THE LEARNING ARK

Wasp studies

2012-01-09T19:57:00.000Z

Yesterday morning this wasp appeared in the children's cloakroom at school. At first it wasn't moving and appeared to be dead. I was worried it would still sting me so I trapped it in a petri dish with the intention that if it was dead I could maybe keep it. It didn't move straight away so I taped the petri dish and left it for a while. It started to move and I realised that it was still alive and knew that Little-N would love some time to observe it.

Little-N kept it on his desk next to him and began to research in his books to find out about the wasp. He was fascinated when he saw it open and close its mandible [mouth].

He then worked on drawing this very detailed picture of a wasp and labelled the different parts.

Birds: Ornithologist to be?

2012-01-05T19:39:00.000Z

Little-Ns big interest at the moment is in birds. For the last three months everyday has included independent research and studies about birds. His favourite birds are birds of prey, specifically falcons. His interest began to develop from watching flight patterns of birds in our area. It was further developed one day at school when he was sitting by himself reading in my classroom as I rushed around my school managing and teaching children. He found this little bird book in a cupboard:

We also had some RSPB bird posters on the wall. He suddenly rushed up to me and said his favourite bird is a Merlin. I had no clue what a Merlin was and he soon filled me in with too much information about a Merlin along with a hand drawn picture.

Over the next few days Little-N went through every book at school, home and the library reading about birds. Here are some of the books he read:

This book is amazing. He read it so much it's falling apart!

These are really good for taking on outings.

Birds of Britain Essential Guide, with lovely fold out pages about birds.

A very detailed book about birds of prey.

This book has amazing maps of birds.

This book is fantastic, his favourite with so many beautiful pictures.

Along with the reading comes a lot of independent research and pictures:

Here is a picture of a Merlin that he drew:

Here is what Little-N calls a 'fact file' about gyrfalcons, this is all his independent work that I often don't know about until he's completed it:

Here is a book he made one day while I was out working:

This is an example of one of the pages inside:

He has made so many bird books and drawn so many bird pictures. Even today I came home to another bird book he made :) I'm so happy with his independence and ability to sit and work on his projects without my help.

Reading about birds had exposed Little-N to Latin as many birds have Latin names that are included in his books. Somehow he has found away to learn the Latin names of birds and some other Latin words. I'm so surprised that Little-N is walking around saying 'Falco rusticolus' apparently that's the Latin name for a gyrfalcon!

He read about the RSPB bird reserves and asked me to take him to visit one. I found one 15mins away from my home so we went for a quick visit. He loved it!

Little-N is keen to join the bird spotting club in our local park and has already identified all the birds we've seen while cycling through to school.

Semi Precious Rocks

2011-12-22T20:32:00.000Z

Little-N has developed a huge interest in semi-precious rocks and gems. He started to collect rocks and gems and I was amazed at how quick he was able to build a collection from little gifts from friends and family. We bought him these books and he has read them cover to cover.

Little-N used the books to identify his small collection of rocks. I came across this amazing precious rocks, gems and minerals magazine collections which I bought him as a gift. Each fortnight Little-N receives a magazine with a rock or gem. The collection is brilliant, the stones are huge and the magazines are so informative. So far Little-N has received gold, amethyst, rose quartz, blue agate, desert rose, obsidian and geode.

He started to look into birthstones and was eager to identify everyone's birthstone. I made him these birthstone cards.

When Little-N gets interested in a subject he becomes totally obsessed. He sat and research each rock making what he calls 'fact files' about each rock. He drew picture after picture of different rocks. He started to talk about crystal shapes and taught himself the names of different mineral crystal shapes. I printed him a set of cut out crystal shapes that he could assemble himself. I also made him colour coded name cards so he can sort and name the shapes. This is how he set up his work:

My husband took Little-N to the natural history museum where he had the opportunity to see and identify many precious rocks and gems.

Little-N's favorite precious stone is diamond, he asked if I could buy him some but I told him he'll have to wait till he's older. His next favorite is emerald and he is eagerly awaiting the emerald magazine that comes with his collection.

Update on Little-Ns education

2011-12-21T21:08:00.001Z

Managing a new Montessori school is a lot more work then I initially thought. The school has taken up all my time which means that unfortunately I am unable to prepare and work with Little-N. Little-N is still pretty much homeschooled, or perhaps unschooled is a better way of explaining his education at the moment. Little-Ns week goes something like this: Mondays he goes out on trips with my husband, Tuesdays- Thursdays he comes to school with me and Fridays he goes for prayer with my husband.

My school does not have 6yrs+ facilities, but I have set up a little area for him, in which he has access to a selection of resources and books. Since I don't really have much time to prepare work for him, he spends the days at school reading and pursuing his burning interests. He is now in charge of his learning and it's been amazing to see what he is able to do and how he has furthered his development without any help from me. The last three months have really shown me the independence and autonomy that Montessori has allowed Little-N to develop. The Montessori education has prepared Little-N and helped him to acquire important skills that he needs for learning, and now that he's been set free he's blossoming and flying through learning.

I've been taking pictures of his work and over the next weeks I'll be posting his work so you can have a look.

Flower Arranging

2011-10-14T19:46:00.000+01:00

Everyday we have a vase full of fresh flowers on display in the Practical Life area.

Below the vase we have a flower arranging activity which is basically a tray that contains various small vases and a pair of scissors.

Children are shown how to take a vase, fill it half way with water and use the scissors to cut the flowers they would like in their vase.

Here is an example of a four year old's flowers. Very nice!

The child can then take their vase to the table that their working at and put in the top left corner of their table. Having flowers at a child's table makes such a difference to their concentration and well-being.

Months of The Year

2011-10-12T20:17:00.002+01:00

Last week Little-N was working on learning the spellings for the Months. I have a simple activity in which he places the months around the sun to represent our earths orbit of the sun. I have posted about this before here.

After making sure he knows all the spellings we moved onto looking at the abbreviations for each month and the numerals which can be used to represent the month.

The file for this activity can be downloaded for free in my shop.

Washing Tables

2011-10-09T17:46:00.004+01:00

This week I set up two washing tables for the children. One table is for washing hands and the other is for washing the dirty cloths from polishing and cleaning activities. Here are what the tables look like:

Hand washing table:

Cloth washing table:
The older children in the classroom have really enjoyed working with these activities. They have developed a sense of responsibility for the cleanliness of the classroom and have spent a lot of time on the cleaning activities in the class.

The Start of a New Montessori School

2011-10-01T13:48:00.006+01:00

Finally I have found the time to blog! I've worked my entire summer, day and night setting up and preparing a Montessori school. With the help of many volunteers and parents we managed to have the school ready for it's opening on the 12th of September.

I wanted the start of the school to be smooth and tranquil allowing the children, parents and staff to have a peaceful time to settle in. To achieve this we decided to stagger our intake over a period of three weeks, starting with the oldest children. This allowed each group of children to bond with the staff and settle in the environment before the next group started. The youngest children started at the beginning of this week, this was the group I was most anxious about as some of the children have just turned 3. Amazingly our week ended with a classroom of happy and peaceful children.

A lot of time, effort, research and skill was put into the design and layout of the classroom to provide the best environment for the children. I haven't got photos of the whole classroom to share however I do have a photo of one of my favorite features: the child sized sink. With the help of two handy parents, we managed to find away to install a kitchen sink at the perfect height for children. I set the sink area up with all the necessary tools needed for children to independently wash their own dishes, this has become one of our most loved activities.

Now that things have settled and calmed I hope to post regularly about our environment and experiences. I'll also be posting about Little-Ns work and homeschooling.

Little-N's beanstalks

2011-08-19T22:20:00.006+01:00

This summer Little-N has been enjoying the garden. Here are some photos of the beans he planted:

Little-N noticed how the beans bent towards the sun.

When the plants were big enough we planted them in the vegetable patch with some bamboo sticks.

The beans grew very quickly.

Little-N enjoyed searching for the beans and picking them.

He washed and cut the beans.

He cooked them with some garlic, butter, salt and herbs.

And proudly served it to us for dinner.

He has kept some beans for drying out and planting next year.

Little-N was so happy to completed the the cycle of cooking by planting, caring, picking and cooking.

Times Tables

2011-08-03T19:43:00.006+01:00

Little-N has been working on his times tables. The Montessori curriculum has plenty of activities to help practice the times tables. We chose the three times table and worked with the following activities.

Multiplication with the bead stair. He wrote out his own question cards, with answer cards and a control of error on the back. He uses his cards to play a memory game.

Multiplication board.

3 bead chain and writing the number sequence.

Multiplication chart looking at the three times table.

Written multiplication chart.

3 times table on the hundred chart.

Multiplication on the peg board.

A few years ago Little-N worked with these materials to gain an understanding of multiplication. He has now revisited the material to help him with memorisation of the times tables.

Once he is confident with the three times table, we'll choose another one and work with the materials again.

New Job

2011-07-28T21:17:00.002+01:00

Remember the post I wrote some months ago about the Montessori pre-school I was helping set up? Well initially I joined the team as a consultant, but things have changed. I am now the pre-school manager. This is a position that I swore I'd never accept, it's a big responsibility and a lot of work, however after working with the team for months and seeing their eagerness to make the school perfect I realised that I could do more to help create a school that will be amazing and touch the lives of many children.

I've spent these last weeks preparing mountains of paper work for Ofsted [official body for inspecting school]. Ordering and buying and materials to set up the classroom and preparing training session for teachers. I am lucky to be part of a wonderful team of teachers, all coming with years of experience and amazing talents. Everyone is working to the same goal, creating an outstanding Montessori school that will not only change the lives of children but also change the community.

I was extremely nervous about my suitable persons interview with Ofsted [official body for inspecting school] in which the inspector grilled me for more than three hours asking many difficult questions. But I was glad to know that it's hard for people to get a job as a manager and Ofsted are thorough in insuring that people in these positions are good people with sufficient experience. Today we received the glad news that I have passed the interview and we have got registration certificate.

This summer will be spent setting up the school, making resources and ensuring the the school is ready for September. I have stopped my homeschooling classes that I run from home. Having a full-time job in September will mean that I can no longer homeschool Little-N :( . I will set up my classroom in the school so that he can come in to the pre-school and continue his learning with me.

Winner of Pink Series Giveaway

2011-06-26T00:32:00.002+01:00

After consulting with the true number selector [at random.org] the winner of my Pink Series giveaway is.....

Linda

Congratulations!

Linda: I have emailed you, please reply so I can send you your files.

Thank you to everyone who entered, sorry you didn't win :( I'll be hosting another giveaway soon so keep a look out.

Montessori Pink Series & giveaway

2011-06-17T14:25:00.000+01:00

Here is a quick overview of the Pink Level [stage one] literacy materials often used in Montessori classrooms. All the words in the pink series consist of two or three letters phonic words typically in the letter format CVC [consonant, vowel, consonant]. All letters in each word must be completely phonetic and represent the sounds learnt with the sandpaper letters. Some words such as car, are three lettered CVC words but are not phonetic so be careful to make sure words are completely phonetic. Before starting with the pink series children must have completed the previous activities I post about before here.

