Showing posts with label montessori. Show all posts
Showing posts with label montessori. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Monday, February 17, 2014
Its all about the Skills
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
The same goes for teaching our kids the skills they need to learn how to learn and to learn how to think.
Today, so many parents think that we need to give our children more and more to help them succeed.
It is in fact the opposite.
Maria Montessori noted that the skills children need in order to learn are order, concentration, coordination and independence.
Order: Children need a sense of order in their lives by having order around them as well as a routine. As a parent it is our job to ensure an orderly learning environment for them as well as set up a healthy daily routine that gives them a sense of how their days will flow. This gives them the ability to concentrate and focus.
Concentration: If we see our child busy with something, even if the 'schedule' says its time for something else, if the child is in a zone of concentration, respect that zone and let them do it for as long as they can. This is so healthy for their concentration. Another way to help them develop good concentration skills is to have as few distractions around their learning environment as possible. A room with lots of posters and bright pictures may look pretty and productive on your part, but it is very distracting for a child. The less distractions, the better it is for their concentration.
Coordination: Kids need lots of practice to build the muscles for the pincer grip needed for writing. They also need practice to develop eye/hand coordination. Very often we find children in elementary school who don’t have the endurance to write. Refining the fine motor skills at a young age is crucial in developing good hand writing skills.
Independence: Self-confidence, via independence, is one of the true gifts we can give a child. The more your child can do on their own, the better it is for both you and them. The key is to teach your child to not only be independent, but to give them the ability to think for themselves and discover things by themselves. Kids need freedom with a sense of responsibility.
It is not our job to spoon feed information to our kids. It is our job to help them build up their wings, develop the necessary skills to be able to think and learn on their own, so at the right time, they can just fly as high as they possibly can.
Have a wonderful week,
Always,
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Montessori Inspired Activities for Shavuot
One of the things that I absolutely just love about the Montessori method is how the children are encouraged to use all five senses to explore their little world. Here are some Montessori inspired activities that we have done/are going to do in preparation for Shavout which do just that~
Remember, when your kids are little (under 6) it is not about feeding them content and information about the holiday (teaching your 4 year old to memorize the different names of Shavuot!) - its about letting them discover the holiday through their own five senses, looking at pictures, tasting the foods, preparing the foods, feeling things that connect to the holiday, smelling things that connect to the holidays and listening to things that connect to the holiday.
In Shir Hashirim, the Torah is compared to the sweetness of "milk and honey under your tongue".
Set out a tray with milk for the kids to pour into a cup to drink with a straw. Then have the kids pour some honey into a small bowl and taste it with a small spoon.
Here are some wonderful books to read for Shavuot:
A Dozen Daizies for Raizy - A little girl giving out her daisies that she bought for Shavuot
When the World was Quiet - How the entire world was completely quiet when the Torah was given on Har Sinai
Shavuos with Binah, Benny and Chagai Hayonah - this is for older kids, filled with lots of information and stories about Shavuot
Dovid the Little Shepherd - Since David Hamelech's birthday is on Shavuot, it is an appropriate time to read the story of David as a young shepherd and how he took such good care of his sheep.
We learned that at Matan Torah you could HEAR the lightening and SEE the thunder. Take out books from the library and learn about thunder and lightening.
Flowers bloomed all over Har Sinai. Have the children arrange flowers in a vase. Fill it with water then cut the flowers off the stems to arrange in the vase. You can use these for Shavuot.
Go outside with a scissors and cut flowers from the garden to put in a vase.
Plant flower seeds. Get a small pot, have the children fill it with dirt from outside, plant the seeds and water it every day. The kids will be so excited as they watch their little seed turn into a little bud, then into beautiful flowers.
Collect a bunch of flowers and smell each flower. Divide them into two groups- flowers that have a smell and flowers that don't.
Using Playdo (Click here for the recipe- I just added 1/2 cup cocoa to make it brown) let the kids shape it into a mountain and decorate it with pretty stones and flowers. Have little people that they can set up as the Jews around the mountain. This was a BIG hit, the kids LOVED doing this!
I drew a flower pot and my daughter decorated it with feathers, pom poms, glitter and colored it in.
I got this idea from Pinterest (Click here to check it out) but my kids wanted to do it their own way. My daughter actually collected real flowers and glued them onto her plant. My son decided to collect real flowers and draw each flower onto paper, cut them out and glue them on. He is four and did this all by himself.
