Montessori Kindergarten - A New Year Begins

This is it. I officially have a kindergartner! We are officially homeschoolers. For real now. I'm so excited for this year, and fortunately so is M. So here we go. Week 1 of KINDERGARTEN!

Planning

I created a new planner to use this year based on a sketch from a friend in one of my Montessori Facebook groups (MMS Montessori Material Making Club - Thanks Amanda!). The idea was sparked by a post on What DID We Do All Day? about Work Journals and Planning. The general idea she came up with was to plan out the next three lessons in each subject area to be prepared for whatever the child may choose to work on. Planning for Montessori homeschooling can be really challenging because you are following the child, and won't know in advance exactly what they will choose! I loved her idea, and with the input of a few other moms, we created a "Montessori Planner" (click to download) that I think will be perfect to meet our needs.


First, I jotted down some notes on the overview sheet for the month. I noted her current interests, topics for books I needed to get from the library, reading I needed to do (including albums to review), and any field trips we had planned. I also chose three goals for the month. Since this is our first month, two of the goals have to do with scheduling and organization, and the third goal is to work on handwriting, since that is one area I know M needs some work.

Next, I have a 2-page spread for weekly planning. There is a row for each subject area with three columns for the next three presentations I want to have available. At the end is a table to list the materials I need to make and supplies I need to buy in order to prepare for all of the presentations.

I don't expect (or want!) M to do everything on these pages in one week. At the end of the week, I can transfer the presentations she did NOT do to the following week's sheet, and fill in any blanks with new presentations to prep. The goal is to stay a few steps ahead of where she currently is, so when she is ready to move on the materials are there and I am prepared to give the presentations. This will also help to focus my material-making endeavors to ensure that I'm spending my time (and money) on projects that are needed in the near future.

Reality

So how did it all turn out?

Day 1 - Monday

M was so excited for her first day of "school!" (I had talked it up that she was going to be officially starting kindergarten. The day really wasn't much different from our normal schedule, haha.) We started a little later than I would have liked (10:30) because I still haven't figured out how to get M started while H (the 12 month old) is awake. (That's one of the goals for this month...) As soon as H was down for nap, we jumped right in with a reading lesson. We've been using the Dwyer Method (see this WDWDAD post for details), and The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (affiliate link). M is working on long vowel sounds, so we did a "scavenger hunt" with command cards. I wrote clues on the cards for her to read, then she would stick the note where ever the card said to go. For example, one card said "Place this card on the spot where you bake." All of the cards used long a vowel sounds spelled in different ways (a-e, ai, ei, ay).

Next, we did a review of the Base 10 presentations on quantity and symbols for 1, 10, 100, and 1,000. We did the quantities and symbols separately, then matched them (quantity to symbol and symbol to quantity).

When we finished working with the golden beads, M decided to pull out her magnet kit, and worked independently for a while. She searched her room for magnetic objects, experimented with the north and south poles of the different magnets in her kit, and tested the strength of different magnets.

After H woke up from her nap, M asked to go to the zoo. We spent the afternoon talking about animals, then finally wrapped up with a trip to the library to grab our books for the next couple of weeks.

Day 2 - Tuesday

The Montessori co-op I help run started summer programs this week, so we used our "camp" days as the work period on those days. The first summer session is "Nature Explorers." We started the morning by making nature journals (we did the staple and tape method, and wrote directly on the paper bags rather than gluing the printed journal pages). The kids had a blast decorating their journals, then collecting leaves outside to sketch or do leaf rubbings. The "secret pockets" in the journal were perfect for holding leaves to do rubbings, or to save any treasures they found outside. M consulted the leaf chart to identify the shapes and margins of the leaves she found.

They took a break to prepare snack (slicing strawberries and balling watermelon, as well as setting the table and pouring drinks).