Pink Box 1:

Materials:

A box of six phonetic objects at pink level

Moveable alphabet and mat

The child chooses an object, identifies the sounds in the in the word, gets the correct letters from moveable alphabet and builds the words on the mat. At this stage we do not get the child to read back the words they have built.

Pink Box 2:

This is used exactly the same way as pink box 1 but the child has a box of six pictures instead of objects.

When the child has worked with pink box 2, you can begin working with rhymes. Make a letter combination with the moveable alphabet e.g 'at', the child can place letters in front of 'at' to see what words can be made that rhyme with 'at'.

Pink Box 3:

Materials: A box containing six objects and matching word cards.

This will be the child's first presentation in reading. The child should arrange all the objects on a table mat in a horizontal line. The child will then take one word, sound it out and blend the letters to read the word. The child then places the word underneath the correct object.

Alternatively, the teacher or parent can write the words on a slip of pink paper instead of providing a printed card.

Pink box 4:

This is used the same as pink box 3, however pictures are used instead of objects. The child is gradually working towards more abstract reading, with only pictures and words.

As the child progresses I will begin to make the boxes more complex by placing pictures that begin with the same letter.

Pink Card:

This is used for further practice with blending and is very similar to pink box 4. The words are kept in an envelope on the back of the card.

Pink box 5:

This box contains six words printed on paper and folded into quarters. The child should take a paper, unfold it, read the word quietly to themselves and then place in on the lid of the box. To make this activity exciting, I use pink level verbs e.g. 'hop'. The children work with the box as a group, one child will take a word, read it silently and then do the action. The other children have to guess what word the child had.

Pink lists:

Here the child will begin reading more words with less visual clues.

Sight words:

Once the child has worked with the lists, begin presenting the Sight words. These should be presented using the '3 period lesson'. It is extremely important at this stage to be consistent with presenting the sight words, I will usually do this daily, presenting individually to each child that is ready. By learning the sight words at this stage, the child will be able to move onto reading phonetic books with ease. You can print a list of sight words here.

Pink Phrases:

Here the child will begin to read simple strings of words. This activity is done in preparation for reading sentences.

Capital letters:

In order to progress further in reading, the child will now need to recognise the capital letters. I have a post about presenting these and free download for the file here.

Pink Sentences:

Here the child will begin to read sentences. This activity is done in preparation for reading books. Explain to the child that a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop. The child should name the sight words and sound out the phonetic words.

Pink Level Books:

After working with the sentences children can begin reading pink level books. These are books that only contain sight words and pink level words. I have an old post here about the books I used with Little-N, it is really hard to find good books at this level, I have not yet found a series of books that I am completely happy with. If you know of any please let me know. In the meantime, my mother will be writing a series of books to be used with the pink series. I will post about the books once she's completed them.

Now for the giveaway...

I sell a download for the complete pink series materials in my shop. Since I am posting about the pink series here, I would like to giveaway a set for free to one of my readers.

The set includes:

- 36 word cards to match to your own objects
- 48 pictures with 48 word cards to match
- Printable moveable alphabet
- 24 secret words
- 4 word cards [each contains six pictures and six words]
- 16 word lists
- 16 phrase strips
- 12 sentence strips

You can read more about the set here.

To enter the giveaway, simply make sure you are following my blog and leave a comment on this post. Make sure you leave a contact email if it does not show up on your profile or blog.

If you would like more than one entry to the giveaway then..

-Sign up to my shops newsletter and leave a second comment [Sign up at the bottom of shops home page]

-Post about this giveaway on your blog and leave a link in the comment

Please note that the winner will receive a email with the downloads for all the PDF files. You are welcome to enter wherever you are on the globe.

This giveaway will end on Friday the 24th of June 2011. The winner will be selected by a random generator and I will update this post for the winner on Saturday and email the winner. If for some reason I can not contact you or, you do not get back to me within one week of the giveaway closing I will choose a new winner.

Good Luck!

Writing A Secret Code

2011-06-02T22:15:00.001+01:00

The other day Little-N sat quietly at the dinning table writing something. He was being very secretive. He then explained that he was writing a secret code! He said that when he needs to keep a secret he'll write it in code so no one can read it. He reminded me of myself! Little-N doesn't know this but when I was younger I too made up a code with a friend and till now I'll use it when I need to make note of something secret. I'm amazed that out of nowhere he came up with this code and actually used it too.

Little-N has been reading...

2011-06-01T20:10:00.000+01:00

A few months ago I wrote this post. Some of you suggested some great books [THANK YOU] I went ahead and bought the ones I could. Here's what Little-N has been reading:

Tales from Rumi, he loves this book! It contains small stories that convey moral and spiritual lessons. We decided to have a discussion after each story to insure that Little-N has taken it all in.

Little-N loved these. I gave him the books one at a time and he sat and read them from cover to cover.

One morning I came downstairs and found Little-N weeping. When I asked him why, he replied sniff sniff ''Charlotte died!'' sniff sniff

He read this book so fast and then asked for another one. I told him that was it for the day, so he read it again!

I'm going to the library tomorrow to see if I can get hold of some other books by E.B. White.

If you know of any more good books for Little-N please let me know, your suggestions are appreciated!

Homeschooling How We Do It

2011-05-28T11:40:00.000+01:00

Little-N is now 7 and it's been a year since I stopped working in a school and have set up my own homeschooling classroom. I haven't written much about what we do throughout the week, so I thought of taking this opportunity to write about what we do on our homeschooling adventure.

My week is extremely busy and full, I really don't have enough time in my life to do all the things I must do. I've taken on too much, but it's all got to be done and there is no one else to do it. I follow a schedule to make sure I get the balance right between family, home, business and teaching Little-N. This is how a typical week would be spent.

Monday- Wednesday:

Monday - Wednesday we have our homeschooling class from 9-1. This is the core time that me and Little-N spend in the classroom, we are joined by four other homeschooled children. We have a three hour work cycle, in which the children work with the materials and have a free snack. After the work cycle the children typically play outside till 1 and then go home.

Once the children go home, Little-N helps me prepare lunch. We sit and eat together. Next we do a quick tidy up, making sure everything is in it's place and clean. At 2 we are joined by another student. This student is 13 and is also homeschooled, he comes to me 3 days a week for 1.5 hours of tutoring. I am taking him through the later Montessori materials and he loves it. The student's Aunt teaches Little-N Arabic, so while I'm tutoring, Little-N has his Arabic lessons which he loves.

We finish the lessons at 3.30, and by that time I desperately need a break! Little-N will go off and do some independent reading and I will sit at my laptop checking emails and reading all your lovely blogs. After that I begin my chores of cooking, cleaning, washing and well I'm sure you know the lot. While I am doing my chores Little-N with either be helping, reading or playing. At some point in the day I try to take Little-N out to the park, we usually organise this with friends so that Little-N has some company. Later in the evening we water the garden and Little-N goes to bed at 8.30. While he's sleeping I spend hours making new materials and preparing for the next day.

Thursday

Thursday used to be my FREE day where I didn't teach and I got to do other things that needed to be done. However I am now tutoring on Thursday mornings. While I tutor, Little-N has an Arabic lesson. On Thursday I try to spend some extra time with Little-N doing activities that we don't get to do while other children are around.

Friday

Friday is my meeting day where I am helping out the new Montessori school. We meet from the morning and the meetings usually last till 3. The meetings are at my home as the school is not set up yet. During the meetings Little-N usually plays in the garden, reads or draws. After the meeting, Little-N usually goes out with a friend of mine who often takes him to museums or parks, if I don't have to much work to do I join them.

Saturday and Sunday

These days are the family days, Little-N gets to see his cousins and other family members. My husband's family are Turkish, Turks are known for their love of barbecues, so we usually have a barbecue and Little-N loves that. We are very blessed to have married into a lovely and close family. At some point on Saturday Gem [my husband] will give Little-N a religious lesson, Little-N is learning so much from these lessons.

On Sunday Little-N attends a drama and story telling class that is run by a close friends of mine. He loves going to this class, he'll come home with a buzz singing new songs. Sunday evening is spent preparing the classroom for Monday.

Although we only spend three work cycles in the classroom, Little-N is learning throughout the day. My home is set up in a way that he is always reading, writing or playing beneficial games. At the moment, as I write this, Little-N is writing a love letter to me! He is very independent and will usually find educational things to do throughout the day. I'll post more later about what he has available to him in the environment that aids his independent learning.

Montessori Language Scheme

2011-05-24T19:28:00.000+01:00

As a Montessori Elementary teacher who previously worked in an 3-6 classroom, I have had many opportunities to take children on a reading journey starting from playing the 'I spy game', progressing gently until they become better readers than I.

As many of you already know, in the Montessori method children learn to read phonetically. As far as I know we have two different English reading schemes that various Montessori teachers and organisations use. These are as follows:

The Muriel Dwyer method:

Here the children will begin the language scheme by various language games and the 'I spy game'. Dwyer identifies 40 sounds in the English language, 26 with single letter symbols and 14 with double letter symbols. Children are introduced to the sandpaper letters for the 40 sounds. 26 letters will be the usual a-z sandpaper letters and 14 will be of double letters and are usually on a green background. Once the children know all the letters they then work with the moveable alphabet making words which contain the 40 sounds. Children are provided with two baskets containing objects, the teacher will write words for each object for the child to read. The child will then progress onto 13 phonogram folders that contain different spellings for key sounds. This is a very short explanation of the Dwyer language scheme, you can read more about it on What We Do All Day, she has some great posts about this scheme. There is also a book written by Muriel Dwyer called 'A Path for the Exploration of Any Language Leading to Writing and Reading' and can be purchased here.

The Pink, Blue and Green series:

In this scheme the children will also begin with various language games and the I spy game. After completing these games, the children will begin working with the sandpaper letters learning the symbols for letter sounds a-z [letters can be learnt in any order]. Once the child has mastered all the sandpaper letters they will be introduced to the Pink Series. The pink series contains 3 letter phonetic CVC [consonant vowel consonant] words. The child will begin with making CVC words with the moveable alphabet and gradually progress through the materials to reading short stories that contain CVC words. Next is the blue series, here the child will be working with 4 letter phonetic words and progress onto much longer phonetic words. The child will begin with making the words and progress onto reading stories containing blue level words. Finally the child will work with the green series which contains phonograms and letter diagraphs.

There are also other schemes that I have seen being used in Montessori schools that are neither Dwyer nor Pink Blue and Green, but seem to be a combination of the two.

When I trained many years ago I learnt to use the Pink, Blue and Green series. I began working with the Pink Blue and Green series, but as time progressed and the children got older I noticed some short comings in the scheme. As the children progressed further and new children began working with the scheme, I was able to study the series further and managed to refine the scheme so that it works better and suited the needs of all children.

I have seen and witnessed the Dwyer scheme being used, I like some activities from it however from experience I have found the 40 sandpaper letters to be too much and at times confusing for the child. I have taken some activities from the Dwyer scheme and use them with the Pink Blue and Green series.

