Montessori Homeschooling - Day 7

Budsy kept lessons simple on Day 7 of homeschooling. Budsy had lots to do around the house.

We revised the four objects we have used for the last 3-period lesson.

(1) fan
(2) float
(3) frog
(4) fish

Introduction to riddles!

My skin is wet, my legs are strong,

They help me hop and swim along.

To catch a meal, I leap up high,

And wrap my tongue around a fly.

Who am I?

Budsy went deeper into the frog object by introducing the life cycle of the frog. Lil' dragon_boi loved working with the life cycle kit. He asked for Budsy to read the book on the frog, a couple more times after lesson was over. When Budsy left the materials to cook, Budsy could hear him trying to retell the story on his own using the kit. 

We carried out the worksheet on the life cycle of a frog which was similar to the one we did on the life cycle of a butterfly. The boys did good. 

Budsy helped them with their frog craft for the day, to make it more 3-dimensional. We all thought the frog looked really cute. 

Lil' dragon_boi was absorbed with the frog craft and the life cycle kit, so Budsy continued the day's lesson with chubs.

We carried out the Spindle Box activity and followed up with the next few worksheets for the Spindle Box Booklet. Chubs can cut more confidently now, so he said he wanted to cut out the pictures of the spindles himself. He did well and pretty quickly too. Looks like his fine motor is improving as each day goes by. Budsy is thankful.

We sang the frog song we learnt from YouTube and the boys hopped along with the song, together with their frog craft.

When hubs came home shortly after we were finished with our lesson for the day, the boys couldn't wait to tell him about the stuff they learnt.

As Budsy went to the kitchen, Budsy heard chubs saying, "Dad... Dad... I learnt about frogs in school today from my teacher!"

Hubs asked, "School? Wow! Who's this teacher?"

"It's mommy's school and mommy's the teacher, dad! We had so much fun in school today..."

Budsy smiled as the boys rattled on about their day with their father. Another awesome day of homeschooling. 

Montessori Homeschooling - Day 6

At Budsy's, we move on to letter sound /f/ to kickstart our second week of homeschooling.

Good mainstream preschools normally select a theme for a month or term (3 months) for integration of lessons. These themes can be different categories of animals like zoo animals, ocean creatures, rainforest animals, pets, prehistoric creatures and a host of other animal categories.

Themes can also be adapted from good story books for children like from popular authors like Eric Carle, Eric Hill or Julia Donaldson. Story themes mirror our primary schools' language programme called STELLAR.

See here for post on STELLAR programme. 
> http://budsjuice.blogspot.sg/2013/04/stellar-programme-primary-1.html

Themes can also be about countries, people, numbers and the list is honestly endless. The sky is the limit to your creativity. A plethora of ideas are sprawled over the internet be they from blogs, educational websites, Pinterest and more.

Selecting a theme for our young Montessorians however, includes not just in the academic sense of lessons. Lessons are holistically planned so our children can learn both soft skills and the needed academic requirements.

The 5 areas in Montessori Education are :-
(1) Practical Life
(2) Sensorial
(3) Cultural & geography
(4) Language
(5) Mathematics

It takes more detailed planning to incorporate the essence of Montessori into our lessons, especially since we cater to mixed group of children; in age and abilities. This is why Montessori caters for individual curriculum. Unlike mainstream schools that group children by their age (the year they were born), we believe every one of our young Montessorians, has a different pace and there is no need for conformity in a Montessori classroom.

There may be group presentations where children congregate like for story telling sessions, music and movement and some Montessori presentations. However, directresses observe each young Montessorian on their pace of learning. There will be a specific order of activities in each child's individual check list where Montessori directresses detail their development and their individual progress.

This is precisely why Montessori education is wonderful. Each child is respected as an individual and allowed the freedom to progress at his own time. This allows them to develop confidence, gives a positive capacity for learning and most times the non-threatening learning environment helps them accelerate in their progress. The small class size in Montessori is an equally wonderful advantage.

For chubs and lil' dragon_boi, they currently big enjoy awesome class size and due to this advantage, they have opportunities to do even more if they want to.

As much as possible our home lessons will centre around the 5 areas of Montessori Education, so Budsy can replicate the holistic learning programme carried out in Montessori schools.

Here are the activities we did on Day 6 of homeschooling. As usual, Budsy will put the pictures up first and share the details of the lessons during the day. Where possible, Budsy will also share craft templates, worksheets and other activities as well, should time permit. Look out for them either in the comments or in the accompanied descriptions to the photos. For now, here's sharing the work we've done. 

We used 4 objects for today's 3-period lesson.

(1) fan
(2) float
(3) frog
(4) fish

Chubs was able to read fan effortlessly. He used his knowledge on phonetic sounds to try reading the other three words. Very pleased.

Budsy used this template to create this fish tank. Chubs used paint to colour the tank and the fish. Once dry, Budsy laminated the template and cut out the fish bowl for counting activities. You can also clip paper clips on the fish and make a magnetic fishing rod to play fishing game with this craft.

