Montessori Mummy: July 2013

Thursday, 25 July 2013

Montessori in adolescence...

OK so I know it is a long way off, but I know very little about Montessori in adolescence. I found this video today which talks about themes that run through Montessori in the high school years, and I think it is fascinating. It does show how students can learn so much from one concept, something that is introduced to them in the primary (elementary) years. I am going to read a bit more about these 'themes' as all other material I have read has not mentioned it at all, but I like it and imagine if we could offer our kids this... amazing!

Tuesday, 23 July 2013

Montessori Work Cycles

I wanted to write a short blog post about work cycles and how they form a big part of the Montessori method.

A work cycle normally lasts 2.5-3 hours long, and there can be one in the morning, and one in the afternoon in a Montessori setting. These are the lesson times. Seem long? They probably do to be honest, and most people I speak to are shocked to learn that this is the length of lessons. However, there is a BIG difference... Within each work cycle, children can do many different things... They can:

Be presented lessons on a 1-to-1 basis by the teacher
Practice those lessons as long as they want to (so they are not rushed to finish something to move on to something else, they can carry on as long as they need to, and sometimes this can be for hours!)
Practice lessons they have already been taught - they independently choose to do this from the materials on the shelves which are always available.
Have a group lesson on a particular subject
Help themselves to a snack and drink when they want to (children are not always hungry or thirsty when break time comes around at school - this way they can regulate their own needs)
Be talking to friends or watching other children working
Teaching a younger child how to do something
Resting or sleeping
Taking a toilet break

This means that in a 3 hour period, a child may have done maths, language work, art work, geography, science, history, had a snack, read a book, had a rest and been involved in some group work. Another child may have spent the whole time practising his or her maths skills!

I love the idea of work cycles - they give children something mainstream schools don't give - time. Time to learn, to digest, to ask questions, make mistakes, correct mistakes and practice what they learn. If they need more time to learn something, they can have it. They do not have to move on when the rest of the class does, or when it is dictated to them. If they need to do multiplication over and over and over, they can. And particularly with the maths materials, children get so engrossed in using them, I once taught a child who used the Montessori bead material (I will get round to explaining this at some stage) to practice skip counting and his times tables for the WHOLE DAY! He loved it, was so proud and happy with what he had done, and so excited to tell his mum, who then brushed off his amazing achievement as 'oh that's nice'... (charming!)

Anyway, yes, the work cycles allow for that time, they allow the children to choose what they will do next, they create their own learning paths, under the direction and constant observation of the teacher (who makes sure they get a good variety and are always getting introduced to new things when they are ready to learn them)...

Addie's new bedroom

We wanted Addie to have some independence in her bedroom, and also to put her into a bed way before the baby comes, so she doesn't think we have evicted her from her cot to make way for the next baby... So, we went to Ikea (my favourite place at the moment!) and bought her a bed and a very small cabinet with small drawers in it for her clothes (2 of each thing maximum, so she can 'choose' what she wears, but it is a controlled choice for now). We also moved a 5-square IKEA cabinet we already had in the lounge upstairs to act as a surface for her. We have decided to do a toy rotation so downstairs she has some toys, and the rest are in her bedroom. We will change these around from time to time, although she has hardly played with any of the things she already has - she loves new, more challenging stuff so as soon as we get back from our holiday new things will start to emerge anyway, even before the official September start date.

Daddy put the bed up, and took down the cot, with Addie in the room, so she was involved - she loved it and we have had no problems getting her into her new bed, and she has, so far, stayed in it! She can, however, get out of her bed and come into our room if she wants or needs to, as our doors are directly opposite. We have a stair gate after our doors to restrict her from going in to the bathroom and other bedrooms when we are asleep!

Here are the pics (I have included many, because these were taken over a considerable amount of time, and it was great to see her so interested and involved):

She then took 4 small screws and did something really cool...

She started putting them in the hole of her toy... This was very impromptu, but she carried on for about 20 minutes doing the same thing over and over!

And then the bedroom was ready! We will add a few more things on this shelf, as well as some artwork and pictures in the room

Here you can see the small drawers we will put her clothes in for now. I think this area needs a little mirror for her too, so will get one soon.... Ignore the wires - they are gone now!

Great Post: Weaving the Cosmos

I just read this great blog post, which got me thinking and it also highlights the greatness of Montessori. Read it here: http://radicalmontessori.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/weaving-cosmos.html

Our Homeschool Plans

OK so I said in a previous post earlier today that I need a sense of order in my plans to home educate Addie! I am one of the world's most disorganised and untidy people! In terms of keeping the house tidy, both Martin and I would prefer to spend time doing family stuff or busy working, so it tends to get put on the backburner. Also, we have an unoffical routine where Martin works, I research Montessori materials and Addie plays independently with her toys. I take my family shopping sometimes, or go to visit my Mum, my aunt etc...

We need to have strict rules and set times for 'school' and to get us all into a routine, I believe now is the best time to start, so we all get used to the idea!

