I love the ability to "do school" anywhere. We had about a 45 minute drive home from a playdate the other day. Just a few minutes into the drive, Nugget started figuring out and talking about various addition facts (up to 5). So I picked the thread up and we chatted about those for a while. Then we moved on to the 5+x facts that RightStart Math emphasizes. We made a little game out of both. Then we reviewed odds and evens, then Nugget decided to count to 100. THREE TIMES. By the time she'd finished that, we were almost home -- and math was done for the day!
Friday, August 19, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
In a rhythm
We've settled into a really nice rhythm for the last month or so. I've been quiet because, although this is working really well for us, it isn't the creative sort of homeschooling that makes for good blogging. I thought I'd share where we are right now, anyway.
The way we've worked homeschool time into our schedule is during Sprout's nap. He goes down just before lunch these days; Nugget and I eat together and usually start working toward the end of our meal. We get homeschool time in nearly every day; I'd say we miss 1-2 days a week because of being out-and-about or deciding to curl up with a chapter book instead. But we don't take official days off -- if we're home and in the mood, we do work, even on the weekends.
We're still focusing on the three main subjects. In reading, we're at lesson 60 or so in "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", and we're about to start Unit 4 of the Moffat Girls' phonics program. Nugget reads through the stories in "TYCtR" without difficulty, and when encouraged, can read through beginning reader books. But, oddly enough, she still hasn't taken off into reading. She still LOVES to be read to and loves to sit and look at books to herself, but she has to be encouraged to actually read something. I figure things will just click someday, and we'll keep going through these programs as long as she's enjoying them and they aren't stressing her out.
In math, we're chugging through Level A of RightStart Math. I'm loving how this is done, and Nugget is picking it up really, really well. She's having a bit of a hard time with the geometry, strangely enough, but the number work is falling into place really quickly.
And Handwriting Without Tears is always a favorite. We're nearly done with that, in fact -- another week or so to go. I'm not sure what we'll do when that's done; whether we'll move into the Kindergarten version or take some more time to refine her fine motor. She's doing a LOT of writing in her daily life now -- labeling her drawings, writing cards to people -- and I love seeing her practice reflected in her play.
The way we've worked homeschool time into our schedule is during Sprout's nap. He goes down just before lunch these days; Nugget and I eat together and usually start working toward the end of our meal. We get homeschool time in nearly every day; I'd say we miss 1-2 days a week because of being out-and-about or deciding to curl up with a chapter book instead. But we don't take official days off -- if we're home and in the mood, we do work, even on the weekends.
We're still focusing on the three main subjects. In reading, we're at lesson 60 or so in "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", and we're about to start Unit 4 of the Moffat Girls' phonics program. Nugget reads through the stories in "TYCtR" without difficulty, and when encouraged, can read through beginning reader books. But, oddly enough, she still hasn't taken off into reading. She still LOVES to be read to and loves to sit and look at books to herself, but she has to be encouraged to actually read something. I figure things will just click someday, and we'll keep going through these programs as long as she's enjoying them and they aren't stressing her out.
In math, we're chugging through Level A of RightStart Math. I'm loving how this is done, and Nugget is picking it up really, really well. She's having a bit of a hard time with the geometry, strangely enough, but the number work is falling into place really quickly.
And Handwriting Without Tears is always a favorite. We're nearly done with that, in fact -- another week or so to go. I'm not sure what we'll do when that's done; whether we'll move into the Kindergarten version or take some more time to refine her fine motor. She's doing a LOT of writing in her daily life now -- labeling her drawings, writing cards to people -- and I love seeing her practice reflected in her play.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Supplementing math
Math has been going ok with Nugget. She's got the golden beads down pat, we've done an introduction to golden bead addition, worked with the hundred board a few times, used the number rods to find the various combinations that made numbers from 1-10, and formed teens with beads. She did the work readily enough... asked to "do math" during homeschool time... but wasn't really taken with it.
