Montessori Happenings

I meant to write yesterday while everything was fresh on my mind. I think I'm going to forget some of it all!

While my younger niece was down for her nap yesterday, I brought upstairs the cursive Sandpaper Letters, and maybe something else, can't remember. In any case, the 5yo was eager to do the letters. So I picked a couple, she has forgotten how to do "a" :(, but she kept saying words that went with the sounds of the letters, so I went straight to some simple syllables. She decided to go for words. :D

We did "man", first, then something else, then she went straight for "cheval" (horse), because that's her absolute passion. She remembered that 'ch' is /sh/ in French (and I am now thinking I really need at least some large cursive green cards with some of the basic French combination sounds, even if I can't get them made out of sandpaper right away) and did the rest on her own.

Then she wanted to make "achale" (bug, as in, to bug somebody lol), and I told her I only had one 'a', but I might be able to find some other letters for her to make "achale". I managed to find my large cursive movable alphabet letters, all mixed together because I'd never managed to figure out how to make a container for them. I laid them out on the floor, rearranging them as we went along to a layout that was potentially more helpful, and she made a bunch of words that you will see in the pictures. (Pictures now below! I thought she'd done more words than that, but I guess it was just that she picked words that were so complicated for this as a beginning, that it seemed like she had done more!)

Ah, yes, cobra was her second word. I had just read to her a book on snakes and one of

the snakes was a cobra. Interesting how she went for the 'k' for the /k/ rather than

the 'c'! 'Achale' is missing an e, but it's not clearly said, so I can understand

why she built it the way she did.

This is her version of "plafond" ("ceiling"). We don't pronounce the

'd', so of course it's not there! She did have to ask

how to make the 'on' sound.

"Plateforme" was her next word (with her phonetic spelling, which turns out to be 

the English spelling), which she built off of "plafon". She was figuring out 

the sounds and saw that she could just take the pla from her "plafon", 

then as she worked through the word, she ended up using all of the 

letters from her "plafon" except the n, which is why it's still there. lol.

For now, I've got the letters stored in some larger envelopes than just normal envelopes, grouped according to size (short, tall, with "tail") and the letters written on the upper right-hand corner of each envelope. 'F' was not given an envelope--it doesn't fit with the other categories, so I left it out. They are all in a basket.

In any case, there was more that happened after that. Seems to me she did some math, not sure what else. I had the thought that if I could have more Montessori time with her like that, maybe she would turn to the activities more while her sister was awake. And then, just to shoot my tendency to expect immediate change down, the littlest one woke up, came downstairs, and the two were back to their crazy play.

Which brings me to a realization I had today: These two have hit a point where they are not able to interact with each other unless it's through some sort of play. It's kind of sad. They used to do things together or side-by-side, but not anymore. They're either making each other laugh or are just being plain goofy and loud. I actually put a halt to some of it this afternoon, told them they could read or draw or paint together. They continued with the goofiness. I was clearer and said that it had to stop, and they could read, draw or paint together. Eventually, the message became clear and they each found different things to do, but they never did come together again. They are perfectly fine and calm doing the same activities with other people, but together, they get crazy. And it can be either girl instigating it! Definitely something I need to work on. But not now: Ghost Whisperer is starting! ;D

Facilitator meeting done!

To homeschool in Alberta (for all of my non-Albertan readers), a family has to meet a couple of times per year with a teacher from a supervising school board. Nothing fancy, just write down a few things the kids have done, maybe look at some work samples.

I've always had my meetings rather late in the year--end of May or beginning of June. We had ours today, though, and I am REALLY liking how early it is. Why? Well, if it takes place at the end of May or later, then the kids flip into, "We're done!" mode. But, it's only mid-May. We are NOT done. (evil grin)

But that has me thinking about what to do for the next while. I may veer slightly towards a bit more structure and requirements, just to get my 2 working a bit more. Bob has to finish up his course work and study; he'll be done his exams 2nd week of June. That's when we'll be done, I think. After that, it's field trips and outings and baking and cleaning up and stuff like that. So, I still have a few more weeks to keep the others busy with things.


For ds, I think I'm going to go a little more Charlotte Mason for the next while: daily copywork, daily math, daily French spelling/grammar book, daily German; other than that, he can choose from science, geography, art, music, reading... I'll give him a daily form so he can write down what he's done, including whatever reading he does.

I'll take the same idea for dd, but without the daily copywork, and with an additional requirement to write a paragraph (or more) in French each day. For math, I think I'll give her the option to do the math stuff in Life of Fred (she's already read both books, just not actually done any of the math) or to do a worksheet that I'd prepare for her. I've also purchased the Montessori R&D chem and physics manuals, and since she's been working on chemistry, I could start showing some of that to her. So far, she's looked at the first 10 elements of the periodic table--which I should actually be finding ways for her to memorize as she wants to memorize them but needs to use them in some way--and we've talked a bit about what the atomic numbers mean. I know there will be plenty of activities in the manual and she may even come up with some of her own ideas once she gets going.

For my 5yo niece... I realized today I don't think I've ever presented the Golden Beads to her. If I did, it was very long ago and I never followed through. That's something I could work on with her. Her understanding of numerals from 0-12 is very good; I could also introduce her to the Teens Board. And, she has never had the opportunity to make a world map placemat using the puzzle map, so I could also present the Continent Puzzle Map and get her to the point of being able to make a placement.

For 2.5yo niece... I think I really need to start introducing everything I can from Gettman's first period and seeing it where it takes us. Both girls seem to have fallen into ridiculous play and have little attraction to former activities. I haven't really shown them anything new for sometime. I'll have to go through some lists of typical activities, start practising them and get myself ready to show them!

--

Naturally, now that this year is almost done, my mind is already moving ahead to next year. I want to sit down and plan out everybody's year, even though I so often don't follow my plans. *sigh* Maybe it means I need to plan differently.

Life of Fred

Oh my goodness, if you have an upper elementary or older child who has done significant work with basic addition and multiplication facts (ideally, has them mastered, or is close to mastery), I have to recommend Life of Fred. (The first book says addition and multiplication; the website says long division as well. Hm...) We picked up the first two books of the series today after having had the title show up repeatedly recently: I had 2 different people tell me about them, had read about them not too long earlier, and then after I asked a friend if she sold them, more people asked about them (without them knowing I had asked her)! My life is just like that. lol. Although, now I have to wonder if that means I need a lot of hints before I get moving on something. ;)

In any case, Life of Fred is the story of a 5.5yo boy who has different issues over the course of his day and how he incorporates math to help him solvehttp://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html his problems. There are some opportunities to practise what is being taught in the lesson, as well as a recap every so often. You might be thinking, "So what?" Well, they are HILARIOUS! Dd has already read half of the first book and plans on going back later to actually do the math.

This is Fred (my apologies to Stan Schmidt if this is not acceptable, but consider it free advertising! :D):

You can find out more about Fred here:  http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/21Fredstory.html

And some sample pages here: http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/31samplepages.html

Tired Toddlers

Lately, I've been finding the two youngest girls (5yo and 2.5yo nieces) are just kind of crazy. lol. Whereas for a good long while, they would contentedly read books or draw or colour or play with Playdough or even play with Barbies, or the older would do some math or practise the sandpaper letters or something, they have moved into laugh-noise-laugh-noise-laugh-noise mode. It's like they have a contest to see how long and how loudly they can do silly things and laugh.

I'd been a bit under the weather last week and not able to realize that I have to start directing them a bit since they are no longer on automatic pilot. ;)

This morning, they showed up, and it started right away. The 2.5yo was the primary instigator. My thoughts were, "What am I going to do about this?????" I did a very un-Montessori thing. After she had decided to make even more noise after the two were asked to be quieter with the Barbies, I was going to put the Barbies away. I came down, saw that while the older was laughing, she was actually doing something with the Barbies and simply laughing at her sister. The 2.5yo was putting a Barbie tree base (or something) in her mouth and making noise. I told her she was all done, picked her up and walked with her upstairs while I figured out what to do. Then she yawned. It was about 9am and she was yawning--it hit me that her chaotic behaviour was the result of her being tired and adrenaline kicking in.

I ended up--here comes the un-Montessori part--getting out the high chair and placing her in it. To make up for that, I then picked three different activities for her to choose from--pouring beans, a Discovery Toys mosaic pegs activity and a cylinder block. She went through each one, and I then offered her paper and crayons. She drew some very cute things she wants to give to her mom. She said she was done--and by this time, her older sister had found some productive, quiet things to do--so I brought her Playdough. She made some things, only lasted about 5 minutes with the Playdough, then put it all back in the container and said she was done and she wanted out. The 5yo was so sufficiently absorbed in what she was doing, I knew it wouldn't cause any problems to let her roam free. Ha! Silly me!

