Montessori Update

 We received  another email from Miss Julie, Hadley's Montessori teacher. I had some quesitons about how to keep the learning process going at home, because hadley is having a tough time picking up numbers and phonograms. We've already gotten started with the counting idea that she gave us.

Here's the email, some pictures she sent, and a video.

"Let me answer your question about reinforcing what she's learning in school!  Did Miss Ali talk to you about Phonograms during your orientation?  If not, ask us! That's something you can easily do at home.  We sell the flashcards here at the school.  I can give you the details about those in person.  This is how so many of our students learn to read easily and early - although it does take some practice and repetition to remember them.

Something else you could do with Hadley is practicing counting objects (anything from food to toys) and number recognition, 1 to 10 (introduce just a few numbers at a time and practice them until they become familiar before moving onto another group of numbers).  At school I show Hadley a group of three numbers (for example - 1,2,3) and review them with her, then she counts out that many of my blue glass marbles, then she counts them again as she puts them back in the jar.  Any variation on this would be supporting what she's learning at school.

Some of the other things we're learning during Line Time are seasons, colors, shapes, days of the week and months of the year.

The works Hadley does at school are in 4 main categories (but you may already be familiar with these): Practical Life, Sensorial, Language and Math.  Language and Math are pretty self-explanatory and those include Phonograms, counting and number recognition, to name a few.  Sensorial is a lot of hands on manipulatives that help Hadley discover (through her senses) texture, color, size and shape.  Practical Life activities encourage independence.  In many of the pictures you see of Hadley in class she is doing a Practical Life work, this is the majority of the works in our classroom because it's the most important!  These works help Hadley master fine motor skills required in everyday life, like the Button Frame to practice doing buttons, or the Spooning work with marbles or other small objects to practice scooping with a spoon - again, only naming a few here.  It also includes pouring water for works like the Dishwashing, Handwashing, Watering Plants, Flower Arranging and other water works in the classroom.  I recently showed Hadley the Flower Arranging work and she LOVED it!!  Miss Rachel caught part of it on video! ("I'm a good princess"... Oh jeez.)

Regardless of what type of lesson I'm giving Hadley, I always show her how to do it first, then I offer her a turn to try it on her own (while I do my best to stand back and let her learn from any mistakes she might make.)

You mentioned, "It would be nice to stop the yelling."  When Hadley starts getting frustrated in class and starts shouting for help, I remind her, "When you raise your hand that shows me you need my help."  Or sometimes I give her options of what to say like, "Miss Julie, I need help, please!" or "Excuse me, Teacher."  I always try to use a very soft voice to tell her these things, but if I'm not close enough to do that right away I'll raise my hand to remind her to try it.  She's getting better at it each day!  Sometimes she'll even say another student is being too loud :)

Let me know if you're interested in reading anything about Montessori.  I can recommend a few of my favorites and Miss Ali has a fantastic list :)

Enjoy the pictures and video!

Miss Julie"

 Doing the buttoning work

 Flower arranging work

 Playing in the snow at school :)

I am so happy with this school. Her teacher is so good about helping me learn to be a better teacher and actually wants Hadley to succeed. Sometimes it feels like Hadley is the only kid in the class with how well they are taking care of us. She is getting so much more independent and is learning so many life skills, I'm such a proud Mama!