Homeschooling Montessori Mom

Ah, the balance between the internal instinct of protecting your children from harm including the pain of learning is a hard one.

To choose to observe a child in a classroom as a Montessori educator is far easier than observing your own child.

As we are into contract work for the older children now, where they choose their work in each of the categories, I feel we have accomplished a balance that is both comfortable and child self empowering.

BUT.......what happens when "work time" is over and your child still feels the need to complete the sheet? Is it out of desperation? Is it out of sense of accomplishment? What makes a child want to keep working.....yet cry at the same time saying that they are not playing? No matter what I said to encourage it only seemed to make it worse. I stood aside and said nothing watching and fighting my internal instincts of wanting to scoop him up and force him to stop, I put my trust into Montessori.

Now when I had rethought the events I realized that he had played during work time and perhaps he felt some sense of duty......

The next morning to my amazement my trust was not only restored but blooming! This child had sat down and chosen a different schedule for himself and was focused like a hawk on it's prey. As the others watched they too became focused and worked to their hearts content.

I just laughed and shook my head and said.....Yes Maria, YES!

Montessori Quote for Today

The greatness of human personality begins at the hour of birth …

During this early period education must be understood as a help to the unfolding of the child’s inborn psychic powers. The child’s true constructive energy, a dynamic power, has remained unnoticed for thousands of years … the men of our day make progress after progress in civilized life without noticing the treasure that lie hidden in the psychic world of infancy …

Today we are beginning to see the value of the ungathered fruits, more precious than gold, for they are man’s own spirit.

read more from Dr. Silvana Quattrocchi Montanaro, M.D.

Montessori Tip of the Day

Does your child have selective hearing?

Do they hear you better the louder you yell?
Then yell louder!
Did they hear you then?
Well surely their ears must be filled with cotton....
So go an remove the cotton, then yell very loudly so the neighbors hear you!
Hum.. still didn't work?

Ah *shacking my head*
but have you tried this? ....

WHISPER.......

"WHAT?" You say.
Here let me remove the cotton from your ear....

Yes, WHISPER.....that is right.
Look your child in the eye and move your mouth as quietly as you can. You will be amazed at how well they hear you.

For stubborn kids try adding an open armed hug like come to me gesture with your arms and shacking those fingers, with a smile.
No back flips are necessary in this exercise...

Why does it work? Perhaps....

Maria Montessori once did an experiment. She notice the children working on language and making great progress, but she wondered were they understanding the concept. That spelling out the words using the movable alphabet really meant something.

So she stood at the blackboard and wrote "If you love me, come to me"

One child who was so engrossed in his work just happened to look up. Puzzled he saw the letters on the board. Soon his face lite so quickly and so brightly, he jumped up and walked to her giving her a big hug. He then returned to his work. Soon the children came to her one by one. She never said a word, only smiled and hugged.

So as you whisper think of the story and see if your children "hear" you better. You'll be surprised.....

Montessori Quote For Today

The child becomes a person through work. Bring the child to the consciousness of his own dignity and he will feel free.

-M Montessori

Sensitive Periods

Language 0 - 6yrs
Order 2 - 4yrs
Interest in small objects 2 1/2 - 6yrs
Social behavior 2 1/2 - 7yrs
Training of Senses 3 - 6 yrs
Cultural subject 3 - 6 yrs

Misunderstood Minds

As Educators it is important to understand our children. With ADHD reaching epidemic proportions, most of which are misdiagnosed Learning Differences.

Before running off to the Doctor, please educate yourself with the different types of LD's that many children experience daily.

Facts about LD's that I have learned along my path:

1. LD's happen more often in gifted learners.
2. Up to 80% of incarcerated inmates cannot read above a fourth grade level. Of those, up to 50% are undiagnosed learning Disabled children.
3. The brain naturally reads from right to left.
4. Children naturally spell first, then write, then read.
5. The perpetrators of the shootings at Thurston High school, Oregon, Virginia Tech and Columbine had been diagnosed with learning disabilities but had not been treated.
6. Drop out rates are 35% in learning disabled children.
7. Learning disabilities do not go away without treatment and result in low self esteem.
8. It is very hard to get learning disabilities diagnosed and treated unless you have large finances to back you.
9. Insurance does not cover it because it is the schools problem and the schools only allow a very small number to "qualify" for treatment and there is much more to this crisis that plagues our society......


EXPERIENCE FIRSTHAND what children go through.......

Visual Activity Reading with Distractions try it
Auditory Activity Listening to Directions try it
Reading Video Remembering What is Read view it

Visit Misunderstood minds for more first hand interaction of the frustrations Learning Disabled children experience by walking a mile in their shoes....

Inspirational 12yo for Environmental Change

Twelve-yr-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki's famous speech to the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Brazil is now available on YouTube! Hooray! I'm very glad to see this because people these days might be a bit more inclined to listen to what she's saying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8cmWZOX8Q

You can read more about Severn's current activities at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Cullis-Suzuki

http://www.collagefoundation.org/people/people-scsuzuki.html

"I don't know if Severn was a Montessori student. I assume not. She is the sort of person with which Montessori schools should be flooding the planet, were we to live up to our vision and our rhetoric. Are we? If so, how can we help them be more visible? If not, why not? I think these are important questions for us to be asking." ~ Peace, John Snyder

What a world we would have if every child could reach their full potential!

Children's organizations can be listed here:

http://www.idealist.org/kt/youthorgs.html