She tried to get her older sister's attention, but it didn't pan out. I could see how tired she was, but unconvinced that she would fall asleep so early in the morning. She eventually decided to go play Barbies again, but it was just too much for her tired self to handle and she started crying when she saw her sister had put them all back in the bin (because, remember, I had pulled her away while she had been playing with them--they "ought to" have still been there). I went to her and asked her what she wanted, she stopped crying but didn't say anything. I said that her sister had put everything back in the bin, but it was okay, she (2yo) could take out what she wanted. I left her contemplating that, but it was a no go. Next thing I know, she's yelling her fussing. I finally look down--she's complaining about her sock, half in tears. I told her it was okay and she left it alone. Next thing I know, she's having a fit in the stairs because people are walking down it while she's trying to go up. It was only 10am by this point, but I saw that something had to be done about her tiredness! So, off to bed I brought her. It took her longer than usual to fall asleep, but she did fall asleep and is still sleeping now (an hour later). I expect she'll sleep at least another 30 minutes, possibly even another hour.

What's my point with all of this? Just that sometimes the annoying behaviours that come out of our kids, especially the loud, obnoxious, or teary behaviour of our toddlers, come not from boredom or lack of discipline or lack of guidance, but out of sheer adrenaline trying to keep them going. Which is why it's always important to, as much as possible, ask yourself why a child is behaving the way s/he is: the cause completely affects what to actually do about the behaviour.

Never too young to start algebra!

Especially when you have materials! :)

I have these simple algebra tiles. Don't know what the company is who made them. In any case, I had pulled them out to show something to "Bob". They were still on the table while eating lunch, and just to see, I pulled out a bar representing x and told my 5yo niece that it was x, even though it doesn't look like x, we call it x. Then I took out one of the little red squares and told her it was plus 1. I put it next to the x and told her that we now have x + 1. I took a bite to eat and she asked to do more!

I grabbed another red square and told her now we had x + 2. Then I added another one, and she knew it was x + 3. We did more squares, added more x's and even started taking away x's and squares. She LOVES it!

I'm going to miss her when she goes off to public school full-day kindergarten in the fall. She'll be coming to me after school, so maybe we'll be able to still do these kinds of things. She's so capable and it's such a joy to see her delight in doing these kinds of things.

More Montessori for early adolescents

Still in search mode! Here are some more links. I should probably find a way to collect them all together somewhere:

Great River School: http://www.greatriverschool.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=2 and http://www.greatriverschool.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=12

Ottawa Montessori School: http://www.ottawamontessori.com/english/juniorhigh.php

Milwaukee Montessori School Junior High Blog--this one's particularly nice because you get to see pictures of what the kids are doing and I think all or most of the entries are by the students themselves: http://blogs.milwaukee-montessori.org/jh/  **There are other blogs for other levels; just check out the links on the right of the jr. high blog!

Milwaukee Montessori School page: http://www.milwaukee-montessori.org/OurPrograms/JuniorHigh.htm

Tall Pines School--the Montessori Guiding Principles and Adolescence starting in the middle of the page are particularly interesting: http://www.tallpinesschool.com/tallpinesschool/myweb.php?hls=1000093

Roots and Wings: http://www.rootsandwingsbc.com/programs-mainmenu-73/secondary-mainmenu-105

Something from Montessori.org: http://www.montessori.org/sitefiles/montessori_way_HS.pdf

Some links focusing specifically on the idea of the Erdkinder:
http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/Erdkinder-_ep_74-1.html
http://www.erdkinderplan.de/ (If you understand German. :) )

Still thinking argh

I decided to look up SATs, just as a comparison, since the Alberta Diploma Exams are kind of like the SAT subject exams.

I learned that the SAT results give the student a raw score, but also tell the student where they fall percentile-wise for the time that test was taken. That makes sense to me. And maybe this is the basic premise that the Alberta Government is working off of--the percentile results per question on the diploma examinations.

Here's the problem: SATs don't make up 50% of the students' grade 12 final marks for ELA, Social Studies, Math, and all of the sciences (bio, chem, physics and the general science course) as Alberta diploma exam marks. SATs have nothing whatsoever to do with the students' marks--or getting a diploma. Students in Alberta can not get a high school diploma without doing at least some diploma exams.

Just another point against ever having my children as a part of the AB credit system--unless they choose it!

Argh

Not sure what I'm madder about: what the government is doing or some of the people's comments.


http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/columnists/andrew_hanon/2010/04/26/13731201.html


Some people are saying, essentially, Suck it up, Buttercup!, defending the government with things like, "They'd better get used to it since that's how it is in university" and "If students have a harder exam one year, it's not fair if equating's not done." (Those are not direct quotes, just essentially what has been said. :) )

Here's my problem with the first argument I've listed above:

Yes, that's how it is in university. Problem is: We're not talking about university. We're talking about high school. Where it is generally accepted that this type of grading does NOT take place. That the mark you get is what you get. Not only that, but we're talking about an exam that is worth half of the final mark. It's a big deal to have your mark dropped.

Why is there such a negative attitude towards people complaining about this? "Well, life is unjust elsewhere, so instead of being unhappy about this unfair practice, get used to it." Well, that's just a little like saying, "Roll over and die," isn't it? I guess it's part of the group mentality of "you just have to accept things and don't make a fuss". We ought to get used to it instead of trying to change it. Is this thinking the result of mass schooling or is it promoted in the media or what? We did not make huge beneficial changes in our society due to people just accepting things and not making a fuss. With this kind of attitude, the suffragettes were in the wrong, Martin Luther King Jr. was in the wrong. If we had let things just happen and got mad at people for not getting used to it instead of getting mad at the injustice, there would still be slavery in the US, and women would not be able to vote or become doctors, those opposing the Nazis were in the wrong because they just wouldn't "get used to it" and so much more. ARGH.



To the second argument, here's the problem:

How do you know if an exam is actually harder or easier one year compared to the previous year?

Hint: YOU CAN'T.

Why not? Because each year of students brings different students, different teaching, different preparation.

Let's say one year, the average is 66%, and nobody has done any exam prep courses. The next year, the exam is technically "harder" because the government wants the average lower (yes, the government does actually seek to control the averages). Students hear about it and 90% of them go through excellent exam prep courses, work hard, etc. The average that year is 70%. Do results actually show whether the exam was harder or easier? Some might say, oh, that wouldn't happen. But you know what? I've seen the differences in groups from one year to the next. Teachers who do pretty much the same thing, make no radical changes to their exams, and one year, the marks are much lower. Has nothing to do with the work or the tests being harder, just the mentality present that year.

Here's another problem: With the Provincial Achievement Tests, which are EXACTLY the same thing as the Diploma Examinations, just for younger grades, the government takes the results and blames teachers if the results aren't high enough. If marks go up, then they decide to make things harder because teachers are teaching better and the students are now capable of more. However, they go through the exact same process for the Diploma Examination and if the results are "too high", then they blame the exam for being too easy.

Anybody else see the inconsistency?

More links

This is NOT what I would want for my kids' jr. high years:

 For core subject areas, students will work on a computer-based curriculum, which is aligned with the Sunshine State Standards for middle school but allows flexibility and individualized pacing that is consistent with our Montessori philosophy.

http://www.islandvillage.org/academics/middle/index.php

Yes, sure, self-paced learning is consistent with Montessori, but the computer-based curriculum is on the other end of the spectrum from her idea of the kids being involved in a farm or other type of community and academics would not be a focus!

Something better: http://www.montessori.org/story.php?id=69

I do think it's a shame that the Montessori age grouping isn't maintained in a lot of the middle schools, because middles schools in the US tend to run from grades 6-8. Since grade 6 is part of the upper elementary for Montessori, that just leaves grades 7-8 for most Montessori middle schools. They're missing the kids who are 14 turning 15 in a lot of cases.

Some links for Montessori in adolescence

I figured I might as well post my finds instead of just storing them in my bookmarks!

