Time is going by so quickly!! It's already Nov. 11, Remembrance Day. We watched the video "Pittance of Time" in honour of the day and all the people who have fought and continue to fight for us. I think of the local soldiers who have been killed the past few years overseas. I never thought about this type of stuff as a kid and wonder what sort of effect those school assemblies actually have on kids!!
As for homeschooling, we had a bit of a slow week, yet it was still better. My work expectations for the 12yo have been clearer, so he's been doing more. I have my planning done and know what's coming next with him. The presentations idea hasn't been happening too much, but part of it is because I'm finding a clash between personality and materials/presentations. Maria Montessori noticed that some children never felt the need to touch any of the materials or sit in on presentations. There just seems to be such an avoidance on his part of working with hands-on things. Which is so ironic because he touches everything else!
With dd, the Around the World work has been keeping in her busy and she's been a little less moody with things. I think she has been craving a little more structure and now getting it, she's a little more relaxed. This is good. She still has choice, but not everything is undecided.
I haven't yet finished my first lapbook. It's taking forever. I'm being a perfectionist about it instead of just putting it together as a model for the kids. Okay, I will finish it this weekend. There. Done.
I still feel a bit like we're behind. Especially with the 15yo. And I'm feeling guilty because I feel like I need to put my foot down more and insist on the work times. Which I will definitely be doing Tues.-Thurs. this week as the two oldest are not here on Monday and we are going to a career fair on Friday, which does count as a school trip and they will have things to do for it, but it means that much less time for the 15yo to work on her math and social studies and all that. Especially her social studies. She wanted to have it all done by the end of January. We're 2 months into the semester with her textbooks and she hasn't even finished the first of six themes. I'm going to have to find a way to speed things up a bit. I had hoped to take a more interesting approach, but it's not working and she'd rather just have it all done. So, I'll help her just get it all done.
Okay, good to have some thoughts out. Now I need to go do some cleaning. :D
3 comments:
"Montessori noticed that some children never felt the need to touch any of the materials or sit in on presentations."
Can you remember where you read about this? I'd be interested to read how Montessori assisted children's learning in this situation. My children do use the materials happily but one of my children (11yo Josiah) only wants to do everything once. That's usually fine: he masters the concept when it's introduced, and it is reinforced when new concepts are introduced that rely on it.
On occasion though, I think practice would be advantageous to him. I invent games and puzzles to provide him with practice but they're not always satisfactory. I'd be interested to hear what MM did when children didn't want to use the materials.
Unfortunately, Lisia, I don't know where it actually comes from nor if there's more information available. It was one of the quotes that would appear on Don Jennings's site.
Thank you. Never mind, I'll keep an eye out for references to this issue.
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