, Pythagorean Theorem, Percents and Algebra, Simultaneous Equations, Algebra and Money
We also have the following that at first skim have been great: 
  • Becoming a Problem Solving Genius: A Handbook of Math Strategies
  • 10 Things All Future Mathematicians and Scientists Must Know (but are rarely taught)
  • 25 Real Life Math Investigations That Will Astound Teachers and Students
  • Scammed by Statistics: How we are lied to, cheated and manipulated by statistics and why you should care


I am working on something of a correlation between the AMI mathematics album and these books - slowly creating a correlation. I will share this on the Keys of the Universe Discussion Community in Excel format and will likely post it on this blog at some point in pdf format (this will happen faster if those who are interested, let me know - I'll prioritize it ;) ). 

Sample - Chapter 4 - On Money






 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Online Presence


Keeping it Real
(was scheduled for the 21st, then I wanted to post about the economic geography stamps, so I've rescheduled this for the 26th).

A recent visitor to (apparently) all of my websites/blogs noted something interesting:

With the exception of Garden of Francis (which uses a minimal amount of stock photography), I use absolutely NO stock photos. All of the photography is either genuinely my own, came with the blog template (such as this one with the geese in the background), or is utilized from NASA's site (with proper permissions given/received).

Yes, that is MY son (Legoboy!) walking down that lane of trees at Grandma and Papa's home in the right side-bar of this blog.

Yes, that is me and my son enjoying dessert at (his great-)grandmother's 90th birthday party in my "profile" picture seen in various places (like the bottom of this blog in the footer above the flags).

I kind of noticed this "lack of stock" before - and I've had friends and web developers tell me I "need more photos of children" on my various sites, because it makes people feel cozier, more comfortable.

Well.... I do have photos of children - but 1) minimal 2) appropriately located 3) NO names. I do NOT have photos of children on any sites I am "selling" something (except my son, with me).

Contrary to efficient marketing practices? Perhaps. But I'm honest. I am not going to use a child to sell you something that doesn't stand on its own as useful for you.

And I want my sites to be "real" to ME. If I can't be real to myself, how can I be real with you?


There IS something off-putting (for me) when I visit a site that has a lot of stock photography - or minimal stock photography, but that's all they have - especially when I've seen some of it before or something similar. Interestingly enough, one popular Montessori album website has a particular stock photo up that actually VERY closely resembles a photo that came up on my Garden of Francis error page recently when the server was down. WE-IRD!  (no, the error page was not linking to anything Montessori related - it was simply putting up a rotation of education-related stock photos - and the photo was different enough to know it didn't COME from the other site - they are obviously both stock photos).

It is also off-putting to be on a Montessori album website and have only stock imagery - not even photos of Montessori materials or children in a Montessori classroom - but truly, stock photos that have nothing to do with Montessori.

I'd rather be on a site with no photos, than know that all the images I am looking at are "generic". Alternate, sub-reality or some such description comes to mind.

With that said, a couple of my sites could definitely use MORE images - just real ones ;) My sites are far from perfect!




Monday, February 24, 2014

"School Days" postings....

MBT keeps catching me ;)

I'm always sad that you don't do "school days" posts from your house. 

Why don't I? I've been asking myself a similar questions for a couple of years now. I'll post on projects, I'll post on studies, and I did do something of a sample day a while back (wow! Just pulled it up - it's from 2 years ago this month! and it was nothing 'special' but it was typical).


But really, looking at the previous post..... that's our days. We're pretty relaxed about specifics, but rigid about expectations - I expect the concepts to be mastered while balancing the reality of my son's needs. I run two businesses out of my home, teach in the atrium 5 days a week, tutor ever-changing groups of children; he has tae-kwon-do, his Lego projects and his books and games that he wants to get to, so he gets his chores done, works on his school projects mixed in with his other personal projects - and it all just sort of happens. Not always on MY time table (how many times it is 11 at night and I wanted to give a new presentation that day and need to hold off another day? Yeah, that has happened many more times than I care to admit), but when the presentation happens, it is always the "right" time.


Summary??? We just don't have "school time" - it is all mixed into our entire day. If I give a new presentation at 9 in the morning or 9 at night, is just based on our very-similar-to-unschooling approach. I have the responsibility to give him the keys; he has the responsibility to learn those keys, assure his "local educational requirements" (for this year: MY requirements) are covered; then he has the freedom to follow his interests along with the corresponding responsibility TO follow his interests, go deeper - and not just "slack off".

We have a routine, rather than a schedule.


There is one major difference between now and 3 years ago: at upper elementary, it is almost ALL projects now. Or studies of some sort. Less "new presentation on a specific skill" and more "develop the use of this skill previously learned". 


