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kjohnson
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AndreaG wrote:
Katharine mentioned Montessori being disturbed by imaginative expression of a historical period- actually I was just reading in the Advanced Montessori Method Volume 2 that the Montessori approach to history was to read aloud from living books and have the children act out skits which they did with enthusiasm. I think the "no imaginative play" is somewhat misunderstood in regard to Montessori.
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All I meant by this is that Dr. Montessori felt it was important for a child to have a grounding in reality before engaging fantasy and I introduce historical fiction very early on along with fairy tales, myths, etc... This is just one of the ways I may deviate a bit from the sequence of Montessori development. But Charlotte Mason's method has very much formed the way I educate my children and it is very mixed up in the way I approach Montessori. For that reason, I am not a purist.
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Katherine
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dawn2006
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Elizabeth, here's the link:
http://www.jmjpublishing.com/FAQ.htm
And here are the few paragraphs I was referring to:
Quote:
We had already been homeschooling for four years when I started getting interested in Montessori education. If I had to do it all over again I don't think there is anything I would change. I worked my way into it gently. I recommend that you give yourself reasonably about three years to really begin to understand Montessori, each year continuing to read more about Montessori methods and presentations. Concentrate your efforts in the first year on decluttering your home, while you work on creating a prepared learning environment, making a few materials as needed to supplement any curriculum you are currently using. You will find monthly tips for helping you prepare your home environment as you prepare yourself spiritually at the Livable Learning egroup. More important than any text or learning materials you may choose to start with, is that you learn to OBSERVE your child. You'll be amazed at what you will learn.
The second year you can dig more seriously in to materials making while introducing a few more presentations - the playschool6 and MontessoriMakers discussion egroups are great places to be for ideas and support - there are also websites with printable materials such as Montessori Materials, and of course I am always adding to the downloadable Montessori Education materials here at my web site.
The third year you might continue to make materials, but focusing primarily on developing a sincere 2-3 hour work cycle of independent work for your children |
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Dawn Farias | wife to Ariel | mom to Gabriel 9, Daniel 7, Elizabeth 5, and Michael 3 | blogger at Be Absorbed | native Texan but currently living near Seattle
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AndreaG
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Katherine,
I'm sorry, I looked back at my post and I don't think I worded it clearly- like I was challenging your understanding of Montessori, which I did NOT intend. I was just surprised to read that approach to history in a Montessori book ( I had to double check that in my mommy-brain haze I wasn't reading Charlotte Mason instead!). Your comment about history made me think of it.
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Meredith
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kjohnson wrote:
| All I meant by this is that Dr. Montessori felt it was important for a child to have a grounding in reality before engaging fantasy and I introduce historical fiction very early on along with fairy tales, myths, etc... This is just one of the ways I may deviate a bit from the sequence of Montessori development. But Charlotte Mason's method has very much formed the way I educate my children and it is very mixed up in the way I approach Montessori. For that reason, I am not a purist. |
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I do believe this is how many of us tend to approach Montessori as so few of us have been schooling with it from the start. I would not change my CM tendncies towards our learning because it is so beautiful and meaningful for my dc. I DO however LOVE that I can incorporate Montessori into my already well-oiled learning machine and it is such a compliment!!
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kjohnson
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AndreaG wrote:
Katherine,
I'm sorry, I looked back at my post and I don't think I worded it clearly- like I was challenging your understanding of Montessori, which I did NOT intend. I was just surprised to read that approach to history in a Montessori book ( I had to double check that in my mommy-brain haze I wasn't reading Charlotte Mason instead!). Your comment about history made me think of it. |
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No problem, Andrea.  BTW, what level of children was the play-acting history geared to?
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kjohnson
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Meredith wrote:
| I do believe this is how many of us tend to approach Montessori as so few of us have been schooling with it from the start. I would not change my CM tendncies towards our learning because it is so beautiful and meaningful for my dc. I DO however LOVE that I can incorporate Montessori into my already well-oiled learning machine and it is such a compliment!! |
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I was just thinking today that in the past years the kids would want to hurry through the boring subjects so we could get to our living books. Montessori has transformed the boring subjects into fun...work became play and vice versa. Now with the hybrid of the two, all of learning is enjoyable.
