For a few days, I've been doing some major cleaning and rearranging, especially in our quiet room where we do most of our Montessori homeschooling. And without much ado, my kids have decided that they want to study NOW.
Small changes in the classroom has made a world of a difference. Ever since I moved the insets down to the lower shelves, they get daily use by both of the girls! Before, they rarely touched it. And after taking all of Cheeky's toddler puzzles in the closet and leaving just one on the shelf like I've seen other Montessori teacher blogs do it, she suddenly does her puzzle three times in a row and actually is mastering it. Before, she hardly would sit down to complete even one of her puzzles. And now that I moved the 9000 layout with all the crazy amount of cubes and what not so that Koko can access it, she initiates wanting to do this activity for the first time in her life! Again, I am humbled by Maria Montessori's genius. I totally blew off her principle of simplicity in the classroom and it's only now that I am seeing how important it is. (Check out Our Montessori's Story's classroom for inspiration!) If only, I could declutter the rest of my house.
Koko is loving the metal insets*, the continent bags, the hundreds board, phonic bags**, teen and tens boards, all the 3-part cards and activities I've set out, and is busy practicing writing the number eight. Her recent self-directed big project was studying Olivia Forms a Band and replicating the band scene with Cheeky. Hilarious! She was also interested in our version of the Korean moveable (magnet) alphabet all summer and is still fiddling with that from time to time.
Cheeky also loves the phonic bags, her lone animal puzzle, the continent world map with animals, the metal insets, the geometric solids, sound cylinders, and the knobless cylinders. I want to start her off with the sandpaper letters, but it's hard because Koko still needs them as a reference when she wants to write out words. Ideally, it would be great to just have one sandpaper letter out at a time so that Cheeky could focus...I still don't know what to do about that. Any ideas?
Everything is great about school except that I'm exhausted. I can't keep up with them! One night, I casually mentioned that if Koko hurried with putting on her pajamas and brushing her teeth, we might have time to "study" a bit and read a few books. (We don't limit school to just the day.) But when reading a few books became like a full-fledged story hour, I was already practically asleep. She also looked like she was ready to join me when suddenly her eyes flashed open (or so I imagine) and she nudged me, "Mom, what about studying?" I mumbled, "Sorry. Can't we just do it tomorrow?" Of course, a tantrum erupted, but because she was tired, it wasn't that high on the Richter scale. At that time, I was terribly irritated, but in retrospect, isn't it funny to have a kid throw a tantrum because she wants to study?
* I followed Montessori Moments' advice on getting free/cheap inset paper, and now I have a whole heavy boxful of FREE inset paper!
**I never thought that my kids would enjoy the phonic bags so much. It's really not that hard to assemble, (okay, I was gifted with an almost complete set, but still...) and it's totally worth it! If possible, stick to small objects as much as possible as kids are not as enthralled with pictures. Thank you Shannon so very much! I think this would make a great homemade gift for an older toddler/preschooler/kindergartner. Even if your toddler is not ready for phonics, it's a great vocabulary builder!
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