Classic Montessori puzzle- learning the parts of the flower.
\We eat dairy on Shavuot. Have the kids scoop their own ice cream into a bowl, then eat it!
Make your own ice cream:
Pour the following into a small ziploc bag-
1 cup of milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs. honey
Place the bag into a large ziploc bag that is filled with ice and 6 Tbs. salt.
Seal it well and throw the bag around for about 10 minutes. It should turn into ice cream.
Shavuot means weeks. There are SEVEN weeks between Pesach and Shavuot. There are SEVEN days in a week. Using fruit counters count to seven.
Practice writing the number seven using sandpaper numbers and write it in sand.
Talk about Shavuot. Using miniatures, have the kids hold them as you discuss the different things. Talk about how we learn Torah all night on Shavuot, and if they plan on staying up to learn too. Talk about dairy foods and what other foods are made of milk. Where does milk come from? Have some miniature cows available. Whatever little things you have, use when talking about them.
Here are some great products I use for Shavuot~
So there you have it- I hope its helpful!
Wishing you all a wonderful week,
Wishing you all a wonderful week,
Always,
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Change
We had a really great Pesach. Looking back I thought, what did I do so right that I can carry forward into my homeschooling life to create that calm and stress free environment?
Firstly, I wrote down exactly what I needed to get done and then allotted a specific time frame in which to do it.
Next, I made sure to have all the supplies I needed (cleaning, cooking, organizing) so when the time came to do a certain task, I would have exactly what I needed.
I knew that I could not do this all by myself and so I delegated specific jobs to different people (my hubby, cleaning lady, babysitter, friends) so everyone knew when to be here and what do do when they came.
It sounds so simple, but it was a lot of work and planning on my part- but it worked out perfectly.
Up until now, I had a really great daily schedule that worked really well. This involved my little ones napping for 2 hours every day which gave me 2 hours to get things done. Well, those little ones are growing up and have been on nap strike for the past 3 weeks and I think I may need to surrender. Which means a change of plans in our daily routine. Not major, but it is still a change. They have also started to show an interest in what the older kids are doing in regard to being in the classroom, writing on their chalk boards, art projects etc. so they will slowly start to join the older crew in class.
I have allotted the hours of 8-12 for our school time. We have a dry erase board on the wall that my 5 year old has the daily responsibility of writing the day, date (in Hebrew and English) and weekly Parshah (she does this at the beginning of the week). We sit on the floor with our Siddurs and daven, and we then begin our day.
One of the principles of a Montessori education is Choice. Kids like to have a sense of control over their lives and tend to understand and learn something much more when it is something they are interested in learning. It is also important to make the learning meaningful and enjoyable.
I start out by offering an activity to each child, for example I will give my 4 year old a mini black board and ask him if he would like to practice writing his alphabet on it. If he say yes, he feels that this is something he chose to do, and will enjoy it even more then if I told him that this is what we are going to be doing.
If he says no, we move on to something else. A workbook, a hands on activity, sometimes he just wants to play with his blocks. And that's fine. But giving him the choice empowers him, and keeps that joy and excitement of learning alive.
When they are done with an activity, either they pick something else to do on their own or if they need assistance, I am there to show them some other things to do. We have never run out of activities.
My kids have their own little desks, but they know that they can do their work on the floor, at their desk, outside on the driveway, even at the kitchen table. It is important that they have the freedom to work where they are comfortable.
Another really important Montessori principle is to have order in the learning environment.
Up until now, our classroom has been very bright with pictures and posters on the walls, bulletin boards, lots of activity going on around the room.
While cleaning for Pesach, I ended up putting away a huge amount of activities, furniture and toys and the room was left looking a lot emptier- and a lot better. I found that the kids spent a lot more time just sitting on the rug and playing for longer amounts of time with the toys that were there.
I have now removed most of the things from the walls leaving the room with a very calm ambiance. The kids really feel it and it makes a huge difference in the quality of their learning.
If you walk into our classroom on a given morning, chances are you will find each one of my kids either sitting at their desks, sitting or laying on the floor and pretty engrossed in whatever they are doing. When I sense they are becoming antsy, I encourage them to go outside and get some energy out.
While this is not the conventional way of learning, it works. My kids do not rely on me to keep them entertained. I make sure that they have lots of learning materials readily available to them so all they have to do is look and choose what to do. And they love it and they thrive.