My next post will be about the Pink Series and with example of how it can be used at home.

Matching Sandpaper Letters to Moveable Alphabet

2011-05-16T09:05:00.000+01:00

I got side tracked from my language posts that I wrote about here, here and here. I'm hoping to continue them in order to provide a resource for parents who are home-educating. It's best to start reading from the first post as I have sequenced the materials in order. If you have any questions leave me a comment.

Once your child has learnt about 85% of the letters in the alphabet, they're ready to move on. You continue the three period lesson with sandpaper letters, but you also start using the moveable alphabet.

Moveable alphabet presentation 1:

The first presentation of the moveable alphabet is simply a matching exercise. Introduce the child to the moveable alphabet by naming it. Show the child how to place it on a mat and open the box. Next ask the child to get the sandpaper letters and place the box on the mat. Explain to the child that the letters in the moveable alphabet box are the same as the letters they learnt with the sandpaper letters. Ask the child if they can name any familiar letters they see in the box.

Explain to the child that we are going to match the moveable alphabet to the sandpaper letters. Take a sandpaper letter, name it and place it on the mat. Show the child how to run a finger along the moveable alphabet box to search for the letter. It is important to show the child how to correctly search for a letter. If a child doesn't know how to search the box, they may take a very long time to find each letter and get put off the moveable alphabet.

Once the child has found the letter, they place it on the sandpaper letter, matching to see if the letters are the same. They continue in the same way taking a letter from the sandpaper letters and finding the matching letter in the moveable alphabet.

When the child has completed matching the letters, show them how to place the letters back in the box correctly. The child can then put the sandpaper letters back in the box and tidy up the activity.

Moveable alphabet presentation 2:

In this presentation the child is shown how to make words by placing letters next to each other.

The child can choose any word, even if it is not phonetic. The child can then use the moveable alphabet to make the words starting from the beginning letter. If the child completed the I spy games they should be able to break the word down in to individual sounds. It does not matter if the child spells the words incorrectly, this activity is only for seeing how the moveable alphabet is used to make words.

In this example the child wrote, fluwr-flower, letrs-letters and Ali. Once the child has understood the concept of using the moveable alphabet letters to make words, they're then ready to start on a language series.

My next post will be about the language series that I use.

Making materials

2011-05-10T22:15:00.000+01:00

I am constantly making Montessori materials for my classroom. I have a list of things to make that is almost as tall as me. Every time I cross something off the list, I end up adding five more things. Everyday there is something I have to cut, print, laminate or make. I'm beginning to wonder when is this going to stop? Or at least when will it calm down?

Everything that I am making has to be made, so there's no way out of it. I wish I had some help, but I don't. I can't see a child's interest and let it go. I can't see them ready for something and not provide the activity. I have to keep going, I have to make the materials. I just wish I had more time in a day.

Anyone have any tips or ideas, so that I can manage to get more done?

Geography maps giveaway winner

2011-05-08T17:53:00.000+01:00

After consulting with the true number selector [at random.org] the winner of my Georgaphy maps giveaway is.....

Amanda

Congratulations!

Amanda: there are no contact details on your profile so please email me at thelearningark@gmail.com so that I can send you your prize.

Thank you to everyone who entered, sorry you didn't win :( I'll be hosting another giveaway soon so keep a look out.

Lemon Detox Complete

2011-05-07T12:20:00.000+01:00

I don't mean to be promoting a diet or product but this was so good I had to share it with everyone. I have just completed a seven day lemon detox and I wanted to share with everyone how brilliant this is. Initially I thought it would be really difficult and I'd feel really hungry [as you can not eat anything] but I am amazed at how good I feel. I have lost more than 5kg, I feel great and my skin is really soft. I never felt hungry and was able to continue working and doing all my usual weekly things. The best result is that I can finally smell and taste after many many years of being unable too. My husband also did the detox he lost 7kg in 5days. I know a lot of people might be thinking that we starved ourselves for a week, but we didn't. The detox drink contains tree syrup that provides you with the calories that your body needs. The proof is that after 7 days on this detox I am healthier and have more energy than I have had in years. I definitely recommend this to anyone who needs to rid their body of toxins.

Geography Maps and First Giveaway

2011-05-03T18:29:00.000+01:00

I have had this blog for years and I think it's about time I host my first giveaway. I'm excited to see how it turns out. Keep reading for details to enter.

I have worked really hard to make these map sets for my classroom and have just recently added them to my shop. For each continent the set includes a download for:

- A control map labelled with countries - A control map labelled with cities - A coloured unlabelled map that can be used with labels or pin maps - A black and white countries unlabelled map for children to fill in - A black and white cities unlabelled map for children to fill in - A black and white flag unlabelled map for children to fill in - Labels for countries and capital cities in large and small

Ideally the maps should be used with the puzzle maps and the child will use the control maps to label the puzzle maps. However I have also added a blank coloured map for the children to work with instead if puzzle maps are not available. The sets included labels for the countries [written in bold] and cities [written in lower case], these labels can be printed in large to be used with puzzle maps or small to be used with printed maps. The sets also include worksheets for the children to colour and label themselves. There is a worksheet for countries, cities and flags.

Here is a picture of the maps being used with small labels.

Here is a picture of the maps being used with pin maps that are also available at my shop.

The maps are colour coded according to the standard Montessori puzzle map colours, so when worked with together they match nicely. Each map is also outlined with the continent colours. The maps are available as a download for each set per continent, or a complete set of all maps for six continents. I have worked really hard to make these and the children love them!

Now for the giveaway....

I am giving away one complete PDF set of all the maps for all the continents.

That means you get a chance to win all the maps and worksheets mentioned above and the labels.

To enter the giveaway, simply make sure you are following my blog and leave a comment on this post.

If you would like more than one entry to the giveaway then..

-Sign up to my shops newsletter and leave a second comment [Sign up at the bottom of shops home page]

-Post about this giveaway on your blog and leave a link in the comment

Please note that winner will receive a email with the downloads for all the PDF files. You are welcome to enter wherever you are on the globe.

This giveaway will end on Sunday the 8th of May 2011 at 1.00pm GMT time. The winner will be selected by a random generator and I will publish a new post for the winner on Sunday.

Good luck!

Advanced Practical Life: Following Instructions

2011-04-30T22:01:00.000+01:00

I purchased a mini green house for the garden. This time I didn't build it, instead I left it up to Little-N to read the instructions and build the green house. Reading instructions and following them is an important skill that everyone needs to learn. Unfortunately I know too many adults that dismiss the instructions and go ahead assembling something. Usually they end up with a lot more work, if not a total disaster. Thankfully Little-N followed the instructions and did really well.

Twig Sculptures

2011-04-29T11:13:00.000+01:00

In order to make our climbing frame fit in the garden we had to cut down a few branches from a tree. I decided to keep the branches and allow the children a chance to play with them and see what they can create. Little-N and his cousin used elastic bands to hold the branches together and started creating vertical structures. They spent a lot of time working out where to put the branches so that the pressure on the structure will be just right. Having introduced Little-N to words like force and pressure, it was really nice to see him use the words in this contents.

Once the structure was complete, it stood for a whole day and the boys were very happy. The next day Little-N took it down and built another one.

Planting Vegetables

2011-04-27T21:51:00.000+01:00

Last year I was envious of my mother in-laws garden. Every time we visited her we had salad freshly picked from her garden. This year I am growing my own. Here are some pics of Little-N planting seeds.

First he filled the recycled tub with compost. [Can you see those little cat ears? totally cute]

Then he made to grooves in the compost and sprinkled the seeds.

Next he covered the seeds with compost and watered it.

And of course he wrote labels to make sure we know what's growing. The seeds will be kept in a mini green house until their ready to be moved to the soil.

So far we've planted:

-Lettuce

-Broccoli

-Cucumber

-Radish

-Aubergine

-Carrots

Little-N is 7

2011-04-26T12:10:00.000+01:00

Little-N turned 7 a few days a go. Seven is a special age. I'm really excited for the year ahead. He has matured so much lately and learning is on a completely different scale. His thoughts, character and personality are far beyond anything I could imagine my child to be. I'm so proud of him and person he is growing into but most of all I am so HONOURED to be his mother.

Thank you God for blessing me with this lovely child.

Swinging till his heart's content

2011-04-14T10:50:00.000+01:00

I always dreamt of buying a climbing frame with swings for Little-N, for along time I was just dreaming. Now that we moved into a house and have a proper garden I have the opportunity to make these dreams come true.

I decided to go for a wooden climbing frame so that it looks as natural as possible. I bought this climbing frame second hand for a fraction of the original price. It took ages to dismantle and rebuild and at one point we thought it wasn't going to fit in the garden. But with patience and perseverance we managed to build it and fit it in.

Now Little-N can enjoy a large slide.
Climbing a ladder
And swinging till his heart's content, all in the garden. He loves it. Every morning before we start in the classroom, Little-N goes for a swing in the garden and recites his prayers while swinging. So cute.

Primary Colours Activity 2 - Playdough

2011-04-12T10:28:00.000+01:00

As mentioned in my previous post the children have been learning about primary colours. Yesterday they made playdough in the three primary colours. They will be using this playdough later on for another colour wheel related activity. Here is a link to an old post that includes a playdough recipe.

Primary Colours Activity 1

2011-04-10T19:32:00.001+01:00

As part of our art curriculum I have started to present a series of activities based on the colour wheel. Here is the first activity: using colour box 1 the children were introduced to the three primary colours. This lesson was followed by drawing a primary colour triangle and labelling the colours.

The children then looked at the art work of Piet Mondrian and produced their own pieces of art using only the primary colours.

Trampoline

2011-04-06T19:30:00.000+01:00

*Just wanted to say and big THANK YOU to everyone who commented on my last post on literature for boys. I will be buying some of the books recommended and Little-N will be very happy.*

Little-N isn't very sporty or physical, he prefers to sit and read a book than to run about or play football. I recently bought him a big trampoline so that he can have some daily physical exercise [secretly I bought it for me!]. It's really funny to watch him, he really enjoys bouncing up and down with his long hair flopping about and that's about it, he's as stiff and wood. All the other boys who have had a try on it have done 'somersaults' 'seat drops' and many other fancy moves. Little-N however is proud of his bouncing and occasional bottom landing. Over the next few weeks I'll be adding more things to the garden so that Little-N and my other students can have a variety of physical activities to explore.

Literature for Boys

2011-04-03T22:37:00.000+01:00

Anyone who knows Little-N will know how he and his books are inseparable. He reads so much, almost too much. He will read when he wakes up, read when he goes to bed, read when eating, read when walking and any other opportunity. Once he was asked if he would like to try a friends trampoline, he got on and stood there reading all the warnings and notices, he didn't even try and jump!! He really makes me laugh. He has a huge selection of fiction and fact books, and he will happily read both. He has that balanced just right.