I have told everyone that from September 16th, we will have school every morning, Monday to Friday. I know some homeschoolers learn as and when, or 'unschool', some only do a couple of days a week, some follow school terms, some do their own thing. This is what we have decided will work for us:

- We will have school from 8am to 12pm (4 hours) Monday to Friday. This will give us time for a full work cycle, as well as scripture study and a possible nap for Addie. This time will be fully Montessori, structured in the way that is appropriate for her plane of development (I will explain this later for those of you who are not aware of these). I think that having a set time is good because it gives boundaries, encourages timekeeping, creates a solid routine for all of us (which is really good for Addie's development of order). It is also something that our families will also learn - before 12pm (unless for a very good reason) we are not available, and school comes first. A friend also does this and I think it seems to work well.

I feel that 4 hours a day is plenty of time to cover school stuff, and we will maintain this number of school hours until age 12 at least... If you think that kids are normally at school for 6 hours anyway, with about 90 minutes of breaks, and also hardly any of the classroom time is spent 1 to 1 with children, then 4 hours will be enough to cover what we need, and Addie will get complete 1 to 1 attention. We will have lunch from 12 to 1, when Daddy will join us, and then in the afternoon we will either go out, visit family, or do something else. If Addie wants to carry on any class work, then it is always there for her to use, so in essence, learning will take place after school hours anyway.

Check out my post on work cycles which will follow soon after this post, to see what we will be doing in the 4 hours of school.

- We will start school in September (the Monday closest to the 15th). I want us to be able to follow very loosely the school year, but we believe as a family, and also in our church, that education is an ongoing process that happens all the time. For that reason, we won't be having half terms and terms. What we will do instead is the following:

We will have 5 periods of learning which will be strict school periods. Each will be 7 weeks long, and in each one we will study a specific topic (obviously the depth of that study will depend on how old the kids are!)
Between September and Christmas will be 14 weeks of study, so we will cover 2 different topics. We won't have a half term, because we will be at home anyway, and only doing school for half days. There is a lot of room for rest, fun, play anyway. Obviously we will see how things go, but this is the plan.
We will have 2 weeks off over the Christmas period, and will focus on the meaning of Christmas and our goals for the new year.
We will start back in early January, probably around the same time as schools will. We will have 2 more periods of 7 weeks of study, and in 2014, I think this works out so that we finish in time for Easter. If, when Easter is early, school is still in session, we will have the Friday and Monday off to celebrate Easter and carry on around it.
After these 14 weeks, we will have a week to go to the Temple, and to visit some places of interest.
Then it is back to school for another 7 weeks for the final 'session'. This means we should finish in early June, and when Addie is older, we will look to add a week of practising to take exams and tests, because we feel this is an important skill she needs to develop, but not straight away, maybe when she is 8 or 9...
We will then have 14 weeks over the summer to be more relaxed about learning (although learning will still take place). We can take advantage of holidaying outside of school holidays, and save some money! These 14 weeks over the summer will probably be just keeping up reading, writing and maths skills when she is older, and a broad topic or 2, like 'the beach' or 'America' if we happen to go there etc!
If we happen to want to go on holiday during the school sessions, we will just take school with us! And travelling is an education in itself anyway - so it is good we have that flexibility!

- Record keeping will be a big part of our homeschool, because it is in Montessori anyway. I have actually also read a little about how documentation is used in Reggio, and I think I have always mixed the two anyway, but we will probably do this. At the end of every school year, we will produce a year book with examples of work, progress, photos, etc. We will also use either our own spreadsheets to keep records, or Montessori Workspace which is free and seems to be a good resource. I haven't decided fully yet, but either way I need to enter all the curriculum into a computer anyway!

- We will study 5 school session topics and 2 summer session topics a year. Later on, this will fit in well with the study of the Five Great Lessons taught in Montessori. Until Addie is ready for those (we may expose to the topics anyway earlier than normal) we will do topics we feel will be relevant to her at the time. So, for the 2103/14 academic year, our topics are (specific areas of study in brackets):

Animals (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, other invertebrates) - we will visit a farm, an aviary, a reptile centre, the local aquarium, etc.
Light (fireworks at Bonfire night, candles, torches, shadows, colouring light, Christmas lights)
All about me (Me, my family, what I can do, Going to nursery, Birthdays, Valentines Day, Photos)
Plants (looking at plants, digging a garden, planting a garden, fruit, vegetables, flowers, trees)
Transportation (planes, cars, bus, train, boat, bicycle, walking - all with experiences of these and we are planning to fly to Greece in June)
Summer - The outdoors (parks, beaches, beaches, forest, farms, zoo, beach - all with visits!)
Summer - Water (lakes, land & water forms, sink & float, water fun, the Airshow, Rivers, Solid & Liquid)

These are mainly our plans. Daddy and I also have plans for running the house, including who's washing to do on what day, how we need to do stuff to make sure the house is ready for school every morning, but also ready for home stuff, like dinner etc when we need it, etc... It is all trial and error for the first year or 2, but we shall see how these go....

What Addie has been up to...

Here are some pictures taken over the last couple of months... nature walks, painting, water play, reading, drawing... mainly by an almost-naked baby because it has been so hot recently!

Nature walk - she loved this!