Rethinking Practical Life

Rethinking Practical Life

Thursday, March 13, 2014 / No Comments

Our Small, Often Neglected Practical Life Area

There's no denying the importance of practical life activities.  This area, unique to Montessori, teaches children coordination and fine motor skills through activities designed to care for the classroom environment and for themselves.  While tasks such as washing dishes, preparing food and sweeping floors are important skills to develop and foster greater independence for the child, they also help develop the muscles needed for writing and cognition.  If you have spent any time searching the Internet for examples of Montessori activities, chances are a lot of what you found fell into this category.

But if practical life is so essential, why have I chosen to keep this area of my classroom so minimal?

Maria Montessori saw practical life as a way to help children establish their place in society.  She found that children were most interested in those activities that replicated what they had witnessed as a part of life.  Her approach to practical life was just that - practical.  Children learned how to wash their hands, dress themselves, polish shoes, set a table, prepare and serve food, dust the shelves, sweep the floors, wash the tables and care for plants and animals.  All of these activities were relevant to the children's daily life in Italy during the early 1900s.

As I read about the history of Montessori and the purpose of practical life, I began to ask myself a few questions.  Are the practical life activities I'm presenting relevant to the time and place my children live?  Am I teaching them skills that will help them integrate into society?

While we're the type of Montessori family who has a dedicated classroom with traditional materials, I found that practical life belonged where life happened... everywhere.  It also revolutionized what I thought of as practical life.  While we work on sweeping with a broom, my children also have a child-sized vacuum (mini shop vac).  They help prepare aspects of dinner and serve themselves food and drink, even as young toddlers.  We practice dressing ourselves daily, and my oldest is learning to put a ponytail in her hair.  A wide range of adult activities can be adapted at a young age... unloading the dishwasher, sorting laundry, folding washrags, chopping vegetables, flipping pancakes, wiping up spills, sewing, raking, tending to the garden, wiping baseboards, scrubbing pots and washing windows.  That is practical life.

Granted, I still keep a few items on the shelves in the classroom.  My younger ones find themselves drawn to a work here or there.  However, my practical life shelves simply don't have the appeal that getting to do the "real deal" does.  My favorite aspect of classroom based practical life is when everyone pitches in to clean when we're finished.

I'm certainly not saying you're wrong if your activities are far less "practical" by definition.  We've done our fair share of tweezing colored pom-poms.  But if you've found yourself scrambling to keep your child interested, this could be a big piece of the puzzle.   Either way, I hope you will begin to see a wider world of possibilities for practical life.


Stay tuned as I share the two simple keys to making your home practical life friendly.

As always, I love hearing from you.  Track Grace and Green Pastures down on Facebook and don't forget to join our Facebook Group Montessori Homeschooling.  We've had some incredible discussions lately!

Bess

New Montessori Materials

New Montessori Materials

Monday, November 4, 2013 / No Comments

As I mentioned recently, Elora has had a major jump in her math skills.  Despite my planning, I quickly realized that I couldn't wait until the first of the year to order more materials.  After a week or two of thinking and planning, I finally placed my order with Alisons late on a Thursday night.  The next thing I know, a large box of goodies was dropped on my porch the following Tuesday.  I wish I could say I was elated but honestly, it was a bit overwhelming.

What goodies await me?

Yes, they use packing peanuts.  WARNING - Do not let your children dive into the box unless you want to vacuum peanuts for weeks!

Each item is in a separate box like a delightful present.

I finally have the complete bead material!  This includes the squares, cubes and both long/short chains.  Alison's has the cheapest set by far at $153.  Generally these are more in the $300 range.

The bead decanomial box.  I changed my mind at the last minute and purchased the large set that has 55 of each.

The entire box of goodies.

So what did I get?

• The Complete Bead Materials (squaring and cubing material)
• The Sandpaper Globe (for helping the boys with land/water confusioin)
• The Decanomial Bead Box
• The Subtraction Strip Board
• The Multiplication Board
• The Teen Bead Hanger (to help with the difficult concept of teens)
• 50 Wooden Thousand Cubes (for the 45 layout)
• 50 Wooden Hundred Squares (for the 45 layout)
• TAG Toys Tumble Down Counting Pegs (hiding in the box - Birthday present for Lockelan)

At this point, it has been stashed away in the school room.  This purchase has certainly amplified the space difficulties in my math area.  I think I'm going to give in and purchase new, taller shelves.

I'm trying not to be intimidated by the new work.  I really enjoy Montessori math.  In fact, it was one of the most influential aspects in my decision to delve deeper into the method.  At the same time, it's intense, especially at the pace we are moving now.

Have you made any recent purchases?  If so, what did you get?

