The Ultimate Gift Guide for the Montessori Home

"Montessori..." bask in that beautiful word and all it encompasses. Now, attach the word "home" to it. What does it spell? Montessori Home. What a concept! What a wonderful concept!

We are an eclectic homeschool that incorporate The Montessori Method in nearly every subject we learn. Why? Simply because of what Montessori stands for: supporting child dignity, fostering independence, inviting peace, encouraging spontaneous education, teaching care for one's self and the environment, finding beauty in everything, just to name a few.

In this post, you will see a thorough list of Montessori materials that can be given as gifts for those who seek to have Montessori homes. Not only will your children love the materials, but gifting them something educational, useful and beautiful is the best gift of all. My wish is for you to find in this post many great ideas and inspiration for your Montessori Home.

Continent Studies with Preschoolers (FREE Printables included)

Geography is one of our favorite subjects in our homeschool. We LOVE to learn about continents, countries, flags, seasons, etc. Our passion for it is serious. We enjoy it so much that we want to not only invite you to see an awesome lesson that we did, but we also want you to get the FREE Printables for you to do this lesson at home.

This post will have lots of pictures. We are SO excited to be bringing you these lessons, free printables AND a great giveaway! Keep reading to find out what you can get once you enter.

Around the World and Landmarks FREE 3-part Cards Printable and Lessons

Look at these beautiful 3-part cards! They are finally here! And they are for you, for me, for everyone! A FREE printable for all who want them! Take a look at how I put our cards together and how we used them in two simple, but super fun lessons. This is age-appropriate for children as young as two years old (like my littlest one). 

Read on!

Homeschool Room Tour 2014

Welcome to our homeschool room! We are happy that you have chosen to pay us a visit. We hope you like what you see.

Homeschooling Journal: February 2014 Part 4

Montessori Practical Life: How to Hang Cloth Diapers to Dry

                                            

Desk Work

                                            

Egg and Dairy Free Banana Bread! For the recipe, CLICK HERE. 

Homeschooling Journal: January 2014 Part 6

Happy birthday, baby girl! She is two now and she is such a blessing to us! We love her!

Science Experiments Class

In science this month we have learned about the brain and nervous system - 3 parts of the brain, how the brain stem works, coordination, hemispheres, nerves. 
We also learned about cells - basic building blocks, working together as a team and identifying different cells - this was met with an experiment - the kids loved it
Today we will be learning about why our arms swing (M. is curious and it goes back to the parts of the brain lesson). 
We will then move on to learn about our ears with a few experiments and hopefully I'll remember to take pictures! 

Montessori Culture and Science: Land, Air, Water Lessons

It was fun learning today. Today was Science and Culture day! We had Circle Time (I know, I still have to list all of the stuff we do during this time. I'll do it another time because it is a lot of great stuff), we sang and danced, we had Bible class, did a little bit of handwriting, and we reviewed Chinese and Spanish, too.  

After that, we had a snack and then got ready for Culture (Geography) class.  Today, K learned about Land, Water, and Air. We talked about these three concepts and then made a craft with the animals that live in each of these places.  He did really well.  Then we did the same, but instead of animals, it was modes of transportation.  It was really fun for him, since he loves cars, trains, airplanes, and boats.

I gave him a little break in between classes, so I let him practice his cutting skills.  I gave him a magazine.  He especially liked cutting the boys in superhero costumes.  He's getting better at holding the scissors and cutting.

    

In Science class, he learned about Living and Non-living Things.  We talked about how living things breathe (need air), get hungry (need food from the land), get thirsty (need water), and need a home.  Then we made a craft that we will briefly revisit weekly until he grasps the concept completely.

Montessori Science (Geography): Land, Water, Air

We sorted several pictures of animals and insects depending on where
they "live."  I know birds and butterflies technically don't LIVE in AIR,
but they fly and it's easier to explain to him that they can fly
and they spend time up in the air, whereas other animals can't.

Land, Water and Air lesson, but with means of transportation.

English: Land, Water, Air
Spanish: Tierra, Agua, Aire
Chinese: Di, Shui, Qi

Montessori Culture (Geography): Land, Air, and Water

First, we reviewed the differences between land, water and air. 

We talk about why they are all important for life. 

Then, I open the envelope with living things and K sorts them out (animals that are in air, water and land).

After that, we clean up and I open the envelope with methods of transportation and K sorts them out (airplanes, helicopters, etc go by Air, boats, ships, canoes, etc go by Water, cars, trains, trucks, etc go by Land).

Homeschooling Journal: January 2014 Part 4

This is what we did in our homeschool during the middle and towards the end of January 2014.

Soccer Season

K is doing so much better this year. Last year, he had just turned 3 when he started. He wasn't very interested, he didn't understand the game very well and he felt a bit out of sorts because he was the youngest one in the group (ages 3-5). This year, he is loving it so much and doing much better. He still hasn't scored any goals, but at least he is running in the right direction, haha!

Homeschooling Journal: January 2014 Part 3

Food for thought...

Classical Conversations Review (Weeks 1-4)

                                                   

Homeschooling Journal: January 2014 Part 2

Gym / Ballet Co-op

In Ballet, we only had the two girls, but it was lots of fun. We talked about lost teeth, pierced ears and such. We had a hard warm-up and some muscle-building exercises for legs. We also did all of our rhythmic counting in French. We loved it!

Homework:
1) do all five positions, feet only
2) do all five positions, arms only
3) do all five positions, both feet and arms
You can refer to the chart I gave them for Christmas. 

