Our Blog
Who Taught Wyatt to Write?
Peter and Margaret had heard that children in Montessori schools were precocious learners. Their neighbor's five-year old daughter, Jenny began to read and write while she attended the local Montessori school. They didn’t know much about the method, but when the time came to enroll their three-year old son Wyatt in a pre-school, they decided to give Montessori a chance.
Great Books for Our Great Stories
Many of you have asked me to share my favorite books that align with the Great Stories. So, here they are! I have used every single one of these books either in my elementary classrooms or in our homeschool life. Some are child-friendly reference books, but many have activities to inspire follow-up work.
Essentials of Practical Life
Practical Life is essential to the development and work of the child. This area is considered to be the most important area in the primary environment though the value of Practical Life extends far into and beyond the elementary years.
Practical Life allows the child to become more aware of himself through his actions in his care of himself and care of the environment. The work in Practical Life also lays a solid foundation for work in Language and Math.
Worm Moon
Look up! What do you notice? Did you observe that the full moon is larger than usual? We call it a Supermoon, and your eyes aren’t deceiving you… The moon IS larger than usual because it's closer than usual, and that's because the moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t perfectly circular - it’s elliptical.
Story of Chemistry: Part I
I wrote this story a while back for the Upper Elementary group I inherited that hadn't been exposed to chemistry. I never got around to writing Part II but if you take on that challenge, let me know!
Long Live the Short Chains
The Montessori Short Chains and Arrows pack a big learning punch and are often under-utilized. They're great for a homeschool environment because they don't take up any shelf space. Their initial purpose is to help the child first count linearly and then skip-count. But when your child is comfortable with these two concepts, you can use the chains for much more! Here are four ideas...
Moon-tessori (haha, couldn't resist)
"You're great at this homeschooling thing because you're a teacher... I don't think I could do it because I don't know much about anything."
I can't tell you how many times I've heard this phrase since we started homeschooling two months ago, coming from the most capable and well-prepared mothers in my circle of friends. So here's a little secret... I don't know everything. Heck, I don't know most things! But I don't let that hold me back from learning and sharing with my children.