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.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Culture Studies in Our Home

We have not really written about our cultural studies in our Montessori home... or have we?


What is included in cultural studies?
  • Political geography 
  • Physical geography - and biomes - climate - all of these affect how people live, the choices they make, and even how the political lines are divided!
  • Music, art, clothing - all those choices that people of different regions make
  • History of various areas - what happened in the past still affects today
  • Economic Geography - goods that are available in one area might not be available in another; or there might not be enough in one area to support the needs and desires of the local people. 





A Montessori Nugget on Culture in Montessori



Previous stops along the Montessori Trails - not all-inclusive: 
Calligraphy
Continent Folders - Primary
Some of Legoboy's work plans - Upper Elementary age
A Week in the Life of Legoboy - earlier Upper Elementary
Timelines: Doing the Child's Work for Him










Saturday, December 5, 2015

Tacklebox Montessori

Just a sampling of the tackleboxes used in our Montessori homeschooling...

Inspiration by Ms. Suzanne over at Livable Learning and Teaching from a Tacklebox.


As I go through each chapter of each elementary album, I am updating, refreshing, cleaning out and re-posting all of our materials - providing downloads of all that is possible, posting images of organizations, etc. I am really striving to streamline the process for Montessori elementary homeschoolers.

For the fun of it, here is some for everyone!


Retiring the old fractions box... It has served us well, but after 3 children sitting on it.... well, it was time for something that has a lid ;)
Plano 3750

The new one - with space for sample fraction problems.
If you make these pieces, please use red (the unit broken into pieces). NOT yellow ;) 

The box needed for the numeration chapter (early math). We call it a numbers/operations box. I would like to call it the Numeration Box because we have a separate box for the actual Operations chapter, but this one has the operation signs, fractions, decimals, etc.

Plano 3700


Operations Box

Holds the bank game, guides to create a child's own problems, stone for group division and more.
This is also a Plano 3700 

Not a tacklebox - but how we store our decimal system cards from primary - materials that are used into elementary and a bit into adolescence.




We also have a Plano 3500 for the Notation of Squares and Notation of Cubes.

And a Plano 3700 for our geography stamps.


Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Lazy Gardening ;)

We really didn't spend as much time in our garden this summer as we wanted to, we had far too many weeds for my liking - and we had a few comments from people about not getting much stuff. Things along the lines of "Hmph - you always wanted a garden and you don't even time for it" and "I passed by it the other day - had a lot of tomatoes going to waste out there!" and other such not-intended-to-be-rude-but-please-consider-what-you-are-saying-before-it-pops-from-your-mouth silly statements. 

This black thumb woman has tomatoes to harvest INSIDE in the middle of the cold winter - I don't need to be THAT picky about the weeds in a clay soil that desperately needed the ground cover, thank you very much! 

In the end... 

Well, the only thing we didn't get much of.... is photographs! 

We had a few watermelons - *those* we didn't pick in time. Several were ripe in July, but July turned out to be one of those "let's a take a non-chosen trip to a 'warm place' and see if we make it back alive" kind of months. ;) Yeah, we survived! The watermelons didn't. 

The asparagus, other squashes and cucumbers didn't make it in the clay soil. At least two of the people with the gardening comments are the one who did not help when they could have, when it came to keeping bare clay-filled soil moist; then made the most comments about the weeds (the weeds actually helped! They kept the ground moist by providing ground cover and kept the seeds/soil in place with their roots.). Next spring, we direct sow the seeds (these ones grew the best, over the plants we put in after sprouting) - and we cover with straw. 



Pumpkins: 

  • We've not cut up all the pumpkins yet, but so far have now frozen enough puree to make 12 more pies; we've made 4 so far. 
  • We had enough pumpkins for 2 12 ounce jam jars of seeds for next year (pulled from pumpkins we weren't going to eat, those rinds chopped up and fed to the worm bin). 
  • We also roasted a LOT of seeds! 


