Although I have actually started things, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I don't know how to turn the house into a classroom as far as materials are concerned. But then, I have that kind of problem with my life / house in general. I'm also really good at starting things and not so good at finishing them. I'm worried this endeavor will succumb to that habit. Feeling overwhelmed is the start of it. Lack of organization is the main reason for feeling overwhelmed.
I have been doing little lessons here and there with the kids, mainly the girls, even though I haven't been able to post here so often as I planned. I haven't studied much on the baby level Montessori so I don't know if what I do with AK qualifies. Mostly just talking to him constantly and describing everything. This is your shirt, a blue shirt. - Do you want up? Up high - those type things.
Anyway, I can't seem to pull it together enough to do a full session yet. Access to materials is kinda key to that and we don't have it. Correction, I haven't made it. We'll see. I am really interested, in theory, in home school, but I don't know if I've got what it takes.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Long Blog Absence
I haven't posted in quite some time, but I haven't been attending to the internet as much in general for the past few weeks. The main reasons for this are being way more busy than usual and/or being sick. Another area that has seen a major time investment is reading. I finally got my turn with the good Montessori books from my library. A few of them weren't very helpful to me, unfortunately they were the ones I read first. Others may find them helpful so I won't mention them here so as to not bias you. However, I have also found a few to be greatly helpful. Those are Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Pre-School Years by Elizabeth G. Hainstock, How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way by Tim Seldin and the one I'm reading now, Basic Montessori: Learning Activities for Under-Fives by David Gettman.
I'm also continuing to make materials. Today, 2 of my friends, who will be joining us on occasion, came and helped me assemble some 3 part cards and some environment matching cards. After some investigation and trial and error, I decided to mount the print-outs (mainly from montessorimaterials.org) onto the printed side of cereal boxes. I don't really have the monetary resources to laminate everything and it is still pretty flimsy when laminated. The current style of index card is barely thicker than regular paper so that didn't work either. This is how I came to cereal boxes. I put them on the printed side so the backs would be as plain as possible.
Other than that, I've been going to various stores looking for supplies and gathering things. I still don't know how I'm going to do the classroom set-up or where I'm going to keep things. I'll let you know when I figure it out.
I'm also continuing to make materials. Today, 2 of my friends, who will be joining us on occasion, came and helped me assemble some 3 part cards and some environment matching cards. After some investigation and trial and error, I decided to mount the print-outs (mainly from montessorimaterials.org) onto the printed side of cereal boxes. I don't really have the monetary resources to laminate everything and it is still pretty flimsy when laminated. The current style of index card is barely thicker than regular paper so that didn't work either. This is how I came to cereal boxes. I put them on the printed side so the backs would be as plain as possible.
Other than that, I've been going to various stores looking for supplies and gathering things. I still don't know how I'm going to do the classroom set-up or where I'm going to keep things. I'll let you know when I figure it out.
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