Okay, humor me for a minute and imagine I have a giant-sized burlap sack. It is over-flowing with exactly 7 billion unique flower seeds. You pick just one. You take it home, pot it in a little pot, set it on a windowsill, and water it. What is there left to do? Just to sit …
I haven’t posted for a few days, because of Easter, but also because I’ve spent a long time putting this particular post together. (This will probably be my longest post ever. You’ve been warned.) Most of the people who stumble upon this website are homeschooling. Why do you homeschool? Leave a comment and share away. …
A key ingredient to Montessori philosophy is the use of natural materials in the child’s environment, and what is more “natural” than a garden! Fall is the season I am always most grateful to be homeschooling, because we can spend so many lovely hours outside, immersed in “God’s textbook”. I remember one day last fall …
Here’s a post about freedom of choice. The antithesis of Montessori is to sit a child down at a desk and hand them a stack of assignments, tell them the order in which to do the work, and make them sit there until it’s all done. (Though wouldn’t that be so easy!) In Montessori theory, …
Every home-school is unique; this is as it should be. Every child and every family is unique. And each new school-year brings changes. Adjustments. Tweaks. Personally, I have found that the years when I was pregnant (read: sick as a dog) and post-partum (read: sleep-deprived to insanity) our schoolwork was less organized, possibly to the …
So, you’re interested in presenting the world to your children using Montessori methods, and you want to have an album at home to guide you step-by-step. With the help of some other Montessori moms, we’re going to attempt to compile a comprehensive list of English-language Montessori albums available for purchase, as well as online teacher …
One of the positive contributions of the internet is the spreading of Montessori educational philosophy. For nearly the first century of the existence of Montessori, the ideas were spread from person-to-person in training which involved years of lecture, reading, and observation in a Montessori school. The trainings were held in cities few and far between, …
When our oldest child was about 12 months old, we started teaching him sign language. I don’t remember why. But I remember how absolutely stunned I was the first time he signed something he wanted me to give him, and how thrilled he was that I understood him. I remember the day he was sitting …
By age 5 or 6, most children are able to learn to draw. If you grew up thinking “I just can’t draw”, then your early teachers did you a disservice. Unless impeded by a disability, all children can learn to draw well. True, some are gifted with incredible natural talent and inspiration, like Akiane, who …
For Catholics who are using a classical approach in their homeschool (such as Classical Conversations,) I have created a catechesis supplement for memory work. Memorization is not the heart of catechesis. The Christian faith is primarily a relationship, not a bundle of memorized facts. Faith formation takes place over time, gradually, in many different ways. …
In planning for the upcoming school-year, I took the plunge and decided to try 3 new language programs. I intend to use them consistently and completely, but if we don’t love them, we won’t use them the following year. From what we’ve dipped into so far, I’m confident these will be a good fit for …
It’s true, I’m a music-lover. The Scriptures are full of references to music. My attitude is strongly affected by music in the air. My husband has an amazing singing voice and plays guitar; I play piano and a little guitar and violin. We didn’t read Mother Goose to our toddlers, we sang Mother Goose, making …
Last summer, some voracious caterpillars were eating all of our dill. Eventually I gave up squashing relocating them, and we brought a few inside to observe and study. We learned that they were black swallowtail caterpillars, and watched to see if they would form a chrysalis. I was very skeptical, until it happened: One caterpillar …
Save 50% Now – no promo code needed! Do you have young children? Are you thinking about homeschooling? Are you interested in using Montessori ideas at home? If so, you may be interested in a newly-available Montessori curriculum organizer. I aim to provide plentiful food for thought and discussion here at this site as …
I can’t believe I haven’t yet posted on painting. I have so many pictures of my kids painting, it’s going to be hard to decide which ones to add to this post. My pre-schooler was starting to annoy her older siblings today, so I asked her if she wanted to paint, which she did happily …
As soon as your toddler begins drawing those adorable pictures with crayons or your pre-schooler learns to write “to mom” on every picture he draws, you start to wonder: what do I keep, and what can I sneak into the trashcan recycling bin? And how do I keep the “keepers” from taking over my drawers …
