MONTESSORI EDUCATION
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How Many Beads do I need?
HOMESCHOOLING WITH MONTESSORI
MELTING MONTESSORI INTO THE MIX
As frustrating as it may seem, with true Montessori
education, you will not find a commercially “boxed” –
“one-size fits all” curriculum with manufactured
materials. When using this method of education, it is
typical for each teacher to create her own album of
presentations. The album is her personal plan of study in
preparation to teach the child.
Ellen Yale Stevens in her book, A Guide to the
Montessori Method, warns that we should guard the
Montessori method from a “hasty, unconsidered, too literal
adoption.” She asks that we use Montessori’s materials
with flexibility and freedom while holding fast to the
principles. Stevens goes on to say that “It is always much
easier to follow a method blindly than to make our very
own the principles which it illustrates, and this
[Montessori] material in its very appeal to the parent and
teacher on account of its simplicity, practicality and
concreteness may, in the minds of many, take the first
place and be adopted without the thought of the spirit
behind it.
To those looking into Montessori education and wanting to
implement it into an already existing homeschool plan of
study, I would just caution you to give yourself TIME
to learn about the method and the materials. First of all,
one needs to humbly accept that Montessori education is
not a "Fast Food" approach to teaching and learning,
rather it is an opportunity to embrace the philosophy of
"Learning for a Lifetime," and it will take *time* to
understand the spirit of the method and the presentation
of the materials.
When I first
started with Montessori, I started with materials
that would help my children where they most needed it. We
started with the Phonics boxes, and we made the beads for
the Snake Game because it sounded like fun. You will find
an excellent set of Montessori course syllabi at
High Desert Montessori (go to General Information and
then click on Curriculum).
These syllabi may give you an idea of what types of lessons may
work into your present plan of homeshooling. I am still
refining my personal Montessori presentation and materials
checklists. When the lists are complete they will
available for downloading on my
Teacher Preparation
page.
I think each of us, when we are homeschooling, one way or
another we are all creating our own *albums* as we
gather the texts and learning materials that work best for
our children. The way I see it, there really is no "one
size fits all" curriculum no matter what it is!!!
Please keep in mind moderation when buying your
homeschooling materials - focus on your Math and Language
materials and think about using the library as much as
possible for the other subjects. Beware of buying lists of
books recommended by any particular program or you may
develop a serious case of "Curriculum Dependency"
-- be sure
to read this article
"Curriculum Dependent No More!"
We had already been homeschooling for four years when I
started
getting interested in Montessori education. If I had to do
it all over again I don't think there is anything I would
change. I worked my way into it gently. I recommend that
you give yourself reasonably about three years to really
begin to understand Montessori, each year continuing to
read more about Montessori methods and presentations.
Concentrate your efforts in the first year on decluttering
your home, while you work on creating a prepared
learning environment, making a few materials as needed
to supplement any curriculum you are currently using. You
will find monthly tips for helping you prepare your home
environment as you prepare yourself spiritually at the
Livable Learning egroup. More important than any
text or learning materials you may choose to start with,
is that you learn to OBSERVE your child. You'll be
amazed at what you will learn.
The second year you can dig more seriously in to
materials making while introducing a few more
presentations - the
playschool6 and
MontessoriMakers discussion egroups
are great places to be
for ideas and support - there are also websites with
printable
materials such as
Montessori Materials, and of course I am always
adding to the downloadable
Montessori Education materials here at my web site.
The third year you might continue to make materials, but
focusing primarily on developing a sincere 2-3 hour
work cycle of independent work for your children
As you are easing your way into the Montessori way, you
need to read as much and as often as you can about
Montessori education.
I offer my recommendations on a number of Montessori
related books
HERE.
With Montessori homeschooling,
as
a rule, if I am going to supplement with other resources,
I now try to find programs that are multi-sensory, and
materials that will
work for varying age levels. With younger pre-school aged
children you may want to start by reading through the
online albums for presentations,
Montessori World,
Shu-Chen Jenny Yen, and
MOTEACO. If you have
elementary students you might want to first order the
printed catalog from
Montessori Research and Development
and consider which one or two manuals you may want to
start with. We started with Math 3 and Language 2 -
I
highly recommend all of the Montessori Math and Grammar
activities.
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As to working Montessori into the mix – Well, here is what we
like and how we mix it with Montessori:
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Many of the following items can be purchased new at a discount
at
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Sacred Heart Book and Gifts
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By Way of the Family
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or you may find used
materials at
Cath Swap
PHONICS/SPELLING/READING
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- Saxon Phonics 1 and 2
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- Faith and Freedom Readers – grades 1-8
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- Spelling Power – grades 3-12
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We made our own Montessori Movable Alphabet and the I
designed my own Montessori Phonics pink, blue and green
tackle boxes, but we used Saxon Phonics
for our group lessons - I have 3 kids
doing Saxon 1 together (I was blessed to buy the
Teachers manual
at a used book sale and found the student worksheets for
sale online at Ebay).