GVS http://www.greenvalleyschool.com/jhtour.php
Santa Cruz Montessori http://www.scms.org/jrhigh.html
Clark Montessori http://clark.cps-k12.org/academics-jrhighcurric.html
From NAMTA http://www.montessori-namta.org/namta/geninfo/devcont5.html
Hershey Montessori http://www.hersheymontessori.pvt.k12.oh.us/why_hershey/Adolescent%20Program.htm
Canadian Montessori Academy http://www.montessori-academy.com/Montessori/Programmes/MiddleSchool/Default.aspx - I think the idea of the student providing their own monthly progress report is kind of neat!
MMSK http://www.cmsmontessori.org/mmsk-montessori-middle-school-of-kentucky.aspx
Arbor Montessori http://www.arbormontessori.org/middle_school_program.shtml

All right, I'm going to have to stop myself. I could keep going and going!

Sometimes more direction is needed

We got started this morning and I asked my son if he could look up online how to take care of these worms properly so they don't die. He eagerly says sure. He loves looking stuff up online.

After about 20 minutes, I ask him what he's found out. He starts telling me stuff about worms themselves, and I get him back to what has he found out about how to take care of them. Nothing. Oh. "What have you been looking at?" This, that and the other, but not how to actually take care of them. Interests run amok. And nothing written down. lol.

For tomorrow, I will print off a sheet that is a little more specific and whoever wants to tackle how to keep these worms alive can look it up and write information down. Ds might decide to do it--especially since it means being on the computer again (lol), but maybe not.

I did find out from Bob that he had a 2nd small container with a couple of worms on purpose. "But it's so small. I'm not sure they'll do okay." His response: It's okay. They're Exhibit A. LOL.

Dd decided to start tackling learning the first 10 elements of the periodic table. She chose to do a table, but wasn't sure what to look up since I don't really have a proper French resource here for chemistry, so I told her to look up "table périodique". She found a good French site with the periodic table, and put in her table the atomic number, symbol and name, but also what type of element it is! Very cool. :) This reminds me that I had looked at Montessori Research and Development's chemistry album listing online and am pretty sure I want it. I should order it ASAP. And maybe guide dd to their materials section where she might get be tempted to do some of the same as part of her work.

This reminds me: I went to Austin Montessori's website the other day to look at their information on their Adolescent Community. There has been a change with dd this year and I really think I need to learn more, immerse my brain as much as possible, in what Montessori schools out there are doing so I can find something, or try different things, to find a good match for her. She definitely wants to learn, wants to progress, and while I've had difficulty figuring out how to meet her desires and needs the past couple of years, there's a greater motivation, a greater confidence that's allowing her to venture into new areas, and I want to at least try to make the most of it.

I've totally gone off track. Back to what I was saying. I went to Austin Montessori's website and had a look at their Adolescent Community information. Something interesting stuck out at me:

We use an integrated project approach in order to engage students in the pursuit of ideas and expertise, encouraging them to become better thinkers, problem-solvers, and responsible and informed citizens.

This is an area, the idea of an integrated project approach, that I would like to explore more. Something else struck me:

One way we cultivate this community is by preparing rituals and routines which allow the adolescents to operate relatively independently in the prepared environment. 

She has been, without my requesting, taking initiative to do more herself, be more independent. I recall my own adolescence where I *loved* days on my own where I could be completely independent and responsible. There is probably a lot I have not shown her over the years that would be super important to show her now, to provide these rituals and routines so she can feel the strength of independence. Not force her to be independent, but work step-by-step at establishing some more routines around here that would allow her to develop the ability to be independent. I feel like I'm repeating myself. Ah well.

Worms, worms, worms!

I was so enamoured with my 2yo niece on Friday, I forgot to share what else we have going on!

Worm farms!

I made some comment about the suicidal worms on the driveway after the rain and that spurred the older kids into rescue mode. This led to asking if we had dirt; yes, I had some potting soil. Did I have containers they could use? Yes, I did. What do they eat? You'll have to look online.

Now we have 4 containers with worms in them. Bob has two, for some reason. I just realized I threw out a bunch of watermelon rinds today that we could have used as worm food. Dang.

They have 3 of the containers covered with brown paper because I had read that they need to be covered or kept in a dark place. We'll see how long they keep these guys alive. I think dd and ds will be responsible this week for learning more about how to keep them alive. Bob has only 6 weeks to finish all of his correspondence work AND study--he's got to get cracking!

You can see the worm along the side! If there's too much light when we pull up the paper, they dart out from wherever they are to a darker spot.

Oh my goodness, what a character!

The last hilarious laugh of the day with the same niece:

She was at the table drawing, trying to use a stencil. (She fails miserably, but always thinks she's done great. It's very cute.) For some reason, she stopped and yelled at it:

What are you doing?

(then louder)

What are you doing? You animal! Enough of this!

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More from my 29mo niece

I read a book today for me.

I need my dog.

One day my dad is home. When my dad is home. (turn page) When my dad is home. (Turn page.) When my dad is home with me. (Ad nauseum.)

(Almost shouting:) When my dad is home for me.

Indeed I love my dad. (Turn page.) I love my mom. (Turn page.) I love my mom.

One day I left... (voice trailed off and she turned the page)

One day my mommy... And my mommy... And my mommy

Can't say that story. (And walked off! lol)

---

It's a shame her big sister isn't having such a positive creative day. It's been a day of grumpiness toward the older kids, accusations of people hitting her tent (when nobody was near the tent--yes, I did witness the event and it was that one thing that one person moved caused a foamy chair to move against the end of the tent), and just general attitude of thinking the worst of the older kids. Not sure what might have triggered that, or maybe nothing really did, other than a general grumpiness and irritability present in the house (seems to go along with the weather).

----

Now the 29mo is using a wooden hammering toy and chanting:

Bubble gum. Bubble gum. (Shoot, she said something else, but I didn't get it down.)

Sunny like a gummy bear. (while hammering)
Sunny like a gummy bear.


Yesterday, she was singing a little song about her soup eating her animal crackers. LOL

Story Telling

My 29mo niece has spent the past 30-45 minutes "reading" aloud. She takes whatever book she finds and makes up a story as she goes through. She is frankly amazing. I don't think I've known any of the other kids to tell stories of the level of sophistication I'm hearing at the same age!

Here are some of the things I've managed to write down:

"And then the baby spider said..."

"A coccinelle is going in the driveway. The ladybug says, 'Oh, there's a spider in the driveway.'"

"I need the master!"

"There's lots of place there in the potty."

"One day, the girl said, 'My blanket!'"

"Oh Papa..."

Something about a Mommy saying, "And she's BEAUTIFUL my bug!"

There's too much other noise and distraction around here and I can't write things down fast enough. She's, unfortunately, upstairs and the computer is downstairs. I'd love to type up what she says. lol

Dd's first oil painting

Not bad, eh? Especially since the wind flung it up and it whacked her in the face while trying to get into the van. She had blue and green paint on her face, poor kid, but it didn't do too much damage to the painting itself.

Just some Thursday night babbling

Been thinking about how to make the most of the time we have left before summer. Bob has got his correspondence work to get done and exams to study for--exams have to be done 1st, maybe 2nd, week of June. After that, I hate to think things will just fall apart into "I don't have to work now that my school work is done."

Since dd has been feeling like she hasn't really been working, I'm thinking of how I might work with her to plan out her time or plan lessons or something. I've been thinking I need to re-read Donna Bryant Goertz's book and maybe the section on the elementary class observations from Montessori Today. Dd would probably be more likely the 12-15 level, but there is just so little information out there. I feel stuck on how to progress with her. If I can at least flesh out some potential goals, that might at least get the ball moving.

All right, so what are some potential goals, or work areas?

FRENCH
-grammar: verb conjugations, adjectives (and their "accords"), plurals... Actually, I've got a workbook for this that she's started using. I'd like to do more *with* her. She enjoys it more, I know.

-reading: this hasn't been bad, actually, since she's been reading to her cousins a bit in French, plus she reads the science magazine we get; if I could find a website with articles or something, that might be better than trying to find a reasonable book, although if we could actually have some sort of a novel study, that would be fantastic

-writing: been thinking about having her start keeping a journal on what she's done over the course of the day, or maybe have her do it at lunch, so she'd just write what she's done for the morning; I'd also like to show her how to do articles or mini-essays; just getting her to write is the ideal way to then tackle grammar and spelling and all that

GERMAN
-this has been woefully neglected, but both she and her brother LOVE it when I just start using German with them; how to make sure it happens? Not sure. And at the moment, I feel my energy and ability to think fading rapidly. Maybe just a REMINDERS sheet for me so that I plan something every day, even if it's just one new word or phrase.