After snack, we did a presentation on needs of plants, then the kids did a little role-play game where they pretended to give the plant everything it needed. M was the first "seed" and sat in the "soil" in the middle while one child pretended to be the sun, another pretended to be rain, and the rest twirled around as carbon dioxide molecules. When she had everything she needed, M stood and stretched her arms as she "grew." The kids thought this was so much fun and repeated it over and over so they could play different roles!

Next, one of the girls talked about a tick that had gotten on her while playing in the woods last weekend. Her parents had removed the tick and put it in a plastic bag. All of the kids were able to look at the tick (now dead!), and view it under the microscope. I had a book from the library about ticks too, so we read a few sections while we compared the pictures in the book to the specimen.

We wrapped up by planting seeds in our mini egg carton gardens. M chose zinnias, peppers, stevia, lavender, and squash. Hopefully we'll be able to transfer them into the ground after they sprout!

After camp, we grabbed a small travel aquarium and drove out to our new property. The neighborhood has a large pond on the edge of a 500-acre nature and hunting preserve. H was asleep in her car seat, so I parked the car in the shade with the windows down, and M and I kicked off our shoes and waded in the water to catch some tadpoles and minnows. M had an absolute blast playing in the water! We caught a couple of small bullfrogs and one froglet.

 

M got a little reading practice in before bed by reading two BOB books, one that she chose, and one that focused on long a vowel sounds from Set 5 (affiliate link).

Day 3 - Wednesday

H had a doctor's appointment in the morning, so this was another odd day. We had some errands to run after the doctor, and I knew we needed to pick up some worms for co-op, so I decided to skip the regular work period and spend the day out of the house. M really wanted to go back to the pond, so we drove back out to spend some more time tadpole hunting. We also collected jars of sand, rocks, sticks, and plants that we could use to build a habitat for the frogs.

We spent the evening researching tadpole and frog habitats. We used the sand, rocks and plants that we had collected, as well as a couple of small clear containers filled with pond water, to create a nice space for the frogs, froglets, and tadpoles.

Day 4 - Thursday

The second day of "Nature Explorers" camp was all about critters! I set out the frogs and tadpoles, painted lady caterpillars, mealworms, and earthworms for the kids to observe. We read a story about larvae and talked about the life cycles of caterpillars and mealworms. Next, we split the kids into two smaller groups for more observations. M started in the earthworm group. She and her friends sketched the earthworms, measured their length, talked about where they live and what they eat, and observed how they used different body parts.

She wasn't interested in touching the worms (she doesn't really like getting her hands dirty), but she wrote notes about the worms as she watched.

It says, "Stretches and stay in dirt all the time. They like the dark."

After snack, she assembled a frog nomenclature book (from Montessori Print Shop). I read the text pages, and she found the matching pictures. We also did a presentation on vertebrates and invertebrates, and the kids helped to sort a set of animal miniatures and picture cards.

Finally, we went outside to make a habitat for the worms. We talked about what living things need (food, air, water). I poked holes in the top section of a 2-liter soda bottle. The kids all worked together to put a layer of rocks at the bottom of the bottle, then alternated pouring sand and dirt through the funnel to fill the bottle about half way. The poured some water to moisten the sand and dirt, then searched for "worm food" (dead leaves, roots, etc) to add before putting the worms in their new home.

When we got home, I suggested that M spend some time working on handwriting. She writes a LOT, but doesn't form all of her letters correctly (like drawing "s" backwards) and prefers to use capital letters rather than lower case. I recently bought her several composition journals (similar to these - affiliate link). I grabbed her box of sandpaper letters, and we sat down at the table together with one of the journals. I traced the letter "a" and then wrote several a's on the first line. She traced the sandpaper "a" and then traced my a's in the journal. She filled the rest of the line with more a's.

She decided that she wanted to teach me to write, so she proceeded to follow that same format (trace the SPL, draw a few sample letters in the journal, ask me to trace the sample letters, then draw the letters to fill the line). She enjoys playing the role of teacher, so I played along and she filled three full journal pages with different letters!

