Summer Break

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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.