SCIENCE
-actually, this is taken care of, just have to make sure to do it; again, a reminder sheet would come in handy

SOCIAL STUDIES
-um, hm... basically 2 months left. Maybe if I just start researching countries or history or a culture or something, that will get some things moving. I don't think Maria Montessori ever envisioned a student her age actually doing formal social studies--they would have learned about geography through working on the farm and business interactions, economics through the same... She's actually thought about how she might be able to start making some money of her own. Maybe it's something to encourage a little more, get her researching ideas.

MATH
-She said today that it's ironic that her Dad is a math teacher but it's the one subject she doesn't like. And that she wondered why she didn't like it. I told her it was because we were so inconsistent and she wasn't confident because the basic skills weren't there. Thinking about it now, I also think I don't present enough of a lesson for her--I jump into work too quickly when she just needs a little time to process first. So, I'd be very satisfied to just work on times tables and division tables (division, and therefore fractions, seems to worry her the most) for the next couple of months. It'd be good to add in some geometry or something.

ART
-She participated in an oil painting workshop the other day and the instructor was so fantastic, those kids (almost all grades 7-12) came out pleased as punch with their work. She now wants to do more. This, of course, opens up all kinds of possibilities for study since she can read up on things, try things, etc. I need to know if there's something OTHER than just canvas she can use because that is going to get EXPENSIVE! She could also study some famous oil paintings and painters, maybe try to imitate, etc.

MUSIC
-She has been wanting to do guitar. Her brother has been wanting to do guitar. How come we haven't been doing it? I don't know.

All right, my brain is fading away. Enough babbling for tonight. I do need to put that checklist together of things to work on so I see it in the morning and can at least try to plan some sort of lessons or activities!

I'm a very harried mother?

LOL

http://www.onlinedegree.net/50-must-read-montessori-blogs/

I'm #45. :D

Interesting to see how others interpret what I write. I don't feel harried. Have had moments of stress and definitely busy, but not harried. Even decided to look up the word. Synonyms: Disturbed, distressed, agitated, tormented, pestered...

Is that really how I come across??? lol

The Weather

This beautiful weather is making it harder to actually do some schooling around here! It feels too much like the beginning of June, when we start doing crafts and spending lots of time outside. The 15yo still has work he has to get done, and exams to prepare for, my 12yo complained yesterday of feeling like she hasn't really done any work since Christmas (which isn't true, but it still feels like it to her).

I'm somehow going to have to battle against nice weather, unfortunately, to keep things together around here!

What has been going on instead? Well, the 15yo is getting work done, but that's mainly because he's doing a novel study right now and for that, I'm reading the book aloud so we can all enjoy it--and to make sure it gets done. ;) It's actually a very good book: Dare, by Marilyn Halvorson. We're nearly done--but it was supposed to have been finished 2 weeks ago. Eek. Gotta get crackin' a bit. My 12yo has been doing a lot of crafty stuff--most recent has been a latch hook kit. She got it last weekend and is already done. lol. Before that, it was some other craft. My 9yo has been outside, playing and reading. Although I am managing to get him to do some math sometimes and some handwriting sometimes.

It's tough to start up some good work routines when I--and the kids--would rather just be in summer mode! If some rain could come, that'd help. ;)

Another week just about done!

It's kind of funny: Last week was a "short" week due to Easter Monday, but it felt like 2 weeks long. This week has gone by so quickly, it's just one big blur in my mind!

My 5yo niece seems to have started a late-afternoon "school time". I found a few things for her that I put in a magazine holder (some old math workbooks my kids barely used, one of those little notebooks with the dotted middle line for beginning writers, etc.) and she has at least a couple of times this week pulled things out and done things. Yesterday, she did a few subtraction questions, then moved onto her little notebook. Wrote all kinds of things, then came up to me to show her cursive u!

Things are going a bit better with the 2yo, although she's at that emotional stage where the slightest thing creates heartbreak. :( The kids are learning to not yank things back from her, which seemed to have kind of thrown her off at first, but it's getting better and better. I'm being consistent at removing her from certain situations and she seems to be learning that she won't get to stay where she wants to be if she keeps hassling others.

The 15yo is slowly getting back into work. We're focusing on just his math and LA right now. He's started a novel study that I'm reading aloud to all of them, a book called Dare by an Albertan whose name I can't remember at the moment. (Marilyn something? Maybe?) We are really enjoying that and it's a nice change of pace because they can all do something crafty or whatever they're doing while I read and we discuss. I haven't done a read-aloud in so long, it reminds me that it's an element that's missing from our day.

Dd has been doing mostly Hanjie puzzles all week. Here's an example: http://www.hanjie.co.uk/colour-hanjie.php  We have a little book and only have one copy of it, so they've been photocopying so others can do the same. Dd even got dh in on them! lol. Then it spread to ds and eventually to the 15yo, who did his first one yesterday. They are fantastic for working on analytical and logical skills!

I guess school-wise, it's been rather relaxed in a way but that's not necessarily a bad thing. ;) Maybe school hasn't been relaxed as much as I've felt relaxed. ;D

Other than that, working on decluttering and organizing the house! It's actually been a focus for a couple of months now, but I've been doing even better this week. It's nice to see garbage and recycling bags fill up and get some order to certain perpetually disordered areas. Like ds's room. :D

Puzzling

Puzzles were the focus this past week. It started with dd being eager to finish a puzzle she'd started sometime ago, plus bringing out some easy puzzles for my nieces and bam, it became puzzle week with everyone involved!

My 2yo niece has been quite impressive: With minimal guiding, she was able to put together a 12-piece Caillou puzzle we have, where Caillou and his Mom are baking in the kitchen. (I need to remember to take pictures more often!) Friday, she put together--by herself--a 15-piece Max & Ruby puzzle. It was interesting to watch as she found pieces to put together, made mistakes (and my good little Montessorians didn't interfere, just watched), figured out she'd made a mistake and pulled off pieces to try again. Fascinating stuff to watch! She is VERY MUCH in the "me do" phase, but I didn't expect her to be so determined to do a puzzle herself!

I wonder if the puzzle focus will continue next week, or if next week will bring something new!

The Terrible 2s Have Hit

Wow. Man oh man. My 2yo niece has hit the terrible 2s full force. We're talking several meltdowns/tantrums PLUS hitting PLUS taking things from others--and that was just in the morning!

I tried to mentally step back from it all today and figure out what she needs from these experiences and how we can lessen her frustration. For one, I realized that when she steals something from others, they rip it back out of her hands. So, I addressed that with my son and 5yo niece, explaining that she doesn't understand, she just sees that they are taking things from her, so she's going to keep doing the same. We talked about how it was important to ask for it back and ask for my help if they weren't getting anywhere. Reasoning doesn't always work with a 2yo. (I had the sudden thought that I wonder if this is like Cesar Millan with his dog whispering: he is so patient, that for some problems, he's still waiting many minutes later. We can be so impatient and want our things back NOW, but it might be better for her if we could learn to patiently wait it out, with it clear that we aren't backing down, but aren't forcing her by ripping things out of her hands, either.) I'm sure this is going to have to be addressed frequently.

Other than that, I'm sure I'm not doing things the Montessori way, but one thing seems to already be helping: counter sitting. :D What is this? Well, if things are going poorly and she won't be redirected to something else--or I can feel I'm losing patience and don't want to take the potentially long time to get her redirected--I pick her up, bring her with me to the kitchen, plop her on the counter and work on cleaning. There's always something to clean in the kitchen. lol. I know Maria Montessori, with slightly older children, would kind of isolate them, and then treat them like they were sick, but this toddler's an interesting little character. I could see her acting up just so she could be treated like she was sick. lol. In any case, she ended up on the counter 3 times today, and the 3rd time, she calmed down quickly and said quietly, "Veux descendre, tante D." (Want down, Auntie D.) She proceeded downstairs, informed her sister she was not going to touch her things, she was just going to look, and things went very smoothly after that.

One more incident where she was trying to take things, or see things (couldn't figure it out), but the way my 5yo niece was behaving with the items, she was just making things worse--and not even playing with the items, just being possessive of them. I told her they were too problematic and she'd have to give them to me; she gave them, I took them and walked away. My 2yo niece piped down right away and there were no further problems.

Another trick that's working a bit: instead of plopping her somewhere with some things to do that she'd like or treating her like she's sick, I just pick her up and carry her around and talk with her. It might not fill whatever need or desire she had that was causing a problem, but it fills another need and helps her forget the first problematic one. ;)

So, the terrible 2s have hit, but remembering to step back and see what's what is definitely helping!

School's Back In Tomorrow!

It's been a weird Spring Break with the Easter weekend tacked onto the end. Everything has felt kind of rushed somehow, although my 4 days of just minding the kids has been good.