The other day, a post by Laura (formerly of My Montessori Journey, now of Walnut Hill Homeschool) got me looking at Right Start Mathematics. It's a math program written by a Montessori teacher, but not a traditional Montessori progression. It emphasizes understanding over memorization and working problems mentally (using an abacus as an aide in the beginning). I was really taken with it because it teaches solving problems the way I've learned to do it but NOT how I was taught. Things like "seeing" the numbers up to 5 instead of counting them, learning 6-10 as 5 plus something else, and adding larger numbers by "making 10".
I fell so in love with it that I bought levels A and B (used). We're going to combine it with elements of Montessori to make something that works for Nugget -- and really engages her. I want her to see math as puzzles and patterns instead of just columns of numbers. Yes, memorization of basic facts has its place. But a lot of that comes free with practice (and with the math games that are included with Right Start). I want to make sure she sees the fun and beauty and usefulness in math first.
To that end, I've made sure to watch some of Vi Hart's mathematical doodling videos with Nugget peeking over my shoulder. It's worked -- we've spent the last couple of days drawing "math pictures" on a huge sheet of paper and playing "math games" to color them in.
This is the math that I love!
The other day, a post by Laura (formerly of My Montessori Journey, now of Walnut Hill Homeschool) got me looking at Right Start Mathematics. It's a math program written by a Montessori teacher, but not a traditional Montessori progression. It emphasizes understanding over memorization and working problems mentally (using an abacus as an aide in the beginning). I was really taken with it because it teaches solving problems the way I've learned to do it but NOT how I was taught. Things like "seeing" the numbers up to 5 instead of counting them, learning 6-10 as 5 plus something else, and adding larger numbers by "making 10".
I fell so in love with it that I bought levels A and B (used). We're going to combine it with elements of Montessori to make something that works for Nugget -- and really engages her. I want her to see math as puzzles and patterns instead of just columns of numbers. Yes, memorization of basic facts has its place. But a lot of that comes free with practice (and with the math games that are included with Right Start). I want to make sure she sees the fun and beauty and usefulness in math first.
To that end, I've made sure to watch some of Vi Hart's mathematical doodling videos with Nugget peeking over my shoulder. It's worked -- we've spent the last couple of days drawing "math pictures" on a huge sheet of paper and playing "math games" to color them in.
This is the math that I love!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Our reading program is clicking!
It's been a little over a month since we started using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". It was a slow slog in the beginning, but Nugget was happy to do it every day because it was really just a review of the letter sounds she already knew. When we started to move more into actually reading words, it got harder and she wasn't as enthusiastic. But we stuck with it. And she was doing great! Sounding out words really well. Then the book started emphasizing reading things "the fast way" to start with, and it got tougher. I could tell she was bumping up against her limit.... but I could also see that she almost had it. She resisted pretty strongly for a couple days, we had to repeat one lesson because we stopped in the middle of it.... but then something clicked. And now she really is reading!
It's still pretty basic stories ("We see a duck. We can sit in the sun with that duck. It is fun in the sun."). But she finally seems to be realizing that she can do it. We've worked our way through "Hop on Pop" (with her reading or remembering most of the words, and me helping as necessary), and she's showing an interest in the words around her.
I've decided to start adding in some other reading work to bolster what she's gotten from "Teach Your Child to Read....". Today we started in on the first unit from The Moffatt Girls. I like that it gives her more practice with the sight words that we're already seeing in our phonics book. It's also a nice change -- where "Teach Your Child to Read...." is black-and-white, lesson-on-lesson, this is more like a program you'd see in school with coloring, pasting, singing, etc. Nugget gets a kick out of that sort of thing (although it also distracts her, which is one reason why "Teach Your Child to Read...." has been so effective, if not the most exciting thing).
Can I just say how happy I am that camp is over? She's so much more interested and engaged today, instead of being so drained. We did a ton of homeschool while Sprout was napping, and she's still going strong! In fact, right now she's writing and illustrating her first story!!
It's still pretty basic stories ("We see a duck. We can sit in the sun with that duck. It is fun in the sun."). But she finally seems to be realizing that she can do it. We've worked our way through "Hop on Pop" (with her reading or remembering most of the words, and me helping as necessary), and she's showing an interest in the words around her.
