Deciding to homeschool my rising kindergartener a few months ago, I’ve spent every week since then oscillating between vastly different plans for my initial homeschool setup. Should there be a set time that we do specific subjects? Should we have no curriculum plans at all, and just follow interests? Should we focus on learning skills… Continue reading Un-Montessori Montessori Homeschooling
When I have someone over to my house who knows a bit about Montessori, they often observe my elder child and comment something like, “Oh, he’s clearly a Montessori kid!” He doesn’t go to Montessori school, and we don’t have any of the classic Montessori materials out, so what brings guests to this conclusion? For… Continue reading Following the Child
In a Montessori classroom, there are rows of shelves filled with open trays of carefully grouped pieces. It is beautiful… but at home with little chaos tornados running around, it would be a disaster. At home, everything is going to get dumped on the floor and no one is going to spend more than a… Continue reading Easy Tidy Toy Organization
Including a toddler in cooking is much easier said than done. Toddlers love to be helpful and it’s incredibly beneficial for them too. Unfortunately, it can be really hard to find the extra time and energy required to let our toddlers help! Toddlers naturally slow tasks down and produce extra cleanup. But on the flip… Continue reading Rice Work
Some worry that because Montessori students choose their own work, they will be left with massive knowledge gaps in the areas in which they have little inherent interest. I’m of the opinion that regardless of the pedagogy one is taught under, knowledge acquisition is a choice and cannot be successfully forced upon unwilling students. Thus… Continue reading Crafting Math Beads
The building blocks of literacy begin early. As we hear stories and songs, our appreciation of language and our vocabulary grows. The power and beauty of words we learn through spoken word enable us to expand our use of language into the written word, which requires not just the memorization of sounds and symbols but… Continue reading Fruit Riddles
As I discussed in my post on Organizing Baby Toys, children (even babies!) can start to meet there own needs when their toys are easily visible and accessible. Implementing this design philosophy in my own home, I had chosen a couch side table to be the place for one on my child’s favorite toys, a… Continue reading Toy Coasters
At 11 months and a few days, I declared my kid a walker. Having never crawled and only very reluctantly pulled himself up to stand, I reflected on his somewhat unusual developmental path. Particularly, I wondered, how much did my parenting style, shape his developmental path versus how much of it was simply him doing… Continue reading Walking to Mama
A newborn’s vision is blurry beyond ten inches and their perception of color is hazy, so the very first Montessori material is a black and white mobile with crisp lines and simple shapes. The Munari mobile, as it’s called, is simple yet interesting, making it intriguing and stimulating to a newborn while not being overstimulating.… Continue reading Making Newborn Danglies
Frequent hand washing is so important to our hygiene that it’s great if we can make it fun. And for young children, simply being able to do real activities independently is fun – especially when water is involved! My friend, Dave, creates awesome custom tools and tool adaptations that make building and doing other physical… Continue reading Toddler Hand Washing