For tomorrow, I'm working on structuring things more. Already have some possible schedules worked out for "Bob"; need to get some stuff into place for my 2 and make a Would-Like-to-Present list for 5yo niece. I'm thinking this week of giving my 2 the blank work charts, as I've done in the past, or the "list charts" (for each subject, instead of a blank space to write things in, there is a list of ideas to circle or highlight as they're done) and just really focus on having them think of morning as work time, not play/chat/goof-around time. To get back to a really good flow, I need to include them all into some routines, like clean up and after-lunch silent reading--starting with 15 minutes. I should maybe make a chart and print it off so I don't have to remember this in the morning.

I've been doing fairly well with my journalling and it's really helping me get my thoughts together, as I knew it would. Some things I need to journal about: what will I present, how to fit in artsy and music stuff, how to make sure to give 5yo niece enough presentations.

Oh, supper beckons!

Spring Break

It's Spring Break! It's been weird for me because, for some reason, I keep thinking it's a day later than it is.

I had originally planned to have things somewhat scheduled, so that there'd be a routine to the day. Plans, as they so often do, changed. :) I had forgotten about ds's dentist appointment Monday morning, but remembered before the appointment, so there was that. Ran some errands while he was at his appointment, then we went to the museum in the afternoon. That took care of Monday.

Yesterday, we made a visit to the John Janzen Nature Centre, which took up part of our day. The idea was to make a walk in the woods to check out nature, but the path was still so full of icy snow that our focus was instead on making sure we didn't slip and fall! The kids, as usual, had fun inside checking out the tiger salamander and the snake and all the other things they have there. Then my 2 and I had our kung fu in the evening.

So, other than those activities, there hasn't been much going on. I've had some Easter colouring pages printed off and there's been, naturally lots of playing. Dd and I have been doing some crochet--she from a book she got at the library with simple ideas for kids; I've been working on Amigurumis. The patterns I have aren't turning out as small as I would like them to be. They're probably not supposed to be as small as I have in my mind that I want, but I want them smaller! :) I'm on my 2nd and think I'd be able to modify them to get them smaller.

Before leaving last night, my 5yo niece was kind of searching for something to do and I pulled out a box of body matching puzzles--2-piece puzzles where you match up the word with the body part. She wanted to do them, so we worked through them together. I had been looking for this little math workbook that I'd found that I thought she might enjoy doing the simple addition and subtraction, but we found the print practice workbook ( :( lol ) and she wanted to do that. I managed to find the math while she was working on c's and I asked if she wanted to keep working with the letters or switch to the math. She decided to switch to the math. Since we haven't done a whole lot of math work yet, I decided to simply use the bead frame (all of the results were 10 or under) because she likes the bead frame and it would be easy for her to use it to do the simple work. It was kind of like the snake game, but on paper, and not going above 10.

She probably ended up working close to an hour yesterday afternoon and was still going strong when her mom showed up. She kept going and I told her she could keep working on it in the morning, because her mom was waiting for her. lol. Her sister already had her shoes and coat on, and there was the 5yo at the table, still working on math (a different page--one where you have to do some math to figure out what colour a portion of the image needs to be coloured).

Naturally, it left me thinking that I don't do nearly enough with her. She is so ready and willing to do more. Of course, she's doing stuff now she won't do again in school until grade 1 (she's heading into kindergarten in the fall), but I'm thinking that since she'll be coming to me after school next year, I may just do some after-schooling with her to keep this kind of thing going. But I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual. For right now, I need to really figure out a plan for our school weeks so that she gets more from me! When I think of just her, the plan is easy. But it's not so easy given there are 4 or 5 others in the house on any given day. 4 or 5 others at completely different levels and doing completely different things. Maria Montessori never wrote about how to have toddlers all the way through high schoolers in one room. ;)

A Plan C

I forgot to share the Plan C that showed up yesterday: Have your 2yo watch your 5yo use the sandpaper letters, then the 2yo can show the 9yo. Here was what happened:

This week, my 5yo niece made a point of "showing" her 2yo sister how to do some of the sandpaper letters. I'm not sure that the 2yo ever tried to trace them. In any case, their 9yo brother was here yesterday, we were all watching a movie when the 2yo suddenly goes and grabs some of the sandpaper letters. She sits herself down on one of the sofas and I see that she's doing something, then tossing the letter on the ground. I go to pick the tossed ones up and to tell her to put them in a pile next to her when I see that she has her brother's index finger firmly in her hand. Then she is having HIS index finger slide across the sandpaper letters. He didn't say a word, just let her do it. LOL.

Who knew

that cursive would be such a hot topic? :D

I think it's great that so many people are thinking about bringing cursive into their children's lives. I don't understand those who have gotten judgemental and bashing people for using cursive or not. There is nothing written anywhere that says we are "bad people" for doing one or the other!!

In any case, the most recent questions have been:

• How do I make the transition?
• How will my child recognise print?

The transition will depend a bit on the age of your child. If they are under 6, I'd strongly encourage you to make a set of cursive sandpaper letters. If they already know some print sandpaper letters, start with 2 or 3 of them and give them 3-period lessons on matching the print with the cursive. Pick VERY distinguishable, easy, letters to begin with. It would not be fair to start with l and e together! I'd say, as part of the lesson, trace the letter yourself before you match it with the print. And I'd also say do not trace the print anymore. 

If your children are over 6, some sort of hands-on aspect would be very good, although you could probably do with just matching letter cards. The sandpaper isn't necessary. As for learning the letters, just like a typical Montessori presentation, start with just a few. But because the child is over 6, the sensory aspect isn't usually quite as necessary. What is very helpful is to provide light letters to trace over. Let them do it as long as they want! In school, I remember being rather rushed to transition from tracing, to dotted to just doing the letters within the lines. It was too much too fast and my poor natural lefty self, writing with my right hand, had horrible, horrible handwriting. My handwriting improved dramatically years later when a friend, who had beautiful cursive, wrote out the alphabet for me on a sheet of looseleaf and I instinctively traced and traced and traced, tried on my own, and went back and traced when I wasn't satisfied.

I just recently purchased a program called StartWrite. It lets you make worksheets choosing from a bunch of different fonts--including different cursive fonts, change the size, decide if you want lines--including the middle dotted line, etc. My one complaint is most of the cursive fonts don't have all of the letters starting on the line, and the one that does start on the line is an "icky" font. (That just means I don't like it. lol) I actually take a pencil and draw the leading line.

Another program out there is Schoolhouse Fonts, which has a very nice D'Nealian cursive font that DOES start on the line, but I liked the greater number of options with StartWrite and decided to go with that instead. Of course, there are others, too, depending on what you want: http://www.educationalfontware.com/  and http://www.downhillpublishing.com/fonts4teachers.cfm are a couple of others.

---

As for "How will my child recognise print?"

First of all, print is EVERYWHERE. They see it all the time. They will therefore absorb it.

Secondly, if you know the cursive letters, it is rather easy to pick out the print letters that correspond. The reverse is NOT true--you can not "see" the cursive letter in the print letter. 

Third, because of the first and second points, children probably don't need any adult interference in learning to read print. From Maria Montessori's "The Montessori Method":

Seeing these surprising results, I had already thought of testing the children with print, and had suggested that the directress print the word under the written word upon a number of slips. But the children forestalled us! There was in the hall a calendar upon which many of the words were printed in clear type, while others were done in Gothic characters. In their mania for reading the children began to look at this calendar, and, to my inexpressible amazement, read not only the print, but the Gothic script.

 So, here she thought she would get them to do something new (up to this point, Maria and the directress had been providing little slips of paper with words in cursive on them for reading practice) and discovered that the children already knew how to read print and Gothic!!! This ease of transition is why you don't ever learn about lessons designed by Maria Montessori herself to teach children how to read print: they've already figured it out once they've mastered the cursive and idea of reading.

If, by some chance, your child is still confused after quite a while, then you simply have to provide specific lessons on letters and maybe words. I think you'll find, though, that you need to give your child much more credit. I think of my son, who reads amazingly well in English, even though he has really only followed along in books I read to him in French. AFTER age 6, I might add. Our children are amazing if we don't spend too much time trying to mould them according to the pre-determined notions that are pervasive in our society.

Another thought on cursive

The one question that comes up so much is, "What's the point? With everybody using computers today, what's the point of writing in cursive?"