I first learned about Janusz Korczak a couple years ago, when I purchased the little book about him called Loving Every Child: Wisdom for Parents. (You can preview this, and several other books about him, at the Google book site here.) When is the proper time for a child to start walking? When she does. …
You can “do Montessori” without purchasing actual Montessori materials. The philosophy of how you interact with your children is much more important than the materials you provide them. Once you learn about the materials specific to the Montessori method, however, I can almost guarantee that you’ll desire to experiment with them (according to your budget!) …
Using Classical Conversations as a curriculum spine, like we do, helps us organize many different subject areas. The “meat and potatoes” subjects are history, science, geography, English, Latin, and math. In addition, there are science experiments for each week, and I’ve already mentioned that we supplement all of these topics with great books for independent …
*I have another post about using Montessori math at home here. I often say it: if they are awake, children are learning. Maybe they are learning new facts, or new bad habits, or new computer games, or new eating experiences as they eat the peas straight from the garden. Just because it is summer, my …
A few years ago, I stumbled upon an offer by Karen Tyler, an AMS-trained Montessori teacher with 30 years of experience, to provide online teacher training and album building for a reasonable fee. I jumped at the chance, and enjoyed not only being able to ask her any questions I had that came up, but …
Do you have all your ducks in a row? I have one of those artistic mother-in-laws who considers the invention of digital photography an utter God-send, enabling her to snap away at every scene that intrigues her (like the geese above), without having to worry about the costs of developing the film! I love looking …
I’ve been wanting to give an introduction to the Classical Conversations program that we use in our home school. I love Montessori theory, and I love making great books available to my children and reading to them, but I am also a type-A “check-list” person who wants to make sure I’m not forgetting to cover …
I want to continue summarizing the basics of how we have taught our children to read. This is the second of 2 long posts. In Part One, I described how we teach them the basic 26 letter sounds, using Montessori ideas, when they are 3 years old. Once these sounds are familiar, the child is …
I’ve already mentioned that the initial Montessori presentations given to a child (around age 3) are called “practical life” activities. One of the favorite PL activities is pouring. Toddlers and pre-schoolers love to pour. By indulging this joy, we are also providing the young child with the means to improve gross and fine motor skills, to …
One of the ways that mothering and Montessori has changed me is that I’m learning to try to see the world from the perspective of the child better. I attempted to do this this evening at 9:00 as I stood in the Walmart check-out line behind a chubby I’m-guessing-2-year-old. While her mother and grandmother unloaded …
In this post, I’d like to give a brief over-view of what it means to provide your child with “practical life” activities at home. As time goes on, I hope to post much more on this topic in detail. As you probably know, Montessori schools divide their classrooms according to age, and put children ages …
I’ve been wanting to share some basic information about Montessori “3-Part-Cards.” Perhaps you are already familiar with these, and you have a good collection of them, and you’ve figured out a great way to organize and store them. If that’s the case, please leave me a comment below and share your wisdom! If this language …
If there was an affordable, well-run, Montessori school close to our house, I would send my kids there in a heart-beat. There isn’t. I realize that the teachers in the Montessori schools have undergone lengthy training, but the bottom line is that Montessori is not rocket-science. It’s much more of an art, and any mom …
I’ve mentioned before that I divide our homeschool year into “CC” weeks (24 per year) and “off” weeks (all the rest.) During CC weeks, we use the comprehensive learning outlines from the Classical Conversations program. I introduce the new material on Monday, and throughout the week we attempt to understand it well, using a variety …
Welcome to the “Great Books For History” category! If you asked every history professor in the world to come up with a list of “important” historical events to learn about, each professor would come up with a different list! Below you will find a long list of general history topics – it doesn’t include everything, … Continue reading
