Homeschooling May 2013 Part 1

May Day! May Day! Hahaha. 
We made some May Baskets on May 1st and it was a lot of fun.

Desk Work

Montessori Science: Botany

Our lesson today was on plants and the part of a plant. We went to our backyard and started looking at different things in it. Is this a plant? Yes or no. K learned quickly what a plant is.

Picture 1: It's a pretty good representation of a plant (with all its parts).

Picture 2: He's recognizing what a plant is and isn't.

Picture 3: Is this (hose) a plant? No. Is this (plant next to the hose) a plant? Yes.

Picture 4: Is this (wall) a plant? No. Are these (rocks) plants? No. Is this (plant with yellow flowers) a plant? Yes.

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Parts of a plant nomenclature

Parts of a plant nomenclature and answer key

Plant, stem, branches, leaves, root

Desk Work

I usually try to do a little bit of Mathematics and a little bit of Language Arts, but it doesn't always work out. That's ok, though. We do about 2-4 worksheets, depending on time.

Montessori Practical Life: Learning how to put down a chair/stool

We put chairs/stools down gently and quietly. We carry them with two hands and move slowly. He was a bit rough at first, but as we practiced with different kinds of chairs, he got the concept and has been doing well ever since. He used to drop chairs hard before this lesson. I'd say it is a complete success.

                                     Montessori Practical Life: Dressing Frames

K absolutely loved this lesson! He really likes changing clothes and figuring out how to get dressed on his own. The dressing frames was a wonderful exercise and I am so proud of how well he did during the lesson. He was extremely self-motivated and he kept asking for more. I planned the lesson where we would start with the easiest and work our way to the hardest to do.

I decided to not even purchase the VELCRO dressing frame because it is the easiest and it is readily available in clothing and shoes. He does really well with it already. 

So first, we practiced zipping the ZIPPER dressing frame. 

Second, we practiced with SNAPS. 

Third, we practiced with BUTTONS. 

Fourth, we did HOOK AND EYE several times.

Fifth, we had a wonderful time with the RIBBONS (BOWS). I was amazed at how well he did in this exercise. It was hard, but he persevered and kept on trying until we managed to make all five bows together.

Sixth, we practiced with BUCKLES. K loves these because they remind him of pirates.

In retrospect, the buckles were much easier than the ribbons.

                           

    

                                         

Montessori Practical Life: Cleaning Fingernails and Brushing Teeth

Homeschooling April 2013 Part 4

Here is part 4 of our homeschooling in the month of April. We ended the month on a great note. I am not sure if I can post this much every month, but I can try. Let me know if you are reading my posts and if they are helpful. Also, give me some feedback. Ask questions on lessons, materials, or anything else you want. I started this blog because people were curious about how I homeschool my kids and were asking a lot for tips and advice. I figured I'd record the lessons/info and refer everyone to this. So, here it goes. Enjoy.

Montessori Culture (Geography): The Seven Continents.

1. Unroll mat on the floor/carpet.

2. Place puzzle map on mat.

3. Place labels on the mat.

4. Label the continents.

Extension 1

1. Take continent pieces out of the puzzle map.

2. Place them in order (as they'd appear on a map).

3. Recognize and label all seven continents.

Extension 2

1. Take continent pieces out of the puzzle map.

2. Place them out of order from how they'd appear on a map.

3. Recognize and label all seven continents.

Language Arts: spelling words

On the right, you can see the original Montessori bead stair. It is used in some of the Mathematics lessons. Even though the set is only about $8, I made my own (picture on left) using ribbon and beads because I forgot to order this when i placed my last Montessori materials order. If I order this separately, I'll have to pay about $6 in shipping alone. Not worth it and I can't foresee another Montessori order this year (we are covered materials-wise). Plus, they turned out ok and they cost me nothing (I already had all of the materials here at home). Perfect! I'll post pictures of lessons when we use these. :)

This is a picture of one of the two boxes I have for Desk Work. At an educational store in NC, I found these sturdy plastic folders that hold a lot. Inside each plastic folder, is a manila folder with each day of the week written on the tab. Inside, (see Part 1) each folder has:

1)  a Pre-school multi-subject activity book (paper and pencil activities)

2)  a list of Dolch sight words

3)  readers in 3 levels of difficulty (easy, medium, hard)

4) a surprise activity (number flash cards, fabric marker -I'll explain later-, a   

    pop-up book, a small musical instrument, etc).

In the box, I make sure to include a sheet of stickers to reward him when he completes an activity successfully.

I use two boxes (Monday-Wednesday and Thursday-Friday) because, after putting all of these materials in, I can't fit them all in one box. I found these boxes (very nice and sturdy) on Clearance at Lowe's. I think that each cost me $6.50 or so.

I love this poem! It is from the Christian Mother's Goose book. I have posted about it before. It was so hard to get and it was quite expensive (a $9 for $35 plus shipping) because it is out of print. It is worth every single penny!

I absolutely had to include this picture in this post! I love it! I grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes. I'd love for K's room to look like this! Maybe some day...