You know, it hit me this morning that this is reminiscent of what our provincial government wanted to do some 10-15 years ago: remove music, art and phys. ed. from the schools. Their reasoning: What's the point? Most of the students were not going to be musicians, artists nor athletes, so why have those courses? The truly talented will learn on their own, be part of teams or take private lessons. Yadda yadda yadda.

"What's the point?" is narrow-minded thinking. It seeks to restrict, instead of to enlarge and grow. It tackles an issue as though there's no point in doing something unless there is an overwhelming reason to do so, especially if it is going to be part of our jobs as adults.

The question forgets that self-mastery and exploration and growth can be the point.

It forgets that joy and fun can be the point.

It forgets that artistry and so much more can be the point.

And so, perhaps the best answer to "What's the point?" is not all of the benefits that I've listed in previous messages, but, "What's your point?" :D

Cursive - Plan B

"Oh no! I started with print! It's all lost."
"My child started using print on his own. Now what do I do?"
"My child is 10 years old. Is it too late?"

I like to say: It's never too late! :D Anybody who thinks "it's all lost because I started Montessori/cursive/whatever too late" is very likely a perfectionist and might consider doing some soul searching. ;)

If your child has started with print for whatever reason, you may not be able to have them switch to cursive for their day-to-day writing, but that doesn't mean they can't benefit from cursive. Let me share some examples from my own life that might encourage you in your own Plan B.

My daughter started writing letters at age 3, before I knew anything about Montessori. It was too late, obviously, to start with cursive. When I first learned about Montessori a year later, I promptly made sandpaper letters with Elizabeth Hainstock's print template. Again, more print. When I started learning about cursive and how Montessori ought to always have cursive and all of the benefits, I decided that cursive was a non-negotiable item. I made cursive sandpaper letters and word cards and not sure what else, and we played games with them. Over the years, I also made worksheets and dd chose a cursive workbook (A Beka--which, btw, offers cursive starting in Pre-K) and so on. Basically, while I made cursive a requirement, I provided different opportunities to choose from for the practice.

My daughter is now 12 and when she writes, unless she has an aesthetic reason for using cursive, she will write in print. But let me say this:

1) Her cursive is better than her printing. Part of it is that she's more attentive to the cursive since it's not completely second nature. The other part of it is attentiveness because she does want it to look nice when she uses it. She complains that it takes longer than printing, but when brought to the fact it looks nicer, she's satisfied. But has no desire to switch to using it all the time. ;)

2) She can write and read in cursive. Which is good, because I pretty much only write in cursive. She has to be able to read it! (Her grandparents also write in cursive in her birthday cards--another reason to be able to read it!)

3) She may never switch completely to cursive, and that's okay. Yes, my heart would love for her to use cursive as her modus operandi, but she can write in beautiful cursive, can read cursive, does use cursive for certain purposes, so I have nothing I can justifyingly (sure, it's a word) complain about.

How did I do this?

She was under 6 still when I learned about cursive first. It is still a very, very good age to learn cursive. It was quite easy and making games out of learning the letters went a long way. What kinds of games? Matching games with the print sandpaper letters, "hiding" letters in various places and playing I Spy, practising a couple of letters and then writing on my back and seeing if I could figure out what she did (and vice versa--I'd write on her back), things like that. I did not insist that she write what she wanted to in cursive, the way we were forced to in school, so she stayed with what was easier for her.

My son is another example. He's 9 and not much of a writer at all yet. Technically, he's "too old" for cursive to become a permanent switch (up to age 8 seems to work; after that, much harder), but since he has spent very little time printing--his printing looks like someone much younger--I just don't know.  Also, while he hasn't used cursive much, he was presented it when much younger and still had some practice with it now and then, so the roots are there, just not enough practice. Actually, I've only ever presented cursive to him; he's done the print on his own. And yes, his cursive is better than his printing! Now that things are settling around here at home, I have already begun doing what I did with my 12yo (and am doing again with my 12yo): providing different means of practising cursive, but making working on it a non-negotiable. Yes, Maria Montessori might be unhappy with me. I'm okay with that. I have, I will add, also printed off things for my own practice and have been just using blank sheets to work on cursive, telling the kids my handwriting has gone downhill (which it has) and I want to improve it. My son seems to think it's neat that I'm doing that and that we can work on cursive together side-by-side. I think it also gives the message that cursive isn't just work for kids!

How about an older example? Bob started with me when he was 9. Had horrible printing. Had never been shown cursive. I think around the time he turned 10, he actually asked about cursive and I started him on it, knowing full well that the chances were that he would never, ever switch. Know what? He learned it fairly well and his printing improved in the short time he was interested in working on it. Hmm... So yes, cursive has benefits for the older child, too! His handwriting has gone downhill a bit and he has decided he definitely wants to work on improving his printing. I told him the best way was to go back to trying cursive again, because his brain would treat it as something "new" and would be more attentive, and the habits learned from the cursive would switch over to his printing. So, today, he started on cursive. :) Would he ever switch to just cursive? Probably not. He's 15 now and only looking now to possibly actually master cursive. But that's not the point. He will be doing something very valuable, requiring attentiveness, attention to detail, which will transfer to his printing, and in the process, he will be learning to read cursive, which is also an important skill.

I have now decided to work concertedly on my 5yo niece with this. Although I only ever really showed her the cursive sandpaper letters, she writes in print. Not sure if that's what she does at home with her parents or what. She can trace most of the letters well and knows almost all of them by sound and name, but can't seem to make the connection yet between following the same movements on paper or on a chalkboard. So, I'm going to start playing some games, like air writing--you trace the letter without actually touching it, then you try to trace it in the air without the letter right there. You start with easy letters, like l and e and n. She has begun reading every so slightly and so, for a pack of alphabet cards I have (image on one side, French word on the back--in print, of course), I wrote up a few cursive cards to match yesterday. Today, she asked if we could do like yesterday, where I wrote the cursive on a card and she could put it on the card. :) We did quite a bit today, 3 cards at a time, and now there are fewer cursive cards to make. lol. (I just used blank business cards, if you're wondering what kind of card I used.)

She will be in the regular school system in the fall, where I'm not sure if they really spend any time on cursive, (and they certainly don't in Kindergarten). Haven't seen any evidence of it in my nephew, who is in grade 4. So, it might fall away for her. But she'll at least have had what little I could give her and I've told her she'll probably be the only one who will already know what cursive letters are and she is so lucky.

Although, since she'll be coming here after school, maybe it won't fall away too much--I'll be the only place offering her the "pretty" letters. ;)

Cursive, part 2

So, to continue my thoughts on cursive.


John Holt was a big proponent of print only. Part of his reasoning was due to having done a "test" with some boys, where they compared the speed and legibility of printing vs. cursive. He was convinced cursive would win. It didn't pan out. As much as I dearly love so much of what John Holt aimed to teach people, this was one thing I had an issue with from the very beginning: all of those children had learned to print first, as had he. They were far more experienced with it and it being the first way they were taught how to write, it's hard to say how long it would take for cursive to be more natural and swift.

Think about it: If you incorrectly learn how to read notes on sheet music and spend 4 years playing everything incorrectly, then you start learning the correct way, how easily are you going to correctly play the songs you already know by heart? How long will it take you to learn to play it a different way?



Some more evidence for cursive first or only:

More and more of those involved with special education are calling for the use of cursive--and not just with special education students. There are no letter confusions in cursive like with print. 'b' and 'd' are very distinct, as are 'p' and 'q'. Many children without learning difficulties struggle with b and d in particular. They learn it's a stick and a ball, but then can't remember which side of the stick the ball goes on.

Many children with learning disabilities having visual processing and sequencing issues, so print is found to be harder for them. As it should be. Traditional cursive all starts on the bottom and moves on from there, ending so the next letter can be written. Print letters start all over the place, which requires an ability to correctly judge open space and control hand movements to keep the letter the necessary size. And because the letters all start from a different place, there are more sequences to remember. Really, this doesn't just apply to those with LD since a young child learning to write has the same issues! Add to the letter spacing: word spacing. Kids starting writing or who have LD already have an issue with spacing, and word spacing is even more complicated. With cursive, the entire word is linked and the spacing is obvious from one word to the next--you lift the pencil, leave a space and start your new word. Even if the spacing and sizing within a word are inconsistent, the words are obvious. In contrast, with print words, sure, you lift your pencil and leave a space, just like for cursive, but you have to do that with every letter within the word and it's not always so obvious! And many kids don't like the "finger trick" where they put a finger from the other hand down in between writing words.



Why else should our kids be learning cursive early?