As she wrote, we played a version of "I Spy" where she thought of words that contained the letter she was writing (at the beginning, end or middle of the word).

She rounded out the day by reading a bedtime story to her little sister, and then reading one of the longer BOB books to me.

Day 5 - Friday

We didn't do a Montessori work period on Friday, but it was still a successful school day. We drove up to Asheville to visit my parents and help sort boxes in their attic in preparation for their move. We listened to Classical Conversations history songs on YouTube for most of the hour long drive. We have never actually participated in CC, but our friends have and the kids all seem to love it. It's not a program that I would personally enroll in, but I have to admit that the songs are quite catchy! M is obsessed with them, and has all of the Cycle 3 history songs memorized. (Weeks 1-12, Weeks 13-24)

We also had a discussion about world religions. Car rides always seem to be the time when M comes up with some of her most interesting questions...

While I sorted boxes, M got in her PE for the week. She and my parents took a walk (approximately a mile) down the trail in their neighborhood. When they got back, she rode a trike around the driveway, and then played catch for about 30 minutes. Needless to say, she slept for most of the drive home!

Successes and Challenges

Successes this week - 

• Being flexible and willing to follow M's interests (like going out to the pond twice to catch frogs)
• Allowing M to be in charge and do things her way (like with handwriting); not stepping in and requiring it to be done my way
• Having the right materials prepared - frog nomenclature book, parts of an earthworm cards, vertebrate/invertebrate classification, handwriting journal, SPLs, golden beads, etc.

Challenges this week - 

• Not having a dedicated work period. I need to find a system that allows M to have a dedicated 3-hour work period at least 3 times per week without distractions from H.
• Disorganized work space. We're in the middle of moving, so things are pretty crazy. I need to carve out an area for M's shelves to keep her materials organized and easy to access.
• Not taking advantage of materials at co-op. Several of our Montessori materials are being stored at another family's house (where we currently hold co-op), and are therefore only available during co-op time. I need to encourage M to use the materials during the time, rather than doing work that we have available at home. I might experiment with developing a work plan for co-op time...

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

Around the World

Our family loves to travel. M loves looking at pictures of different places around the world, and she has become more interested in airplanes ever since my husband started working toward his pilot's license. I also wanted to work with M more on letters and letter sounds. It all seemed to fall together perfectly to plan an "Around the World" version of a letter-of-the-week curriculum. As I started brainstorming, I decided that I didn't have enough topics to make it all the way through the alphabet. I'll take a break around the time our new baby is born, and we'll wrap up the alphabet with an "All About Me" theme. Some of the letters are a bit of a stretch (so many "A" continents!), but here's the preliminary plan:

Intro - Basic Geography and Maps

Letter A - Africa (extra Egypt activities)

Letter B - Biomes

Letter C - Continents

Letter D - Desert

Letter E - Europe (extra Ireland / St. Patrick's Day activities)

Letter F - Flags

Letter G - Grassland

Letter H - Habitat

Letter I - Ice (Antarctica)

Letter J - Japan and Asia

Letter K - Kangaroos in Australia

Letter L - Lakes

Letter M - Mountains

Letter N - North America

Letter O - Oceans

Letter P - People of the World (Diversity and Cultures)

Letter Q - Queens and Royalty

Letter R - Rainforest

Letter S - South America

Letter T - Tundra

*NOTE: I will update this post with links for each theme as we go. I will not be going in alphabetical order. I am trying to group the themes by category (all of the continents first, followed by biomes). I'm trying to roughly follow a similar order that Montessori schools would use to present letters, but it won't be exact. You can see more detail on how Montessori programs introduce letters here. M is already familiar with most of her letters, so I'm not overly concerned with the order we go in.