For Parshah, we all snuggle on the couch and I read aloud to them from The Little Midrash Says. Who doesn't love snuggling with mommy on the couch? If they want to do a project, we do a project. If they want to keep reading, we keep reading.
Firstly, I wrote down exactly what I needed to get done and then allotted a specific time frame in which to do it.
Next, I made sure to have all the supplies I needed (cleaning, cooking, organizing) so when the time came to do a certain task, I would have exactly what I needed.
I knew that I could not do this all by myself and so I delegated specific jobs to different people (my hubby, cleaning lady, babysitter, friends) so everyone knew when to be here and what do do when they came.
It sounds so simple, but it was a lot of work and planning on my part- but it worked out perfectly.
Up until now, I had a really great daily schedule that worked really well. This involved my little ones napping for 2 hours every day which gave me 2 hours to get things done. Well, those little ones are growing up and have been on nap strike for the past 3 weeks and I think I may need to surrender. Which means a change of plans in our daily routine. Not major, but it is still a change. They have also started to show an interest in what the older kids are doing in regard to being in the classroom, writing on their chalk boards, art projects etc. so they will slowly start to join the older crew in class.
I have allotted the hours of 8-12 for our school time. We have a dry erase board on the wall that my 5 year old has the daily responsibility of writing the day, date (in Hebrew and English) and weekly Parshah (she does this at the beginning of the week). We sit on the floor with our Siddurs and daven, and we then begin our day.
One of the principles of a Montessori education is Choice. Kids like to have a sense of control over their lives and tend to understand and learn something much more when it is something they are interested in learning. It is also important to make the learning meaningful and enjoyable.
I start out by offering an activity to each child, for example I will give my 4 year old a mini black board and ask him if he would like to practice writing his alphabet on it. If he say yes, he feels that this is something he chose to do, and will enjoy it even more then if I told him that this is what we are going to be doing.
If he says no, we move on to something else. A workbook, a hands on activity, sometimes he just wants to play with his blocks. And that's fine. But giving him the choice empowers him, and keeps that joy and excitement of learning alive.
When they are done with an activity, either they pick something else to do on their own or if they need assistance, I am there to show them some other things to do. We have never run out of activities.
My kids have their own little desks, but they know that they can do their work on the floor, at their desk, outside on the driveway, even at the kitchen table. It is important that they have the freedom to work where they are comfortable.
Another really important Montessori principle is to have order in the learning environment.
Up until now, our classroom has been very bright with pictures and posters on the walls, bulletin boards, lots of activity going on around the room.
While cleaning for Pesach, I ended up putting away a huge amount of activities, furniture and toys and the room was left looking a lot emptier- and a lot better. I found that the kids spent a lot more time just sitting on the rug and playing for longer amounts of time with the toys that were there.
I have now removed most of the things from the walls leaving the room with a very calm ambiance. The kids really feel it and it makes a huge difference in the quality of their learning.
If you walk into our classroom on a given morning, chances are you will find each one of my kids either sitting at their desks, sitting or laying on the floor and pretty engrossed in whatever they are doing. When I sense they are becoming antsy, I encourage them to go outside and get some energy out.
While this is not the conventional way of learning, it works. My kids do not rely on me to keep them entertained. I make sure that they have lots of learning materials readily available to them so all they have to do is look and choose what to do. And they love it and they thrive.
For Parshah, we all snuggle on the couch and I read aloud to them from The Little Midrash Says. Who doesn't love snuggling with mommy on the couch? If they want to do a project, we do a project. If they want to keep reading, we keep reading.
Homeschooling can be so challenging at times, but it is also such a gift in disguise. We get to give our kids the gift of being able to learn the things they love, to learn things that interest them. We get to snuggle with them on the couch while learning about our rich and beautiful Jewish Heritage. If we show our kids how excited and interested we are to be learning all of this, it will automatically excite them.
So here's to excitement, to the love of learning and to letting our kids just blossom into the amazing little people that they are!
Wishing you a wonderful week,
Always,
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Our "Curriculum"
While I really believe that kids learn so much through their 5 senses and interacting with the world hands on, some kids really thrive on Workbooks (my 5 year old daughter...) and can literally do an entire workbook in an hour- so I have compiled a few of our favorite learning materials for the little ones, in both Jewish and Secular subjects...
These are some of the Jewish books we use:
And these are some of the English books we use:
These are some great timeless toys that have been a big success in our house... no batteries required, just imagination :)
And here are some great Montessori materials that my kids love---
I also came across this great video- if you have time, check it out, very interesting!