Budsy used this template to create this number puzzle game. Chubs used paint for this craft as well. Once dry, it was laminated and cut into vertical strips. Very easy game and can be used for bigger numbers as well. Control of error is when the last strip does not match/complete the picture of the fish.

You may print this Rainbow Tracing worksheet for your children to carry out tracing activities just like chubs and lil' dragon_boi! 

The boys reinforced their knowledge on the names of the parts of a fish using our Montessori cultural puzzles. 

We love these puzzles very much!

Budsy had to run some errands at the market, so Budsy brought the boys down to see the fish. They had fun distinguishing the different parts of a real fish!

Budsy got the boys to carry out their worksheets after they worked with the puzzle of a fish. If you'd like to replicate similar lessons with your children or your students, you are welcome to print these off for your personal use; either to create your own DIY puzzle of a fish or to make them like activity worksheets. Enjoy!

We went down to a neighbourhood pet store to look at the array of fish offered as pets. Chubs was somewhat horrified each time a fish came near the glass so it was just lil' dragon_boi and Budsy, who went in to check the pet store out. 

Montessori Homeschooling - Day 5

We wrapped up the first week of homeschooling with a library trip. We picked up some books that reinforced the letter sound /c/. 

These Little Dino books were the perfect books to end our first week. Budsy introduced a new word to the children... /c/ as in /c/-haracter.

Budsy explained the meaning of this big word in simple terms that the boys could relate to, that character meant :- the way someone thinks, feels, and behaves, someone's personality. In short, this word describes the moral qualities that are distinctive in a person.

Character building is an important trait to nurture in our young children and it is during these formative years, that good values can be more easily inculcated.

The Little Dino books were a big hit with the boys! Firstly, they love dinosaurs. Secondly, the books were wonderfully illustrated. Thirdly, the story lines were simple and humorous (read:silly) and the boys sure love these kind of silly books. The examples were also presented in ways the boys were able to relate to in real life. They loved these books so much, they even said goodbye to Little Dino before putting them into the return slots at the library's book drop. 

Little Dino's good practices rubbed off on the boys quite a bit, for during our trip to the playground after that library visit, Budsy observed chubs being a little gentleman.

It's natural to see a few rowdy kids at the playground. Chubs didn't like their shoving around and their screaming at other children whom they thought were in their way. One boy shouted at his lil' dragon brother and that boy also gave his brother, a little shove. Chubs went up to the boy and said to him, "It's not nice to push people. We can share this playground and take turns."

The rowdy, elder boy looked at chubs and said to him. "Why do you care?"

Budsy merely observed this scenario and held back against the will to intervene. It's not easy to keep quiet when you see your own children being the subject of bullying... honestly. However, it is important to give opportunities for our children to first try to deal with their children problems themselves, without an adult intervening on their behalf all the time. These opportunities are life skills for our children.

Chubs put his arm around his little brother and told the elder boy nicely. "Because, he's just a baby. That girl is a baby too." Pointing to another child who was also pushed.

"No pushing and shoving at the playground and this little baby boy - he's my brother." Chubs explained, whilst putting an arm around his brother's shoulders.

The elder boy said sorry to chubs and told his friends in a loud voice. "Eh, watch out for babies when running." There were mumbled "okay la... okay la..." in the background and everyone continued playing... a wee bit nicer than earlier.

When chubs announced that we should all go home, Budsy asked him why not play a little longer.

"Baby kept falling down and hurting himself because the boys are still not careful. It's not nice to play like this. Let's go to a different playground or we can come here again on another day, mom. It's okay."

Our babies... they are growing up much faster than we think.

At home in the evening, we worked with our construction toys for a while before winding down for bed. The boys were able to relate the /c/ sound : /c/ as in /c/-instruction. 

We have this thing we do before turn in for the night. We reflect. The children and Budsy will reflect on the day's activities, the day's highs and lows... Budsy would start off by asking what everyone thought about how our day went. After which, we count the little blessings we have that day.

It could be simple things like, we were thankful for great weather so we could go out and play or have a swim... Or, we were thankful for a good meal at the restaurant... Or, it could be, for just having one another.

When we said our prayers before bed time, lil' dragon_boi said, "Today, chubs took care of me at the playground, right mommy?" "Yes, he did and mommy's really proud. You two are brothers and it's nice that you are looking out for each other."

Then, chubs quipped, "I didn't know how I did it, but I just did. I was brave ya, mommy?"

Budsy replied, "Yes, you were brave indeed. Were you actually a little scared then?"

"At first, yes. But I just wanted to take care of my baby brother. So, I just said it. The boy said sorry to me but he was still doing the rough things. Never mind, we can play there another time with baby, right mommy?"

........ and the three of us snuggled up for bed.

Homeschooling; to Budsy, is more than just academics and exploring about the world. There are soft skills we can teach our children when they are this young. They can absorb our teachings and the words we say are worth in gold.

Montessori education includes Social Grace & Courtesy by the way. It's wonderful how incorporating sound values and graciousness is part of the Montessori Method of Education. Which is precisely why it has been quoted that Montessori is not merely for academic pursuits but it is a form of learning for life itself.

So, friends... That was the wonderful end to our simple day of homeschooling.