I had the privilege of studying at Cambridge for a summer while I was a college student. Not once, but twice a day, they served us tea. With cookies. It was a ritual I never missed; I needed the pick-me-up and loved the cookies. (Amazing how little I chose to sleep before I had children! … Continue reading
What is important for children to learn? Isn’t that the question at the heart of education? Home-schooling parents shoulder the burden of deciding what is, indeed, important. No one can learn everything. There is no such thing as a “complete” education, and my favorite analogy for education is that it is like crafting a rope … Continue reading
If you want to be amazed, read a young child a book, and then ask them questions about it! It still surprises me how much a young child can recall from only hearing a story once. Home is an ideal place for facilitating reading comprehension activities, because they are best done in a one-on-one setting. … Continue reading
Journal Entry of Aug. 1, 2011: Well, “school” started today, and it was a wonderful day. For about an hour this morning I had 3 attentive boys in one of our classrooms, doing group time and Classical Conversations together, then doing their workbaskets individually or with mom. (Little sister happily got to watch Sesame Street … Continue reading
Regular readers have noticed that I haven’t posted any new content on this site for several months. I have known for a few years now that big changes were in store for our family, and I knew that God was preparing my heart for them. This summer, the changes came pouring down! For starters, we … Continue reading
As I finalize my preparations for the upcoming school-year, one activity I have better organized and prepared is our “Song of the Week.” I am planning around all 40 weeks of the upcoming school-year, and I have chosen a song for each week and gathered either a songbook or sheetmusic for each piece. We sing … Continue reading
Our summer has been so full I haven’t made time for posting here much. I believe in taking breaks! And it’s okay because I’ve been doing some major re-organizing of our home and some major planning (and purchasing!) for the upcoming school year, and I can’t wait to share some of the gems I’ve found. … Continue reading
My husband & I share the goal of helping our children to develop skills which might help them in the future. The trick, of course, is to try to guess what the future might be like for them. I sometimes think about worst-case-scenarios where my children grow up needing to know how to hunt, build … Continue reading
This school-year we have been focusing on world history from creation through the fall of Rome, using Classical Conversations Cycle 1. Included in these studies were, of course, the ever-interesting ancient Egyptian civilizations. Continuing with my theme of random topics this month, I have been wanting to share a couple of our favorite resources for … Continue reading
Hello, friends! It has been so long since I’ve been able to post here. I have several things I want to share soon, but I want to start with one, quick, enjoyable recommendation: the book (and included CD) called Can You Hear It? by William Lach: I have spent several mornings this semester sitting on … Continue reading
We have been “officially” homeschooling for 6 years, and every day has been unique. Every day the children are one day older and desire to learn more. I have an “ideal” start to our week-day mornings carefully considered and planned; but if the children have engaged themselves in interesting work before I have put my … Continue reading
(Here’s a re-post from last year. The gluten-free Lent was a great learning experience for me, but we aren’t repeating it this year!) ————————————– It’s Ash Wednesday, and it’s my favorite day of the year. 🙂 I went to the early, non-obligatory Mass this morning, kiddos in tow, to walk up that aisle, receive my … Continue reading
The truth is, unless you have a lot of spare time and you love making crafts, attempting to replicate Montessori materials from scratch is probably something I wouldn’t recommend. I have experimented with making my own Montessori materials many times over the past 8 years, with a few successes and many more wasted hours and … Continue reading
Spelling City.com is a website with free registration that lets you type in a list of spelling words, save them, and provide fun practice or testing for your child. I’ve played around with it today and have been quite impressed. I think it will be a great occasional supplement for my 1st & 3rd graders, … Continue reading
The “Grace & Courtesy” portion of a Montessori education is possibly my favorite component. With older children, it turns into “intentional character education” and “finishing” school, but with the younger crowd (3-6) the focus is on learning acceptable social behavior in an enjoyable manner. Children do a lot of things that are irritating to adults. … Continue reading
