...so little time!
I have missed this blog and I have missed all of you!
I have so many things to write about that it feels like climbing a mountain to catch everyone up, so I'll just try to hit the important parts and then (hopefully) fill in the details later.
Miss C and her two boys continue to come faithfully on Monday and Wednesday mornings, and her 4yo continues to be my star student (he chooses his work, diligently completes it, and puts it away - oh, if only my 5yo and 3yo would work so well!!).
We attend our homeschool co-op on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Through the co-op, we've met another family with four kids (a 7-1/2yo boy, a 6yo girl, a 4-1/2yo boy, and a 2yo boy) who have started joining us at least two and sometimes three days a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons. That means we're doing Montessori work up to 5 days a week, which makes me so happy!
The 2yo takes a nap in our Pack-n-Play while my 1-1/2yo (and sometimes my 3yo) naps. Maybe there's something about doing work for another person (as opposed to your own mother) that makes kids respond so well, but these kids are fantastic, too. The wonderful thing is that, because my 5yo tends to "play up," they provide peer pressure for her to do her work and do it well - love it, love it, love it!
Also, because the little kids are sleeping, both Miss M and I stay in the Montessori room with all of the school-aged kids. Their family uses a completely different curriculum, so Miss M often brings work for my daughter to do, which I think is a total win-win. I believe wholeheartedly in the Montessori method, but I sometimes worry that my daughter is "over" it. Anyone else out there experience that?
For instance, when working on addition and subtraction, my 5yo will shrug off every offer of finger charts or other manipulatives, saying, "I can do it in my head." She can do the math in her head, but it's hard for her to get in a flow when she has to think about each problem so hard. (She's doing addition with carrying and subtraction with borrowing, which adds a whole other dimension of difficulty.) Maybe I should be cheering her "passage to abstraction"? In the meantime, though, I love having a Montessori-free outlet for her - if she so chooses - on the days when Miss M's family is here.
That's it for now, I guess. Thanks to all of you for sticking with me! As I said, I truly miss this blog, and I hope to be able to post more often.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The Plan - Co-Op Days
Before school started, Miss C and I got together to make a plan for our co-op days. This is how we laid things out:
Circle Time:
- Pledge
- National Anthem
- Welcome Songs
- Calendar
- Circle Time theme
- ASL letter of the day
- Review previous letters learned
- ASL sign of the day (related to our Circle Time theme)
- Review previous signs learned
- Introduce any new work on the shelves
- Pray
Work period
Snack
Work period
Jobs
Read one story and verse from My ABC Bible Verses
As you can see, we've added a little bit of sign language. Miss C's son loves learning sign language and already has a pretty big sign vocabulary, so we're going to implement that vocabulary further.
I also plan to introduce a daily yoga pose, which I'll post about soon.
We're going to start My ABC Bible Verses all over again this year. I looked around online and found many, many sets of Bible verses for each letter of the alphabet, but when you take the verses out of context and just have the kids memorize them, they don't make a whole lot of sense. That book has so many valuable lessons that Miss C and I decided to follow it again this year.
Yesterday was our first day, and things went very well. I'll try to post pictures soon!
Circle Time:
- Pledge
- National Anthem
- Welcome Songs
- Calendar
- Circle Time theme
- ASL letter of the day
- Review previous letters learned
- ASL sign of the day (related to our Circle Time theme)
- Review previous signs learned
- Introduce any new work on the shelves
- Pray
Work period
Snack
Work period
Jobs
Read one story and verse from My ABC Bible Verses
As you can see, we've added a little bit of sign language. Miss C's son loves learning sign language and already has a pretty big sign vocabulary, so we're going to implement that vocabulary further.
I also plan to introduce a daily yoga pose, which I'll post about soon.
We're going to start My ABC Bible Verses all over again this year. I looked around online and found many, many sets of Bible verses for each letter of the alphabet, but when you take the verses out of context and just have the kids memorize them, they don't make a whole lot of sense. That book has so many valuable lessons that Miss C and I decided to follow it again this year.