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lapazfarm
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It's funny because as I read this thread I am seeing so many different ways we all are taking Montessori and blending it with other methods to create some pretty unique mixes. And I think this is wonderful! By adding a bit of Waldorf art, a CM literature emphasis, or using Montessori methods as a jump-start into project-based learning, we have each taken a wonderful concept, adapted it and made it our own!And now we have Montessori education that is uniquely tailored to each of our own households!
Hooray!
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Meredith
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lapazfarm wrote:
It's funny because as I read this thread I am seeing so many different ways we all are taking Montessori and blending it with other methods to create some pretty unique mixes. And I think this is wonderful! By adding a bit of Waldorf art, a CM literature emphasis, or using Montessori methods as a jump-start into project-based learning, we have each taken a wonderful concept, adapted it and made it our own! And now we have Montessori education that is uniquely tailored to each of our own households!
Hooray! |
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Isn't this the wonderful basis of our Real Learning lifestyles, works for me 
kjohnson wrote:
| Montessori has transformed the boring subjects into fun...work became play and vice versa. Now with the hybrid of the two, all of learning is enjoyable. |
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Same here, it's quite remarkable indeed 
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Elizabeth
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dawn2006 wrote:
| Would you say you throw some Montessori into your other curriculums, throw some curriculums into your Montessori or about 50-50? I was reading on the JMJ site about her suggestion of introducing a little more Montessori into your existing plans each year and by the third year to try aiming for a true 2-3 hour work period. Which led me to think of my question for this post. TIA. |
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It's a good question, Dawn. We have to ask ourselves what the goal is. Is the goal a total Montessori classroom to the exclusion of other methods and materials?
It's not for me.
As Katherine mentioned, fantasy play is restricted in Montessori early childhood classrooms. Montessori did not think children should be encouraged to engage in fantasy play or even toys before they were firmly rooted in reality. I encourage a rich imaginative environment. I can't imagine early childhood without dolls...We take open-ended, imaginative play seriously here.
And I guess I should admit that I let them build trains with the pink tower and use metal inset tracings to decorate all sorts of things. While I appreciate the intended use of the materials, I want to encourage them to think outside the box. (Please don't throw tomatoes here--I'm not saying you should do this. I'm saying I do this and it works for us.)
Our day has set rhythms and we thrive in that kind of environment. In Montessori classrooms where I observed, children chose their own work at will and individuality was protected at all costs.While I try to give my children time and space apart from each other,our rhythms reflect our common purposes as a family and even beyond that as members of a church. We are not independent of each other. We do lots of things together, crossing age boundaries and typical scope and sequence subject choices.
That said, I think Maria Montessori was spot-on in her observances of a young child's natural inclination towards order and his need for order to be preserved. That might be the greatest lesson I've learned from lots and lots of Montessori reading and observing.
I think I take a more Piagetian view of the child than an absorbent mind view, particularly in early childhood. I've tried lots of Montessori in years past. Three years ago, I even had a couple of my children in a Montessori school a couple of days a week (and this was a way bend in the rules by a very close friend who founded the school). But I'm not inclined to the push towards early academics. There's is such a short time of life for play.
I was troubled by the scarcity of children's picture books in the classroom (in a great school with a very certified founder and teacher). Try as I might, I couldn't really call it a literary education. In Maria Montessori's time, four color printing and great publication and distribution techniques weren't even a gleam in the eye of educators. She hadn't the resources we do. So she didn't have the decisions to make about how to incorporate great picture books into the rhythm of childhood. My curriculum is heavily weighted towards literature and play, particularly in the early childhood years. What I took from Montessori is hands-on learning in a big way.
Over time, I abandoned things like dressing frames because they seemed silly in a home where I can show a child how to dress using real clothes. Practical life happens in my kitchen during...well...practical life, real, live practical life. Just like narration evolves out of conversation. And nature study happens outside with field guides.
Montessori designed the Children's Houses for children whose homes were deprived. She emphasized the materials in order to provide a standard. But she was designing for an institution,not a family.
I appreciate Montessori's contribution to catechesis and I think Sofia Cavaletti is a genius. But I've learned that my home is not an institutional CGS setting any more than it is a Montessori classroom. I can and do adapt CGS in ways that are meaningful for my family. I can and do adapt Montessori hands-on manipulatives in ways that are meaningful in my home. But my goal is not a Montessori classroom, it's a learning lifestyle in a home.
I love that I can pick and choose. I love that I can be inspired by something new I've read in educational theory and I can be refreshed an inspired anew. I love that God's given me eight unique children who can scamper with me down rabbit trails and some of those trails are blazed by people named Mason, Montessori, Steiner and Stein. But we're not limited to the trails already blazed.
Ultimately, my goal is not to slowly implement a completely exclusive Montessori education, it's Real Learning in the context of a real family.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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AndreaG
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Ok- I looked up the part I was thinking of in the Advanced Montessori Method Volume 2 which does refer to children 6 and up, though it seems that some of this work would be started in the children's house.
This comes from the chapter on Reading. Maria describes a teacher as a "cultivator of the fine arts. For in our method art is considered a means to life." She recommends reading aloud while the children are drawing with the insets:
"The readings we used were numerous and of great variety: fairy tales, short stories, anecdotes, novels, historical episodes."
And here is the part I was thinking of:
"But certainly some surprise will be occasioned by our discovery that the children liked above everything else the readings on Italian History and the Education of the Savage of Averyon."
"This documented history was so absorbing that the children became entirely possessed by the situations. They started animated discussions on various subjects, arguing and deciding...They raged at unjust persecutions, applauded heroic deeds, and ended by insisting on acting out some of the scenes...One little girl was moved to bring to school a collection of all the Italian patriotic songs. It fascinated many of the children, who learned several by heart and sang them in a chorus. In a word, the Italian Risorgimento came to live in those little hearts with a freshness it had long since lost in the souls of their elders. Many of the children wrote down their impressions of their own accord, often giving surprisingly original judgements."
Montessori goes on to express her surprise, she had been planning to make some sort of historical slide show but that proved unecesary:
"To teach children history it is sufficient to give living documented truth. We need, not more cinematographs, but different school books. Children are much more sensible to the true and beautiful than we."
Edited to fix glaring typos and to comment that despite my fanatical quoting of the Advanced Montessori Method Volume 2, I am not a Montessori purist and in fact enjoy a buffet immensely!
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Genevieve
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I love how Elizabeth touched on so many points that I was becoming to realize over the years. Two years ago, when my oldest was two, I started a conversation with Kim F, and it was through this conversation that I started to explore more deeply into Montessori. What worked best for us was the orderly environment where the kids could access any material they wish. We loved the inclusion of our children in our daily chores with their minature tools. They loved the jigsaw puzzles and the ability to focus wholeheartedly in their activities.
Then I tried a full-blown Montessori classroom although really perhaps it was jinxed from the start with handmade materials. The children didn't prefer traditional Montessori materials. They liked a little more jazz. Fridge Phonics, MUS and the our big backyard. I see the "typical" sensitive periods develop within them but they found other ways to meet their needs. Sorting duplos according to size to make red houses, blue house and green. Playing MUS blocks again and again after watching the video but not touching the workbook. Pouring milk and dumping them into a mixing bowl just so that he can fill up more cups. And, no, it wasn't a practical life tray; the toddler had to gather all the materials himself. Perhaps the children in a Montessori classroom love the materials so much because they see other using it all the time. Don't kids just love something more when another kid has it? *laughs* I can't duplicate that at home. Now I could withdraw the duplos, the MUS and all the Montessorish materials and maybe, just maybe, the kids will gravitate towards the materials because there is nothing else to do. :$ But I choose not to.
When I had routine of spending two to three hours in our Montessori room, and only then did they, being kids like to hang out Mom, would work on materials. I saw the intense focus and they worked well. But here is the big "but". We had to sacrifice our long reading session. You would think with over 12 hours of daylight you could squeeze in long couch time. Apparently, I can't. By the end of the three-hour-work period, there is lunch, nap times, free time (usually in the garden, art or toys). Then comes dinner, a storybook and rosary. Something had to give and I gave up that classroom time. I tried to cut it short but it usually takes that long to settle into deop concentration. As for now, the classroom is open but they go in as they please which honestly isn't often.
I guess also I'm learning and appreciating a lot of Waldorf practises now. My kids are actually more "peaceful" with a predictable rhythm as oppose to allowed to pick and choose all day. They love the painting, the modeling and the storytelling (big thanks to Dawn here!). They respond better to me when I talk pictorially than the "teach, not correct". Or perhaps the former style just suits me better.
There was a lot of Montessori that I love. I feel a little like a fake since I get so many hits on my website for Montessori but the truth is that we have reached our saturation at least for now. And so I'm going to go graze over at another buffet table. 
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Meredith
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Elizabeth wrote:
I love that I can pick and choose. I love that I can be inspired by something new I've read in educational theory and I can be refreshed an inspired anew. I love that God's given me eight unique children who can scamper with me down rabbit trails and some of those trails are blazed by people named Mason, Montessori, Steiner and Stein. But we're not limited to the trails already blazed.
Ultimately, my goal is not to slowly implement a completely exclusive Montessori education, it's Real Learning in the context of a real family. |
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This is IT for us too  hence the *real learning lifestyle* that you so elouently coined my dear!! I don't know too many of us here that are literally trying to pull off a full Montessori curriculum, it's just NOT feasible, what would I do without all my PICTURE BOOKS, and living books, and units or rabbit trails....
I DO love all the Montessori that we are incorporating as it really is working nicely for our gang! Dawn2006, are you still reading???
Blessings!
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dawn2006
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Dawn2006, are you still reading???
ROFL! Yes...barely...but that has more to do with my dd that just walked past and whiffed some poopy-smell in my direction than anything else.
(OK...diaper changed) It appears everyone is just finding what works best for their kids...and probably for themselves, too. As a classroom teacher it took until my third year to feel like I had a handle on things. I had tried some stuff my first year that didnt' work, tweaked it my second, and then by my third felt comfortable w/everything...but was still willing to make changes as necessary. I suppose that's where everyone here is now. I'm just starting out (with hsing), though... guess I'll know 'more better' in three years.
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Dawn Farias | wife to Ariel | mom to Gabriel 9, Daniel 7, Elizabeth 5, and Michael 3 | blogger at Be Absorbed | native Texan but currently living near Seattle
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ALmom
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No, Dawn, it will all change in 3 years as the children and their needs change! Every year, my mantra is that I've finally figured out what works for us so this is the last year we make a big investment or big changes in how we do something. Next year, we just reuse with younger children and only get a little for the oldest. That is the biggest joke - well, with everything but real books, those get used, reused, read and reread all the time. Everything else serves its purposes and comes and goes.
As far as being a purist anything educationally - not much chance of that. We just figure out from year to year what the strengths and weaknesses are and how to meet the needs of the whole family. Actually I'm never sure which ones to check here - Classical, Montessori, .... I'm just starting with some Montessori materials. I am trying to be strict with the use of materials (I have no fear of creativity in my house with my son making hydrogen from water and powering his car with it, my dd taking apart electronics and sorting them according to what they remind her of - this is the piano, the ...) There is more danger that my children would use red rods as swords or decide to test the chemical composition by scraping off the paint and while I don't mind this kind of stuff, I don't want them doing it with my Montessri stuff - they can use the cheap stuff that is on the way out to the trash for that. This one room is a work in progress. I'm trying to make it very, very organized even as I try to declutter everywhere. I would like to spend more time in there actually observing as that is part of the heart of the method. For the moment, I do the best I can and know that it is serving some very specific purposes for me - namely remediation of fine motor lags, therapy for one child, meaningful work to form habits of order and attention for the toddlers who otherwise go off wrecking havoc while I help an older, a reminder to schedule in meaningful, fun time with me for the toddlers, self-teaching in certain subjects like science and map skills that I find very difficult (directionality problems and science phobia). The self correction materials fill a real gap. I'm also pulling out art post cards and hope that this will inspire us to have some art/nature time in conjunction with the insets and other things it inspires. As we learn to identify and name different leaves, we'll find nature walks much more meaningful. I am trying to stand back more to allow for the child to discover instead of jumping in too soon. We are also focusing on the CGS with Moira's albums to try and make it a more living experience of faith and not just academic. Of course we have Bible reading and liturgical celebrations as well - but I'm just not able to do all that lovely notebooking and scrapbooking that other folks do just yet so this seems like a good place to be. I am finding that if nothing else happens from this year, the enthusiasm of something different being added to the mix has rejuvenated us all - and I'm excited about our days and feel hopeful that by the time I make my taxonomy cards, I'll be a lot more educated in science and thus more enthused about it and thus a better teacher. At the moment it is the Montessori material that is helping me here. There seem to be seasons and times for everything.
I'm trying to do mostly Montessori (as much as I am able with my 4 yo - but doubt we'll have 2 hour sessions with me sitting there watching him. He easily spends 2 hours plus on tasks in this room. I know I have to do something else when he doesn't go in there - or when my toddler and nephew begin to drift. We have some great read alouds and then I figure out what else to do - so Montessori is somewhat leaps and starts and seasons of great progress and seasons of break for mommy to get her act together again. This seems to work okay - actually rather well for us right now. I'm sure I'll ease more and more into it with this child. Maria Montessori might cringe at my adaptations - a Montessori purist certainly would. It is working for us.
My olders, I'm mostly doing what has finally worked - but throwing in Montessori materials where we need more hands on or practice - and sometimes even including more Montessori style (ie choice) I am trying to use this to teach some order that we all need - hoping it will also carry over to other things. I am a fanatic about things being cared for and returned to their place in this room - and this seems to be taking. There isn't enough time yet to see if this helps the 10 yo actually keep his desk in another room neat.
I guess my tendency is to plan so it is hard for me to get a handle on Montessoris open ended way. I know she observes and adjusts but I only seem to be able to focus on one thing at a time and then we waste half our day with me trying to remember what I'm doing with which child - so having a very detailed plan for the semester means none of us is suffering from temporary amnesia and we can move forward. I can assign chores - but unless I have a non movable chart, I haven't a clue who got what chore even if we just assigned them yesterday or even just 5 minutes ago - so you see my need for that "in writing" stuff. I cannot remember what we are doing without a plan. So far this is the best year ever and the best planned year yet. This seems like a misnomer - but my plans include - choose Montessori material (and it is all in the room so the dc know what "qualifies" in our house). Often this is done with areas that need more hands on work - ie one of my big goals with Montessori is to improve handwriting so instead of a lesson plan that says practice handwriting - they can choose insets or practical life or whatever else is out there to develop fine motor, hand muscles or penmanship. My younger dc and I have never, ever done science before - I love the idea of self-correcting, so I'm trying to put together some nomenclature cards for taxonomy, and map skills. These are areas I really do not teach well in any form and textbooks seem deplorable and you can only go with so many living texts without being able to walk around and spot and point out ... So we will learn how to identify leaves and trees - and part of the plan says - go outside and collect some leaves... Another part of the plan says, work with Montessori leaf insets.
Now, I am well aware that this is not Montessori as she would never tell them which material to chose. (I am flexible - but I have it on the plan as a tangible reminder of some of my goals and schemes for the child based on what I have observed over the previous year.
Another goal is to have meaningful work for those of mine who finish very quickly and then interrupt the olders for play etc and drag these dc stuff out far too long due to noise. So I have a set number of hours we are "doing school". Please, no tomatoes, whenever seatwork is done, they may chose anything on the Montessori shelf that they have been introduced to and they must chose something or read. (Now my Montessori stuff does expand to include science experiments - my dh set up a mini lab in corner of dd room (the one off to college) and it also includes tending the outside "garden." With my nephew joining the mix, I need time to work with my olders when I know my toddler and this 13 yo won't be in a wrestling match (the nephew is touch sensitive and the toddler absolutely loves him but thinks the way to show it at the moment is to run behind and give him a bear hug). We are working on training but I also cannot have a lot of idle time or someone will end up getting hurt. The nephew by orders of his IEP and therapists is supposed to be changing from right to left handed and the list the therapist gave is a litany of Montessori practical life - so that fits very nicely. This child's work at my house is done in 30 minutes (max. one hour- and it all involves close work together) so I cannot have him staring into space or interrupting my others when they need to work (my 7th and 10th grader are still working after an hour) and though my youngers are mostly done with any independent bookwork, I do like to take some time to snuggle and read, etc. I don't mind my nephew joining us here if he wants, but he knows he has to be engaged in something. He cannot self- entertain so it is best to have the general rule and everyone is engaged. Now my Montessori shelf does include Hi Ho Cherrio (plenty of fine motor there as well as counting and number recognition)and lots of pouring, spooning, lacing beads, etc. Many of these things my toddler would chose to do as play - but if he does them as play it is very, very messy. If he does them Montessori, it becomes a game not to make a mess. He counts how many beans he spills and subtracts off (counts backwards from his record for this). I don't mind him doing these things if he hasn't destroyed the wall, carpet and everything else in the process. I think this whole exercise is helping him be accountable for following some rules and he seems to love it and I love no mess to clean up afterwards. Montessori provides meaningful work to my toddler and nephew when I must be doing things with others. I do try to observe from command central and I do wander about some and I do try to have dedicated time with each child everyday - but I do have 6 dc to work with and discuss with and answer questions for and ... there is only one of me. I don't have 3 people observing in the classroom. My dc have widely differeing abilities and interests and none are close in age and I don't work well with groups so this is what has worked for us. We go through some fits and starts - so I notice nothing is enticing them and need to pull out more ideas.
This is our best year ever - we are all finishing early and have free time (another part of my plan was to make sure that my plan/ideas were reasonable timewise so the dc were not overscheduled and could reasonably accomplish what needed to be done. They all wanted specific directions - again this all worked to create a balance. I'm not sure I'd call what we do "real" Montessori or even CM or classical or ... Basically, I'm not sure how I'd label it, but it works for our family and so far everyone is happily learning and sharing and we have time for each other to just have fun! I'm loving this year! The real test will be if we're still loving it come February or March!
Janet
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Celeste
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Andrea, thanks for your quote from The Advanced Montessori Method. As I was reading this thread I wanted to say that a good Montessori classroom will have many living books--I think your quote supports that idea. In my 6-9 CGS training, in fact, one of the first things we were told was we needed to have lots of beautiful books for the children to explore themes on their own. The formation of the elementary teacher is lots of knowledge, lots and lots of it, because she has to give the child the entire universe.
Also, by the elementary level, the child should have a well-established sense of reality and can and should (and wants to) explore fairy tales and fantasy and so forth.
In my rambling and roundabout way I am saying that I don't find "Montessori" and "living books" to be two separate methods, really. Living books are part of an authentic Montessori education. Rabbit trails, too, have always struck me as a particularly Montessori-ish idea. Unit studies, too.
I used to see Montessori as materials and presentations; the more I learn about it the more I expand my puny concepts. It is so rich and deep, so respectful of the divinely bestowed personhood of the child, so desirous of helping the child be fully formed. I am overwhelmed by the genius of Montessori and her discoveries and the method she developed. Not to the exclusion of the genius of others, of course; e.g., our school is named after Edith Stein, after whom our dd #4 is also named. DD #5 is named after dear, dear Karol. We believe in real learning--we're phenomenological realists, personalists, as they were. Pope Benedict urges, and we attempt, the "et-et".