I've decided to start adding in some other reading work to bolster what she's gotten from "Teach Your Child to Read....". Today we started in on the first unit from The Moffatt Girls. I like that it gives her more practice with the sight words that we're already seeing in our phonics book. It's also a nice change -- where "Teach Your Child to Read...." is black-and-white, lesson-on-lesson, this is more like a program you'd see in school with coloring, pasting, singing, etc. Nugget gets a kick out of that sort of thing (although it also distracts her, which is one reason why "Teach Your Child to Read...." has been so effective, if not the most exciting thing).
Can I just say how happy I am that camp is over? She's so much more interested and engaged today, instead of being so drained. We did a ton of homeschool while Sprout was napping, and she's still going strong! In fact, right now she's writing and illustrating her first story!!
"I see a cat."
(Boy, do we need to get moving on that handwriting program! LOL)
(Boy, do we need to get moving on that handwriting program! LOL)
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Handwriting
I've started incorporating another non-Montessori material into our curriculum -- Handwriting Without Tears. Nugget has recently developed an obsession with a wipe-off tracing book that we got her that shows letter formation, and she's been writing her name on her art projects. I love the jump, but I noticed that she wasn't getting very good direction from the tracing book -- for instance, she was making her "X" out of 2 'v's (one right-side up, one upside-down). So I picked up the preschool and kindergarten curriculums of Handwriting Without Tears. We've just started -- doing some crayon grip & scribble exercises as well as playing around with the letter shapes (I didn't buy the wooden ones; the teacher's guide has a pattern and I used craft foam).
This makes 3 core subjects for us. Phonics (via "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"), we do every day FIRM. We're up to lesson 30-something and she's reading two sentence stories in the book. Handwriting I'll be trying to get to every day or every other day, depending on how things are going. Math (following the Montessori progression, currently working on teens formation, the hundred board, and addition with the golden beads and number rods) I try to get to 3-5 times a week.
Last week and this week, Nugget has been attending an art camp at a local Montessori school. It's from 9am-1pm, and she comes home pretty drained emotionally. Because of that, I've backed us off to _just_ phonics on camp days.
We did math today, but it's the first time in a week. She did the hundred board solo (well, with Buzz Lightyear's help). She's been wanting me to "count to the speed limit" or "count to 100" in the car all the time lately, so I figured the hundred board would hit her right in the sensitive period. :) There was quite a push there at the end to make it all the way through, but she did it! (Just in time, too -- Sprout woke up from his nap not a minute later.)
This makes 3 core subjects for us. Phonics (via "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"), we do every day FIRM. We're up to lesson 30-something and she's reading two sentence stories in the book. Handwriting I'll be trying to get to every day or every other day, depending on how things are going. Math (following the Montessori progression, currently working on teens formation, the hundred board, and addition with the golden beads and number rods) I try to get to 3-5 times a week.
Last week and this week, Nugget has been attending an art camp at a local Montessori school. It's from 9am-1pm, and she comes home pretty drained emotionally. Because of that, I've backed us off to _just_ phonics on camp days.
We did math today, but it's the first time in a week. She did the hundred board solo (well, with Buzz Lightyear's help). She's been wanting me to "count to the speed limit" or "count to 100" in the car all the time lately, so I figured the hundred board would hit her right in the sensitive period. :) There was quite a push there at the end to make it all the way through, but she did it! (Just in time, too -- Sprout woke up from his nap not a minute later.)
Teen bead worksheet
I added a file to my Box.net (accessible from the side of this page). We're working on making teens, so I made this coloring/stamping worksheet for Nugget. There are 2 styles; in each, you build the teen from a 10 bar and the bead stair, color the bead stair bar, then stamp (or write) the resulting teen. Hope it's helpful to someone!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Facebook group established
Please join me! On Facebook, search "[redacted -- see below]" and request to join the group. Please post a comment here if you have any trouble! Also, feel free to invite anyone else who's doing Montessori methods in the home environment.
Edited to add: Since a couple of groups came up when searching that name, I changed the name to "Montessorian Moms". Give that a shot!
Edited to add: Since a couple of groups came up when searching that name, I changed the name to "Montessorian Moms". Give that a shot!
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