Yesterday was our first day, and things went very well. I'll try to post pictures soon!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The Plan - Circle Time
Here is how I plan to run Circle Time:
Pledge of Allegiance
National Anthem
Sit Down Song:
Tapping at the window, tapping at the door.
Everybody sits down when we count to 4.
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 !
Songs:
[To the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb"]
We welcome you to school today,
School today, School today,
We welcome you to school today,
To learn and grow and play.
We're glad to have you here today,
Here today, here today.
We're glad to have you here today.
Yes, it's a special day!
[To the tune of "Skip To My Lou"]
Hello everybody, how do you do? (Wave at children)
Hello everybody, how do you do?
Hello everybody, how do you do?
How do you do this morning?
I'm fine (point to self), I hope you are, too (point to kids)
I'm fine, I hope you are, too
I'm fine, I hope you are, too
I hope you're fine, this morning!
Turn to your partner, shake their hand
Turn to your partner, shake their hand
Turn to your partner, shake their hand
Shake their hand this morning!
[To the tune of "Good Night Ladies"]
Hello, (child's name); Hello, (child's name);
Hello, (child's name), it's nice to see you today.
[go around the circle and sing for each person]
Calendar:
Review month (Sing “Months of the Year” song)
Review calendar day
Review year
Review day of the week (Sing “Days of the Week” song)
Review season (Sing “Seasons” song)
Discuss the day's weather
Circle Time theme
Close Circle Time in prayer
Pledge of Allegiance
National Anthem
Sit Down Song:
Tapping at the window, tapping at the door.
Everybody sits down when we count to 4.
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 !
Songs:
[To the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb"]
We welcome you to school today,
School today, School today,
We welcome you to school today,
To learn and grow and play.
We're glad to have you here today,
Here today, here today.
We're glad to have you here today.
Yes, it's a special day!
[To the tune of "Skip To My Lou"]
Hello everybody, how do you do? (Wave at children)
Hello everybody, how do you do?
Hello everybody, how do you do?
How do you do this morning?
I'm fine (point to self), I hope you are, too (point to kids)
I'm fine, I hope you are, too
I'm fine, I hope you are, too
I hope you're fine, this morning!
Turn to your partner, shake their hand
Turn to your partner, shake their hand
Turn to your partner, shake their hand
Shake their hand this morning!
[To the tune of "Good Night Ladies"]
Hello, (child's name); Hello, (child's name);
Hello, (child's name), it's nice to see you today.
[go around the circle and sing for each person]
Calendar:
Review month (Sing “Months of the Year” song)
Review calendar day
Review year
Review day of the week (Sing “Days of the Week” song)
Review season (Sing “Seasons” song)
Discuss the day's weather
Circle Time theme
Close Circle Time in prayer
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
I Can't Believe I'm Saying This, But...
...I think I'm almost ready!
School doesn't start for 17 hours, and the Montessori room is pretty much ready to go! I have a few more things to do (I have to finalize my circle time plan for tomorrow, I have to put the finishing touches on a couple more PL activities, and I have to make a poster and cupcakes for my middle daughter's third birthday tomorrow), but I'd say I'm about 97.5% done! As a procrastinator extraordinaire, this is a major accomplishment for me. Typically, I'd be working until 3:00 in the morning (rationalizing it by saying that I'm a night-owl, anyway), and I'd go to bed disappointed and kicking myself because I hadn't planned ahead.
So instead, I'm going to toot my own horn for a second (please bear with me :). I often get discouraged, thinking that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks," that I'll be a procrastinator forever, that at this point in my life I just am who I am and I will never improve. But this is real, actual, visual proof that I CAN change and I CAN do better. Woohoo!
Here are some shots to document what I hope will mark the end of my procrastination days:
If only I had taken some "before" pictures so you could see what the room looked like when I started (let's just say that Maria Montessori would have been mortified!). More about how I managed this miracle transformation coming soon...