Wishing you all a wonderful week,
Always,
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Montessori Activities for Chumash Bereishit
Over the past few weeks I have been putting together a booklet of activities that we have done for each weeks Parshah. Feel free to download it and use any ideas for your own kids or your students.
You will have 6 Montessori inspired activities for each Parshah in Chumash Bereishit.
Enjoy and have a wonderful week!
Always,
Thursday, March 15, 2012
"School" is in Session!
It's Spring Break for the Public schools here, so this morning we had a little play date with friends of ours (age 7 and 8) who go to school near by.
I took them into our Montessori classroom and told them that they can "play school" with the kids.
One of the girls goes to the black board on the easel and writes out the "Schedule"- Reading, writing, snack time, math and art. She then tells my kids to all take their seats. They looked a bit confused and wondered why they were being told to sit down as usually, they walk into class and go straight to a shelf and pick out an activity to do. But they sat down anyways.
The "teacher" then gave them each a piece of paper and wrote down the word CAT on each paper and told each of them to draw a cat. My big guy squiggled some random squiggle (he is not into drawing), my daughter gathered her crayons and started working carefully on her master piece, and my 3 year old took the crayons and threw them across the room and burst out laughing...
"Teacher" told him he has to sit in timeout for acting rude. He ended up running out of the classroom and into the playroom and quit "school" (he usually LOVES being in the classroom).
She then said time was up and it was now time for writing. My daughter got upset since she wasn't done and wanted to finish her picture. My big guy said he was done sitting and was ready for a snack, to which "teacher" said he had to wait for snack time. (In a Montessori classroom, there is a place in the classroom with a table and chair and some snacks that the kids can prepare and eat whenever they wish. One would think this would be the most popular place in the classroom, but the kids really only go there when they want a snack.)
Now let me just say that these 2 little girls are delightful adorable sweethearts who come over all the time, and they were just mimicking what they do at school. But witnessing my kids in a standard school environment really made me appreciate a) the fact that I homeschool them and don't have anyone else but me and my hubby disciplining them and b) that we follow the Montessori method, giving them the freedom to learn what they love for as long as they wish.
Well, needless to say, "school" didn't last too long as my kids were not interested in being TOLD what to do and for how long to do it and so it quickly turned to outside play and games for the rest of the morning... but its nice to have these little eye openers once in a while~
Wishing all a great Shabbos,
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Some Purim Activities
Yes, I know- Purim is on Thursday... but hey- this gives you 3 (maybe 4) entire days to squeeze in some more Purim Activities! Enjoy~
A Purim Sensory Tub:
Montessori Counting with the Kings Jewels:
A Purim Mystery Bag: Show the kids all the objects. Place the objects in the bag and have the kids take turns feeling an object inside the bag and guessing what it is.
A Purim Mystery Bag: Show the kids all the objects. Place the objects in the bag and have the kids take turns feeling an object inside the bag and guessing what it is.
Making our own Purim Costumes: Yes, I know how cute these ready made store bought costumes are... but there is something to be said when the kids wear something they proudly made themselves (no matter how it came out;) So here we have my big guy making his beard for his Mordechai costume. My princess already made her Queen Esther crown that she worked SO hard on and is so proud of.
Since it is a Mitzvah to listen to the Megillah, here is a classic Montessori listening activity that you can easily make at home.
Sound Cylinders: Each cylinder has different size beads inside so when you shake them, they each make a different sound. The aim of the activity is to pick one color cylinder, shake it and listen to it. Then from the other color, find the matching sound by listening to each cylinder until you find the exact same sound. There are matching colored shapes underneath each cylinder that tells the kids if their jars are a match. This requires a lot of concentration and is a really great activity if you child is in that zone (quiet, calm, ready to sit down and listen).
Fish Sorting in connection to Pieces, the astrological sign for the Hebrew month of Adar:
Classic Montessori Fish Puzzle and control chart:
Hamantash stickers: Using foam with sticky backs, kids stick in the filling of their choice, then either sort them into colors or make a Hamantash collage on cardstock
Just a little something to keep the little ones busy during school time- putting buttons into a Tzedakah Box (cleaner then real money):
Just a little something we did today- was really fun and came out so pretty. I totally forgot to take "after" photos and by the time I remembered, the cupcakes had disappeared:)
Enjoy your week~
Always,
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