Practical life and school organization all in one

I happened to find a book shelf that was formerly in a used book store. The wood was good, but it wasn't all that stable and the baseboard caused a gap between the shelf and the wall. So I decided to turn it into a book case. I added a simple, though not pretty, hardboard back using my electric stapler. Since some of the staples were still a little raised, I decided to call in some help.



More soon!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

On Tuesday a truck pulled up to my house and delivered these:


Inside were 25 other packages


I haven't opened them all but everything seems to have been wrapped with care



More soon, and it has to do with the book case in the background

43 yards

of laminated material.
I've been working on this little by little.


And I do mean that, here's a shot of my Razr phone for scale. There are hundreds of these little things - lots of 3 part cards, plus, the "shapes in real life" set that has over 200 pieces alone.

Preparing for the new school year

-Trying to make cohesive "unit lessons" out of the scramble in my brain
-Cutting 43 yards of laminated materials: Found a local store that has occasional 1/2 off 1st 30 yards
-Trying to come up with solutions to the problems I encountered while making materials last year
-Still waiting on my order from Adena
-Lucky to have found a shelf for materials, but where to put it?
-Waiting on preschool to start so I can have some of my thoughts to myself

I said "Montessori" not "Momtellsittome"

After Mrs. Timemanagement taught me what a Montessori homeschooler does (duh all homeschoolers are Montessori - NOT!) (yeah, what era did I come up in?), I was provided the opportunity to speak my side. Not because of anything directly related to the conference, but because the AJC had a reporter there, who was in that class, sitting in front of me, and because that speaker irritated me. (If you, the reporter, do happen to check in on this blog, forgive me. I can picture you, I picture you telling me your name, and even your ID tag, but I cannot picture your name. Please let me know) I asked her to please remember that not everyone homeschools for religious reasons, not everyone purchases a set curriculum and text books, some of us make our own and are on very small budgets. She seemed interested to hear from someone outside the parameters covered by the Expo. Hopefully she will look into that more and find fodder for the future. Maybe she'll write an article that can reach more parents who are searching for something different for their family but aren't of either the strict scheduler or extreme unschooler varieties. Plus, it's OK if they don't despise the public school system.

Southeastern Homeschool Expo

The last 2 days I attended the Southeastern Homeschool Expo. My opinion afterward is mixed. I got bits of good information here and there but there was a lot that wasn't useful to me. Before I go further, let me just emphasize that last word there: ME. I'm sure it's very helpful to a lot of people. I overheard parts of excited conversations and many of the booths were doing brisk business.
I was aware before going that there were no Montessori vendors nor any Montessori speakers. I went to hear the speakers on organization, lap books, Math-U-See, art and creativity. I also wanted to see what the vendors had that I could use to supplement or substitute for my mainly Montessori approach. For instance, Math-U-See is often used by Montessori homeschoolers, but I didn't know much about it, so I found that class to be very helpful. Others were not so helpful because, as I discovered, they were not titled / described very accurately. Perhaps I would have avoided them if the description were better.
There were some varying opinions on technique, in one organization class the speaker said (paraphrase) "Please don't make your older kids, especially the girls, into Little Mama. If your kids are doing your job, then you need to reassess." While in a time management class the speaker had her kids doing all the cooking, some of the household management, some of the teaching and even some of the dicipline. Both valid views but obviously a person can only find one or the other helpful - although I personally didn't find either of those workshops helpful.
Speaking of the time management workshop... talk about a reminder of reasons to be thankful for your friends and family - let's recreate what happened there:
Speaker: Since we have limited time, I'd like to know a little about you, where you're at; what you need; what you're hoping to learn.
2 other ladies speak up.
I raise my hand and mention / admit Montessori for the first time
Me: I'm just starting out and I'm coming at this from a slightly different angle. I'm mostly doing Montessori and
Speaker: If you're homeschooling then of course you're doing Montessori. {with a slight head shake and a half-roll of the eyes}
Me: Well, no not really, Montessori is child led but what I'm hoping to learn is how to manage school time so I can ensure we cover all the subjects during the week.
[side note: this can be an issue for unit study and lap bookers as well so even in other non-rigid curriculua, you can still get off track]
Speaker: Yeah, sure, of course.
So, what did Mrs. Timemanagement, who is of course using the Montessori method, teach us? That she's had a schedule ready for her children from the time before the first was born, which didn't include child cued feeding as she never nursed at night; that their days are scheduled from 6:30am to 7pm when the children start to go to bed, to 9pm when she goes to bed; that all the kids at least start out on the same subject as eachother everyday; that they follow a pre-planned, purchased curriculum of textbooks and workbooks; that she chooses what they work on; that they use spanking as a punishment if a child repeats a behavior that they have been told 1 time wasn't acceptable. That's all well and good if it works for her, but it is decidedly not Montessori.

Starting Homeschool

Although, my plan last year was to start homeschooling my 3 kids, the eldest in particular, it didn't quite work out like I had envisioned. Some of our lessons and projects did appear here, but the vast majority of them did not. Honestly, I'm jumping into this post without even reading what I wrote previously, so bear with me. AT was going to be in pre-k so I wasn't too stressed about what went awry. We still managed to learn a good deal and she does a lot on her own. Some areas she's beyond kindergarten (or at least at the end of the year level) and others she's coming in right where she's "supposed" to be.
I have the makings of a number of Montessori material going - most of them stalled when I hit some snag or another, as is often the case with me. Sandpaper letters and numerals, fraction circles, flower arranging, 5 senses work, varieties of pouring and transferring, constructive triangles, color cards, 3 part cards and other things to supplement that. I did finally make an order to Adena for items I didn't feel I could make or things that were worth the time and trouble saved to order: both full sets of cylinders, one of the rod sets, brown stair, pink tower, various bead material and some other things I can't recall at the moment.
My younger 2 will be in preschool this year, even though I still don't feel we can fully afford it. I definitely feel like I can't afford to have my attention so divided all day long this year as it's time to officially begin schooling. I will be back here with my projects and links to share. I hope you follow with me, give feedback and maybe even participate either directly or through a little writeup post by me.
Thanks everyone. I'm excited to be back and excited to make the progress I had planned for last year.