School doesn't start for 17 hours, and the Montessori room is pretty much ready to go! I have a few more things to do (I have to finalize my circle time plan for tomorrow, I have to put the finishing touches on a couple more PL activities, and I have to make a poster and cupcakes for my middle daughter's third birthday tomorrow), but I'd say I'm about 97.5% done! As a procrastinator extraordinaire, this is a major accomplishment for me. Typically, I'd be working until 3:00 in the morning (rationalizing it by saying that I'm a night-owl, anyway), and I'd go to bed disappointed and kicking myself because I hadn't planned ahead.
So instead, I'm going to toot my own horn for a second (please bear with me :). I often get discouraged, thinking that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks," that I'll be a procrastinator forever, that at this point in my life I just am who I am and I will never improve. But this is real, actual, visual proof that I CAN change and I CAN do better. Woohoo!
Here are some shots to document what I hope will mark the end of my procrastination days:
If only I had taken some "before" pictures so you could see what the room looked like when I started (let's just say that Maria Montessori would have been mortified!). More about how I managed this miracle transformation coming soon...
Friday, September 4, 2009
The Plan
Here in Northern Virginia, school starts next Tuesday. I've been busy lesson planning and getting everything set up, and I'm feeling pretty good about how things are coming together.
This is how our Kindergarten year is going to look:
On Mondays and Wednesdays, Miss C and her two sons are going to join us for Montessori work. I will lead my soon-to-be 5- and 3-year old daughters and Miss C's just-turned 4-year-old son in the Montessori classroom, while Miss C plays with her soon-to-be 2-year-old son and my 17-month-old daughter in the playroom. It's a small crew, and I was hoping more kids might be able to join us, but we've yet to find another family that is interested. As things stand right now, I think the setup will work out great - I was just kind of hoping that we could find a family with a kindergartner so that my oldest daughter would have someone to work with/challenge her (last year, one of the wonderful things about Miss D's son was that he and my daughter were such nice complements to one another - she excelled at reading while he excelled at math, etc.).
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my daughter is going to take classes at a homeschooling cooperative hosted by a local church. On Tuesdays, she'll take an Elementary Bible class (at the same time the church hosts a Mom's Bible Study with free childcare!), and on Thursdays, she'll take a Beginning Art class and an Elementary Science class.
On Fridays, we'll do Montessori work or we'll take a field trip somewhere.
Through my husband's work, we have access to one Rosetta Stone language (for free!), so we're going to learn Spanish as a family.
I think it's shaping up to be a great year. If you're in the Northern Virginia area and would like more information about possibly joining our little co-op, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email through the "Contact Us" link on the left.
This is how our Kindergarten year is going to look:
On Mondays and Wednesdays, Miss C and her two sons are going to join us for Montessori work. I will lead my soon-to-be 5- and 3-year old daughters and Miss C's just-turned 4-year-old son in the Montessori classroom, while Miss C plays with her soon-to-be 2-year-old son and my 17-month-old daughter in the playroom. It's a small crew, and I was hoping more kids might be able to join us, but we've yet to find another family that is interested. As things stand right now, I think the setup will work out great - I was just kind of hoping that we could find a family with a kindergartner so that my oldest daughter would have someone to work with/challenge her (last year, one of the wonderful things about Miss D's son was that he and my daughter were such nice complements to one another - she excelled at reading while he excelled at math, etc.).
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my daughter is going to take classes at a homeschooling cooperative hosted by a local church. On Tuesdays, she'll take an Elementary Bible class (at the same time the church hosts a Mom's Bible Study with free childcare!), and on Thursdays, she'll take a Beginning Art class and an Elementary Science class.
On Fridays, we'll do Montessori work or we'll take a field trip somewhere.
Through my husband's work, we have access to one Rosetta Stone language (for free!), so we're going to learn Spanish as a family.
I think it's shaping up to be a great year. If you're in the Northern Virginia area and would like more information about possibly joining our little co-op, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email through the "Contact Us" link on the left.
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