 |
| A Montessori Day |
The first post seems to be the hardest. Learning Tree Academy was created for my 2 sons and the sometimes education of 3 other kiddos. The saying about the apple falling from the tree was not lost on me, yet, I could never know how true it would be until my first son was born.
We made the decision to home school our son, Minnow, before he was born. He's almost 4 now. It could be argued that it was in the works even before our marriage. I've been a fan of home school for as long as I can remember.
I had the traditional public school education because that's what my parents knew and understood. They always did the best they could by my sister and I, but as my mom says to this day, "we had no idea, nobody did that back in our day." A child got around 6 and you sent them packing every day to the school. I don't blame them, but I resented and loathed just about every minute of my institutionalized education. Over the years I vowed I'd explore every avenue and give my children the best education I could find, make, or get them. So, when I was pregnant with my son Minnow, I went into overdrive. I planned half of his education while he was in utero.
Then, Minnow was born. He was a needy baby and became a needy, high energy, but exceptionally bright, toddler. I started teaching him at about 14 months. At the time I did a lot of activities with him and we drew and played and learned. At almost 4 he knows a great many things. The thing he can't do is muster self control in almost any form. We've been working on it for his whole life, but he struggles incessantly with other people, his will, and the general unfairness of the world around him.
I started looking for a way to boost concentration, independence, and general self control. I found Maria Montessori, Well, not actually her, but her method. That lands us at today. I now have my almost 4 year old Minnow, and just turned 1 year Po. We also have 3 other kids with us half time from my husband's previous marriage. They are 13, 9, and 7. They are forced to attend public school, but we get to have our fun on evenings, weekends, and the off holidays. More on that in another post. Probably more than one.
We started Montessori activity/work inspired learning and living about a month ago. In that time and more every day, I see a sense of pride in Minnow. He has the ability to do the things he wants and likes to be able to do things for himself. He's starting to like learning even when a computer isn't involved. Not every issue becomes an event. We aren't at the place I'd like to be, but every day brings us one step closer. This blog is our journey.
This is Minnow in his work area right after I got it, It isn't very Montessori, but it was workable for a few days.
Minnow's work area with lego tens/ones placement, salt letters, rice pouring, color matching, upper/lowercase alphabet sorting, a sponge squeezing activity, a magnetic ball tracker, and an art basket.
This is Po's area. He has matching animals to cards, foam blocks, thread spools and dowel, flower arrangement, self care area, stacking, pulling beads apart, bean bag toss, rainbow stacking/nesting and some cloth and cardboard books. On the left side is his musical instrument area and on the right is his napping bed downstairs.
It took me almost 2 weeks to get to this point. I'm trying to implement the philosophy as well, but it's harder to change than I thought. So far, things are getting better, and I'm excited for what's ahead of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment