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Meredith
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| Posted: May 23 2007 at 8:52am | IP Logged
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Hello all! I just wanted to throw out a bit of discussion ideas here for us to ponder as we are all discovering Montessori on so many different levels in our home schooling journey.
When you give your child a lesson/presentation what's your observation process??
After your child has *got it*, do you re-present that lesson again, or just let them decide when they need to re-visit it. For example: with a math lesson, would you encourage them to repeat it several times or just let them do as much as they want and then stop?? And what if they don't want to continue an activity/lesson and you know they haven't really *got it*??
I'd love to hear how you're all able to Observe your dc as they do their work amidst busy home schooling days!! Ours is not a *quiet* school  so I'm looking for ways to incorporate this Observation time during our regular busyness (and if that's even possible  )
Blessings to you!
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Meredith
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Mackfam
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| Posted: May 23 2007 at 9:59am | IP Logged
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Also really excited about hearing how you guys observe the lessons, and whether you just rotate exercises out once mastered. Do you record observations in a journal?
It seems with CGS, lessons revisited yield endless fruits, but some of our Montessori activities seem more finite in their purpose. I was thinking of finding (hopefully used and cheap ) one of those rolling type restaurant carts or maybe a set of rolling bins that I can easily move to the shelves and rotate activities and then store the rolling cart in a closet. Any one do that?
Can't wait to read what you guys do!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Angel
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Thanks for bringing up this topic, Meredith! I, too, am curious to see what everyone else does, since ours is not a "quiet" school either ... but I need to get the dishes in the dishwasher and the babies back outside, so will have to revisit later.  Just wanted to mention, though (before I forgot), that I think repetition depends on age as well as the individual child. I was reading the other day that whereas the primary age child will repeat an exercise over and over spontaneously, by the time kids hit elementary age, "repetition is insured by variety".
I'll get the name of the book later, after I break up this fight... 
--Angela
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AndreaG
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Great topic! Just this morning I was watching my daughter work with the Binomial Cube, and noticed she wasn't doing it correctly. I was tempted to jump in and correct her, but I believe the more "montessori" approach is to just re-present it at another time. Often, I am too busy working with another child to really do a focused observation, but I try to keep tabs on everyone out of the corner of my eye. As Angela said, the 3-6 child will repeat activities over and over, but as they get older they will use the materials once get what they need and move on. At least that is how it seems to go here. I keep materials in a closet in bins by subject and bring them out according to my schedule I have on Homeschool Tracker. I also bring out things I think a particular child is ready for. I present then leave it on the shelf for them to choose. When an item seems to be just collecting dust- or being used incorrectly or dumped out and abandoned over and over I put it away. I need to be more regular about this putting away though- my shelves tend to get cluttered!
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Andrea
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: May 23 2007 at 2:46pm | IP Logged
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Meredith, this is a great topic!
I am going to address it, but my brain is deep into an organizational mode right now, so I am totally ignoring my children (where exactly ARE they, anyway?LOL!) and working on an organizational system for all my Montessori stuff before it runs me out of my house. Honestly, I need to get it all together because I don't even know what I have any more.
So...observing my child...I will give some thought to how I NORMALLY actually do this and get right back with you soon!
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Theresa
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SuzanneG
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lapazfarm wrote:
Meredith, this is a great topic!
I am going to address it, but my brain is deep into an organizational mode right now, so I am totally ignoring my children (where exactly ARE they, anyway?LOL!) and working on an organizational system for all my Montessori stuff before it runs me out of my house. Honestly, I need to get it all together because I don't even know what I have any more.
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Ha! I laughed when I just read this.......cuz this is me right now too! Listening in on all this discussion and trying to re-organize and take inventory of everything we have.
Carry on ......
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Suzanne in ID
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Maryan
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andreag wrote:
| Just this morning I was watching my daughter work with the Binomial Cube, and noticed she wasn't doing it correctly. I was tempted to jump in and correct her, but I believe the more "montessori" approach is to just re-present it at another time. |
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i have questions about this... what about bad habits... or now having a memory of doing it the wrong way...