For spelling tests from Saxon Phonics we use the Movable
Alphabet
instead of writing it all out. We have found ourselves,
with the older
elementary kids, writing spelling test words more
sensorially with
fruit flavored scented markers on marker boards, and in
cookie trays
of cornmeal.
Spelling Power
is a great program for upper level spelling complete
with
grade level assessment and tons of spelling lists and it
works well
for 3rd grade through high school.
GRAMMAR
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- Easy Grammar Series grades 3-12
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- and/or Voyages in English grades 4-8
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- Institute for Excellence in Writing grades 2-12
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We are still working on making the Montessori grammar
materials and
really do like them, but we also supplement with
Easy Grammar
which is more of a
workbook approach. We also like the old Voyages in
English series published by
Our Lady of Victory. You could get by with either
one of these programs though, without needing both. We
do not use the Easy Grams (the writing companion to Easy
Grammar), but we do like the writing
approach of the
Institute for Excellence in Writing
HANDWRITING
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- Handwriting without Tears
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- Abeka
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For Handwriting we start with the
Handwriting without Tears
wooden manipulatives for upper
case lettersbut
then work into the sandpaper letters for lower case and
cursive letters. We bought our own mini chalkboards for
handwriting practice for just about $2 each in the craft
section of our local WalMart and I have sample papers
for handwriting practice on my
Language page. You do have to
be careful about Abeka’s anti-Catholic materials
especially in their history and science texts, but they
do have a great series of
Handwriting texts: Cursive Writing Skillbook 3,
Penmanship Mastery I (4th gr), and Penmanship Mastery II
(5th gr). I like Abeka's cursive because it is a
slightly modernized Palmer style. They include the
traditional Palmer drills such as "push and pull"
strokes.
MATH
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Math U See
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Mortenson
Math
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Abeka
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Saxon
For Math we use a little
Math
U See for
intermediate and some of the upper levels. Math U See is
ok – but does tend to take a lot of busy work to
complete a concept; also it is limited in manipulatives
and does not cover nearly as many of the
advanced math concepts as the Montessori Math.
For the younger kids we pull out occasional worksheets
from
Abeka Math
but we prefer
Mortenson Math for the introductory
Maths along with our traditional Montessori materials. I
put most all
the Montessori elementary counting activities into a
Teaching from a Tackle Box plan. You will find the
rest of the files at the
Livable Learning egroup. For upper elementary math,
I am finding
that I prefer the Montessori Math albums 3 & 4 from
Montessori R&D,
although we may go back to Abeka or Saxon for high
school math. I have two college kids who used these
programs while homeschooling. We used Saxon Algebra 1/2
for introductory Algebra and then used Abeka for Algebra I
and II and Geometry. Math U See does have a good high
school Trigonometry course, much more user friendly than
Saxon at that level.
GEOMETRY
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- Scott Resources
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I've seen little that compares with the Montessori
geometry, it's excellent. We did find some supplemental
manipulatives at
Scott Resources such as the Fraction
Bars and the Decimal Squares which work well into the
Montessori Geometry and Fraction works.
GEOGRAPHY
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- Mapping the World by Heart
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For geography,
Tom Snyder's
Mapping the World by Heart
works well with the whole family and follows what
is introduced with the Montessori maps.
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HISTORY and SCIENCE and RELIGION
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- Connection with History
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- Jeff Cavin’s Bible Timeline History
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- Friendly Chemistry
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We're learning to take more of a story telling approach
in these
areas, whether it's though the catalyst of the
Montessori Great
Lessons, or reading biographies or other related
stories, or presenting the narratives of the
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (which we are discussing
at the
Catholic Learning Materials egroup)
Sonya Romens of RC History has a new program available
called
Connecting with History which is a homeschooling
family companion study for Jeff Cavin’s
Bible
Timeline History. We haven’t used this yet but I did
hear Sonya explain it at a homschooling conference and
it sounds very family friendly.
We are making more
of the nomenclature cards and charts for these subjects
– it works great for self testing and will be usable for
children at different ages.
We mainly do library studies for History and Science.
The only real science
program/curriculum we have is
Friendly Chemistry
Chemistry was easy even for
*me* to teach with this program – it's written for high
school but includes hands on activities that elementary
students can do and
understand.
MUSIC and ART
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- Beck
Family Music
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- How to Use
Child Sized Masterpieces
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- Draw and
Tell Catholic Drawing Series
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- Draw Write Now
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- Bruce
McIntyres Drawing Techniques
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We are working on making music manipulatives and we do
enjoy the
Beck
Family musical series
We have found that
How to Use Child Sized Masterpieces by Aline D. Wolf
is an excellent approach to Art Appreciation. Aline
does also offer preselected collections of post card
reproductions. I have the “How to” book and I am
choosing to put together my own collections (tackle box
size) using artist’s masterpiece stickers and post card
mini books from
Dover Publications. For teaching religion with a
story and an art lesson this new series of books is
wonderful
Bible
Stories to Draw and Tell,
Draw
and Tell Sacraments, and
Draw
and Tell Saints. For
basic drawing techniques we like to start with
Draw Write Now and then work into
Bruce
McIntyre’s series of drawing books.
