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Start With What You Have: Practical Life for Montessori Homeschoolers
Practical Life is so much more than pouring and food prep. It's foundational — laying the groundwork for all the learning to come. It supports independence and helps children learn to follow a logical sequence of action. No matter what age you begin implementing Montessori at home, Practical Life is the place to start.
I was not a Montessori child, and by the time my parents discovered it, I was already too old for Primary. But when I look back, I realize how many opportunities
Five Things I Wish I Knew when I Started Homeschooling
My kids and I began homeschooling halfway through the school year when I left my Montessori teaching job, and at first I invested all my energy into re-creating a small classroom in my living room. I had visions of my children happily engaging in my inspiring lessons. But instead of harmony and joyful learning, there was apathy and avoidance of anything that remotely resembled what they knew as school.
On Being "The Older child"
After 10 weeks of lockdown-schooling, when June 1st arrived and parts of our city reopened, I called for a homeschooling break. My kids agreed, and we spent three lazy weeks picnicking in the park, reading, and playing.
My children have always been creative, and they have plenty of LEGOs and art supplies to stay busy and engaged, but by the end of those three weeks I sensed a certain restless energy - a need for a project and a goal much bigger than what their emerging imaginations could envision.
Homeschool 101
"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy - I'm telling you it's going to be worth it."
- Art Williams
Maybe you're just starting to homeschool...Or perhaps you've been a home educator for years. Either way, the road can be bumpy and the journey can be daunting. I hope these suggestions empower, reassure, and inspire you to keep going. Use them as a jumping-off point or as a way to re-calibrate your compass. And remember that in homeschooling, change is the only constant, because we're working with young humans who grow and evolve daily.
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.
Holding On to Our Kids
There’s one thing that should be more important to Montessorians than supporting independence.
And that’s supporting attachment.
Attachment extends far beyond the first year of life, with its focus on baby-wearing and co-sleeping. These are both very important practices, don’t get me wrong!
But as our kids grow, we often push them towards independence and by so doing, we inadvertently break the attachment bond precisely when it needs to remain strong to counter the external pressures of society on our still-developing children.
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...
The Entitlement Myth
A few weeks into his first-grade year, my formerly sweet and relatively cooperative son began acting sassy, cocky, and entitled. Requests for help were met with groans and eye-rolls. Limits were countered with sighs and "whatever"s. We gave him the benefit of a doubt: Surely he was just imitating his older classmates' rude behaviors. Or maybe this was a misguided attempt at being more independent. All my friends' children were acting the same way, so it was probably a developmental phase.
Growth Mindset: Harnessing the Power of "Yet"
Have you ever heard your child say, “I can’t do it!” Or “I’m not smart enough!” Wouldn't it be wonderful to hear instead, “I can’t do it yet and I’m going to keep trying.” Or “I know my brain can grow and learn new things. I will try again.”
Opting Outside
“Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and, when the grass of the meadows is damp with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning as it wakes every living creature that divides its day between waking and sleeping. When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength.”
~ Dr. Maria Montessori, Discovery of the Child
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.
Can Montessori and Other Curriculums Co-Exist? (A Case Study)
This week, one of our focus areas was sentence development and expansion. We started by discussing the main reason for practicing writing: It allows us to organize our thoughts clearly so that we can share them effectively. (It’s valuable to have these discussions with children, because buy-in and self-discipline can only arise if they know how the activity is benefiting them in the short- and long-term.)
Building Skills in the Kitchen: Benefits of Baking at Home
Baking is a fantastic Practical Life activity that can be enjoyed by children from the toddler stage through upper elementary and beyond. It helps children develop important skills such as independence, concentration, coordination, and the ability to follow a logical sequence of action. As they work through the baking process, children also build stamina and strengthen the muscles they’ll need for writing, especially when mixing ingredients.