Recent research has shown that it activates the brain better, which is interesting since the research shows fewer hand muscles involved and print is clearly less demanding in some ways than cursive. Because it's not so "linear" in style as print, cursive tends to activate both the left and right side of the brain better than print.


There are many historical documents, even things written by hand not less than 20 years ago, written in cursive that a child who can't read cursive will grow up not knowing how to read. Not to mention, despite the common belief that nobody uses cursive nowadays, plenty of people DO use cursive and will be at a severe disadvantage if they find themselves working for someone who writes messages in cursive or has a college prof who writes notes on the board in cursive. "Yes, but that's reading." True, but if they start with cursive, they will already know how to read both cursive and print. Which leads us to necessary questions:

*If learning to write in cursive (first or only) means your child can:
--read print and cursive
--won't have to switch handwriting later on
--means you'll be able to read everyone's writing (well, as long as it's legible ;) )
--prevents certain problems
--benefits the brain
--and is lovely ;) (okay, I just had to add that)

AND
--it's more natural to start with cursive
--your child will still be able to print forms later on (they will have seen so much print and have better developed fine motor skills, so writing in print won't be a big deal)

then why wouldn't you start with cursive? :D


I could go on and on, but I won't. Instead, I will leave you with some links so you can check it out more yourself, if you wish:

http://www.donpotter.net/PDF/Cursive%20First.pdf
http://www.practical-parent.com/home/2010/1/29/cursive-and-brain-science.html
http://www.helium.com/items/1697736-cursive-handwriting
http://www.swrtraining.com/id17.html
http://www.nathhan.com/mcinnis.htm

http://www.peterson-handwriting.com/Publications/PDF_versions/AdvantageCursiveRef.pdf (I think this might be part of one of the other links.)

Yes, Cursive First or Only Cursive--Part 1

The question of whether to make certain Montessori language materials in print or cursive comes up rather often on the lists I'm on. I may have brought it up here in the past, but it's worthy of being brought up again!

Montessori traditionally formally only presented cursive to the children, starting with the cursive sandpaper letters, then the cursive movable alphabet, and there are photos showing other handmade materials, such as the grammar boxes, being done in cursive. This was a deliberate act on Maria Montessori's part. And with all the modern research backing her up, it ought, imo, be a deliberate act on the part of others!

"But why? We don't need cursive anymore."

To be honest, we didn't need to know how to print in the first place. People wrote only in cursive for a long time. Print was introduced because somebody thought that print would be easier to learn first since it wasn't all curly, and it would make it easier to learn to read.

They were wrong.

Maria Montessori discovered in her early years working with children, before what would be termed the beginning of the Montessori Method, that children naturally write in curls and loops. Anybody who has had toddlers and preschoolers around them has undoubtedly seen the loopy drawings and "writing". It's much easier for the hand to do loops. I have even read that it requires less muscle involvement to do loops than to force your hand to make straight vertical and horizontal lines! Cursive is therefore much more natural for the hand, especially a young child's.

So, with this observation made, she decided in her first actual classroom that the children ought to have a material with which to learn cursive. Unable to have manufactured what she wanted (a grooved wooden piece), she and an assistant decided to use sandpaper, and the first sandpaper letters were made, by hand, and presented to the children. After a while, she and her helper cut out large cursive paper letters so the children could build words with them. They learned to write in beautiful cursive, read in cursive and she discovered that once the reading idea clicked, they could also read the same words in other writing styles, including print. There was *no* issue in learning to read non-cursive.

With this being the case, why oh why are we having children spend K-2 or even K-3 struggling to make nice straight lines in their writing, only to introduce at that point (if introduced at all) to cursive, which would, after 4 years of print, feel unnatural? Why would we have them only deal with print for 4 years, both in reading and writing, and then have to train them to read cursive when they could have started with it and done just fine right from the beginning? Does it make any sense at all?

We complain so much of people's handwriting these days, but what if people had started with cursive, did cursive for 4 years, and then kept using cursive for writing? Wouldn't 7 years of cursive before entering jr. high be more likely to produce nicer writing than 4 years of print and then mix in some cursive for a few years?

I have more to say, but it will have to wait until the next post.

Continuation of previous post

Someone left the following in the comments, but she had her email address in it and I wanted to avoid it being stolen by spam programs! So, here's her comment:

I'm having such a hard time with this "child freedom to choose his own work and rhythm". I began using the Montessori method with my 8 yo this semester. I love it, he loves it but I feel that he needs to do everything quickly enough so he could catch up. We began with the 6-9 curriculum. He's a very smart kid but extremely lazy. If I don't pressure him he would play all day long. We usually plan goals for the week that include almost every subject. I "let" him choose but end up convincing him to do a little from every subject. As days go by I start getting anxious by all the work he needs to complete. And, of course, I end up telling him what he need to do to met the goal. I know I'm doing it all wrong but don't know how to change this. I would love to hear from you soon.

My response:

There is a difference between pressuring and putting limits or providing a structure. Saying, "Mornings are work-time" is a limit. Yes, someone could claim it's coercion, but we're not talking about unschooling here! Think of it more as "freedom within limits".

*You are free to choose any math work you want.
*You are free to ask me to show you something.
*You are free to help me with my own projects or to ask help for your projects.
*Etc.

*You are NOT free to go play with Lego.
*You are NOT free to go play outside.
*You are NOT free, etc.

If you have a look in "The Montessori Method" (the book), somewhere near the end, there is a schedule of the opening days of the Montessori preschools. They were very structured and routine. As days progressed and students became more self-directed, the schedule kind of disappeared a bit (although some basics would stay, like lunch, of course!) because it was no longer needed. But the non-self-directed child DOES need some structure, some routine, and so the beginning of a year usually starts very structured.

I have found in my home that I periodically need to "start over". It's not just that the schedule has fallen apart, the work has fallen apart, too. And to be honest, I still have not been able to get my 9yo son to work consistently; part of that is my own lack of consistency, part of it is who he is--while my daughter could work three-hour mornings at that age, I think he might go crazy LOL. We're working on building it up. Back to my point, when things start falling apart, I either rewrite an old schedule/routine or I make up a completely new one and we start over. In a classroom, the rhythm of the sheer number of students helps pull back "into line" those who may be waning. At home, there's a bit more of a concerted effort.

At 8, your son is probably very capable of sitting down with you, discussing the issue with you ("It's important to work on improving skills and so we must have a work time. I'll be working, too. What kinds of things would you like to do during work time? Here are some of my ideas. Etc."). Know that you will probably have to do a lot of presentations/showing him things at first, inviting him to come do something with you, or giving him a choice between, say, a science lesson or a language lesson. Provide limits!

Some people like to have more limits than Montessori would insist on and have their children/students have a certain requirement each week: 5 language works need to be done, 3 science works, 4 math works, etc. One thing that can be helpful is using a chart or a journal for tracking what's being done. With a chart, you or he can just write in a little something about what was done or even just put a checkmark. The next morning, you can have a look at how much got done or what got done. If a child doesn't have any particular passion at the moment, then they can be guided into, "I notice you haven't done any math at all this week. Do you want to work on something you've already done or would you like me to give you a lesson on something new?" Some schools use a journal system, where the child writes down the time he starts working on something, a very brief description of the work, then when he's done, he writes the time he finished.


The best thing you could do for yourself is to let go. :) Goals do NOT have to be met. I had a goal of improving my German to a point to spend a year in Germany after university. I then started seeing my husband and we got married right out of university. I didn't fail at my goal; my goals changed. There's nothing wrong with that.

Try to hold your tongue on the convincing; try to kick out any thought of "he's behind." He's not behind. God has not written something somewhere saying that this Montessori work or that knowledge needs to be known by Friday! It's our own fears that cause us to try to convince our kids that more has to be done, that it has to be done more quickly, etc. Maria Montessori knew this and one of the things she insisted on was that teachers constantly work on inner preparation, to be aware of the things *inside themselves* that would get in the way of the child's development.

If you want to think of it in another way, if you want your son to learn to be self-directed, he needs you to learn to let go more. The more you decide, the less he does.

Create some reminders for yourself. Start your day seeing yourself respond exactly as you would like to respond to him. Remind yourself that it's not the end of the world if he doesn't get as much math done this week, or even this year, as you would like. Remind yourself that Montessori elementaries were originally 6-12, not 6-9, and so there is lots of time to cover everything. Remind yourself that not everything needs to be covered. The goal is to have children who love learning, know how to learn and can do it independently, right? The Montessori curriculum is the means of doing that, not the end in itself.

hth,

D.

