Are you afraid to embrace the freedom homeschool offers?
Do you fear what others think?
If you do something different than school at home,
do you worry that your family and friends just won't understand?
Does doing something different, or being considered odd,
make you cringe?
What holds you back from embracing all the freedom homeschooling offers?
Are you trying to homeschool like your friend
and it just isn't working for your family?
Do you think you've chosen the less than path
in homeschooling because of these choices?
There is diversity in homeschooling!
Embrace your family's unique path.
There is opportunity to make changes,
and to do things differently.
Sure, you will make mistakes. We all do. {I know I have made plenty.}
Learn from your mistakes, and make the necessary changes.
Learn from others' mistakes as well.
{Sometimes, I think those that have messed up a lot,
have more to teach us than those who did it all correctly the first time.}
As we close out one school year,
and begin planning for another,
it is a fabulous time to embrace your family's freedom,
making the changes you need to for your family.
Homeschooling does work.
It works for each family in a unique way.
Find your family's homeschooling path, don't try to walk another's.
And, please, don't let fear stop you from trying something different next year. Embrace all the freedoms homeschooling has for you!
Dorie enjoys being outside, photography, art, writing, a strong cup of coffee, and good conversations seasoned with much laughter. She and her drummer husband, Jerry, share a life built on faith in Jesus, love, and grace. They have been blessed with four active children. Each day, whether easy or trying, is a wondrous part of this grace filled journey, and Dorie blogs about them all at These Grace Filled Days. Their homeschooling adventures can be found at Homeschooling Just Next Door.
Today I'm going to show you some of our Montessori-style activities. I keep a big tub in a closet and when I come across interesting boottles, boxes, jars, corks, boucy balls, beads, spools... you get the idea- I toss them in there. Then, when I have a chance, maybe once or twice a year, I go through and put together a few new activities.
There are many books about Montessori and the Montessori method. Many are stuffy and want to make sure that you walk away feeling that only a professionally trained individual can successfully teach Montessori-style. But many are good. I can't really begin to make recommendations here, though, or this post would never end.
Here's what's important with these activities:
-the child can do them on her own after being shown how;
-the activity has natural control-of-error (i.e. yellow botton in red basket: child sees mistake, or, circle lid doesn't fit on heart box, etc.)
-easily set up and put away by child.
Here's what's important with mom:
-DO NOT interrupt child to point out her mistakes, let her find them herself;
-be willing to help clean up.
These first are from "Do Touch," referred to earlier:
Jumbo craft sticks. Pics 1 & 2 are just matching 2 sticks with same patterns. Pic 3 is a simple puzzle.
Also from "Do Touch," sponge sey cut up. One left whole as a control. These are actually quite difficult to put back together!
Button sorting. 3 peanut butter lids with colored paper glued in, heart container with lid to store buttons in the activity's bag.
Flower beads to sort. Three sizes of flower beads (found these on ebay for $1 and knew Rose would love them), 3 peanut lids, tweezers to pick up the beads for fun, pouch to store beads, all in a baby shoe box.
John Paul at work!
These little number puzzles are part of a huge, overwhelming set and were a gift. I rotate a few at a time into a bag with "jewels" to place on the completed puzzles. The jewels make the puzzles much more fun to do.
Letter puzzles. Were also a gift. 26 puzzles are too much for most preschoolers all at once. So a few with objects to match get rotated for this bag. I love that tiny ball of yarn!
Fruit bead sorting, tweezers missing. Sigh. This idea was stolen from the Montessori-n-Such catalog. Fabric covered cardboard, Cezanne picture glued on, jar lids glued on. I like these beads but this tray isn't used very often. I'd really like to replace it with the M-n-S set, but it's definitely a want and not a need!
Lauri crepe rubber toys. Top pic is puzzles that go in a bag together. Bottom is a sorting toy I found for $1 at a thrift store. Lauri toys are great! They are safe, non-toxic, and your toddler can hurl one across the room and it sticks together! They make some cool, inexpensive puzzles for older kids, too. Most of their toys are available on Amazon.
Feel 'n find. A traditional Montssori game. There are 10 objects in bag 1 and their matches in bag 2. Birthday candles, big screws, marbles, thimbles, small spoons, plastic flowers, you get the idea. Make sure the blindfold is easy to get on and off. I actually did buy this one from Montessori services beacause it was cheap and I was feeling lazy, and it is a really nice blindfold!
More bead sorting. We're kinda heavy on bead sorting these days!
Butterfly toss. Just a target and some plastic butterflies. Less dangerous to your breakables than a bean-bag toss.
Bendaroos shape making. I need a laminator, see my bent control card? This is much tougher than it looks.
Boxes and lids. Really fun for 2 year olds. These boxes are usually $1 each, but stock up when Hobby Lobby puts them 50% off.
Hands down favorite! Opening and closing activity. Random assortment of containers, each requiring a different skill to open. Usually each one has a frog or lizard who lives inside, but I'm down to 2 frogs at the moment. JP gets this out at least 3 times a week, and so did my older kids from about ages 14 months to 3 years. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT put child=proof pill bottles in here. They will figure them out quickly and then you'll have a serious problem on your hands.
Transferring activity. Jars of different objects (with tight screw-on lid!), variety of tongs and spoons to use, 2 pails to transfer to and fro. John Paul likes to pour, which is ok, too.
Some of Rosie's activities in a deep basket which sits on a shelf in the dining room.
OK, friends, I am too tired to photograph my science kits. But you can see them at either catalog website mentioned above. We have a sink or float set and a magnetic/ non-magnetic set, plus a rice play box.
I hope this peek into a selection of our Montessori-style activities inspires you!
"It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself."
~Joyce Maynard
"Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."
~Robert Fulghum
Hello, new friends! I hope this special day finds you all surrounded with the warmth and comfort of friends and family. I couldn’t think of a better day to join “Growing Your Homeschool.” I am thankful to be a part of this blog, thankful for the gift of home education. And most thankful for the awe-inpiring gift of motherhood. My name is Maureen
and I am a homeschooling mother of 3 delightful little people. (Isaiah almost 8, Rosemary almost 5, And John Paul just-turned-2.)
We live, at least for now, in the wild mountains of northern New Mexico.
When you read what I write, there are a couple things you’ll probably want to keep in mind.
I am not your typical homeschooling mama. I do not promote the use of curricula. I believe that children should be self-motivated, and I really, truly mean that. I mean it NOW, not ten years from now, when they turn 18. I believe that a nurturing environment is an education in itself. I believe academics prepare children for life in one way, but that education for living is a much broader thing, and that is what so many children, even many homeschooled children, are missing today.
I believe that if you don’t like it, change it!
I am always seeking a gentle path, a joyful path. I take education seriously, and I seriously consider the way children *feel* about their learning to be important. I want you to take everything I say with a grain of salt. No, TWO grains of salt. Because I am not the expert on your children.
YOU ARE!
I am really pleased and humbled to be here, sharing with you, walking with you. Thanks for having me! I can’t wait for us to get to know one another.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
~Albert Einstein
Dorie enjoys being outside, photography, art, writing, a strong cup of coffee, and good conversations seasoned with much laughter. She and her drummer husband, Jerry, share a life built on faith in Jesus, love, and grace. They have been blessed with four active children. Each day, whether easy or trying, is a wondrous part of this grace filled journey, and Dorie blogs about them all at These Grace Filled Days. Their homeschooling adventures can be found at Homeschooling Just Next Door.
, and another is 
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