In the fiction section so far he has read most of Roald Dahl's books, all of the Chronicles of Narnia, the complete series of Little Nose, many animal tales and other library books. However I am finding it so difficult to find literature that I am happy with him reading. I want him to read stories with meanings, morals and something beneficial. I recently bought him a series of books by Michael Morpurgo however after getting a friend to proof read them I have decided not to give the books to Little-N. The stories are well written but don't convey they same morals or benefits that I would like become part of Little-N. Roald Dahl's literature is well written, however I was not happy with some of the language or ideas that came across from them. I have been searching everywhere for good books that I can happily give to Little-N to read without worrying. If you know of a good story or series of the books, please leave a comment and let me know, you'll make Little-N very happy!!!

Student Updates

2011-04-01T22:20:00.000+01:00

My recent move meant that I had to say goodbye to some of my students. Goodbye to students is always a hard thing, but over the years I have learnt to cope with it. My recent move also meant that I got to take on some new students, I'm surprised at how many home-educators there are in my locality and finding new students was quite easy.

My current class now consists of:

YN who is 8 years

SN who is 8 next month

Little-N who is 7 this month

A who is 6.5

IA who is 6 next month

IB who is 5.5

Not all students come everyday and at the moment I am only running my classes three days a week. Children come for a three hour work cycle plus 1/2 hour in the garden. All the children are already home-educated so they are taught at home on the days that they do not come. Even the children who come two days a week are progressing well.

Beyond Schooling

2011-03-28T22:58:00.000+01:00

I have been listening to this great series of lectures by John Taylor Gatto and Hamzah Yusuf Hanson about educating children. I have really found them beneficial and would advise everyone out there to listen to them. Here is a link to some of it on youtube.

New school opening

2011-03-25T22:08:00.000Z

A new Montessori school is opening up near my house and I have joined them as a Montessori consultant. The school aims to be an authentic Montessori school and I am really honoured to be part of the team. They will start with ages 3-6years and gradually build up to a primary school.

Sunday was our open day and this is the Montessori table that we had set up for the parents to get an idea of what materials we will have in the school.

Cats caught something interesting

2011-03-24T21:24:00.000Z

The other day my cats were acting strangely in the garden, it looked as if they were chasing a beetle or something. After a little while my cat Olly ran into the garden with something large hanging from his mouth. Initially I thought he'd caught a mouse. He dropped it on the floor and in front of him was a huge frog. He picked it up again and started to run away from me and the frog screamed!!! I managed to stop Olly and he dropped the frog. Before I could get there, we had a frog playing dead on the grass and 4 cats ready to pounce on it.

I managed to shoo the cats away and Little-N went looking for a box. We picked up the frog [using a spade] and it started hoping again. Little-N was delighted. We bought it indoors for safety and observation. Little-N looked up and found out that is was a British common frog, just like the frogs we raised last year, but this was much much much larger. We kept it for a few hours, in which Little-N decided to do a research paper on him. We later released him safely in a relatives garden [with a frog pond] far away from my cats.

Lots of weaving

2011-03-22T23:04:00.000Z

In my classroom I have taken away the early practical life activities and started to put more advanced work. I started the class with simple practical life activities for a reason you can read about in this post and this post. I no longer need the simple activities any more, but practical life is still equally important for older children. Over the next few weeks I will be adding many interesting advanced practical life activities, some indoors and some outdoors. I will try to post about as many as I can.

To start off, weaving has been a big hit with the boys. The first picture shows a circular weaving loom, I like this as it is short and simple so a child could maybe finish it in a day or two. This loom makes really cute weaved circles perfect for coasters. I bought mine for 20p but I am sure that you can easily make one at home.

This is a wooden weaving loom that I bought for £1 and its perfect. Really well made and simple to work with. One of the older boys [8yrs] sat and weaved for 30mins! We haven't completed a mat yet, so I am excited to see their faces once I take the mat of the loom.

You can easily make a loom and I blogged about the ones I made years ago here. These are nice because each child can have their own loom. Unfortunately only a few children actually finished their work, so we had many unfinished looms in the classroom. The wooden loom pictured above is for collective work, all children get to do a bit and when its finished we will use the mat in my classroom.

Years ago we also made felt weaved mats which the children took to display at home. The instructions for them are here.

Boys with long hair, what is the problem?

2011-03-20T16:52:00.000Z

I've been growing Little-Ns hair for most of his life. Occasionally I will give it a cut, not too short, but then I always leave it to grow again. He does have very unusual hair! It only looks neat if its very long or very short. I love it when its long, I love to play with it and curl it round my fingers. You may have noticed in his recent pictures that he is always wearing a hat, he does that for two reasons, one is that we are growing the front so that he can brush it to a side, and as it is still not long enough it gets in his eyes. A lot of people [family] have been commenting on his hair saying that he is now too old to have long hair. Some people have even said he looks like a GIRL!!!! I'm not sure whether I should cut it or continue growing it! He will be seven next month and I need to make a decision soon! What do you think?

Telling the time and free downloads

2011-03-18T21:16:00.000Z

The other day I put up a new analogue clock in the kitchen. All the other clocks around the house are digital. I asked Little-N to tell me the time and he couldn't!!! I was sort of shocked as he could tell them time very well more than a year ago and even though most of our clocks are digital he still sees analogue clocks around and about. I don't have all the Montessori clock materials in my new class [I had to leave those in the school I used to work in] so I quickly made some of my own materials to do with Little-N.

I did a quick hand made clock search and saw this great idea at The Homeschool Den. I decided to make my own version of it where Little-N can write the numbers. I have laminated it and he writes on it with a chinagraph pencil so that it can be reused. I also made a control version and a to and past time version. You can download them for free here.

I also made him these clock cards where he matches the times. At first he uses it with the control cards [at the top]. He can also use the handmade clock above to check his answers.

Next he uses the cards without the control as shown below.

And when he's finished he uses the control cards to check his answers.

I made these cards for o'clock times, quarter past times, half past times, quarter to times and minute times. You can get the o'clock cards for free here. The other cards are available for download here. I have made them with colour coding but left the separate words and clocks without colour coding so that all cards can be used together at the end of the lessons for a huge clock matching and sorting activity. I also made blank card for the children to write the time on or to use with digital cards.

Here is an old post for another activity that I did when helping children to understand how tell to the time.

Recording Temperature

2011-03-09T21:18:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who left me a comment on my last post, your support and encouragement is much appreciated. Now that my class is set up I can work on more projects with Little-N, here is our latest. I got Little-N a window thermometer and he is recording the temperatures throughout the day.

I made him this little chart to record the temperatures and we will use the information form it in later project. Using a thermometer has broadened Little-N's understanding of negative numbers.

My Classroom Has Been Moved

2011-03-07T12:01:00.000Z

Finally we have a classroom again. I didn't realise how many resources I had for my class until I moved! I had more than 14 large boxes packed with materials and it took hours and hours to unpack everything. I still have many other things that need sorting and plenty to print and make, but for now my classroom is functional. Here are some photos...

The shelves to the right of the picture are for mathematics materials, beside them is my home made bead cabinet and to the left of the photo is the sensorial and geometry shelf. I am reducing the sensorial materials and replacing them with geometry materials. Some of the sensorial materials are used again for 6-9 yrs geometry.

The shelf in the centre of the picture is for language materials, it contains the sandpaper letters, moveable alphabet, pink, blue and green series.

This shelf is the grammar and word study shelf, I still have to print many materials for it.

This is the science shelf.

Here is the geography shelf, it contains all the maps, continent boxes, globes, pin maps, and other geography related materials.

Here we have the library which is far too small to fit all our books in, so I have put the rest of our books in Little-N's room and we will rotate the books. Beside the library is the advanced practical life shelf, I am still adding materials to it. All the simple activities have now been removed as the children have mastered them.

I need to buy new tables and chairs that are larger than the ones in the photographs, but I am finding it very hard to find individual wood tables at a reasonable price. I may have to make them myself.

I wish my classroom was bigger so that we can have more shelves and more children. At the moment this size is suitable for 5-6 children but we will see how it goes once the children join.

Let me know what you think of my class.

Moving houses again

2011-02-13T20:47:00.001Z

I have just moved houses again. This is the sixth time I have moved in the last three years! Hopefully we will be staying in this new place long term. I will be setting up my classroom as usual and luckily I have a bigger room [although still quite small]. This new house is a lot bigger and also has more than one toilet, so the children will no longer be using our main bathroom. Those of you who haven't been to the U.K, houses here are tiny, more like rabbit hutches.

The new house is in a different part of London, there is a lot more demand for my class here. Many parents are homeschooling and I am expecting to take on more students.

I've managed to unpack most of the house things and hope to start setting up my classroom on Wednesday. Will post pictures soon.

The Learning Ark Montessori Materials Shop

2011-01-23T21:35:00.000Z

Finally after many years of making Montessori materials and years of waiting for my brother to make my website, I am happy to say that I now have a Montessori download material shop. The website isn't perfect yet and my brother has to finish the design and hopefully make it match my blog.

You can now buy my files from my online shop and I will be constantly adding new files. I am aiming to add at least one new file a week. You can sign up to the newsletter at the shop for updates.

I will still be making free files, but they will be moved and posted on my shop where they can be downloaded for free.

I will be preparing some discounts and giveaways for followers on this blog and those who sign up to my newsletter.

I have already added a free download to my shop, I have blogged about it here and you can download the file here.

My wish is that people who use my files will gain benefit from it and more importantly that the children/students will enjoy working with the materials. If you have any questions or problems with my shop feel free to email me thelearningark@gmail.com.

Working With The Sandpaper Letters

2011-01-23T21:02:00.000Z

A while ago I posted about the sandpaper letters and explained how one should introduce them to a child. There are many activities you can do along side the sandpaper letters to provide a child with further practice, here are a few that I do with my children and a free download:

1. Matching objects by beginning letters.

This is by far the favourite activity that children enjoy. The child takes a basket of carefully prepared objects and matches them to the correct letters.

If you have a class of children you can store the objects in drawers as in the photograph below. If your homeschooling you can simple prepare a basket for your child and change the objects regularly.

2. Sand tray: I have a post about it here.

3. Matching pictures by beginning letter. These cards are used in a similar way to the objects mentioned above. I have uploaded the file for these cards to my material store and can be downloaded for free from here.

4. Fill in the letter craft activity. This isn't strictly a Montessori activity, but I did use it in my class at one stage. The child can take a letter sheet and decorate or colour the inside of the letter. I found that parents liked to see this activity and some creative children enjoyed it.

5. Make your own letter book: I don't have a picture of this, but its a lovely activity. The child will go through a selection of carefully selected catalogues and choose pictures to cut out that begin with the letter they are learning. The child will then stick these letters in a book. The end product will be a 26paged letter book that contains many pictures for each letter. Some children like this, but only a few actually complete the a book with the whole alphabet.

There are many many activities you can do, if you have a good Montessori compatible activity that can be done while the child is learning with the sandpaper letters, blog about it and link back to this post [or leave a comment]. It will be lovely to see what other people are doing.