Each day we'll do some basic activities to prepare for the day (look at the calendar, check the weather, etc.). The week's activities will be based on the theme of the week and the letter of the week. I will be using mostly Montessori-inspired activities, including assembling continent boxes. I'm only planning on about 2 hours max of planned activities, and then supplementing with play time and field trips. I'm also going to start using "workboxes" that I'll fill with quiet activities that M can work on independently. I'm hoping that I can get her in the habit of being able to amuse herself for short periods in preparation for the new baby.

I hope you'll join us on our journey!

Simplify Preschool

 
I haven't really been doing much in the way of preschool for the past couple of months. I don't know if it was the holidays or other things going on in our family (probably a combination of both), but we sort of took a break from all of the planning and themes and prepared activities.

I'm working on a flexible half-day schedule that we will start in January. We're having a lot of fun right now, but I think we both (as well as our house) would benefit from a little more of a schedule. I'm trying to keep it simple, but it's easy to get caught up in the hype. It seems to happen a lot these days - browsing pictures on Facebook, looking at impossibly perfect decorations on Pinterest, reading posts by bloggers who make it all look so easy. It makes you feel like you have to do it all. Like you have something to prove.

Still, it doesn't have to be that hard.

I'm going to do a series of posts this week about simplifying preschool. I'm going to use pictures from the past couple of months during which time I have done virtually no planning. I'll post pictures for a different subject each day.

Monday - Practical Life
Tuesday - Sensorial
Wednesday - Language
Thursday - Mathematics


Even though I do want to get back into a bit of a more regular schedule, it helps to remember that M is learning regardless of what I do! I hope this reminds you to relax and simplify things with your preschooler too. Enjoy this time with them!


Linking Up With:

Tot School Gathering Place
Homeschool Creations Preschool & Kindergarten Community
Tuesday Tots
Hip Homeschool Hop

One Step Back

Things were going really smoothly… until they weren’t. Looking back, I know exactly how I messed up. I broke my own golden rule – I stopped listening to my child! So I went MIA for a few weeks to sort things out and get back on track.

Things were going so well when I listened to M. When she wanted to play and splash in the water, and we had a blast with our water unit. I listened to M when she wanted to know more about dinosaurs, bones, outer space… and we had so much fun! And then I stopped listening. Why? Because I got ahead of myself. I wanted to form a co-op so M would have a group of kids her age to get together with on a regular basis to do fun learning activities. But I got so caught up in planning for the group that I forgot that the success we had had so far was due to my planning in response to M’s interests. 

It’s not that we didn’t have fun. We did – we did some fall themed activities, learned about farms, and played with pumpkins. But M was showing less and less interest in the activities that I was creating. She seemed bored and barely touched most of it. 

I had a huge “DUH” moment when we were sitting on the couch together watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (M’s favorite show). We watched the Goofy Babysitter episode, during which Professor VonDrake’s time machine turned Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Donald into babies, and Goofy had to take care of them until Professor VonDrake could fix the machine. 

At the end of the show, M asked to watch it again. We started it from the beginning and watched the exact same episode again. 

Then, M collected her stuffed animal friends and proceeded to make a nursery in her playroom so she could babysit them. She carried her old Bumbo seat and tray over to her play kitchen to create a high chair, used a basket and towel to make a crib, laid down her work mat to create a play area, and asked to go upstairs to find some of her old newborn cloth diapers to make a changing table. She played babysitter for the rest of the afternoon. She read stories to the babies, found a rattle to make them laugh, carried Minnie in her doll ring sling, changed diapers, fed the babies, and put them down for naps. 

DUH – LISTEN TO THE CHILD!

She wasn’t interested in the transfer activities I created for the past few weeks, but she poured marbles (“ice cubes”) back and forth between the cup in the “freezer” and the baby bottle. She wasn’t interested in using the tweezers or her magnifying glass, but she carefully fastened and unfastened the Velcro diapers, and asked me to teach her which way to twist the lid on the baby bottle to open and close it. 

