A Montessori Thanksgiving 2014

The main goal of a Montessori education is to promote the joy of learning. It is a process that is child directed and at the child's pace. This brings satisfaction, confidence, and independence in a child. Independence is fostered through teaching life skills that Montessori calls Practical Life. Montessori children learn from a young age to dress themselves, hang up their coats, put away their toys, help cook, clean, and basically be an active member of their family and community.

Kaylee often enjoys helping prepare dinner and helping around the house. She especially enjoys helping at Thanksgiving and Christmas. This Thanksgiving was no exception. When we make pies she likes to make her own individual pumpkin and apple pie. We do all of our baking the day before Thanksgiving. 

Kaylee putting the homemade pumpkin pie crust in her individual sized pie pan. 

Measuring just the right amount of brown sugar. 

She really likes to use the apple peeler/slicer/corer when we make apple pies.

Putting the top crust on her apple pie. 

Each year, she likes to make cookies out of the extra pie dough. She rolls the dough and uses the cookie cutter to make heart shapes. Then, she sprinkles them with cinnamon and sugar. And we bake them.

Kaylee's left over pie dough cookies before they are baked. 

The pumpkin and apple pies are completed. Kaylee made her own matching individual pies. The cinnamon rolls are about to go in to the oven! 

I bake the cinnamon rolls the night before Thanksgiving to have for breakfast the next morning! 

Lastly, we make the homemade pull apart honey oat rolls. I make the dough in the bread machine. They are a lot of fun to roll into balls and place in the pan. This was a family activity. 

Montessori is a part of just about everything we do. Kaylee enjoys the independence and she has really developed a joy for learning. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Handwriting Without Tears

Kaylee expressed an interest in learning how to write in cursive. I researched a few different handwriting programs. I even bought a few handwriting books at the bookstore. I didn't like any of the handwriting books I bought.

I finally decided on Handwriting Without Tears. I ordered the student book online. I didn't order the teacher manual. It didn't seem necessary. So far, it is a great success. Kaylee really enjoys the cute cartoon character descriptions. It gives just the right amount of practice without being too tedious. We do one page at a time. She will be writing in cursive in no time at all.

Montessori Multiplication

Kaylee really enjoys Montessori math. Recently, we've started multiplication. We had a lot of fun with the multiplication bead board. She used the board to complete her multiplication booklet. It is used to practice multiplication and eventually leads to memorization of the multiplication tables.

Kaylee working with the multiplication bead board to complete her multiplication booklet. 

We also did the multiplication charts and then we used the bead bars. Using the bead bars she can see and count the beads to get the answer. For example, she had the equation 7x8. She gets 8 bars of 7 and counts them.

Kaylee multiplying 7x8. 

She used the golden beads to multiply larger numbers. Here she is positioning her golden beads to solve an equation 3,233 x 3. 

Kaylee is really enjoying multiplication. A few weeks ago, we started playing the multiplication stamp game. I forgot to take pictures, but it is a more abstract way of solving equations. You use wooden (or in our case, card stock) stamps. There are free printable stamps and directions HERE. They are used just like the golden beads. 

Multiplication problems solved using the stamp game. 

Virginia Renaissance Faire

Entrance to the Virginia Renaissance Faire

Kaylee really wanted to go to the Virginia Renaissance Faire. It isn't a long drive for us and it was a beautiful day to be outside exploring the faire. We had only been there once and she was a baby. 

There were many learning experiences at the faire. They even had a small kids section with planned activities. 

Kaylee was dressed for the occasion. 

We headed to the children's activities. The first activity she chose was to put your name on a piece of leather. 

Kaylee pounding her name in to a strip of leather. 

The finished product.

Then, she decided to try to write with a quill...

Writing with a quill. 

Try on some armor...

Trying on armor.

Check out a shield...

And then, examine the weapons.

Lots of weapons!

The highlight of her day at the Virginia Renaissance Faire was the chance to get a lesson on using a sword. She talked about it for days. 

Getting a lesson.

A battle champion! 

We had a busy and fun day at the faire! We also learned a few things, too. Who says learning is boring?! Not our family. 

Another fun day at Kaylee's Homeschool Adventures! 

Montessori Short Bead Chains and Squares

Kaylee using the Montessori short bead chains and squares

The short bead chains are the number bead bars connected together. They are mainly used for skip counting and they make a square of a number. In the picture, Kaylee is using the short chain of 3. She stretches out the chain and then puts the number arrow at that number of beads. Then, she puts the matching bead square at the end.

The short chain of 3. 

She counts 3-6-9. When you fold up the short bead chain it matches the bead square. It is 3 sets of 3 which is the same as 3x3 or 3 squared. 

All of the short bead chains and squares completed.

The next step is to make a bead chain chart. There is a great explanation, labels, and free chart HERE. 

Beginning to make a bead chain chart.

The chart will help Kaylee to eventually remember the square chains from memory. 

The square chains chart all completed. 

Montessori Golden Bead Chain of 1,000

In the spring, we began using the Montessori golden bead chain of 1,000. It is a long chain with 100 bars of 10. It is to become familiar with counting to 1,000. In this session, we used the number arrows to mark each set of 10.

We grouped the 1,000 chain in to groups of 100 and compared it to the 100 square and the 1,000 cube. 

Then, we spread the 1,000 chain across the living room and began labeling each group of 10 with the correct number. 

It was a very long chain!

We have to keep our number arrows and golden bead chain organized. 

We have each section labeled so the number arrows are easy to find. 

We use this organizer. It works perfectly. 

Nature Club: Wilderness Survival

The latest Homeschool Nature Club meeting that we attended has been about wilderness survival. They discussed basic wilderness and safety survival tips.

Discussing wilderness safety and survival tips.

 Next, they split in to groups and made shelters.

Testing the shelter.

For the last activity, they made an emergency kit out of a Altoids tin. 

Making an emergency kit out of Altoids tins.

Kaylee's new emergency kit.

Her kit contains: Bandaids, a whistle/compass, matches, a fire starter (cottonballs rubbed in Vaseline), and a garbage bag (not shown.)

They also made emergency sunglasses. They used duct tape and string. They put two pieces of duct tape together (sticky sides together), then cut holes for eyes and the string. 

Cutting out the eye holes in her duct tape sunglasses.

Emergency sunglasses all finished. 

New Montessori Albums!

I'm excited to have ordered some new Montessori Albums! I ordered from Montessori Research and Development. I've never ordered from them before, but so far so good...

New Montessori Manuals! 

Kaylee and the Doll Making Kit

Kaylee and I found a doll making kit really cheap at a consignment store. We thought it would be a great activity. It turned out to be a fun project!

The doll making kit that we found at a consignment shop.

I helped Kaylee wrap yarn around a book to create the dolls hair.

Kaylee gluing on the hair and making sure it is just right.

Putting double sided tape on the doll's shirt. 

Sticking the back of the doll's skirt on to the doll. 

The finished doll! It was a lot of fun!