August Trays & Shelves

We moved to a little country city just a few minutes outside of Nashville, TN! Here school started August 5! I've had very little time for getting ready for school between moving, packing, and all the stuff you gotta do when moving to another state. However, we started! No choice in the matter do to homeschooling laws around these parts! ;)

So here are our trays & shelves in our very own homeschooling room (pics. to come when it is actually complete):

Chris ( age 6/First Grade):

Superminds - will be changing pattern every so often

Sketch Book - we have not incorporated any drawing, sketching, art time. We do have a weekly art picture study but until we work in hands on art this will do. He seems to look forward to his sketch time and gets into it. One side is regular oil pastels and the other side is chalk pastels. I bought them both on clearance at Jo-Ann's for $1.97/each!

Bought this at Border's with 50% off coupon! Chris loves it and has only used it once a day for a week and has learned how to tie shoes from it!

~ his shelf at a glance ~

Zack (age 4/ preschool):

Math ~ there are numbers 1 - 6 in the card pile.

He sorts them out and then matches a bean to

each picture.

Fine Motor ~ cutting. He still struggles with just this basic cut.

So I bought him scissors like these to help as his little hand muscles develop.

They have made a big difference!!

A part of his shelf that's not trays :)

~~ beads/lacing, puzzle, & card sorting ~~

~ his shelf at a glance ~

I really, really can't rave enough about trays and shelves!!! The boys absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!!! In addition, I've seen much improvement in the boy's various skills!

Good Finds

I bought several of these little handicrafts on clearance last summer at JoAnn's for .50/piece!!

It sure came in handy to buy so many because Chris broke 2 before completing this one. This required much concentration and hand and eye control for him! The activity came with little squares of tissues that they wrap around a point needle (but not) type thing and dip it in glue then punch it into the foam.

I found them in the vacation bible school or summer craft type section. I will be keeping an eye out for these babies this summer (as they are originally only $1) and end of summer because .50 is always awesome!

** 2011 - 2012 Curriculum **

I'm so excited for this years curriculum! I've had lots of time to look over (&over) tons of resources and have spent some time thinking & praying. I'm so thankful for all the resources available and the work that is made ready for me!

Chris ~ Grade 1: I basically followed the CM Curriculum Guide (i seriously love that site btw) while changing up some things.

• He will have 3 Montessori based trays.
• Math - Math U See Alpha
• Copywork - A Reason for Handwriting
• Science - 106 Days of Creation Study
• Personal Development - Learning to Get Along Series I'm so excited about this find!! ~ incorporating Laying Down the Rails
• History, Geography, Reading, Read A Louds, Bible - Core B with Grade 3 Readers
• Poetry - Montessori Style Poem of the Month
• Nature Study - I Love Dirt!
• Picture Study - We have 3 Come Look With Me books that we will be working through the year
• Art - Drawing With Children. I also have lots of left over art supplies we didn't use this past year due to home circumstances that I will be delighted to use with them this year!

It's a lot and that's why I left out quite a few subjects suggested on CM. We had such a lackadaisical curriculum last year that I didn't want to throw us in shock and accomplish nothing! The Poetry, Nature Study, and Picture Study will be weekly. The Science is 3 days a week.

I still have quite a few ideas spinning around in me head and I'm trying to figure out if they will work or not!

Zack ~ Preschool:

• 6 Montessori based Trays
• Raising Rock Stars Preschool - we will being joining to have access to the power points as well
• Reading Time each day
• Joining Chris for Poetry, Nature Study, and Art
• His own Personal Development program using the same resources I'm using with Chris

Nate ~ Toddler: ohhhhh how I don't like the thought that he will be a toddler during this school year! He's still a baby in my head so squishy, juicy, and lovey! And I know he still will be all those things, I just really like the idea of him being a baby cake!

• Some form of Tot School mixed with some CM & Montessori applications

I'm working on a schedule and trying to figure out how we can work everything with as much ease, comfort, and fun as possible.

January Poem

My Montessori Journey had some great posts on poetry. At the beginning of the year I had great plans for poetry. However, I found I had a hard time getting the boys interest and including it in general. When I read this post I knew I wanted to give it one more try!

So I found a basket around my home not in use. Picked a Poem. Found pictures to use and created the poem sheet. Then went to Michael's and bought my items. Total spent: $2.85

We have poetry time once a week on our last day of school using the same poem for a month. The boys loved it right away and when Daddy came home they had to show him! Now poetry time isn't boring. They even ask to do it sometimes before bed in place of a book! I'm so happy about this. I enjoy poetry and felt down that I couldn't figure out how to present it in an engaging way.

One of my favorite aspects of this is that it engages every learning style. Looker, Listener, and Mover. Because of this it captures the interest of every style learner and encourages any underdeveloped learning skills all while having fun and memorizing.

I already have February and March poems picked out. I just need to get all my items together.

Mommy, Teach Me!

I've checked out a few Montessori books from the library and this book is the best preschool montessori book in my opinion. My library didn't have this one. I picked up at the homeschool convention. It was the first book I read out of everything we bought there. The picture is linked to Amazon and you can view inside the book there.

Summary of Book: Barbara Curtis starts out telling you her story, which is wonderful. She explains why your preschooler can thrive at home, how your the best teacher ever, and why the home is the best "classroom". She then shows you how to "release your teaching ability" and how to "release your child's learning ability". I found these two chapters extremely helpful and filled with points and ideas I've never thought about. Chapter 4 is filled with "exercises" that are all pretty much practical living skills. Then the rest of the book gives ideas on how to teach these subjects: Manipulatives, Imaginative Play, Beginning Math, Science, Geography, Fine Arts, and Spiritual Life. I probably will not try all of the ideas but there are definitely a lot of good ones I want to do. We have done almost all the exercises in Chapter 4. I figured these were the most important to learn since they are all practical living skills and are a base skill for something else.

What Meant the Most to Me:

• Encouragement in my choice to teach at home was refreshing. (chapters 1 & 2)
• the "take extra time" paragraph on page 40 was convicting. She is so right about when I'm in a hurry I find myself doing things for my boys that they can do for themselves. She suggests adding on 15 minutes to give your child time to get ready in whatever ways he has mastered.
• "From the earliest days, give your child choices whenever you possibly can: 'Do you want to wear this red shirt or the blue one'?" ~ yeah I so did not do that whenever I first read this book. I am slowly working on that and getting much better at it!
• She suggest to demonstrate things in slow detailed movements when first teaching your child a skill. I got an absolute kick out of picturing one of us walking painfully slow to bring a bowl of cereal to the table!
• She had an interesting take on why we should make child size spaces for our toddlers/preschoolers that I enjoyed.
• One of her suggestions for developing concentration is coloring books. Many "mason advocates" blogs and writings I've read have scorned against these. However, Curtis brings up some points worth thinking about such as we are created in the image of a Creator - it would take more than a mountain of coloring books to stifle the creative impulse of a young child. They also help develop fine motor skills. My own personal opinion on coloring books is - if your child likes them and you have a great art curriculum you are doing who cares if he/she colors in their free time. Seriously, there are worse things!

Most of our trays have come from Chapters 4 and 5 in this book. I plan on doing some of the activities in the Geography chapter as well as the Fine Arts chapter. Chapters 6 - 8 & 11 I didn't find that great. However, I think the foundation of what is taught in this book as well as there are many great activities will make it worth your time and/or money!