I have to say, it really made me stop and look at what we’ve been doing. Just because a bunch of activities are linked together by a common theme doesn’t mean that they are necessarily meaningful activities. It's the initial interest in the topic that made our other themes successful.

I realized a couple of things – First, I can’t plan as far in advance as I would really like. Sure, it’s convenient for me to be able to look for ideas in advance, but I can’t realistically predict what M will be interested in 3-6 months from now. Second, I need to focus on what’s right for us and not worry about what’s right for anyone else. If we do what’s right for us, we’ll attract the kind of people who are on that same path. If it seems too hard, maybe it just isn’t meant to work out.

So we took a step back. We're regrouping, setting goals, figuring which way to go from here, and getting ready to start up again. I hope you'll stick with us! :)

Montessori Planning

One of my favorite parts of teaching was lesson planning. I know, I'm a weirdo. But there's just something so nice about having a plan, even if you know it won't all work out the way you expect!

I always used a paper lesson plan book. I never found an online system that worked for me - I liked to be able to carry my lesson plan book with me to meetings, and be able to look at it and update it while finding activities or updating other documents on my computer.

When I stared putting together unit plans for M, I created an Excel spreadsheet so I could put links for activities right onto the document. Just like when I was teaching, it just didn't work for me. I didn't like flipping back and forth between the spreadsheet and the websites I was looking at... it just wasn't quite right. I wanted a paper version.

I was really excited when I found the Comprehensive Unit Planner from Dynamic Homeschool Plus. I love the concept map she has for brainstorming ideas to go with the unit theme! However, it didn't fit my needs exactly, so after trying it out for a week, I figured out what wasn't quite right, and created my own planning sheets that matched exactly what I wanted.

Cover

Monthly Planning Page

 Monthly Calendar Pages

 Weekly Planning Pages by Subject

Here's how I use them 

Print the sheets

I didn't want to plan too far into the future (I plan the units based on M's interests, and interests change), so I started with 11 themes that will take us through Christmas. I printed the sheets double-sided so I can see two pages at once. The first spread has the brainstorming sheet from the Comprehensive Unit Planner on the left and "Weekly Set-up and Trays" sheet on the right. The next spread has the "Weekly Calendar" on the left and the "Weekly Schedule" on the right. The first spread is more broad planning, and the second spread is more specific planning. You could type directly onto the sheets and then print, but I prefer to print blank copies and fill them in with pencil so I can easily change them.

Choose the themes

I chose the themes by thinking about M's interests, as well as any major holidays or events during the time period I'm planning for. I chose Bones, Fairy Tales / Princesses, Transportation, Gardening and Farms, Nutrition and Cooking, Halloween, Construction, Birds, Family, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Put the themes in an order that makes sense

I printed a monthly calendar and added the themes. I started with anything that corresponded with a holiday - Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I added the Fairy Tale/Princess theme the week of M's birthday to get her excited for her princess-themed party, the Transportation Unit the week we were flying up to NJ to visit family, and the Construction Unit the week that the cranes are scheduled at my husband's job site. Finally, I added the rest of the units in an order that seemed to make sense: Gardening and Farms leads to Cooking and Nutrition. A week about Family before Thanksgiving, etc.

Brainstorm

I like to come up with some of my own ideas before searching online. For each unit, I used the concept mapping sheet to jot down any ideas I already had, keeping in mind books and materials we have on hand. I created a Pinterest Board for each of the themes so I could easily pin ideas as I saw them.

Choose the best ideas

This is the hardest part!! I have a tendency to go overboard, and Pinterest certainly doesn't help with that! I specifically created my planning sheet with a limited number of spaces for trays to limit the number of ideas I try each week. I choose my favorite theme-specific idea for each Montessori subject (practical life, sensorial, etc.), then pick another generic activity for that subject - either something I already have or something really easy to prepare. I have one "extra" space if I really can't narrow down the ideas and want to try one more!