Sharing today another “toy” idea that we have enjoyed over the years – Kapla blocks. I have witnessed people age 2 to 64 using these blocks with enjoyment. They are as simple as a block can get – plain, light-weight rectangular prisms. The company takes pride in making the planks as uniform as possible. We … Continue reading
I love Montessori math materials. There’s too much to say and too many images for just one post, so I’ll start by sharing what it can look like to use Montessori math materials in your home with your children. Math processes are abstract. Pi times radius squared. Median, mode, and range. At what age can … Continue reading
Have you ever made a home-making notebook? We use 3-ring-binders extensively to organize our schoolwork, and binders can also help organize your life, too. I have been asked to publish some printable worksheets to accompany the The Montessori Homeschool Curriculum Organizer, and I am happy to report that I have the first version available – … Continue reading
I enjoyed a few days unplugged for Christmas, …but then the time away from the computer was lengthened by a swift-moving flu bug that found its way into our lives. Blessedly, the children were mostly better by the time it hit me. Here’s a fact I don’t casually offer up often: on winter days when … Continue reading
Today I’d like to recommend a brand new book titled: If Aristotle’s Kid Had an iPod: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Parents. Isn’t that a great cover image??!! The book has 222 pages, but I flew through it this past week, because author Conor Gallagher’s style in this philosophical book is conversational rather than academic. Gallagher has … Continue reading
Here’s a sample list of places in the Middle East: Africa Alexandria Arabian Desert Asia Minor Athens Babylon Baghdad Black Sea Caspian Sea Crete Cyprus Dead Sea East Desert (in Egypt) Ephesus Euphrates River Greece Hattusa / Turkey Israel Jordan River Judah Lower Egypt Mediterranean Sea Mesopotamia Nile Delta Nile River Persian Gulf Phoenicia Red … Continue reading
A post today about our workbaskets (now called Table Time.) I’ve mentioned already that I think ideally children should be free to choose their own schoolwork from among many great options, but that in order to prepare my children for eventually entering public school, I do choose some of their work for them. Sue Patrick … Continue reading
Today I want to introduce you to a company called Holy Heroes which produces and sells materials to help “bring the joy of the Catholic faith” to children. They have a variety of recorded CD’s with biographies of saints and songs which could be listened to in the car or at bedtime. On the website … Continue reading
Planning meals for my family has been infinitely more difficult than planning for my children’s education this year. I know my kids, I know how they learn, and we’ve acquired enough books and supplies for a small army here. 🙂 The education-planning part has gotten easy for me. Yet, no matter how many books on … Continue reading
Here’s another resource for FREE and reasonably priced Montessori materials! TeachersPayTeachers.com is just like it sounds like, a website where you can buy materials from other teachers and homeschooling parents. It would also be a great place to list materials that you’ve made to use or sell. CNN recently had an interview with a teacher … Continue reading
Today I’d like to share some free, hand-drawn sound pattern pages. If you have checked into handwriting programs for early elementary students, you’ve probably noticed that there are different styles of teaching handwriting, and different ways to write each letter. I have used Italic Handwriting Series (linked below) for a few years now, and I … Continue reading
I’ve posted previously about the Montessori primary (ages 3-6) online training program available from World Wide Montessori. Today I’d like to share information about a Montessori elementary (ages 6-12) online training program called Keys of the Universe. You can sign up for a single subject or the entire elementary curriculum, and receive both the albums … Continue reading
My oldest son has been raving about an online math game for middle-school students called Ko’s Journey. I’ll be honest, I probably wouldn’t have purchased his subscription if it hadn’t been on sale. Through the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op you can get the same deal I got through the end of September. Instead of the regular … Continue reading
We are just about to begin a new school year, and our history spine will be Classical Conversations Cycle 1. For every topic we discuss, we will try to memorize a sentence (spoken or sung), write the sentence and add it to a history binder, jot the event down in our Book of Centuries, and … Continue reading
Helping Children Learn 