A tiny ray of hope!

Those of you who have been following my blog (and my facebook ramblings!) will know that having a 15-month old around while I am trying to present to Addie has been quite a challenge! Bear wants to be involved in everything, touch everything, do everything that Addie is doing. She can be really in to doing something (rarely on her own, but there are moments of individual work), and he will just come in like a tornado and leave devastation in his wake... !

Some times, Daddy will take Bear to work with him, so we can really get in to some work, but he can't do that every day, and the struggles I have been having have really made me question whether or not I can do this home education thing...

However, today there was a tiny ray of hope.

I sat down with Addie to present Open Ended Distance Matching with the Knobbed Cylinders, which she absolutely loved, and along comes Bear... And he absolutely loved it too! Neither of them did the activity 100% as it is written in the album, but there was so much sensorial learning going on! Actually, Bear really surprised me once again with these. Although it is really a work for a 3-year old, he is really good at matching the cylinders to their holes (except the one where it is only the height of the cylinders that changes). He puts them back with no hesitation and very little error. And actually, it was not a disruption this time, it was great to see them working together. OK, so Bear did not get the cylinder that was requested, he went and got another one (and placed it, first time in the correct hole regardless of which cylinder it was), but Addie was really good at selecting the correct cylinders too, and we went through all of the cylinders, doing both the Open-Ended and Closed-Ended presentations because they loved this game! I was pleasantly surprised and the tiniest ray of hope started to come through... I managed to capture some of this on camera, but I have realised as I added the photos that I actually don't have any of the main work they did, just that difficult 4th block and also the last block we did when we started to lose interest...!

Bear is really good at realising when he has made a mistake - he recognised that the cylinder he did put in was in the wrong hole, and corrected himself - something I have only noticed from looking at these pictures as I write this post!

Addie did some more work on her lifecycles today... Here she is getting her Insect Lore Life Cycle Stages Frog to kiss 'his picture' on the Tadpole to Frog (Lifecycles) book (I wasn't going to correct her that the frog is a lady frog!)... 

And then Bear and I did some more work together - Rolling a Work Mat and putting it away! So cute! (and after that we got it out again and looked at the Children Around the World pictures together!)

Today was a good day. Tomorrow will be different. Actually we are going to watch the solar eclipse, hopefully at the beach! Onwards and upwards with a tiny ray of hope...

Build it, and it will come

I couldn't really think of a great title for this post, but I think this sums up a little of what I wanted to get across.

One of the main downfalls, in my opinion, of Montessori home education or homeschooling is the lack of other children in the learning community. This is a big thing in Montessori, where children learn in multi-age communities, and often learn skills from observing or being taught by their classmates. At home, this is a lot less possible, and while I have toyed with the idea of opening a co-op in my home (but found that it would probably be too overwhelming as I would possibly become the 'teacher' rather than just another co-op parent) this lack of community has been something that I have been quite sad about at times.

For Addie, in particular, I have felt this could be an issue. As the oldest, she has no older children to observe and learn from. And she is a great observer. One thing that struck me today was that she will probably have to learn from me and what I do. So perhaps I need to be doing a lot more work with the materials myself, as my own work, when she is working. Even the much later stuff, to entice her and show her what the future holds.

Bear, on the other hand, I am not so concerned about... Today, he started doing this, copying his sister!

So, perhaps all is not lost, but the relationship between siblings is going to be a very important one, and one we need to make sure we build on. I know some siblings that never get on and are never close. Luckily, Addie is a natural teacher to Bear, and she loves helping him (far too much quite often!)... so even with presentations I might be tempted to adapt or even skip, I need to make sure I don't and that I do things properly, so that if she has the opportunity to teach, she can do it in the 'right' way. 

So, as the adults, and the main adults affecting our children's education, we must build a solid Montessori environment, in order to best facilitate this as a family of learners, each teaching each other. This reminded me of one of our scriptures: "Organise yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, ...a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." 

Build it, and it will come...

Multi-age classrooms in Montessori

There are many reasons why an authentic Montessori school will have multi-age classrooms, typically with a 3-year age span. Here I will explore these many reasons, because it is normal these days to be separated into classes based on one year/age group.