Make the Set-up list

It may seem funny that I complete the bottom of the page before the top of the page, but I like having my "shopping list" and "to-do list" at the top for easy reference. I go through each of the activities I have chosen and figure out what I need to purchase, print or make for each activity. When my list is completely done, I transfer the shopping list to the Out of Milk app on my phone to take to the store.

Plan the Week

The second spread is pretty quick and easy for me. I fill in the Weekly Calendar with any playdates or events we already have scheduled (a quick look on Meetup and Facebook Events). If we don't have much going on, I'll check Upstate Parent for any upcoming events. I plan our "school" time around the other weekly events, so if I find something cool to do in the morning, we'll plan to do our Montessori activities in the afternoon, or vice versa.

The last sheet helps me make sure I have hit all of the main areas during the week. On Mondays I introduce a Language activity, Sensorial on Tuesday, Practical Life on Wednesday, Math on Thursday, and Art on Friday. Most of the trays are out for the whole week, but I will choose one activity to "feature" that day (although that doesn't necessarily mean that M will actually choose to do that activity). I also try to plan at least a couple of themed snacks.

During the 1st Circle Time we look at the calendar and pull items from the "Mystery Bag." I rotate the items in the bag so there is something new every day, usually related to the "featured" activity for that day to get her excited about that activity.

The 2nd Circle Time is either reading or music. I have started making felt board objects to go along with the stories we are reading (this was one of her favorite activities when she was in daycare), and I get a couple of CDs from the library each week to change up the music we listen to.


I have completely planned two units using these sheets, and have done at least a little brainstorming for each of the other units. So far it seems to be working well for me! I hope this is useful for some other people too!

Finding our Rhythm

It's Back to School time!!! One of my favorite times of the year! Store shelves lined with school supplies on sale, freshly sharpened colored pencils, clean new binders - I love it! But.... I'm not going back to school this year. I am completely secure in my decision to not go back to school and to stay home with my daughter, but it is just a little bittersweet at this time of year. As a planner, this was my favorite time as a teacher - the new blank lesson plan book, seating charts, stacks of colored papers to send home with new students, the only time my classroom would ever look organized for the rest of the year....

It's this time of year when I usually get myself back into a schedule, but this year, we were still on vacation in Florida with absolutely no schedule at all. The lack of schedule didn't both me all summer, but for some reason all of those Back to School posts on Facebook left me feeling very disorganized and scattered.

One of the huge benefits of staying home and homeschooling is that I can be flexible, so I know I don't want to set some rigid schedule for us to follow. Several good blogs - An Everyday Story, Creekside Learning, Simple Homeschool - have good posts about finding a rhythm for homeschooling. The idea of a "rhythm" really appeals to me - it doesn't sound rigid, but it sets enough structure that you kind of know what to expect. It allows room for flexibility, but there's a jumping off point, a plan.

I bought the Homeschool eBook Omnibus that is featured on Confessions of a Homeschooler (quick! Today - 8/25/13 - is the last day to download it!). It has tons of great eBooks on lot of different subjects, but I was really excited about the planning materials. Tina from New Bee Homeschooler has an amazing collection of printables to make a custom Unit Study Planner. I love that the pages have flow charts to help plan out ideas for units, and then tables to narrow down subtopics, list activities, materials, books and websites related to the unit. The pdf is editable, so you can type right onto the page and print, or print blank copies (like I did) to fill in by hand. (I use pencil - like I always did in my lesson planners as a teacher - so I can go back and edit whenever I need to.) The pages are so cute too! I swear I'm not getting some kind of kickback from this, I'm just really excited!

Last night I printed off calendar sheets for September through December, along with several sets of the unit planning sheets. I started by adding in holidays and planned trips, then filled in some ideas for units I think would be interesting to M and would make sense for the fall season (vegetable gardening, farms, birds, construction, family, nutrition, weather, transportation, Christmas).

I'll be back to update when I have made some more progress. For now, I'm just excited to be on the path to finding our rhythm!