Long Multiplication With the Stamp Game

2011-01-22T10:20:00.000Z

I presented long multiplication with the stamp game to Little-N. There are many steps in this activity and I was worried that he would get confused, but he understood it so well and only needed one presentation.

Here is an outline of the steps:

Question: 105x12

At first he will get 12 green unit skittles and place down the side of the mat to represent the multiplier. He already knows how to do this from working with the stamp game with short multiplication.

He begins to put out the stamps to represent the multiplicand 105. He soon realises that it will take so long if he has to take out 105 12 times.

We discuss another way of making our multiplier 12 in skittles, he decides to use 1 blue ten skittle and 2 green unit skittles.

He begins to put out the stamps to represent the multiplicand 105. We talk about being fair to each skittle, if we give 1 unit skittle 5 unit stamps then we should give 1 ten skittle 5 ten stamps to be equal. Little-N got it straight away.

After all the stamps have been given out Little-N counts and changed where necessary to find the final answer.
His answer is correct. Now lets try a harder question. Little-N then worked with this independently on some much harder questions. I am so proud with the way that he handled this concept of long multiplication, it was like second nature. He later showed my husband how to do it and my husband was confused.

Lesson to be learnt, some of the later Montessori activities and materials will look very difficult and confusing to an adult, however a child who has gone through the Montessori education will be prepared in so many ways so that each new activity is easy to grasp and understand. Little-N understood this activity quickly because he worked with all the sensorial materials, practical life, mathematics materials, he worked through the golden beads and other activities with the stamp game, everything built his understanding of numbers and mathematics so that when he comes to learn harder concepts he is able to easily grasp them. Do not under estimate the power of a Montessori mind!!!

Bead Stair Extension Activity

2011-01-20T16:52:00.000Z

I made this activity for children to work with after being presented to the bead stair. For this activity you need:

-A mat

-A bead stair

-Correct number of beads matching the bead stair

-Pipe cleaners cut to different lengths

The child counts and builds the bead stair. He can then sort the pipe cleaners in order of length. The child will start with one, find one red bead and thread it on the first pipe cleaner. Next he will find two green beads and so on.

In the end the child has constructed a bead stair. This activity will provide the child with plenty of opportunity to count 1-10 and recognise the colour coding for each number.

I didn't have bead in the correct colours, so I painted mine and the children still love them.

The Learning Ark Montessori Materials Shop

2011-01-11T22:01:00.000Z

I've been very busy lately teaching, making materials and preparing my new shop which will be launched soon.

A Montessori shop in French

2011-01-09T20:12:00.000Z

A friend of mine has recently open a Montessori material shop which sells downloadable materials in French.

She has translated many of my documents to French and made some of her own files. Pop over to her shop and take a look.

La boutique de Family & Co

Free Downloads

2011-01-05T21:47:00.000Z

Someone notified me that the link to my free downloads is not working. I have linked to all my files here on this post. I will add to this list as I post new material. Please let me know if a link is not working or if there is an error on a file. Feel free to download and use these files but link back to my blog when you share them. Do not copy or sell these files.

Language

Dotted alphabet for tracing

Capital and lower case letter matching - post

Beginning Letter Matching Cards

Mathematics

Golden Beads Addition without Change Cards - Post

Practice with ten beads - Post

Geometry

Congruent Similar and Equivalent - Post

Triangle Cards - Post

Science

Organ Cards - post

Animal Question Cards - Post

Sun Game - Post

Geography

Land Water and Air Cards - Post

Animals and transport for Land Water and Air - Post

Compass Rose - Post

Country, City and Flag Sheet - Post

Same blog different design

2011-01-03T13:49:00.000Z

I have been playing around with the design of my blog to suit my new logo, I intended to use purple as my main background colour to suit my wardrobe but some of my followers have informed me that the purple is too strong hence I have chosen to side with the blue theme.

I may take a few days to decide what design to stick with. Comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Presentation of the Sandpaper Letters / Three period lesson

2010-12-30T10:09:00.000Z

Some of my homeschooling friends have been asking me about the presentation of the sandpaper letters. I had a look online for videos or instructions but I am not very happy with what I found out there. I can't find an accurate presentation and it's crucial that the sandpaper letters are used correctly. I am sure that there are some good instructions out there, but I just couldn't find them.

The Sandpaper letters are taught using the three period lesson. You can find information about the three period lesson here and here. It is very important as a teacher or homeschooler to master the three period lesson as it is such an important teaching tool and is use throughout the Montessori method in all the different areas.

Before you begin:

The sandpaper letters should be presented after the child has worked with the 'I spy game' this will insure that the child already has some understanding of the relationship between sounds and a word. To begin presenting the sandpaper letters you must choose 2-3 letters that look very different and sound very different. I usually take the first letter of the child's name and another very different letter. The teacher/mum must sit on the child's right and this activity should be done at a table as we are indirectly preparing the child for writing later on.

Depending on the child you may want to begin by saying something like ''Remember we enjoyed working with the I spy game finding which objects begin with the different sounds? I would like to show you how we write these sounds.''. You do not have to say this, but I find that this helps the child to better understand what the letter symbols are. The child already knows about sounds, they can produce them, hear them and isolate the sound in a word, the only new thing with the sandpaper letters is recognising the symbols and associating them with the sounds.

The First Period

In the first period we take one letter, feel it and say the sound. Usually I feel and say the sound 3-4 times and then invite the child to feel and say the sound. Since I do it 3-4 times the child usually follows my lead and says it 3-4 times. I then put this letter out of sight or turn it over and place it on the side of the table. I take the next letter and do the same feel and say the sound 3-4 times and then invite the child to feel and say the sound. I then remove this letter and do the same for the third.

It is very important that the child only has one letter in front of them. This is why I remove the letters or place them face down. In the first period we are isolating each letter and providing the sound for it. We are also feeling the letter, make sure you know the correct directions for feeling the letter. If the child feels the letter incorrectly do not directly correct, just feel and say the letter again. It will take time before the child will know how to feel the letters correctly.

The Second Period

Usually we start the second period straight after the first, however if the child is struggling or has lost interest leave it for another day. Place the three letters in front of the child naming them as we place them. Then ask the child ''Can you feel 's'?', then ''Can you feel 'a'?' and then 'Can you feel 'm'?'. Next you should change the command, I have written a small list of different commands that can be used with the three period lesson.

-Can you feel

-Can you point to

-Can you hold

-Can you give me

-Can you put '' on the table

-Can you put '' in the basket

-Can you put '' here

-Can you point and say ''

-Can you feel and say ''

Choose one command and do it for the three letters. i.e. Can you give me 's'? can you give me 'm'? can you give me 'a'?. Then choose another command and do the same. Continue until you are sure that the child knows the letters. In this period we are providing the child with the sound of the letters and allowing the child to associate the sound to the letter. We are NOT asking the child for the sound of a letter or asking the child to name the letter, all the child has to do for now is associate the sound and letter symbol.

If the child makes a mistake in this period...

I have said 'Can you feel 's'?'' and the child felt 'm' instead. I will simple say 'This is 'm' while pointing to 'm' and then say 'can you feel 's'?. This way I am not saying no or making the child feel that they have failed. I am also giving the child the sound for the letter they picked incorrectly and asking them to find the 's'.

You should continue with the second period until you are SURE the child knows the letters. This period is long. Make sure that you give the child plenty of opportunity to feel and say the sound [repeating after you] in this period.

My own style of ending the second period is to ask the child to feel and turn over each letter. This way no letters are showing so when I come to the third period I just turn over the letters...

The Third Period

Usually I start with this period by saying 'Do you think you can tell me what these letters are?' Point to a letter [or turn over a letter if you have placed them face down] and ask the child to name and feel it. If period one and two were done correctly the child should be able to do this no problem. Do the same for the second and third letter.

After the 3-period lesson

If the child was successful with recalling the sounds for the letters then the next step is to take one letter i.e 's' and ask what begins with 's'. Help the child to name some words that begin with 's' [snake, sun, strawberries]. Do the same for the other letters. Once you have done this the activity has finished.

I hope to write a few posts about activities that can be done after the sandpaper letters.

A few tips

-Always start with the first period even if you are returning to this activity.

-Make sure the child feels and says the letter sounds at the same time.

-Make sure the child is producing the letter sounds correctly. The letters should be said as 'mm' and not 'maa'.

-Each time you present this activity start by reviewing all the letters the child has taken previously and then do the three period lesson for the new letters. If the child forgot some letters do a three period with those letters. To review the letters simple point at the letter and ask the child if they can remember the sound for the letter and feel it. If the child can't remember then ask him to feel the letter. Feeling the letter will activate the child's kinaesthetic memory and may help the child remember the sound.

-A master Montessori teacher once told me that to make sure the child does succeed always start each new period with the letter that was last used in the previous period. This way the child has that letter sound fresh in their mind and will be able to recall it with ease.

You can use this description of the three period lesson to teach new language or concepts.

If you have any questions please ask me and I will answer it as soon as possible.

100 followers and literacy download

2010-12-09T12:23:00.000Z

I just noticed that my blog has 100 followers! I feel so honoured and I am glad that people may find a benefit in what I write and post.

To say thank you to all my followers I have uploaded files for two literacy activities.

The first is Capital and lower case letter matching cards.

These cards should be used once the child has completed the sandpaper letters and worked with the pink series material, but before the child is reading pink level sentences or books.

To make the material print all the pages and join all the lower case letters into a strip [I did mine with cellotape], I joined my letters in two rows so that the activity doesn't take up too much space.

To present the activity: Tell the child that the letters they have learnt with the sandpaper letters are small letters [or lower case], explain that we also have Capital letters that we must use in certain words. Lay out the lower case letter strips, give the child the capital letter cards, ask him to match the cards. If a child can not match a card then he should put that card at the back of the pack. Usually a child will be able to match 60% of the letters without any help. Once the child has completed matching, simply show the child where the other letters go. Repeat the activity until the child can match all letters. As a variation the child can also match the sandpaper letters or moveable alphabet to the capital letters.

The second download is a writing activity that isn't strictly Montessori but I had it in my classroom years ago and the children loved it.

In this activity the child has dotted letter cards on which they can trace the capital or lower case letters. In the photo above the child is using a board pen, however I do not advise the use of these pens and instead we use Chinagraph pencils [grease pencil] which works better for the activity. The children can use these cards after tracing the sandpaper letters and working with the sand tray. To make the file, print all the pages and cut into individual cards.

Numbers from 1-10

2010-12-02T17:38:00.001Z

When one of my students first joined in October he would count up to 10 but missed a few numbers here and there. He could recognise 1,2,3 and 5 and then just guessed at the other numbers. After 5 weeks and only 10 days of actually coming to my class he is now ready to move beyond 10. Here are some of the activities he worked with not all the pictures are of him working but he did complete each activity:

Large number rods and cards. That is Little-N when he was three!!! Oh I miss how small he was!

The spindle box

Number cards and counters: All counters should have been the same colour but unfortunately I only had these.

Small number rod and cards.