It's all a gradual process for us – it's a good thing I
still have six
young ones to practice on!!! :)
Keep in mind though, that this is what works for us - you
can use this as a reference point as you begin to work
Montessori into *your* mix but keep in mind that *you* may
find other resources that work better.
I doubt that I will ever again own a “boxed” curriculum.
I'm too independent – I like to keep myself and my
children open to
*spontaneous*
(which I now understand to mean freely chosen) paths of
learning as they develop. For example last year we were
reading "Archimedes the Door to Science" as a family and
it led us into the Seven Wonders of the World, Greek
Literature
(namely myths and Homer and Aesop), Simple Machines,
Astronomy,
Social Graces and Manners, Self-Restraint, Greek Counting,
Friendly
Chemistry, the Socratic Method, Geometry, and Greek
Culture and a
timeline of events and people. That's a great way to
approach
learning I think... to let it lead you where it will!!
BEADS
Are you
wondering just how many beads you are going to
need if you are making your own Math materials?
Here is a set of spreadsheets with the different
color schemes so that if you are using Mortenson Math,
Math U See or Cuisenaire rods you can figure how many
sets of beads you need for each Montessori activity:
- Early Counting and
Decimal Works with bead bars (including the Bank Game)
- Memorization Works with
bead bars (including the Snake Game)
- Abstraction Works using
loose or barred* beads (*placed on a bar)
My favorite bead supplier is Boleks Crafts
http://www.bolekscrafts.com/prod01.htm
Transparent Beads:
1 bars-Xmas red #17
2 bars-Xmas Green #07
3 bars-Hot Pink #08
4 bars-Yellow #27
5 bars-Light Blue #19
6 bars-Amethyst #01
7 bars-Crystal #06
8 bars-Champagne #22
9 bars-Dark Blue #21
10 bars-Sun Gold #23
Opaque
Beads:
Black and White (BW) bead stair - Opaque Black #52
Grey and White (GW) bead stair - Opaque Grey #62
Red and White (RW) bead stair - Opaque Red #52
BW, GW, RW bead stair - Opaque White #73
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- Complete Set of Beads for the
- Positive, Subtraction and
Negative Snake Games
- 5 sets of Colored Bead Stair #1-9
- 23 golden ten bars
- 1 set Black and White Bead Stair #1-9
for Remainders
- 5 sets of Grey and White Bead
Stair #1-9
- 23 grey negative ten bars
- 1 set Red and White Bead Stair
#1-9 for Remainders
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NOMENCLATURE CARDS
Nomenclature cards
"name something." They are commonly used for
vocabulary, and Culture (Geography, History, Science,
Music, Art) activities. I'll label the different ways
nomenclature cards can be used by "Types"....
Type #1
3-Part Nomenclature
- use (2) identical cards with a picture and the
name of the item below. On one of the cards cut off
the label (the
name of the item). Do not cut the other card - this
one will still
have both the picture and the label on one card- this
becomes the
control card.
1st exercise: The control card is laid first,
then picture and label
are matched to the control. 2nd exercise:
Picture is matched to label
and control card is used to self-check.
Type #2
3-Part Nomenclature
with Diagram - Same as above
but use identical
pictures for as many parts as there are to be labeled,
e.g. (10)
parts of flag. On each card color only *one part* of
flag and label.
This type of card is often used with science, e.g.
parts of the eye,
part of a tree, part of a flower, etc. you can get a
free downloadable sample at
http://www.stegoedu.asp of the parts of the
flower.
Type #3
3-Part Nomenclature
with Definition - (actually
4 parts) Same as
above but now you have a picture, a label and a
definition. Control
card has all three (picture, label, definition) on one
card. Or you
can create a control by putting the "label name on the
back of the
picture and on back of the definition. Note: tricky
thing for the
definition is to define the term without using the
*term* or the
label name itself.
The Waseca Learning site has something called "Match
Cards" where the cards
have the typical 3-part nomenclature like Type #1 but
on the back of
the control card is the definition so only three cards
are needed instead of
four cards for a Type #3 activity.
See
http://www.wasecalearning.com/biome3.html
Sample nomenclature cards for foreign language study
http://www.teacherschoiceintl.com/index.html
Go to the downloadable sample lesson from "Way out of
My World" and you will see diagram 3-part nomenclature
cards with the parts of the object colored a Type #2
activity (the layers of the Earth and the Space
Shuttle)
http://www.myworlddiscoveries.com/downloads.html
DO-IT-YOURSELF TIP:
If you want rounded corners on your nomenclature cards
you can
get a corner cutter (it works like a decorative paper
punch) at your
local scrap booking store...OR you can trace the
corner of a card
from a deck of playing cards and then cut your corner.
