Phonic Reading Books

A while ago I did a search online for phonic reading books. I wanted to find something that went well with the Montessori reading series [Pink, blue, green]. It took me a while to find the information I was looking for. Here are a few suitable reading books I found:

• Song Bird Phonics [Oxford reading tree]. I brought these, they're okay but get boring. Some of the pics are nice but others are not. The stories are not that interesting. However there are three levels and it works okay with the Montessori reading series. You can buy these from amazon.


• Jelly and Bean: I haven't actually brought these books yet, but I have seen them used in Montessori schools and most teachers said the books are good and interesting. I like the pictures! You can buy these from http://www.jellyandbean.co.uk/


• Bob Books: Some people liked these others said that the stories were boring! You can look through some books on their web site http://www.bobbooks.com/


• The Phonic Farm books: We use these at school, the pictures are lovely and the characters are repeated. The series matches well with the Montessori materials and are colour coded pink, blue and green as with Montessori materials. You can buy them from amazon or http://www.phonic-books.co.uk/index_files/Page362.htm


• The Montessori Reading program: This is an old series of books written to go with the Montessori pink, blue, green series. However I cant find any links for them. We have them at school but I prefer the Phonic farm Series. Here is the ISBN if anyone is interested in finding them 0948496177.

I actually prefer to give the new reader a one page story with just one picture. It may sound boring, but I find it helps the child to focus on the words and develop their own imagination. I have made some for Little-N and he likes them. If you would like to see one of the stories I wrote click on this link http://www.box.net/shared/94b4qc68g8

Advanced Life Skills [Practical Life]

In a Montessori 6-9 years class, the practical life area serves a different purpose from that of an Early Childhood Class. The children are already independent and already know how to use most tools. The activities are not focused on developing the child's co-ordination or Independence but rather focused on enhancing the child's skills. The area is therefore re-named as the 'Advanced life skills'.
In the Advanced Life Skills area, the child will have the chance to develop and perfect many essential life skills that they will need to be good citizens of the world. The activities are laid out differently, there are no longer shelves with trays but instead instruction manuals that the children can read. The children have to gather the materials they need to carry out the activity. Also the teacher no longer presents the activities, but instead the child will follow step-by-step written instructions and only ask the teacher if s/he needs assistance.
The Advanced life skills area is divided as follows:

• Care of Environment [ for example: Changing water in a fish tank, weeding, cleaning a cupboard, making recycled paper]
• Grace, Courtesy and citizenship [for example: table manners, dealing with feelings, writing a postcard, making a thank you call]
• Care of self, health and hygiene [ for example: Hand washing clothes, making a salad, dealing with a fire, changing laces on trainers]
• Manual dexterity, design and construction skills [for example: Making photo frames, creating a story book, making a money box, knitting a scarf, tying a knot, packing a suitcase]

There are many activities that the child will work through and master throughout the next three years. Unfortunately I haven't set up my 6-9 class yet so i cant take pictures, I plan to set it up over the summer holiday. When its ready, I'll post some pics. I have made some Advanced Life skills instruction pages, but I cant post them until they have been marked by college.

Why Montessori for school aged children?

As I have mentioned before Montessori Education has always been in my life since I went to a montessori nursery as a child. As an adult I choose montessori as my career for many reasons as well as my strong belief that it is the way to facilitate children's learning. I wont go into my whys for Montessori, but instead whys for Montessori for school aged children.

I have been an Montessori teacher for the 2.5 - 6 yr olds since 2002. I have worked in the UK and in Egypt. I also used Montessori to homeschool Little-N and to give private lessons to various other children I knew. The children learn so much when using the montessori materials and as a parent/ teacher you know that through the materials every child will be laying down a solid foundation on which to base further knowledge. In the normal scenario your child will do very well working with the materials up to the age of 5 - 6 and then go to school and redo all the lovely learning you have already taught them. Its extremely frustrating for the child and a waste. In the UK we don't have many good Montessori schools that go up to the age of 12 and as Little-N is growing I feel the need to I further my training so that I can facilitate for his and other children's educational needs all the way up.

Recently I mapped the 5 year olds in my class to the Reception National curriculum, I found that all of them have completed the national curriculum and gone beyond it. Not Just the 5 year olds, but some of my 4 year olds who are due to start reception in September have already completed the curriculum. Its sad, to know that these children will spend a whole school year, re-learning what they already know. Imagine, a child who can read spending weeks and weeks learning letter sounds!! Or a child who can do addition learning 1, 2 ,3. Its a waste and its not fair for the child. So why? Why put your child through that when instead you can give your child the chance to reach their full potential?

Here are two online videos about Montessori for 6- 12 age, watch them and you will know what i am talking about.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RTpAILazPnM
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GGFYVRSWokg

In a normal school children are taught. In a Montessori school children learn!!

Funky Florals

Today has been an extremely busy day. I had college and on my way there the underground line was suspended and I had to change 3-4 times to get to London Bridge Station to catch the train to college. It took more than two hours to get there, exhausting!