Montessori & Montessori-Inspired Blog Hop

The Natural Homeschool
Inspiring Two New Hampshire Children
Unschool the Teacher
Montessori Mischief
Lara's Place and a Cup of Grace
Making Montessori Ours
Live and Learn Farm
Racheous Lovable Learning
Trillium Montessori
Expedition Montessori
Montessori en Casa
Like Mama ~ Like Daughter
Momgineer
Natural Beach Living
Living Montessori Now
The Pinay Homeschooler
Montessori Nature Smile

Button: <a href="http://www.thenaturalhomeschool.com/2014/01/montessori-montessori-inspired-blog-hop.html"_blank"><img src="http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae32/thenaturalhomeschool/blog%20graphics/montessoribloghop_zpsbc8d6d56.png" border="0" alt=" photo montessoribloghop_zpsbc8d6d56.png"/></a>

 

Homeschooling November 2013 Part 4

Something to think about...

Homeschooling November 2013 Part 3

This year, my father will be celebrating 40 years of working for the same company (he's moved around in different division within the company, but he has had the tenacity, diligence and discipline to work with the same company for that long. What an accomplishment! We are so proud of him! We couldn't be there for his celebration/ceremony, but we sent this video to him. :)

Homeschooling October 2013 Part 5 (2 freebies)

Field Trip: Pumpkin Patch

"If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable - each segment distinct."     - Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Homeschooling October 2013 Part 4

A cute video to begin the post with... She is saying "you're welcome" after I said "thank you" to her. Sweetness!

Art: Fall Beauty in a Frame

These are stick frames with contact paper and fake Fall-colored leaves (real leaves can be used, but we live in the desert, so no Fall colors for us).

More videos for you!

History Sentence: Week 1

Tell me about Commandments one through five:

Science: Week 1

What are the classifications of living things?

Math: Skip Count the 2s

We also learned about: 1) The Fertile Crescent.  Mediterranean Sea Mesopotamia Euphrates River Tigris River Sumer. 2) Timeline: Age of Ancient Empires (Week 1) Creation and the Fall The Flood and the Tower of Babel Mesopotamia and Sumer Egiptians 3000BC Indus River Valley Civilization Minoans and Mycenaeans If you are interested in learning more about Classical Education, feel free to check this wonderful resource by clicking here. Baby girl is getting bigger and looking less like a baby. Can't believe it!

                   

Montessori Practical Life: Folding Dish Rags

Step 1: Extend the rag.

Step 2: Fold it in half Step 3: Place your hand in the middle.

                         

Step 4: Fold on side over your hand. 

Step 5: Remove your hand.

Step 6: Fold the other side.

All done. 

Look at these beautiful Fall colors on this corn! So intricate. So special. God is such an amazing Creator!

                

Spanish: Las Figuras (The Shapes)

In Spanish, we reviewed the shapes we had learned (círculo, cuadrado, triángulo) and expanded the lesson to five more shapes (rectángulo, ovalo, diamante, octágono, estrella). For our activity, I would tell them the name of a shape in Spanish and they would draw it. I drew the shapes for those who were having a hard time, especially octagons and stars. They all did really, really well.

 

                    

Classical Education: Lapbook

From Wisdom and Righteousness. Please click here to see more details on the lapbooks she offers and to purchase. Worth every penny and very relevant to what we are studying. These photos are purposely posted small and are NOT for copying or for printing. These are merely to explain what the kids and I are learning. She did a great job! If you are interested, please purchase these from this website.

This section contains the verses on the Ten Commandments 
and Math (skip counting from 1s through 15s)

This section includes the life of Moses, Latin Cases, The Ten Commandments, English Grammar (prepositions), and Geography (The Ancient Empires).

                                 

In this section, as we talk about the topics mentioned, we 
can write things inside that are important or that stood out.

This section has History on Ancient Empires, Art and Latin.

I am sorry that the pictures are blurry. It was past 1 am when I took 
them and I thought that they looked blurry because I was so tired!

This section has Poetry and a place where they can 
draw something from the lessons that they liked.

In this section, the kids draw the events that happened 
in the ancient empire of their choice in sequence.

In this section, we have a lot of Science topics, including vertebrates, invertebrates, the classifications of living things, the kingdoms 
of living things, animal and plant cell parts, experiments 
and questions about cells and experiments.

                      

This is a timeline to be filled out as we learn of the different events in history.

                      

Bible Study: Women's Conference

This was beyond fun!

Fall treats... Acorn squash rolls! You can also make them with pumpkin, sweet potato, or any winter squash you like. Check out the recipe here.

Montessori Culture (Geography): Penpal and Postcard Exchange

K and I went to the Book Fair to buy his penpal buddy a birthday gift to mail all the way to England. He picked a cute Jack and the Beanstalk story. It was just K and me. It was just like a mom and son date. And the weather was perfect, too.

                  

Inspiration...

Montessori Practical Life and Sensorial: Changing Clothes

                

                

Montessori Culture (Geography): Penpal and Postcard Exchange

K finally, after a few weeks, wrote a cute letter to his penpal in England. He dressed up as the Transformer Bumblebee specifically to let H know that he loves Transformers.

We also included a birthday postcard and a gift because his birthday is 10 November.

                    

                    

MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) Clothing Swap

Yesterday, we had a full day (and even that is an understatement). We led/organized a clothing swap (where people donate stuff, we set it out and then anyone can come take what they need). Whew! It was busy and there was a lot of stuff. When the swap was over, we packed up what was left and took it to the battered women's shelter. Everything will be put to good use. Awesome!

Montessori Culture (Geography): Penpal and Postcard Exchange

We received two postcards this week: one from our dear missionary friends to the Philippines and another one from our dear friend, who recently moved to Georgia. Sweet!