Tomatoes:

  • We grew tomatoes we didn't plant! Turns out the tomatoes I had fed to the worms? The seeds hadn't digested, decomposed or sprouted before the worm castings were added to the garden. On top of the 25+ plants we planted from a friend's leftover farmer's market (they'd lost the labels and nobody but us wanted mystery tomatoes!), we had several more sprouting where they landed! 
  • A total of 17 2.5 quart buckets - plus many partial buckets. 
  • We have canned tomato sauces, had tons of treats with fresh tomato slices - and gifted many. And between our travels and other issues, we fed some old ones to the worms too. 
  • We have reds, yellows, oranges and greens. We even have tiger stripes! Awesome!



In that patch of weeds?

  • Without trying, we harvested 10 more pumpkins and 3 more full buckets of tomatoes. 


The messiest image of our back porch! We had old boxes we were composting some and burning others ---- but we also had plants on the back porch: carrots, elderberry, basil, cilantro, motherwort (that one wasn't supposed to be there) and a few others I can't recall off the top of my head.



One evening we collected the above (2 pumpkins in his hands) and below (4 pumpkins in the one bucket, 3 more carried in my arms, and half a bucket of tomatoes). We didn't even try.



Hmmmmmm...... PUMPKIN SEEDS!!!!!!


Monday, November 16, 2015

Grammar Boxes in Action

Montessori Grammar boxes in action in a home setting - no particular order :)


Our original storage: Each filer box contents in an envelope; all envelopes stored in a larger envelope. Command cards and any additional exercises in their own envelopes (commands cards are paperclipped into smaller groups inside the envelope). All envelopes stored in a mail holder or small basket next to the grammar box. Takes up FAR less space ;)
Would prefer plastic pouches. 





Introducing grammar box 2 - before introducing the name of the part of speech. 




Symbolizing with the grammar symbols. Not a color match because the cards are different colors! 



Legos come in handy. 

And we take a creative break ;) 

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Longevity of Montessori: Mathematics


The Montessori approach meets the needs of children where they are at - both collectively and individually. Therefore, it is an approach that meets the needs of ALL children. The only limitation is the preparedness of the adult to meet those needs ;)

A recent post at MariaMontessori.com introduces this concept as it applies to primary (3-6) and elementary (6-12). Montessori is Developmental

Even in our material,


Let's look at math specifically - just some highlights: 

With infants and toddlers, we do a lot of natural one-to-one correspondence. Few toys, each that belongs in a particular place. Matching activities in sizes, shapes, colors. Helping to set the meal-table using a diagram of what goes where.

We can also give the language of numbers (counting), and children love language at this age, so most do pick up on counting numbers, although they typically skip a few numbers or repeat a few sequences ;)



Primary Mathematics:
While we don't typically start math in primary until around age 4, we begin with a few materials that extend into primary mathematics as well as into use at elementary and adolescence. Sensorial and Mathematics materials are both noted here:
  • Red rods - extend into the number rods 
  • All the groups of ten we have extend into the decimal system
  • Pink Tower and Brown Stair can be used in geometry at elementary
  • Binomial Cube and Trinomial Cube (elementary and adolescence)
  • Geometry Cabinet and Solids (elementary)
  • Golden beads (elementary and adolescence)
  • Bead Cabinet and contents (elementary and portions in adolescence)
  • Snake games (if you purchase the negative snake game, it includes all you need for primary as well as elementary and adolescence)
  • Decanomial bead bar box (elementary and adolescence)
  • Stamp game (elementary and adolescence)
  • Short Division with Racks and Tubes becomes Long Division with Racks and Tubes (elementary)

Common Threads: 
  • Place value color-coding remains consistent throughout all levels - into the checkerboards that are the visualization of the multiplication process, the bank game (just numbered cards, no beads), and more.
  • The bead cabinet colors also remain consistent through all levels - even into the solid wood blocks of the cubing material that is used in elementary and adolescence. 





Additional posts of interest:

Toddler Exercises of Practical Life

All Montessori Trails posts on Mathematics

Mathematics Logic Game from Wff'n Proof

Review post on Adolescent Algebra Album

And that, dear friends, is today's show ;)