Sorting the beads, counting and then finding the number card.

Short bead stair matched with the number cards.

Sand tray for writing

2010-12-02T17:30:00.000Z

A younger student has been practising writing in the sand tray. Instead of sand I used salt and I think that it gives a cleaner look [perhaps because most of the furniture in my class is white]. This child does not yet like to write, colour, draw or use writing instruments. He really enjoyed writing in the salt tray and worked with this activity for a good 20mins going through every letter that he knew. It is important that the child feels the sandpaper letter correctly before tracing it in the salt/sand. When I present this activity I feel the sandpaper letter 3 times and then trace the letter in the sand/salt.

Practising times tables

2010-12-02T17:25:00.000Z

Little-N has been practising his times tables using the hundred board and transparent counters. This activity not only provides the opportunity for him to practice the tables but also allows him to visualise the patterns the each table creates.

Missing teeth!

2010-11-24T21:57:00.000Z

Little-N is loosing all his teeth!

Montessori I SPY sound game

2010-11-24T20:32:00.000Z

Before introducing your child to the sandpapers it is extremely important to work with the Montessori 'I spy game'. The 'I spy game' helps to make children aware of the different sounds in a word. The game is played at various different levels, level 1 is very concrete and the child will work through the levels until they are able to identify all the sounds in a given word. Here is a quick description of how to present this activity.

Level:1

Materials needed:

-A special box

-A few objects that start with clear sounds, make sure the child is familiar with the names of each object [for this example I have a dog]

-Mat for table

Presentation:

Take an object from the box and place it on the mat. Say 'I spy with my little eye something beginning with 'd' 'd''. Make sure that you say the sounds correctly, it should be short 'd' and not 'da'. Since there is only one object on the mat the child will be able to succeed and reply 'dog'. Reply 'I spy dog' and emphasis the 'd' in the word. Put the object back in the box and take another object, repeat the activity for the other object. You can continue this game with as many objects as the child needs. I've had children play this for 20min and more.

Do not move onto the next step until you notice that your child is becoming aware of the initial sound in each word. This may take days, weeks or months. Be patient and continue, change the objects and change the placement of the objects to keep it interesting.

Level:2

By now the child should have developed some awareness of the initial sound in a word. On the mat place two objects with contrasting initial sounds. Say to the child 'I spy with my little eye something on the mat beginning with 'mm' 'mm'. The child now has to choose between the two objects on the mat. If the child has mastered level 1 hopefully they are able to distinguish the sounds and choose the correct object. If the child chooses the wrong object, in this case the dog simply reply ''d' dog, I spy something beginning with 'mm''.

Continue working with two objects at a time. As the child succeeds at the activity gradually increase the number of objects.

Level 3: In this activity you use the environment [room, car, garden]. Choose a sound that represents more than one item in the environment, for example book, basket, ball. Say 'I spy with my little eye many things that begin with 'b'. Encourage the child to find as many objects as possible.

Once the child has mastered this step then they are ready to start the sandpaper letters. The I spy game doesn't end here, continue to work through the different levels, it is still very important that you do this as this will help your child to isolate each sound in a word and ensure that they will be able to successfully work with the pink series and moveable alphabet later on.

Level 4: Now we are focusing on the ending sound of a word. It is easier to limit you objects to three letter phonetic words like dog, cat, pot.

Place two objects on a mat that begin with the same letter but end in different letters for example peg and pin. Say, 'I spy with my little eye something on the mat that begins with 'p' and ends with 'g''. Usually the child will not get this first time, if the child chooses the pin say 'Yes pin begins with 'p' but I spy something the begins with 'p' and ends with 'g'. Lets listen the the ending sounds, p i n, p e g. Then repeat I spy....'g'.

Once the child has mastered this level they will be able to identify the beginning and ending sound of a word.

Level 5: Once level 4 is mastered play the 'I spy game' with the middle sound. This can be very difficult, make sure you have three letter phonetic objects and help the child to sound out the word.

Please note that during these activities you do not show or teach the letter symbols, this activity is an auditory activity and the child should focus on hearing the sounds in a word. If you do the letters at the same time then they child is likely to get confused.

Begin presenting the sandpaper letters after the child has mastered level 3, but do this as a separate presentation/activity.

Do not get frustrated and stressed if the child is not mastering any of the levels, you can continue with each level as long as the child is happy and interested. If the child is unhappy or uninterested it may be because the child is simply not ready. In that case the best thing you can do is put the activity away and try again in a few weeks. But do try it again as this activity is extremely important for many of the later activities in the language area.

If you have an older child who is having difficulty spelling phonetic words, work through this activity and increase the difficulty by having objects with similar sounds like 'b' 'p'.

Those of you who I am helping through your home-schooling journey, try level 1 and 2 and then report back to me on how the activities went!!

Pink tower and broad stair

2010-11-17T17:43:00.000Z

Here are some ways that Little-M built the pink tower with the broad stair.

New addition: Aslan

2010-11-17T13:10:00.000Z

Although I already have four of my own cats I could not resist having one of Annabel's kittens. I fell in love with this kitten: Aslan right from the beginning. He's grey, fluffy and so clever! There is something special about grey tabby cats, clever, affectionate, cute and funny. I was really worried about how my four other cats would react to a new addition, thankfully it all went well.

Tinkerbell [above] and Smittens [below] are Aslans sister and brother from the previous litter. Tinkerbell immediately took the role of a mother, cleaning him and teaching what to do. Smittens took the role of a big brother protecting him and playing with him. I didn't expect my cats to react to him in this way, as you can see from the pictures Aslan is very comfortable in my home.

He follows me round the house all day and sleeps besides me in bed at night. He is always climbing onto my lap where he manages to get under my top and falls asleep. And as I write this he is nibbling and licking my hand as if he knows this post is all about him!

Developing concentration, going back to the beginning

2010-11-12T10:50:00.000Z

As I mentioned in a previous post one of my newer pupils Little-M needed many activities to develop his concentration and coordination. Although Little-M is 5yrs, I decided that the best way to do this was to go all the way back to the beginning. I started by introducing the early practical life and sensorial materials. Yes that means that at 5 he worked with the pink tower and even spooning exercises. I took him through the activities at a quicker pace then one would working with a younger child. Here are pictures of some of the activities he worked with.

Working with these activities were very beneficial for him, his concentration increased, coordination developed and he learn the gentleness and precision that one must work with when doing an activity. Going through these simple activities also ensured that he doesn't have gaps in his learning and that he has developed a stable foundation to build upon.

Some parents may have view his work as unimportant or time wasting, however Little-Ms mum was fully supportive. Now that he has completed many of the early activities he can now move onto more complex tasks and benefit appropriately from them.

If your starting Montessori with an older child it is always a good idea to take the time to go all the way back to the beginning and work with the early activities no matter how simple they appear to you. It is also the indirect aims of each activity that we hope the child will acquire and these will ensure that your child does better in the later activities.

Studying the Earth

2010-11-10T19:09:00.000Z

This is the latest activity that I made for Little-N. With this activity he learnt about the different parts of the Earth.

To demonstrate this activity I made a globe from a plastic sphere container that came with Little-N's socks. I painted it from the inside, starting with the land and then covered it with blue for the ocean. I then made two holes at the north and south pole so that I can fit a skewer through it.

First I explained to Little-N that the earth spins but it doesn't just spin anyway, it spins on an axis. I explained that we can imagine this axis as a straight line going through the earth. We placed the skewer through the earth and Little-N span it towards the east. Next we covered the north pole and south pole.

I placed the skewer in foam so that it supports the Earth with a tilt and I explained to Little-N that the earth axis is tilted at 23.5 degrees. I then drew a line on the globe with a board pen at the equator and explained to Little-N that this is an imaginary line.We then looked at the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere.

Here are the cards that I made for Little-N to match. I have put them up for sale in my Lulu shop here.

On another day we revised the previous lessons and I went on to draw the lines of latitude and longitude on the globe. We also covered the major circles of latitude. This time I made the information cards differently, I wrote them as quiz cards so that Little-N had to use his understanding of this activity to match the cards.

Cards available here.

Land and water on a map

2010-11-05T17:13:00.000Z

After working with the land and water globe this student went on to do a simple activity where he first colours the land with a brown wax crayon and then paints the water on top.

Land water and Air: Animals and transport

2010-11-05T17:00:00.000Z

Transport by land water and air.

Animals from the land water and air.

After working with the land water and air activity I have created extension cards for the children to work with that focus on transportation and animals that are found in land water and air. I have uploaded the file so you can download them here.

Presentation of Day and Night

2010-11-05T16:54:00.000Z

A picture taken while presenting day and night to Little-N.

Home made Montessori bead cabinet

2010-11-05T16:44:00.000Z

I've finally finished making my bead cabinet. I used scrap wood that I took from an old chest of drawers. It is narrower than the usual cabinet and I have hung the short bead chains instead of lying them on the shelves. I am hoping to add another shelf at the top to house the bead cubes.

Kittens!

2010-10-27T12:07:00.000+01:00

The kittens are now 6 weeks!

Moveable Alphabet box -Origami

2010-10-27T10:44:00.000+01:00

These are boxes I made for my small moveable alphabet. I used two Ferrero Rocher boxes and made small individual origami boxes for each letter, a total of 25 for each box and I split one box for the 'i' and 'j'. Instructions for Origami boxes can be found here. What I really like about these boxes is that each letters box can come out individually, so sometimes we don't take the whole box to the mat but instead we just pick out the letters we need.

Land Water and Air

2010-10-25T15:24:00.000+01:00

I recently presented this activity to a new student, Little-N joined in he hasn't done this activity for years. I made the cards for this activity years ago and I am happy to share the cards with everyone, you can download them here. While searching for the cards I found a file that I wrote explaining the presentations for this activity. I have included the explanation of this activity below.

Presentation 1:

Materials:

-Tray

-Three jars colour coded (white(light blue)-air, blue-water, green-land)

-Spoon

-Jug

-Water

-Source of mud or sand

-A word card for each land water and air colour coded

Presentation:

Lay the materials on the tray as follows: land jar, spoon, water jar, jug and air jar.

Invite the child to work with you, introduce the activity and take it to a floor mat.

Remove the jars from the tray and place them on the mat in this order, Land, water and air.

Tell the child that the first jar (land) represents land and guide him/her to put some land in it (from the garden) using the spoon. Ask the child where we can find land on the earth.

Hold the second jar (water) and ask the child to get some water in the jug and pour in into the jar. Ask the child where we can find water on the earth.

Finally hold the third jar and ask the child to put some air in the jar. Show the child how to blow in the jar. Ask the child where we can find air on the earth.

Explain to the child that on the earth of three different things land, water and air.

Next help the child to match the word cards to the jars.

Presentation 2:

Materials:

-Tray

-Three jars colour coded (white(light blue)-air, blue-water, green-land)

-Spoon

-Jug

-Water

-Source of mud or sand

-Land water and air cards

-A word card for each land water and air colour coded

Presentation:

Follow the same presentation as above.