This is our third session on the primary course [elementary if your from the US] we just finished the 'Great Lessons'. I'm hoping to post a summary of the lessons with a few links that I found online. But I can't do that tonight!

Little-N has been crafty most of the day and on my return surprised me with a lovely butterfly he made from muffin cases and white sticky labels. Apparently he made and designed it all by himself and it really did look like a butterfly. He said that the muffin cases were the butterflies skeleton!

For some reason my phone keeps switching off, I had it for two years and I guess it needs to rest. I was finding it tough to choose a new phone [I love my old one :( ] but today I fell inlove with this:

Its a Sony ericsson S500i. The floral print is real cute and the size and weight is just right for me. The only problem is that I'm used to Nokia Phones and now I'll have to reprogram my brain. Even the box was cute and it made me feel all special.

Keeping your child busy on a weekend: Cutting

I would like to share some ways in which I keep Little-N busy on the weekends or holidays. I'll try my best to post new ideas on a regular basis. To start off its important to choose the right toys or activities for your child. Most of little-N's toys are creative ones where he can build, make or create new things, each time he plays he is doing something new. He gets bored from the straight forward games where he can't go beyond its purpose. Here is a list of toys that Little-N has:

• Building blocks: this is by far the best toy you can give a child, he builds and constructs amazing things. When he gets bored I asking him to build me things, like build me a boat, make a crocodile. Once your child is pretty good at building things you can give them pictures of real buildings and ask them to reconstruct them.


• Play dough: Its easy to make at home [1 cup of flour, 1/2 salt, a few drops of oil, water] I add a few drops of an essential oil to keep it exciting and use food colourings so that he has different smells and colours to play with.Give your child some utensils to explore the dough with like a fork, rolling pin. Scissors are little-N's favourite, he rolls the play dough then chops and chops and chops.


• Lego: Its not very Montessori, but it is very creative and can keep a child busy for hours. I have a little booklet that has pictures of things you can make with the lego. Sometimes Little-N would work through the booklet making things and other times he would reconstruct things that he sees around him. The other day he made a crane that he saw on our way to school.


• A craft box: which should contain all sorts of bits and bobs for them to cut, stick, shape and make.


• Animals: Little-N has always had pleasure playing with animals. He has different sets, farm animals, wild animals, insects etc. I prefer to keep them separated and he can play with them together but then sorts them into the categories. He has a set of wooden animals that go with his wooden ark. He loves to pair the animals, stand them up and make up stories. He got his first set before he was 1 yr, now he is 4 yrs and he still loves playing with them.


• Dolls house: Boys love them too believe it or not! A dolls house gives children hours of fun especially when a friend is over. It is also great for expanding the child vocabulary and developing their understanding of the world around them.

That's the basics. Usually I would ask Little-N to choose what he would like to play with and leave him too it. He has a little mat the he puts on the floor so that all the lego [or blocks or whatever it is he is playing with] stays on the mat. This makes the tidying up a lot easier for him as well as reducing the spread of toys all over the house. He knows that he must tidy up before taking another thing out, but we still need to work on that.

Cutting

This weekend Little-N has been busy with a pair of scissors. He has been cutting all sorts of things. Children love to cut different materials and textures. Sometimes I give Little-N cutting strips with drawn lines for him to cut on, he then puts all the cut pieces in a box and saves them for his gluing activities. Other times all he wants to do is just snip away. Keep a few bits and bobs in a box and give it to your child so s/he can cut them [ like odd bits of fabrics, sweet wrappers, pipe cleaners, strings, elastic bands, balloons, old socks, crisp bags]. Little-N will sit for hours working through the materials. Today I gave him an old magazine [ Early learning centre is a good one] and he cut out the picture of the things he liked.

Little-N cutting out pictures from a magazine.

Little-N gluing the pictures on a piece of paper.

Labeling the picture

If your child is learning letters get them to glue the pictures under the corresponding letters. If your child can read, type out words and get them to label the pictures. For children who can write ask them to label the pictures themselves. If your child is really good with writing then get them to write a story using all the pictures they have cut. Little-N has been cutting things since 10 am and is still cutting away 7 hours later [with a few brakes in the middle]. Mean while I have been working on school reports and preparing for college tomorrow.

Parts of the tree

One of my children at school has been working with the botany cabinet. After using the puzzles and working with the terminology cards, I asked him to collect things from the garden and make a tree. He collected lots of bark and many different leaves, then glued them on his paper to form a tree.

Placing the bark to form the trunk and branches.

Sticking on the leaves.

His own tree!! I think its so cute, he was really happy with his work!

Knitting a Bolero

Im knitting this:
From this:
I love the wool, full of different shades of blue. I don't usually knit myself things, I tend to knit for Little-N and enjoy watching him wear my work. It will take me ages to finish since I have 10000 things to do other than knit.

The pattern is free from Lion Brand at this link http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/60353A.html?noImages=

but u do have to register!