Reason #1: Planes of Development
Through her extensive research, Montessori discovered that children learn in stages, which she called Planes of Development. These are: 

• First plane: 0–6 years (Absorbent Mind)
• Second plane: 6–12 years (Childhood)
• Third plane: 12–18 years (Adolescence)
• Fourth plane: 18–24 years (Young Adult)   (source: NAMC)

and can be broken down even further like this, which reflects how classes should be organised:

• First plane:
• 0–3 years: The child absorbs everything in her environment, subconsciously
• 3–6 years: Child is now conscious of what is being learned
• Second plane:
• 6–9 years: Child has the ability to comprehend. He questions everything. He has a very curious and active imagination. It is the time for creating a personal code of ethics.
• 9–12 years: Child is able to work more abstractly and enjoys BIG works. Inner order takes precedent over external order. Ethics now expands to peers and the world at large.
• Third plane:
• 12–15 years: Puberty
• 15–18 years: Adolescence                                            (source NAMC)

As you can see, generally, children do tend to learn in these 3-year phases (puberty may start earlier for some children, but during 12-15 years they tend to display similar learning traits and behaviour, so this is more related to that than the actual physical changes that are happening). It seems as if it is what nature intended...

Reason #2 - Every child is different

Every child is different, and they may not all develop at exactly the same time. The 3-year classroom will contain many children at all different levels as well as ages. This is fine because Montessori is an individual curriculum, and many of the lessons are conducted either on a 1-2-1 basis or in small groups of the same level or interest. So a child's self-confidence is not knocked because they are 'behind' or 'struggling'. They are given the freedom to take their time, or progress more quickly depending of their grasp of the topic or lesson being taught. Some children learn to be fluent phonic readers in 2 weeks! Some take a lot longer. If a child shows no interest in learning something when they are first taught it, then it is left for a later time, which is fine. All children will eventually learn it, because it is a natural thing for them to do, especially when surrounded by other children who are also learning.

Reason #3 - Progress is made within each of the 3 years of each cycle

Each year within a Montessori classroom is significant, and it is important that a teacher recognises the aims of that year within the classroom. The first year is a foundation year, where they are taught new things based on that stage of development. In the second year they practice and explore these concepts and lessons, and in the third year they are consolidated and applied. Higher level thinking skills are formed, in preparation to move on to the next stage, which is why it is important not to rush a child through this stage, mistakenly believing that they are ready to progress.

(Source: NAMC)

In this third year also, a child can develop leadership skills and other skills as they are able and encouraged to teach and support the learning of younger children. Once these skills are developed, they start the foundation stage of the next plane of development or sub-plane.

(NB. I would argue with the diagram that the ages given are a year out, but it is a good diagram anyway!)

These are 3 of the main reasons. I will add more as I have the time to think of them!

Every child has a huge potential if we let them develop it!

I tend to spend a lot of time (probably way too much) surfing the internet looking at educational things that inspire me. I came across a homeschooling website, and it had some examples of self-directed work that children had done. This is not necessarily Montessori work, but I love the way it demonstrates how a child can really get their teeth into something they love and learn at the same time, without the constraints of a prescribed and timed curriculum. If they are given the freedom to learn, look what they can produce! Here is an example of Ella, aged 9, who undertook a year long study on foxes, completely her own choice, and produced so many wonderful things including a 30-page Fox Encyclopaedia which she word processed. Think of all the skills she has developed in that one year.

http://pbhkids.tumblr.com/post/55635090139/fox-encyclopedia-by-ella-age-9

The skills I can think of are:

Zoology - study of animals, their habitats, different types of foxes, lifecycles, habitats, endangered species (if you look closely she includes this information on her pages)

Geography - where animals come from, the biomes/continents they live in

Language skills - writing a table of contents, alphabetisation, the format of books, note taking etc

Practical skills - word processing, book binding, using a scanner, typing skills, referencing and citing references, research skills, sewing, decision making, presentation skills

Art - sewing, using clay, photography

There are probably loads more that haven't automatically come to mind, but how amazing is that? This is what is possible in Montessori elementary (primary in the UK, or ages 6-12 approx)... I can't wait for this time!

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)...