Insure the picture cards are shuffled, explain to the child that ‘I have some pictures or land, water and air’.

Show the child the first picture, ask him/her ‘ Is this picture of land water or air?’. Guide him/her to place it under the corresponding jar and label.

Do the same with the other picture cards.

Presentation 3:

Materials: Land water and air picture cards

Labels

Presentation:

Guide the child to read and place the labels across the top of the mat, in order land, water and air.

Ask the child to look at the pictures then place the cards under the corresponding labels.

Help the child to recognize the words on the labels by using the

three-period-lesson.

Plans for 3 year old Mu-Mu

2010-10-15T10:34:00.001+01:00

My nephew Mu-Mu is three years old and I have decided to find away in which I can incorporate him in my 6-9 years classroom. He has excellent fine motor skills, great memory, good concentration and an inner built desire for order. All these are essential skills needed if I am to bring him into my classroom. My plan is to meet him 3-4 times a week, each time for just an hour. At first he will come when there are no other children so that there are no distractions. I will present lessons in practical life, Sensorial and grace and courtesy. I will explain to him that the other materials [for 6-9] are for Little-N and older children and that he should not touch them, redirecting him to his activities. His activities will be stored on two shelves, practical life and sensorial. Once he has settled in the class and has become normalised I will have him come from 1.30-3.00 while the older children are having the afternoon work cycle. I will insure that there are suitable activities that he can do with them and Little-N is eager to present to him. He will continue attending the afternoon sessions until he is ready for the morning session.

I am not sure how long it will take him to get normalised, hopefully not long as he already has many characteristics of a Montessori child! It's really exciting for me to work with him and I do hope that all goes well. If all works then there maybe one more three year old that I may introduce to my classroom. Has anyone tried this before? Do you have any tips?

Classroom at home!

2010-10-14T16:10:00.001+01:00

I've lost count of the number of times I have set up a Montessori classroom! I thought it would get easier the more times I do this, but it's getting harder! I'm finding it hard to get motivated! Things are dragging on and I'm just so frustrated I want to get it finished! Frustration and motivation aside, I'm really happy that finally I've accomplished one of my dreams: I have a beautiful Montessori classroom in my home! I do feel really lucky. But I wish I can find the motivation to get it finished! There's so much left to do. So much!!! I want it to be perfect!

Over the summer my plans for teaching changed a lot. Firstly Big-S who is now 10yrs will no longer be attending. After many discussions, me and her mother felt it was best for her to go into regular school in order to prepare her for secondary school next year. She is now attending a private school and has settled in well enjoying the socialisation. I will miss her so much, however it is best for everyone this way. All the really advanced activities have been put away. The students I am left with are my son Little-N [6yrs] and his friend Little-S [6yrs] . Then two weeks ago we were joined by Little-M [5yrs], he's a wonderful, funny and cute boy. He needs a lot of sensorial and practical life activities to develop his concentration and focus, I had to rearrange the class to include some of these for him. Also my nephew Mu-Mu turned three and I decided that I must find away to include him in the classroom somehow [I'll post separately about my plans for Mu-Mu]. As you can see there have been big changes. My classroom now consists of 3 boys between the ages of 5-6yrs and we have a little 3yr old on the side.

Anyway here are some pictures and detailed posts will follow once I feel that I have perfected each area. The classroom is actually very small, somehow it looks bigger in the pictures!

The shelf to the right has practical life activities. The centre shelf is sensorial and shelves to the left are for mathematics.
The shelf to the left of this photo is the science section.

My map shelf which also contains the continent boxes and some folders containing geography related activities.

Oliver making sure he leaves cat fur on the maps.

This is the reading corner with non-fiction books to the left and fiction reading books to the right.

The shelves on the right are for literacy activities.

Mathematics shelves. I made a bead cabinet which is on the left of this photo but I will post about it separately.
Grammar shelf and the pink tower.

Many of the shelves are still empty!!! And I am not happy with the order of some of the materials. I will still be doing a lot of rearranging and material making over the next few weeks.

I'm eagerly awaiting everyones feedback on the classroom set up and any advice is welcomed. If you see anything that I can do better or have any neat ideas for arranging the materials then please do let me know!!

Annabel's Second Litter of Kittens

2010-09-24T16:20:00.001+01:00

Annabel has done it again. I'm so proud of her.

Animal kingdom Questions

2010-08-23T13:33:00.000+01:00

Recently I made these animal question cards to go with the animal kingdom classification work. I made a set for each group fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Each set contains ten questions that children need to research using books to find the answers. I made sure that all the answers could be found in the various books available in the classroom and I colour coded the cards so that the children would know what animal group to look for. Little-N especially loved this activity as he is very fond of all animals and he surprised me with already knowing many of the answers from his reading.

I'm not sure if this activity will be of interest to anyone, if it is you can download them here. The colour coding is Fish- green, amphibians- purple, reptiles-brown, birds-blue and mammals-red. Please make sure all the answers can be found in the resources you provide for the children so that they can find the answers without getting frustrated!

Pin Maps

2010-08-12T12:23:00.000+01:00

I decided that it would be too expensive to buy the Montessori Pin maps and I could better spend the money on something un-makeable. So I made my own. I noticed a few other blogs that had home made pin maps, but not exactly what I wanted. I spent a long time making these files that include flags, countries and cities for each continent [except Antarctica]. You can make your own or take the easier route and buy them from here. It takes a very long time to cut everything out and put all the pins in, but its well worth it. Little-N said that these maps are much better than the wooden ones he used to use. I think it's something to do with the colour coded pins.

Beyond 10

2010-08-10T14:10:00.001+01:00

When Little-S started with me in June he knew how to count to 100 in French but not in English. I decided to take him through the Montessori materials for counting beyond 10. Here is a list of the Montessori activities for learning to count beyond 10.

Teen beads: Child learns to count from 11-19 using the beads.

Seguin board A: Child learns the symbols for numbers from 11-19.

Seguin board A with beads: Child matches the quantities and symbols from 11-19.

Tens beads: Child learns the quantities 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90.
Seguin board B: Child learns the symbols for 10-90 using the tens board.

Seguin board B and beads 1: Matching the symbols 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90 to quantities.

Tens beads 2: Child counts through the beads starting with 1 and continues adding a unit bead and counting. When the child places 10 unit beads it should change it for a ten bar. Read more about this here.

Seguin Board B 2: counting through the symbols. Child counts from 10 to 99.

Seguin Board B and Beads 2: Child starts from ten and counts through the numbers all the way to 99. He makes each number on the board and matches the beads at the same time.

For further practice with the tens beads I made this activity. Download the file and read more about this here .

Hundred chain: Can be done counting in units or counting in tens. It provides the children with further practice in counting from 1-100 and also ensures that the child really understands the quantity of the hundred square used in golden beads exercises. Read more about it here.

Hundred board: Further practice with symbols from 1-100. Can be used in many ways to reinforce the understanding of numbers from 1-100.

Word Study: Suffix

2010-08-04T13:00:00.001+01:00

Big-S was learning about the suffix. Here are a few photos of the different activities we did.

Suffix activity 1: In this activity the child is introduced to the suffix. A truck and trailer are used to demonstrate to the child that the suffix itself has no meaning but when attached to a root word has a meaning, as with the trailer that can not move unless attached to the truck.

Big-S then wrote the words in her book and thought of some other words that have a suffix.

Suffix 2: In this activity the child has a set of root words that each have a matching suffix. The child matches the word cards then writes them in their book.

Suffix 3: The child is provided with a set of root words and only one suffix. The child must find all the root words that match with the suffix.

Suffix 4: The child is provided with one root word and a set of suffix cards. The child works through the suffix cards to find out which ones can be joined to the root word.

Big-S also made a suffix chain where you join a suffix to each root word and it creates a long chain. She also used a dictionary to find other words that can be joined to a specific suffix.

There are more activities that can be done, however Big-S lost interest in this and we moved on to studying antonyms.

Shaped Pancakes

2010-08-03T16:47:00.001+01:00

I love making pancakes for breakfast and I came across this nice idea on another blog. You make your usual pancake batter [I usually make thick pancakes] and place it in a squeezable bottle. You can then draw or write whatever you want with your pancakes. I surprised Little-N and my hubby with this the other morning and they were very happy.

Summer Break

2010-08-03T12:45:00.000+01:00

I'm taking a bit of a summer break from teaching. We will be moving homes in a couple of weeks and I have plenty of packing to do. The classroom is in the process of being packed and will be moved to the new flat. I'm hoping that it will work out better having the classroom in my own home rather than in my mothers. I'm excited about being able to work in the class at any time of the day, I have a long list of he materials I need to add to it. The new class will be a lot smaller, but I am hoping that I can work some magic with arranging the space so that it feels cosy instead of tight. I am also thinking of limiting the number of children that come each day to 4 [including Little-N]. I want the next school year to be easy so that I can spend more time preparing the class.

In my free time I plan to spend some quality time with Little-N, it's only now I realise that during the last school year I haven't given him half the time that I should have and I really do miss spending time with him without being in a hurry. I will be working on a few projects with him and hope to take him out more often. For myself, I hope to spend more time working on some art pieces that I would like to finish and I'd like to get back on track with exercising and healthy eating.

Thank you all for your comments on my last post. It made making a decision so much easier. I'm excited to get started on the 9-12 course!

What shall I do next

2010-07-27T10:23:00.000+01:00

Thank you for your comments on my last post.

I'm at this cross road where I am not sure which path to take. I have two options for my studies next year. Either I take the Montessori 9-12 training or I take a one year degree course and finish off with a Montessori Degree.

Jo asked me what options each course would give me at the end.

For the 9-12 course: Firstly I can extend my class to cover older children. I will also study the elementary materials at a greater depth. My original plan was to do the 9-12 course so that I can teach Little-N up to the age of 12. After completing it I will be Montessori trained from 0-12, however it's only the Montessorians who value this. My college has explained that they do not know if they will run the 9-12 again, so if I miss this course I may not get another chance to train near by.

Degree: The course will be heavily based on leadership and management from a Montessori perspective. At the end I will be qualified to run and manage a Montessori Nursery. The degree is focused on the ages 0-6 and doesn't have much to do with the age group I teach now. Also if I complete a degree I can get trained as a Montessori trainer and start to give courses. Having a degree has some advantages: Better paid job [which doesn't effect me as I am self employed], more respect and acknowledgement from parents and other professionals in the Education field. If I do not enrol on the degree this year, I can always do it in the future.

Jen: My heart is telling me to do the 9-12 and just focus on teaching.

What do you think?

I Passed!!!

2010-07-26T09:43:00.000+01:00

I received an unexpected letter the other day. I opened it up expecting it to be another bill or some junk mail. But too my surprise the letter read 'You have successfully passed your Foundation Degree'.

I'm so happy, the course took a lot of effort. I wrote many essays and read so many books. During the middle of the course I felt like giving up, I wanted my life back. Somehow I found the strength and I continued and now I feel really proud of myself.

