- chosen a nursery for Addie to attend one day a week which is a mix between Montessori, Reggio Emilia and Forest School. Actually, the kids tend to spend 90% of their time outside which is the main reason we have chosen this particular nursery, and actually if it didn't exist, we wouldn't be putting Addie in nursery at all to be honest. She will get some good socialisation though, which is a great benefit, and it is all supported by Montessori undercurrents and the environment will be familiar as there are materials on the shelves that will also be around the house too.
- the whole drinking from a cup did not happen! My fault, it was too messy! That is an awful thing for a Montessori teacher to say, but I guess many mummies think the same... That is one thing we have had to really analyse and look at is how we can actually support Addie in a Montessori way and take a step back every now and then. It isn't that she isn't loved or given affection. However, we have had to realise that if we are asking her to do something, only one of us should be doing that, not both at the same time (although sometimes backup is needed!). Also, not to distract her when she is concentrating. It is so much harder to not interrupt your own child than a child in a nursery. I kept interrupting her to ask for cuddles, or if she was ok, or if she needed something. She didn't! I did! If she needed something, then I would soon know about it, so we have had to just observe, and leave her in whatever activity she is doing, unless she is about to hurt herself or damage something.
- it is never too early to start disciplining a child. I do not mean with a cane or beating her! I mean she needs to learn the consequences of her actions, and if she bites (she does that when she is teething) she needs to say sorry, and she cannot do anything else until she has apologised (a kiss). If she throws things on the floor, like yesterday at my Gran's house she just started to wreck a pile of papers she had on a low surface, she needs to pick them up. I know what she can and cannot do, but I would rather she did not have help in this, because then she will always expect to not be able to do something herself. If she doesn't get it quite right, but does it all, then that is what matters, and I can always correct it when she is not there or without her noticing. This fits in with the Montessori work cycle, where a child chooses what they are going to do, they do the activity and then they are equipped with the skills to be able to put that activity away themselves, and completing the full cycle of work. It is never too early to begin that (although at first this is a challenge I have found!).
- Over the past weeks, I have introduced several activities to Addie. In a way, I think she isn't quite ready to do the things I have given her to do, although perhaps I am being a little harsh seeing as she has never done them before and has never seen them done either. I will keep at it, and see how we go.
- We have decided that we will formally start schooling Addie on 16th September this year! We want to get into a routine, and with her starting nursery on Mondays, this will be a good preparation for her to get used to not playing with her other toys all the time, and to start doing more challenging things. She needs it. She is getting bored very quickly and wanting to do bigger things, so we need to provide an environment for her to do that. The things we are preparing are:
- the house. In fact, the whole downstairs! We need to make it function as a home, but I also want it to be a Montessori prepared environment too. We have a designated classroom, but if we want to have a whole range of activities, it isn't really big enough for our needs. Also, how can you explain to a 17-month old that she cannot go into the lounge and other areas of the house for so many hours every day? It is her home, and we are home educating, so we have decided that the home needs to be a place of learning, not just one room. So... we are adding some additional shelves into our lounge (a good excuse to go back to IKEA!) so we can use it for language exposure/lessons when she is older. Our dining room already has a collapsible table, so we are rearranging it so that during the day it can be put away and there is a good space for Art and nature stuff - we will attempt to grow plants, have a nature table etc in there, which is great because it has the patio doors as the whole of one wall, and Addie loves looking at the birds and other things in our garden!
The most logical place for practical life is the kitchen. It has the right flooring, and we have a redundant shelf we can use for activities, as well as a matching shelf we aren't really using in the office. We have also bought some toddler tables and chairs (one of each for each room) so Addie has her own surface. The only problem is that in IKEA (I love that place!) they seemed to be more her height, and now we have got them home, they are a little high (she cannot stand on the floor and do stuff easily on the tables, but can get onto the chair and then all is fine).
In the actual classroom we will have 3 different areas seeing as this room is the one where it is all school stuff. Sensorial (an area with materials to develop a child's senses), Maths (many Sensorial materials are later used in maths anyway), some science, geography and history (these all combine to an extent later in the curriculum). She is too young to have these areas yet, but at 2.5yrs she won't be, so we will just be introducing ideas and concepts at this stage, planting seeds for the next stage in her development.
We have (well, I have, because I am in charge of schooling we have decided!) chosen to be very organised. This is something we are really not good at at all, but Addie needs a sense of order in the learning environment, and also the home, and I feel for that to happen, I need to feel super organised too. Now many homeschool parents may or may not disagree with me, but I am planning quite a rigid learning plan for our homeschool. I think I will put these in another post, because this is already a long blog post! So check out my next one for those plans!
I will also add the photos of Addie I have taken over the last weeks of her doing various things, and I am intending as part of me being organised, that I will be using this blog to record her progress for family to see.
Til next time!
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