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dawn2006
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| Posted: Aug 14 2007 at 2:32pm | IP Logged
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My son is 5 1/2. I don't see why I can't just start him from the beginning as if he was 3 and I was hoping someone would have good insight for me if that actually wouldn't be a good idea. He's my oldest and my next is almost 4 so I'm hoping to just start them together. For a little bit of background.. my 5yo is not advanced in his fine motor skills (we lost a lot of ground last year due to some health issues), he recognizes his numbers and is good at eyeing quantities and recognizes most of his letters in addition to many of their sounds. We worked with SP letters for a few weeks but I shelved them b/c he didn't seem to want to follow them correctly. In general he loses interest at the slightest hint of my showing him how something ought to be done which is another reason I gave up so quickly during our brief stint with Montesorri last year. I'd like to develop his habit of attention (for lack of a better word/phrase)...am I wrong in thinking that's a central component to the Montessori method?
For reference I own the following books in case you'd like to just direct me to some nuggets of wisdom... any advice would be helpful. Oh, and just b/c he's almost 6 doesn't mean we have to jump up a level if he's not ready? BTW... it just occurred to me: I have no idea what goes for older than 6 anyway... although I do sometimes check over at montessoriforeveryone.com. I could look there. TIA for any time and attention. I'll also search this forum some more and look through older posts.
Books
Teach Me To Do It Myself; Pitamic
Teaching Montessori in the Home, The Preschool Years; Hainstock
Montessori Read and Write; Lawrence
Natural Structure; Walsh
The Montessori Method; Montessori
ETA I just found this post after revising my search phrase. I'm not sure if just pasting it makes it active, though..sorry.
http://4real.thenetsmith.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6924&KW=sta rting+late
ETA(again)....nevermind. I'm finding all kinds of answers to my question. I think I remember Natural Structure talking a lot about normalizing the child that's not used to the environment..I'll go back and read through that, too.
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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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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Aug 14 2007 at 3:13pm | IP Logged
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Dawn, my dd is nearly six, but is all over the place academically. I have materials for her from many levels. My advice is to start where YOU think your child is. Going back a bit is almost always beneficial.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Aug 14 2007 at 3:14pm | IP Logged
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Dawn, my dd is nearly six, but is all over the place academically. I have materials for her from many levels. My advice is to start where YOU think your child is. Going back a bit is almost always beneficial.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Land O' Cotton
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| Posted: Aug 14 2007 at 10:35pm | IP Logged
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I am going back to cover some of the 3-6 activities, and my child is 6--almost 7 y/o. I think from what I've seen so far, it will be a great help to us. Just learning how to unroll a mat and set up our activity, then having the concentration that goes along with it is a giant step here! My child is a busy little guy, and we've been working on the pouring, transfering and tonging exercises. Just doing these things is helping him so much to settle down and pay attention. I'm really seeing a difference. I don't feel bad at all about going back to catch him up--it's really helping!
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Vicki
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ALmom
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| Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 2:33am | IP Logged
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Dawn:
I'm where you are in starting with an almost 5 yo. He is my youngest. I suspect he will move quickly and that is scarey because I'm having trouble having enough time to study to do presentations. However, I do know I need to start early - not for the concepts as much as for the how do you handle the material, progression from left to right and up down. I also figure it is helpful for me to learn and get comfortable with presentations that are a bit easier to comprehend. I also suspect that I'm going to have to watch for need for new material quickly. He has taken very nicely to turning door knobs, using the baster, etc. but seems to need something new and different rather soon. Emphasizing the need to do all tasks quietly makes it much more challenging and thus much more interesting. This child has seemingly good eye-hand and fine motor skills.
My 7 yo, on the other hand, seems focused pretty early on. I suspect this child has a greater need for a lot of the eye-hand and so is intrigued with this and not too old to be self - conscious of spooning pom poms or whatever.
My toughest ones are the 10 and 13 yo. Their motor skills are very poor and they need a lot of this work for the fine motor practice but are bored to tears with the concepts and tend to look at some things as rather babyish. I certainly don't plan to "do Montessori" with them but I will be doing some things with them and am still trying to find my way here. I can do a lot of enticing and probably will. I may simply have to require certain tasks for them, I don't know. I know this is NOT Montessori at all, but I'm simply pondering right now how to go about this. I will say I'm interested in hearing how others have used Montessori or Montessorish things starting with older dc (you have missed some prime moments when a certain task like cutting is the epitomy of joy and dovetails nicely with getting them to repeat over and over some needed activity) or with learning disabled dc.
Janet
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dawn2006
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| Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 2:54pm | IP Logged
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Just doing these things is helping him so much to settle down and pay attention.
This is what I hoping for.
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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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Angel
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| Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 6:38pm | IP Logged
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When I started with my then 6 yo, we did a lot of the same kinds of practical life you'd find in the 3-6 classroom because she needed it and she liked it. I had newborn twins at the time, and it was *very* helpful to have her learn to pour her own drinks!!! But we obviously didn't do *everything* that a 3 yo would do, because she just wasn't interested in, say, the cylinders, and she already knew how to count, so we started math just from where she was using a small set of bead bars.
I think one of the things I have to work on more since we started late is attention span. Then again, if we'd had a more organized and consistent approach from when I started trying to implement Montessori about 2 years ago, we'd probably be farther along in attention area, too.
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Starting with an older child...
