[jkl123]

I.m not sure if there is a better place for this, but since I home-school, I figured it could go here... does anyone have any good resources about teaching the Montessori Method way?? I have one book, which I have found quite interesting, but just wondering if anyone out there has experience with this and could point me toward more info.

[Lainielou]

I heard that Montessori Method might be a good approach for my home school adventures as well. I really didn't know where to look for such a thing so I am curious as well.
Do Montessori and home school work together?

Lainielou

[deedee1231]

I have looked at a few Montessori schools when my son was younger.

As I understand it, (which may not be very well, but I will give it a try ) Montessori is self-directed learning for younger children, like preschool through elementary ages. It is pretty similar to unschooling.

What you would do is set up different educational activities for the child to have access to and allow them to decide what they want to do. So you would have, all out in the open wher your child would be able to utilize them, blocks, modeling clay, paper and markers/crayons, magnet board and letters/numbers, dress-up clothes, basically just about anything and everything they would possible want to play with. Then the teacher just keeps a journal of the child's activities throughout the day and notes any new accomplishments.

I think you can also introduce information when the child has shown an interest in something. For example, if the child is using markers and paper, you can show them how to write their name--if they are receptive to that idea. But you don't say, "Time to put toys away and come learn to write your name now." You let the child decide what and how much they want to do. The idea is that they will want to learn everything they will need to know all in their own good time and as educators we should not overwhelm them with our own goals but instead let them lead the way to what they are comfortable with learning.

I don't really know how well Montessori methodology would translate into a homeschool environment. I really just wouldn't have the space available in my home to do it for my children. And, for me, I like to see that they are really making some progress on the academic front rather than just watching them play with educational toys and take notes about that. That is what my children do all the time anyway--so they are getting those benefits without calling it "homeschool" know what I mean?

Also, the method itself was originally developed to instruct mentally retarded youngsters who had been written off as unable to learn. I am having trouble wording this because I don't want anyone to take it the wrong way, but if a child is not impaired I don't really see how this method will enable him to reach his full potential. But that is just my personal philosophy, I believe that children need some amount of guidance in their education. I have, on the other hand, seen an unschooling family that has been very successful with their homeschool.

[Lainielou]

You made a great point, some are successful and some aren't. It depends on the personalities and abilities involved.

I started off by reading and trying to decide what my personal teaching beliefs were. I liked the sound of the Classical approach. Have them read and learn from those who have been successful in the past, and it will build integrity and a work ethic, plus when they learn to write, read and research well, then all you have to do is encourage them to develop interests and from there they write about it. This is ideal in our modern age, so many kids are force fed educational material that they aren't taught to love learning. If they love learning, they will always ask Why and they will be equipped in finding the answers. Like I said, this is where I started...

I discovered that the Classical approach would need to start with very young children to have a timely, educational effectiveness nowadays. My dd is 13, we just took her out of public s. and she was lost as could be with this methodology. Read what you want, learn what you want and write me a story about approach blew her mind. She freaked out and asked me to buy her a work book! Ha, poor thing. Now we are trying out a blend of the two.

Don't you think Montessori sounds like home? Baking cookies, digging in the garden or back yard, making a bed and so on? It's like a Montsri. classroom only bigger.
Personally, I love that the idea was developed for children who were not supposed to be able to learn. Now, it's the hippest approach to teaching. How cool and hopefilled for people who aren't sure what their child is capable of learning.

I had someone tell me that education means experience. I bet we could keep our hearts open to learning experiences (these include messes and mistakes) and still maintain our ideals and comfort zones in teaching. If we did it that way, we could just call it Montessori style home school! Ha!

If you find out more let me know, I am curious to learn how families are successfully putting home school in their bag of experiences. .

Lainie

[Lainielou]

www.MyMontessoriHouse.com

I found this will cruising another web site. Thought it might offer us some answers.

Lainie

[deedee1231]

Lainielou,
It sounds like you and I have much more in common than I realized! I too pulled my daughter out of school and began homeschooling when she was 13 years old. I had had quite a journey with her through the years. We started out enrolling her in public school for K and by grade 2 I was horrified that she wasn't learning much. We pulled her out of public and enrolled her in a private Catholic school. I still wasn't convinced that she was learning at her full potential but she seemed much happier there so I kept her there.

My son began K when my daughter was going into 5th grade. He has high functioning autism, but the Catholic School staff said that they had a counselor on staff and would be able to educate him and meet his needs. They couldn't. They didn't. It was a big mess and a hearbreaking experience, not only for me and my son, but also for my oldest daughter who was still attending the same school. By the time my son finished 1st grade and my daughter finished 6th, we knew that my son couldn't go back to the Catholic school and we worked with the Board of Ed over the summer to find the best place for him within the public school district. My daughter was disillusioned with the Catholic School and didn't want to go back there either. She still has contact with the freinds she made there, but she did not want to attend a school where she had seen her brother mistreated and had been punished repeatedly for standing up for him. So I enrolled her in a public middle school. Public school was a mistake. I should have known it would be (I actually think I did know it would be and fooled myself out of desperation!!) I pulled them both out in Feb of that year and I have been homeschooling both ever since. I have now also started homeschooling my 5 year old twins.

So now I am homeschooling:
Erica--15--9th grade
Alex--9--4th grade
Madison and Penelope--5--Kindergarten.