waiting to hear when the experts have more time 
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Maryan
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AndreaG
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Maryan,
I know, I worry about the bad habits! It is really hard for me to not jump in and correct! I think that because the montessori materials are self-correcting that the child will realize they did something wrong and be motivated to do it correctly. My daughter knew the binomial cube was put together wrong, b/c she could not get the lid on, and was dissatisfied with the result. That is one of the things that I like about the montessori method, is that the materials themselves do some of the teaching- because I am always busy with something/somebody else! Hopefully the next time I present it she will be able to do it, if not she might be too young for it yet. The biggest problem I have had with bad habits and montessori is when I present the material incorrectly or sloppily- then the kids are stuck imitating my mistake for a long time! Also sometimes they don't want to sit for the presentation and try to just do it their own way, but I try to be firm that they have to watch me do the complete presentation before they can have a turn. The other bad habit they sometimes get into is just taking things off the shelves and dumping them or playing with them (ie using the number rods as swords!)- I try to prevent that by keeping the shelves decluttered and enforcing a "proper use of materials" rule.
Theresea and Suzanne and anyone else in organization mode, I would love to hear about your new systems! I really need inspiration to tackle my montessori closet chaos! Perhaps we could have another thread?
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Andrea
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Meredith
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| Posted: May 23 2007 at 4:57pm | IP Logged
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AndreaG wrote:
| Theresea and Suzanne and anyone else in organization mode, I would love to hear about your new systems! I really need inspiration to tackle my montessori closet chaos! Perhaps we could have another thread? |
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YES!! I'll start it!!
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Meredith
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Genevieve
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Montessori teachers generally have a checklist of presentations and date when a child has the presentation and when they have mastered it. Should a child not be interested in the presentation, they would back off and present it another time. In a Montessori setting, they play off the group dynamics. Since the presentation would probably be presented again to another child, the intially resistent child would indirectly see the presentation again and again. He might even develop an interest because others have. In my homeschool setting, there is no group dynamics. When my child isn't interested in a presentation, I have done various things in the past. I might just back off from the whole subject altogether for months or even a year. Another tactic I have done is re-establish pre-presentation. Even with the basic presentation, most schools would include interesting books, real life experiences, i.e., living ideas! For example, the sensorial activities in itself hasn't interested my children. However, when we start sorted toys by size or read a book about flowers with different colours, they are more inclined to practise with the Montessori materials. I say more inclined because sometimes they master concepts through these pre-presentations. However for some concepts, the Montessori presentations' isolation of difficulty is needed. So if the child doesn't want to repeat the Math presentation, I won't worry. The presentation is laid out and if he doesn't touch it for two weeks, hide it so it becomes "new" again later. I would focus on the living aspect about it either by playing games, a living book (www.livingmath.net) or doing carpentry. The idea is inspire the child to take responsibility of his education.
As for taking time for observations, just set a definite time each day to just observe. You don't need to write everything down but it might help to see what a child chooses to do when he has his own free time. One month I might observe during "school time". Another month I'll observe during play time. What is my child doing in that sand box? Is it dinosaurs? Is he building rivers, streams and islands? What does he talk about during lunch? What books does he pick up at the library? There are so many observations to be made and I just change the timing of my conscious effort to observe. This month it's the sandbox play. Through that I know it's about building structures and I've played into that interest gently. Makes sense?
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Meredith
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Totally Genevieve, ans I sure appreciate your insight!! So glad you popped in!
Blessings!
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Meredith
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mary theresa
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I feel kind of funny jumping in here since my daughter is only 14 mos. but I was an assistant in a secular montessori school before she was born and have been a CGS assistant about 4 years now. I hope its okay to chime in on the observation thing.
Genevieve, I loved what you were saying about taking a definite time each day to observe. In my experience handling parent observations at the school and at the atrium, observation is seen as a WORK of the adult. Children frequently would try to engage the adults attention, to talk or show them their work (esp. the child of the parent) and the parent is instructed to respond kindly, but firmly, "I am doing my work of observing right now. You may not interrupt my work." --or something to that effect. Of course, the directresses and their assistants also tried to head off the children "disturbing" the work of the observer. In the school "Observing" was a word the children were very familiar with and they themselves could even choose the work of "observing" (there were special observing chairs) -- making their body quiet and still and watching the activity in the room.
I don't know if this is do-able for the moms "in the trenchs." But I just wanted to share how we did it at my school and atrium.
Thanks for "letting" me butt in!
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Mary Theresa
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lapazfarm
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Thanks, Mary Theresa. It is great to hear from someone who has seen all this stuff in action. I have never seen a real Montessori school before, so it is all so mysterious to me!
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Theresa
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Montessori & Observing the Child