From 1st year of lower elementary -
life and school are "one"
Interestingly enough - without the Montessori materials
becoming "toys", they are part of our every-moment lives
For example in math: doing more difficult and/or more practical life mathematics problems, creating notebooks of the Primary Challenge Math (review post coming soon), working on his Pet Store math project (took a LONG hiatus when the computer holding that file fried - just pulled it off the hard drive last week).... We do have math presentations yet to do - in several chapters, but I know the reality is, I present the keys, we find a real life application for it and we review the concepts as needed. If we finish before adolescence, great (I think we will....); if we don't, there IS some wiggle room. Even if we continue to review concepts and go deeper, I fully anticipate we will have begun every topic/presentation before adolescence.

In language, he is "done" with the album, but needs some review with the sentence analysis work (mostly so I can check materials I am developing, but also for his own review), he reads and studies literature to no end, and he is increasing his depth of writing skills, he is practicing calligraphy --- but the official lessons are "done". He does need to get into a book discussion group of some sort (think "Junior Great Books" style would be perfect!). We'll continue to review the Great Lesson there. He is also doing Cover Story and writing some of his own creations.

In history, he is still going deeper and deeper with ancient history (LOVES IT!) and slowly plugging his way through US History (a huge bore for him - this has been a LONG process). He has also been going deeper with the history work in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium, getting more into typological studies, History of Israel and more. At least this work is pulling him more and more into closer-to-modern times. We'll get there... right? ;)  He is technically "done" with this album as well - but review presentations and going deeper with particular topics are always a necessary thing, even in the classroom. Now is the time for his own personal studies and interests.

In music, we are definitely "behind" --- too much else going on. NEED to get those tone bars set up at home! But he continues with the piano (slowly - he is mostly self-taught, so it's taking time), loves to sing, we analyze music, he loves classical music, and all things Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movies.

Biology - we're still going strong on the herbs. We're in need of doing the more complex scientific classification material; otherwise we've done the album a couple of times and will cycle through it again, going into deeper studies - with full-on animal dissections, using the microscope, and....

finishing up remaining suggested experiments/demonstrations in the biology and geography albums. We could probably work on some more memorization of things like state capitals, but we play a lot of geography games. And we do have some economic geography and a few presentations remaining in each of the chapters (except the first 2?) but honestly - not just very much "new" here - what is left is review and going deeper.

Geometry - we DO need to finish up the last couple of chapters. We just kind of stopped at one point. Interest is there - my own time is not. Area and volume concepts need to be thoroughly reviewed and solidified - all else is there.


Wow. Did I just say all that? He'd be in 1st year upper elementary at a Montessori school right now. With 2 more years to go after this one.



We are right now living exactly what I've been saying in all sorts of places: the AMI albums have allowed us to learn the keys, explore personal interests, have time for real life and relationships with other people, without having to worry about "getting it all in". Sure, there are areas I feel behind in - but I know the depth we've gone to, the amount of time Legoboy has spent in productive personal pursuits - and I'm not worried about it. I thought I was, but now I write all of this out - I'm not.

Non-AMI albums tend to have so much "more", but I'm not convinced they encourage the depth, the personal interest or the true follow-up work --- and I've seen so many families who could benefit from continued Montessori go elsewhere because they were either 1) overwhelmed with the number of presentations/materials or 2) underwhelmed at the response of the children.
And a recent survey of sections such as "human geography" (which includes economic geography) demonstrates that what is truly meaningful to the children to build up cosmic education and "peace education" - just isn't there in other albums. No wonder people keep asking me about the peace education components - I don't have them, because they are all deeply integrated into all of the albums I have.

The math album is HUGE and goes so much deeper than any other Montessori album - the concern there always seems to be on "fitting it all in". There is wiggle room, but again, if we are focusing on the keys, encouraging the children to go deep, create their own problems (with structured guidance from the adult), then they are truly mastering the concepts and CAN move forward at their own pace. If they finish before adolescence, great; otherwise, there is some time.

My son has had time for so many academic personal studies outside the Montessori albums, because he was given the keys, expected to master them, then set free to just BE himself.

To reiterate a point from above, because it is so often missed: I expect mastery of skills presented - and I expect that Legoboy will follow his interests and go deep with this studies. It is an inherent expectation, that when not present, does allow the children to fall into shallow work and never really reaching their own potentials. I expect it (in my words AND my actions), I assure the tools are available to make it happen and get out of the way when needed. :)


You know - part of this unschooling-feel is our school space. We don't have a school room or a school space. We have a home. We have an 850 square foot apartment with a library in my bedroom, sewing, tons of felt, wood-storage (the wood-cutting happens elsewhere), garden in the living room, school materials throughout every --- single -- room (Sh!! Our dissection specimens are in one of our kitchen cupboards - NOT anywhere near food, I promise), Legos (oh dear! do we HAVE Legos), art supplies, books everywhere. And yet, only the bedrooms are "cluttered" - the other rooms are just "full". My living room floor I keep clear. I need space somewhere to just breathe! I will post a "school-home" tour soon ;)

I WANT a dedicated room for school materials, even if we use it for other stuff too - just one place to display all things school. I sometimes wonder if I were ever granted such a gift, would I even utilize it as such - because we DO see all things we do as life-education. Maybe I don't want to change. I say I do. I think I do. But maybe... I don't?


Hm. ;)