I have had some of the same issues with Erica that you are having with your 13 year old now. For instance, she is very good at reading or listening and then regurgitating information onto the pages of workbooks or mutliple choice or fill in the blank formats. But I have really struggled to get her to think more deeply about what she is learning. I want her to read books from the literary canon and tell me why they are still relevant in her own words and from her unique perspective. She wants to give me a bland book report written in the style of your basic 5 paragraph essay. She is not where she should be academically, yet she is clever and witty in real life situations. She is working on a 7th grade level in Math and I am struggling to teach her critical thinking skills because she didn't develop those skills in traditional school environment, yet she was an A/B student, always on the honor roll, and she still gets excellent grades on her current curriculum which is based around a multiple choice/ fill in the blank format. So I would agree with your statement that you need to start a Classical style education early on to get the best results. I think that a workbook style education is not challenging in the same way as a Classical approach and will not prepare the student for that approach.

When you said that the Montessori approach sounds like home, I really agree with that too. I only "do school" with my twins for about 2 hours a day, but we do not allow the television to be turned on during the day so they must always find something to amuse themselves. They only have educational toys, so that is what they like to play with. And they really do learn through play . I also read to them. I read to them A LOT . They are always asking me to read a book to them or to go to the library for more books. WHen it is time for school, it is much more relaxed because I don't have to meet state standards and so I don't push them too hard. Although I am still learning to trust my instincts with them and not be influenced by what other people outside of the situation think they should be learning.

But it is funny because although that is the way I am raising my twins, it is not much like I raised Erica. I wish it was, but it wasn't. She had all the educational toys, blocks and crayons and clay. But she also had a lot of other stuff. Stuff that my twins do not have. Videos, nintendo, electronic gadgets, nickelodeon, all of it. All of the useless junk they advertise for on cartoons, spoiled rotten, too many toys, allowed to watch way too much television. I am now seeing the results and I feel like I should have done better for her . I think that the only saving grace was our faith and the fact that we have always attended church weekly. I realized the television had to go way before we even started to homeschool. I cut it way back and made alot of other changes as well. The fact that I had started making changes in our home environment before I started to homeschool made the transition easier for her, I think.

OK, I am writing a book here, so I am going to stop now! If there is anything I can tell you about my experiences on this homeschool adventure, just ask! I usually check in on this site periodically, and I will respond.

Nice meeting you!

[Lainielou]

Deedee1231,

When you said a lot in common, you weren't kidding. We've also done the Catholic school route! It was amazing for her though, she learned more that year than almost any other. Lots of busy work, too much really.

I don't have the time to go into all of the things we could compare. There are MANY.

Do you happen to live in Texas? I just figured with that many things in common that our proximity must be close as well. I am really hoping to find a family with similar ideas and kids in the same age range.
My dd is missing friends from school. She wanted this though, it was her idea.
I didn't enjoy or want her in ps even though she went to a fairly good one, but she kept asking me to home school. She tries, she understands that this is a big deal and luckily her future, college, career and such is a BIG deal to her. She has high hopes and wouldn't do anything to mess up her chances for a good college. She has been like this since she was little. Hannah has health issues and needed the freedom to rest and do what ever she needed to get through the day. The issues are not life threatening or serious, but she lives with a lot of pain. That makes a day at regular school really, really hard to do. She did most of her work in the nurses office before we brought her home. Her coping skills were running on empty and her health was really showing it. Missing school, always behind or somewhere close to caught up on work and feeling so sick all the time is what got us to this point. So, that's why we are here. I do happen to love it and am very glad that we have made this decision as a family. She plans to go back in high school, part of me hopes she does so that she can be a regular kid again, the other part hopes that she misses all the junk and peer pressure.
My son will be going into 5th grade next year. He's never been home schooled but that is my goal for him. I am just looking ahead to next year and am trying to do my planning now. Schooling him will be a complete departure from what I know right now. My planning is probably a waist of time, but I need to know how much insanity to expect.
I don't think I realized what an absolute control freak I really am until I started this process! If I were beef, I'd be Prime CF, eggs Grade A CF... the list goes on!
There's a good thread starter! "What kind of Control Freak are you? " I figure home school moms have to be in the highest catagory possible! I mean that lovingly... since I am one.


Take care, I need to stop writing and start digging the garden up, all this talk about the Montessori stuff got me in the mood to garden and I went to nursery today and bought all kinds of things!

Take care, I read through your post later tonight.

Lainie

[twinzplus3]

Originally Posted by Lainielou

There's a good thread starter! "What kind of Control Freak are you? " I figure home school moms have to be in the highest catagory possible! I mean that lovingly... since I am one.

I am the antithesis of a control freak--.

[deedee1231]

I don't live in Texas but it is funny that you should ask because I actually did live there for a year. My husband worked on a constructuion project in TX for 13 months in 1994-95, but we moved back to Missouri afterward. Erica didn't even begin Kindergarten until after we got back. I hope you find some homeschoolers you can connect with in your area. I didn't start doing that until we had been at this for a few years and I really think it is proven beneficial.

Also, I am not a control freak. I don't think I could survive homeshcooling 4 children if I was because they do have minds of their own, ! I actually have a very easygoing nature about most things, but when it comes to things that I have very strong opinions about, I tend to sink my teeth in a little too deeply .

[Lainielou]

I guess you guys are saying am I the only who would reply the thread, eh? Ha, I love it!

My only hope on that issue is that you all have been h. schooling longer and realize that there is no real way to drive or controlling this bus (my family's term for life and its predictable yet undescerned chaos is The Crazy Bus [IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/ADMINI%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-11.jpg[/IMG] ). It is going to go where it wants, it's final stop is not where I expected it be and it will make many more stops and starts than the map says it will. But, this I do know, I will like it there and will be glad I climbed aboard! God is awesome that way. Riding 'The Crazy Bus' is fine with me, as long as I can pretend to be driving.

Again,

I appreciate all the support. It's awesome to have this site and you guys are great!
Too bad you all are not close by. It would be such fun to get together!

Lainie