Using Fonts to Create Custom Tracing Sheets

Using Fonts to Create Custom Tracing Sheets

Wednesday, August 21, 2013 / No Comments

William has moved to a more
challenging tracing page.

It's common to introduce a child to his/her written name early in the Montessori journey.  It's often the first thing he/she learns to read and spell, mostly because of the great interest it holds.  My children love tracing work.  I've come up a quick and easy way to make custom worksheets.

There are a host of free fonts that you can find online.  Once installed, they are available within standard word processing programs such as Microsoft Word.  You simply select them as you would any other font and create away.

Here are some of my favorite free tracing fonts**:

Print Dashed

Print Dashed can be found here.

Learning Cursive Dashed

Learning Cursive Dashed can be found here.


Neal Font
Neal Font can be found here.

KG Primary Dots Lined
KG Primary Dots Lined can be found here.

**As with anything you download from the Internet, please be cautious and scan your downloads first.  I am in no way affiliated with these sites nor do I control the content there.  Free font sites are great but you have to be careful to ensure you are downloading the correct item.  Many have ads that are geared to make you click on them, thinking that you are downloading your font file.

Once you have some fonts installed, here are a few ideas to get you started.

• For new writers start with the first name only.  Limit it to one name per page.  You can put 2-3 per page and cut it into strips.
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• Start with a larger font initially.  75-100 points often works well, depending on the particular font since each varies.
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• As the tracing progresses you can lower the font size.  Sometimes I create a page that offers the same word in a decreasing size.
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• Tracing sheets can be used for more than names.  It's a also a great way to learn other important personal information such as address and telephone numbers.
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• If budget is a concern you can print your sheet and laminate them.  This allows for it to be used as a dry erase board.  You can also use dry erase pockets such as these.
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• I like to keep small snippets of custom tracing work on the shelves for the kids to discover as they please.  This can help ensure your classroom experience doesn't become worksheet driven.
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• Offering a variety of writing utensils can increase a child's interest.  I'm not a big fan of using crayons for this work but colored pencils, pens and markers work well for us.  My daughter's new multi-color pen has kept her highly interested in any form of writing work.
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• I tend to offer tracing sheets once a child can recognize the alphabet and has had ample practice drawing letters in the sand tray.

Happy creating!

-Bess

Cursive Now or Later?

Cursive Now or Later?

Monday, April 8, 2013 / No Comments

Our efforts at school have been coming together in a miraculous ways lately.  The children have been enthusiastic about our time.  In turn, I have once again found my passion to continue improving as a teacher.  I recently had one of those moments where Montessori clicked at another level.  And yes, it has me pretty fired up.  I'm always amazed at the ebb and flow of the Montessori homeschooling journey.  It's certainly isn't linear.

As I hinted at in my post yesterday, I've been reconsidering the early introduction of cursive for some time now.  For those of you newer to the Montessori method, Montessori strongly believed that children needed to be taught cursive from the beginning vs the tradition print.  There are a host of valid reasons for doing so such as less confusion between similar letters like b and d and a greater ease in learning since young writers find curved lines much simpler than straight.  There are still schools that teach primarily in cursive.  However, those offerings are becoming less and less.

When I initially started procuring supplies many years ago, I intentionally decided to introduce print first.  I was primarily concerned about the over abundance of print that my children would be exposed to.  Unless I was going to make card material and early readers myself, it was going to be both challenging and costly to track down items in cursive.  When we initially set out on journey, I was also unsure how long Montessori would be taught at home and was concerned about the possible transition.   All school options in the area, Montessori and traditional alike, begin with print.  In fact, in our state, schools are no longer required to teach cursive, although some legislators are trying to reverse it.

I'm not sure what made the idea come around this time, other than my recent efforts to reevaluate my approach in all areas.  Elora is starting to write regularly but I still feel there's room to get a jump start.  William is experimenting with writing and I can see the challenges that print brings.  At the same time, they both are well versed in recognizing print letters.

I'm still on the fence and obviously, my materials are already in print.  Having to purchase new sandpaper letters and moveable alphabets does cause me to hesitate.  I'm debating bringing in cursive along side the print work we already have but my fear is that this might only add extra confusion and frustration at this point.  I don't want either of them to feel like they are starting over.  At the same time, how will they feel when they have to start over at the age of 8 or 9 since I do still plan to introduce cursive at some point?  I only recently learned that any child who can read cursive can generally read print without issues so it does make it seem like only introducing a few materials in cursive would be sufficient.

As I reviewed blogs and scoured the Internet, I did find this excellent post from Montessori for Everyone.  If you're interested in the topic then I highly recommend reading the comments as well.  There is some fabulous information there, including how to approach teaching cursive.  

Overall, I'm curious on your thoughts on the topic.  What decisions have you made on the cursive vs print debate?  Please leave your comments!