Monday, July 05, 2010

Getting Ready for Montessori Home-Schooling Post 1.

Astrid is almost 5 months old now and today I spent $5 at the Thrift Store acquiring some items to use for size/color sorting lessons. I'm hoping that if I spread out the purchases I'll not feel the monetary pinch and be ready for when the time comes. I think I can set up my office to double as a "school" setting for her using existing shelving until she's old enough to need a small chair & desk. There's a certain discipline that goes along with Montessori which includes quiet removal of each learning tool to a work area and replacement of learning tool when done which I want to reinforce when the time comes. That sounds ultra restrictive to me, so, in the beginning, it would be only for a few minutes and the only time that Astrid will be in my office. Her play area is in the living room.

Here's what I bought today:

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On the left is what might be an egg-holder, although why it would only be for 8 eggs when the classic denomination is a dozen might leave one to think that it's actually something for holding paints (which was my thought when buying it, as well as thinking ahead to the array of 2 x 4 = 8.

To the right of the "egg-holder" are two cups that were bigger than the others in the set and will be used later for other purposes. To the far right is what might be a picture frame for three square photos? It has three squares recessed almost half an inch into which are placed: 1 red cup, 2 white cups and 3 blue cups. I'm thinking that if I check Target tomorrow (which was in the plan anyway) I might be able to get some ridiculously cheap odds/ends of red/white/blue things to reinforce both the number and color lessons.

At the bottom are sea-shells laid out in order of size, to be used both in size sorting and science lessons.

3 comments:

No. 2 said...

I remember the jars at daycare that held stuff like sand, dirt, water, etc. I remember opening the empty one and asking a teacher what was in it. She told me it was air. I got so afraid since I thought that I let it out. And I spent the next few minutes trying to trap as much air back into the jar before putting the lid back on.

Anonymous said...

No 1. thinks that No. 2 is funny. Ma be really careful of choking hazards. I want her coming home from Montessori in one piece and breathing.

Oldnovice said...

No. 2 was born for Montessori. She walked in and went right to work. No. 3 needed more structured learning. He spent his Montessori days crawling under the tables. One day, he even crawled out to the car. My dad was there to pick him up and having prostate problems at the time. Dad had to pee really bad and No. 3 was doing a slow crawl to the car. Might be the only reason I found out about it.