This leaves me wondering what is should do next year. I have the opportunity to take the Montessori 9-12yrs course or I can take a BA Montessori course. Both will take one year of intense studying . However the BA course is heavily essay based, while the 9-12 course has a lot of practical work that I love.

So the choice is between having a BA in Montessori or Being trained up to the age of 12.

What would you do??

Blog Awards

2010-07-23T14:29:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to Montessori En El Hogar who passed these awards on to me. Her blog is amazing.

I also received the 'Versatile blog' award as well as the 'Outstanding blogger' award from Little Blossoms. Thank you so much

Three awards at once, WOW!! I am so glad that people enjoy reading my blog and find it beneficial.

The rules for awards are:

Give this award to 10 sweet bloggers.
- Make a post about the award including the picture and mention the person who gave it to you.
- Put the award on your blog.
- Let your nominated 10 know you’ve awarded them by leaving a comment on their blog.

For the Outstanding Blogger Award I must share 7 things about me. This is going to be tough.

1- I went to Montessori school as a child.

2- I have 4 cats. My cats are my other children.

3- I love Making Montessori materials, sometimes when I am stressed it's the best way to calm me.

4- I recently started painting again.

5- My favourite colour is purple.

6- I'm just about to move to a new home.

7- During the last year of studying I was too busy to exercise or eat healthy food, unfortunately I have put on a bit of weight. Now I'm on a diet and trying to loose the excess. I've promised myself I will keep dieting and exercising until I like what the scale says.

There are many blogs that I love reading. I'll try to pick those who don't already have the award.

Adventure of Rainbow Mama

Mondorfment

Montessori Spanish

What Did We Do All Day

Leptir

Beautiful Sun Montessori

A Bit Of This And A Bit Of That

No Pink Here

Little Blossoms I'm passing the sweet blog award to you!

Mi Escuelita Montessori

Enjoy!!!

Congruent, Similar and Equivalent

2010-07-23T13:52:00.000+01:00

I recently did this activity with Little-N and Big-S. I followed the presentation in the Geometry Album I downloaded from Cultivating Drama. We used plastic fractions that I purchased from Learning Resource. I wrote the meaning of each word on a card and drew one set of symbols. Little-N and Big-S drew their own set of symbols and used the fractions to understand the relationship between the shapes. When we finished I got them to draw shapes in their books and label them. The above book is Big-S's, her writing has come a long way and is now very neat :) as for Little-N I let him stick the definition cards in his book so that he didn't have to spend too much time writing them out. I hope one day his writing will improve.

I have made three part cards for this activity you can download them from here.

Compass Rose

2010-07-19T12:13:00.000+01:00

I saw this compass rose activity on Montessori en el hogar . I decided to make it as an individual activity so each child can make their own compass. The file for it is here. Little-N and Big-s loved it and they were really happy that they could take their compass home.

Pictures of our latest work

2010-07-09T11:24:00.000+01:00

I have had a busy few weeks, I finally finished my Montessori Foundation Degree and thought that I would have plenty of free time. However I was wrong, I discovered a pile of things that needed doing, things that I have neglected for the last six months. School has been great, it's calm with plenty of time for me to make materials as the children work. I have been adding materials to the classroom daily and will post about each section once it's completed. For now, here are some pictures of the work the children have done:

Language:

Little-s has been working through the blue series of reading materials. He can read and write in French and need to learn the differences when reading or writing in English.

Big-S has been working on the 'Suffix' this is presentation 1.

Suffix presentation 3.

Little-S working with the blue cards and moveable alphabet.

Big-S revising all the grammar symbols before we move onto the next part of speech.

Little-N cutting words into syllables.

Sensorial:

Little-S has mastered the binomial cube and is now working on the trinomial cube.

Big-S was making patterns using different triangles. She was looking at how different angles change the patterns.

Little-N completed the decanomial squares.

Cultural:

Big-S has complete a country research on Spain. I downloaded the sheet from Montessori En El Hogar and translated it into English.

Little-S and Little-N have been matching animals to their continents. I downloaded these cards from here.

Little-S has learnt all the continents and was able to match the cards.

Big-S has been enjoying science experiences using a kit that I bought from a car boot sale.

Mathematics and Geometry:

Little-N has been working on the 6 bead chain.

Little-S has been working with the tens beads counting from 1 -99.

Big-S is working on her multiplication tables and factors. Here she is working with the Pythagoras board.

Big-S has been working with angles, I copied this idea from this blog.

Here Big-S is matching numbers from the Pythagoras board to their relevant times tables.

Little-N is really enjoying the division board. He has worked with it so much over the last two weeks that he is now beginning to work out the hard answers without using the board.

Big-S has been practising on the division charts.

Big-S is still working on her sewing project.

Little-S working on the Tens board.

Finished Assignments

2010-06-29T00:22:00.000+01:00

I have just finished all my assignments and portfolio for my Montessori Degree course. I will be handing them in tomorrow morning. Hours, days, weeks and months have gone into completing this course. Wish me luck!

Baking Cinnamon Rolls

2010-06-19T23:16:00.000+01:00

On Monday the children made cinnamon rolls. Here are a few pictures of the activity. We used a bread machine to make the dough.

Art: Geometric Patterns

2010-06-19T23:06:00.000+01:00

Big-S did some wonderful work with geometric tiles. I bought these from here. They're transparent which seems to excite the children more. There are 15 shapes and they all fit together.

First she made her pattern from the tiles.

This is the pattern complete. It's beautiful :)

Next she used other tiles to trace her pattern onto paper.

She then covered her traced pattern with tracing paper and coloured in the tiles with felt-tip pens.

Her final piece of art!!! It was too good she had to take it home.

Activities of the week : June 2010

2010-06-19T22:36:00.000+01:00

Here are some pictures of this weeks work. My class has three children Big-S who is nine and a half, Little-N who is 6 and Little-S who is almost 6.

Little-S working with the plain binomial cube.

Big-S making patterns from geometric tiles.

Big-S learning the names of the counties of England and Wales. I got this map at a car boot sale for £1.50.

Little-S working with ten beads. Revising quantities till 90.

Little-S working with the Teen board and beads.

Little-N on a trip to science museum to visit 1001 inventions exhibition.

Children baked cinnamon rolls.

Little-N having lunch in the garden.

Little-N working with 6 bead chain.

Little-N building the Eiffel tower.

Little-S working with a tangram.

Little-N reading history books

Little-S working with continent map work.

Big-s cutting out hexagons and pentagons. More details in a separate post.

Big-S sewing hexagons together

Little-N's work with grammar symbols.

Little-N working on division board.

Big-S constructed a bucky ball, the kit is from here.

Big-s making a buggy kit.

This is why I LOVE car boot sales

2010-06-17T17:18:00.000+01:00

On the weekend I went to a local car boot sale and bought more that 80 excellent books for less than £18. I found a whole series of animal chapter reading books that are perfect for Little-N. And loads of history and science books. The library in my class is beginning to look very full and I will need to get a new shelf unit to house all the books.

Montessori Materials on the I-phone and use of computers

2010-06-15T11:41:00.000+01:00

I was checking out the Montessori Goldmine and saw this post. I to got the emails from Montessorium. I am against young children using computers. My father has an IT software company and we grew up with the latest computers and programs. I saw what it did to my younger brothers and our generation as we grew up addicted to looking at a screen and pushing buttons. I decided to keep Little-N away from it as much as possible.

If he needs to play a game, we play a board game, if he needs to write a letter he writes it by hand, if he needs to draw a picture he does it on paper and if he needs to research something he uses books, loads of books and he always get the information he needs. What would a computer or I-Pad offer him? I ask my self, what is missing from his life that a computer will give him. Now that he is 6 and I have kept him away for digital media, it is safe to say he has learnt to use all the real materials. No just use them, but enjoy them and they have become a part of him.

Even though I have kept him away from computers, he has surprised me by already knowing how to use a computer. He can switch it on, open a google and search for something. He can type if he talks to his dad. and he knows what everything is and for. He learnt that through observation as he sees me use my computer.

A Montessori teacher that I studied under [an 80yr old, who studied with a direct student of Montessori] often spoke about how she believed Montessori would be against the use of computers in the classroom. She said that when you weigh it up, it causes more harm that any good to a child especially when the child is young.

I can easily say that each child I taught who had problems in concentrating or learning watched to much TV or computer games. As soon as the parent agreed to cut down the TV and computer to only weekends the child changed. This doesn't mean that every child if badly effected, but it does effect them in some way or another.

For now Little-N wont be using a computer and TV is very limited. When he is older, probably 10 or more I will begin teaching him the use of a computer. Starting with the use of the Office applications and followed by using graphics programs. Until then, I am prepared to keep his environment rich enough to provide him with the correct materials he needs to learn and be happy.

Prefix

2010-06-12T21:04:00.000+01:00

My oldest child is learning about the 'prefix'. I downloaded the top matching cards from here. She then went on to make a prefix wheel.

THE LEARNING ARK

Wasp studies

Birds: Ornithologist to be?

Semi Precious Rocks

Update on Little-Ns education

Flower Arranging

Months of The Year

Washing Tables

The Start of a New Montessori School

Little-N's beanstalks

Times Tables

New Job

Sponsored Climb up Ben Nevis

Winner of Pink Series Giveaway

Montessori Pink Series & giveaway

Writing A Secret Code

Little-N has been reading...

Homeschooling How We Do It

Montessori Language Scheme

Matching Sandpaper Letters to Moveable Alphabet

Making materials

Geography maps giveaway winner

Lemon Detox Complete

Geography Maps and First Giveaway

Advanced Practical Life: Following Instructions

Twig Sculptures

Planting Vegetables

Little-N is 7

Swinging till his heart's content

Primary Colours Activity 2 - Playdough

Primary Colours Activity 1

Trampoline

Literature for Boys

Student Updates

Beyond Schooling

New school opening

Cats caught something interesting

Lots of weaving

Boys with long hair, what is the problem?

Telling the time and free downloads

Recording Temperature

My Classroom Has Been Moved

Moving houses again

The Learning Ark Montessori Materials Shop

Working With The Sandpaper Letters

Long Multiplication With the Stamp Game

Bead Stair Extension Activity

The Learning Ark Montessori Materials Shop

A Montessori shop in French

La boutique de Family & Co

Free Downloads

Same blog different design

Presentation of the Sandpaper Letters / Three period lesson

100 followers and literacy download

Numbers from 1-10

Sand tray for writing

Practising times tables

Missing teeth!

Montessori I SPY sound game

Pink tower and broad stair

New addition: Aslan

Developing concentration, going back to the beginning

Studying the Earth

Land and water on a map

Land water and Air: Animals and transport

Presentation of Day and Night

Home made Montessori bead cabinet

Kittens!

Moveable Alphabet box -Origami

Land Water and Air

Plans for 3 year old Mu-Mu

Classroom at home!

Annabel's Second Litter of Kittens

Animal kingdom Questions

Pin Maps

Beyond 10

Word Study: Suffix

Shaped Pancakes

Summer Break

What shall I do next