I hope this doesn't come off as argumentative, because I'm really quite dispassionate. Verbose, but dispassionate.
Celeste
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JennGM
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Genevieve wrote:
| I guess also I'm learning and appreciating a lot of Waldorf practises now. My kids are actually more "peaceful" with a predictable rhythm as oppose to allowed to pick and choose all day. They love the painting, the modeling and the storytelling (big thanks to Dawn here!). They respond better to me when I talk pictorially than the "teach, not correct". Or perhaps the former style just suits me better. |
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Could you elaborate a bit more on this, please? I'm not well-versed in Waldorf. Does this mean you have "scheduled" times for these in your day? Can you share a "day in the life of"? And talk pictorially, examples?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Genevieve
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This is rhythm for now...
wake up/beds/brush teeth/start laundry
breakfast around 8-ish
storytime
snack 11-ish
BE with the child
Lunch 1-ish
Quiet time
Exercise while children play
Snack 4-ish
Free time
Dinner-6ish
Clean up toys
Bed/story/rosary/night
On morning I have the car, we would spend entire morning outside either at the pool or park and then reading would be during quiet time until someone falls asleep. :) I thought long and hard about our routine and was inspired by Donna Simmon's Kindergarten book to make sure there is active times, quiet times. Times when mom is fully focused on what my kids want to do and times when mom needs to get things done while my kids play or do art independently. This is the daily rhythm that I am working on. I'm finally getting the hang of simple easy enjoyable meals. I'll probably shift my focus then on quiet time and pick up toy time, i.e. transition to down time. I'm also thinking of eventually addressing weekly routines. I can't be too dogmatic about it because sometimes kids might take them as rules rather than guidelines. I'll come back later on your other questions on "scheduled times" for painting, modeling and storytelling and of course talking pictorially. For now, try reading Lissa's lastest post on wet-on-wet-painting and paintbrush being a gnome. I know she also wrote about anger being like not tipping a cup that washing over you.
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Genevieve
The Good Within
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Genevieve wrote:
| and of course talking pictorially. For now, try reading Lissa's lastest post on wet-on-wet-painting and paintbrush being a gnome. I know she also wrote about anger being like not tipping a cup that washing over you. |
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Aaaaah. I get it, pictorial description! I'm a bit slow sometimes!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Genevieve
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Fabulous! Then I won't have to expand on something that I'm learning along the way. I realized after I wrote down the routine as above that it won't work. It was something I visualize over the weekend focusing on my children's need to have frequent snack. Unfortunately thus far it results in a very chopped-up day. Almost like rushing from one activity to another. So I think I'm going to take out midmorning snack with an early lunch and proceed along the rest as written. That way free time is longer and hopefully our day would flow better. As for scheduling all it, I did write a post on how I focus on the important stuff and allow the rest to be more buffet style. It's Latin-centered-inspired with a good dash of unschooling. So with that mind frame, I introduce painting and modeling during free time knowing that they could very well ignore it. So far they haven't and have asked for more. The trend in my household is that I would introduce something and it bites, they would want to do again and again every day in various forms. Then the interests wanes and we move on to other things. However, it does pop up again at the children's request. If I noticed that say we haven't painted in over three months, then I would re-introduce it but with a slightly different twist, like painting while I tell a story. Or perhaps painting after the story. Or painting before a story. Then there is painting from nature etc etc. You get the picture, right? To keep track of my buffet, I wrote up a list that basically is things that I would like to introduce similar to Leonie's in the first photo. It's everything that I love about the various educational approaches. So when the timing is right, I introduce them and see how long we run with it during free time. Otherwise, on the most part, I like free time to be child-iniated time. You could always do it the more Waldorf way too... painting day, modeling day etc.
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Genevieve
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Montessori w/other curriculums.