The Freedom to Choose

I just had an a-ha moment while responding to a post in a Montessori homeschooling group.

A child's freedom to choose his activity can be thwarted by our own desires.

But I don't just mean by us actually stopping a child from doing this or that, saying things like, "You can't do that," or "You need to do this now."

Even our very unspoken desires can affect the child's freedom. How? 

Children can so very often sense what we are feeling, what we want. If we are really trying to convince a child, encourage a child in a specific direction, really hoping that they'll do xyz, this is, at its heart, a form of coercion. We are wanting to control the child's benign activities.

The Montessori philosophy allows the child to choose *whatever is good*. So, disturbing others is not an acceptable choice; doing any type of available work is.

If a child is choosing only math for an entire week, and we start worrying and trying to "get him" to do something else, he may either do so to please us, or he may reject our attempts and keep doing what he's doing, not necessarily because he wants to keep doing math, but because he wants to resist being controlled. Either way, he is not acting out of freedom.

Freedom is not attached to someone else's emotions. Freedom is never expressed through rebellion. Freedom is unfettered.

I admit it, I am wholly guilty of trying to get my children to work on certain things or of trying to encourage them to do other things. In the end, time and time again, I have seen that having no expectations on my part and simply offering different activities (and, of course, doing things myself), giving them the freedom to engage in them or not without any pleasure or displeasure on my part regardless of what they choose, is the most pleasing and satisfying way. For EVERYBODY. They are happy because they know they won't make me unhappy and they are choosing something they find satisfying. I am happy because my happiness isn't tied to what they choose and they are happy.

When will I finally learn and stop regressing to trying to coerce my children into doing certain things? Maybe never. ;) But, as FlyLady says, "Progress, not perfection." As long as I keep working towards truly allowing my kids to choose their work, to be a guide instead of a coercer, I will make progress. And so will they.

Two posts in a week!

It's practically a miracle! ;)

So, my prediction about my son doing the typing didn't pan out, but we have had a couple of weird days. Or rather, just days focused more on helping Bob get some of his work done and submitted. Then we were out all afternoon yesterday, had kung fu in the evening--where dd somehow got knocked, she slipped backwards and ending up hitting her head on the hard floor. Of course, my mind thinking of Natasha Richardson and how what seemed to be a nothing thing ended up in her death, I got home and looked up all kinds of things about concussions and what to do. Kept her awake for a couple of hours and other than a very mild headache, she was fine. Phew.

Today, hm, well, I'm tired and can't remember. I have decided that I need to get back into journalling. My "Montessori progress" was so much better when I took the time at the end of each day to reflect on the day, the good points, the bad points, thoughts, feelings, what I'd like to do differently, etc. I haven't been doing any homeschool-inspiring reading (Montessori or other) and would like to take that up again. Things are going reasonably well, but I'd like them to be even better! I especially want to be more consistent with my 5yo niece--she's so capable and loves learning. Might as well take advantage of it while I've got her with me! (She's heading off to full-time kindergarten in the fall. *sniff sniff*)

I remember something from today: My 2yo niece, in Planet Organic. She was tired and wanted to cling only to me, but it wasn't practical as I had things in my hands and she was okay for a while about holding someone else's hand, but then, bam. She just stood there and did a sort of faux whiny thing towards me. I knew part of her was concerned about the strangers around; at the same time, she'd turn her back on any of the kids who went to offer their hands. I left her there, going up and down aisles with somebody always watching her. She didn't cry, nothing. Just stood there. For at least 5-10 minutes. I thought for sure she'd come, but she didn't! I ended up going behind her to nudge her forward, and I thought she'd seen me, but she must have been so hyper focused on the spot in front of her, I ended up scaring her a bit and that's when she ended up crying. *sigh* Poor thing! The whole time, I was trying to figure out what the best thing to do with her would be. And yes, the thought of, "What would Maria Montessori recommend?" I had interpreted her initial actions as a stubborn 2yo wanting things her way, but I'm not so sure anymore. Ah well. She just stared at me during the ride home--until she fell asleep, that is. After her nap, all seemed to have been forgiven. Good thing toddlers bounce back quickly. ;)

The No-Pressure Approach

I've shared before how important it can be for Mom to make sure she is a student, too, doing things that the kids would do (or that she'd like them to do), without any pressure on the kids to do so, and having her own "studies". Yes, it can be hard to fit it in, but there is such a payoff when you can do even the littlest something!

I've listed as an option for sometime for my 9yo son that he can do typing as part of his school work. Complete disinterest or resistance--there's a fine line between the two. While working with him at decluttering and organizing his room last night, I came across the SpongeBob Typing program I bought years ago. (I hate SpongeBob, but it was only $5 or something and I thought it could be fun.) I decide to check it out, with him in the room. (Yes, he has a computer in his room, our old PC.) I talked about how I'd never really looked at it and I got into it and started asking him questions because I didn't have a clue what to do and he'd previously used the program. When I was done, lo and behold, he went and did typing for about 20 minutes. :) I wouldn't be surprised to have him ask me if it's okay if he does typing today.

Another thing that has gotten started again: German. While working on his room the other night (yes, it's a disaster and is taking multiple days!), I started saying little things in German. We hadn't done German in ages. As I asked him questions (either in French or in German) about what he wants to do with things I'm finding , he started asking me what things were in German so he could respond in German. That led to me pulling out a type of picture dictionary we have (because I couldn't remember some words genders), which led to him wanting to learn to read some of the words there and then to do some work in his German workbook, which we also found during the room cleaning. We spent an HOUR doing German that night!

So, remember, if you're wanting your child to start working in a specific area, make sure YOU start working in that area first. :)

I'm such an inconsistent blogger!

What can I say since my last post?

Ds has stopped writing. However, with the transition between first semester and second, things were kind of topsy-turvy around here. Then we all got sick with a nasty cold. It's been 2 weeks. I think I'm finally getting over it. My 2yo niece is nearing the end of her third week. My kids are still coughing, Bob's still somewhat congested and his sister, on top of finally starting the cold after the rest of us, added strep throat to it. It's been an interesting Feb./beginning of March!

Now that I'm feeling a bit back to myself, I've got a desire to move ahead! Bob's work is coming along fairly well, despite being sick. My kids are slowly getting back into work. Been doing more math with dd this week and it's getting better and better as she does things she sees she can do, and can do easily. I couldn't help but laugh yesterday when she approached me with a question.  Her workbook asked her to do 3 parallelograms, each with a height of 2 units and a base of 3 and then calculate the area of each. "Why do I have to do 3? They're all going to be the same." Ha! Gotta love it. I told her it was for kids who hadn't yet grasped the idea and needed more practice and that she didn't have to calculate each one. She seemed satisfied with that. The drawback to this kind of thing is that when she encounters something she doesn't "get" so easily, she gets down on herself. I need to remember these moments so I can remind her, "Remember when...? That came easily. Some things don't come as easily."

I'm also looking at high school prep with dd. We talked over science a bit yesterday and high school options. She's only grade 7, and high school officially starts in grade 10 here, but we have leeway in when to actually start and how. I also keep thinking of how high school starts in the US in grade 9. Most of our discussion yesterday was on the high school diploma. Although the message that comes across here from schools and the government is that you need a high school diploma, you don't, especially if you are going to do some post-secondary. You only need certain grade 12 subjects, or SAT scores, for university, and some colleges allow you admission based on portfolios. Dd kept asking what the point of the diploma was. We basically came to a consensus that it was if you weren't going to be doing any post-secondary, it was a good piece of paper to have to say that you had at least done high school. Of course, thinking of it now, we could have quickly looked up people who don't have high school diplomas nor post-secondary and the work they're doing. (Just a note to my non-Canadian readers, high school diplomas are awarded through the government here; parent-issued diplomas, as is often done by homeschooling families in the US, are not seen as valid!)

So, we're toying with starting chemistry already and focusing on getting her math mastered, especially some of the things we didn't cover in elementary and should have, and some more focus on French--spelling, grammar, writing, etc. That's one of my big issues--how to get her French recognized. She may need to do an online French Language Arts course at some point to get that recognition. I'll have to see what other sort of tests and the like exist out there. Right now, it looks as though she'll at least go for the grade 12 credits for university entrance. But, they don't offer French, so everything will be in English (even if we do the work in French) and, at the moment, the only way to actually get credit for French as a homeschooled student is to do an online course.

Of course, I suppose I should take care of her jr. high French before worrying too much on the high school French. ;) And above all, keep in mind that I don't just want transmission of knowledge!

“If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.”

 Maria Montessori