tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478089010182535222024-03-13T04:23:39.444-07:00Oh No, Pancakes!Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-76452186987298277682016-04-08T18:08:00.000-07:002017-04-18T20:06:53.441-07:00School Days - January, February and March 2016School had taken a backseat for a bit after Christmas. I am always reevaluating our school at the beginning of the year. I guess that's because we've gone through the first semester and I realize what changes need to be made. I'm happy to say that we are back to schooling pretty regularly for the most part. It is a little busy for us around here since we just had a birthday and are fixing to celebrate my daughter's first communion. But we've been schooling pretty consistently for about 3-4 days a week. Here is a bit of what we've been up to:<br />
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Cat and MJ have been working through the sections on Multiples, Least Common Multiples and Factors. About half of this work is done on a pegboard with pegs and the other half is done on paper, working towards abstraction. Below is MJ working on his tables. These tables are just multiplication tables from 2 through 10. They use these tables to fill out their factor tables, which are then used for further works.</div>
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Here Cat is finishing up her multiples work that she took forever to do. She is circling the multiples of individual numbers to see the patterns they make. She kept avoiding it and was motivated when I showed her the pegboard work that comes after it. </div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2okxFgdnYBY/Vwa-GjVTXRI/AAAAAAAABRM/6vOrYm0uODscxGek-xAx_h76g1doMrm7A/s1600/IMG_5112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2okxFgdnYBY/Vwa-GjVTXRI/AAAAAAAABRM/6vOrYm0uODscxGek-xAx_h76g1doMrm7A/s640/IMG_5112.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Here he is filling out his factor tables using his multiplication tables on another day.</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qpGP2GKIhao/Vwa-RK9uwhI/AAAAAAAABRc/UgU15PH2VkkR6uMAhime6_GdBGwHxI5DQ/s1600/IMG_5118.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qpGP2GKIhao/Vwa-RK9uwhI/AAAAAAAABRc/UgU15PH2VkkR6uMAhime6_GdBGwHxI5DQ/s640/IMG_5118.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And here he is doing his suffix work. Or I should say playing around between doing his suffix work. He was pretending to die from stabbing himself in the stomach...boys. </div>
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Tes has continued to work with the Trinomial Cube. She really loves that thing. She has put it together separated into it's layers as well as blindfolded. I'm banking on all this concrete experience turning her into an Algebra whiz!</div>
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Here is one of her creations using clay</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HR7lkHr-lhM/Vwa-B9YV3qI/AAAAAAAABRI/ASM5THKmdk0hntrHRwm-mhFnH658z0K7Q/s1600/IMG_5110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HR7lkHr-lhM/Vwa-B9YV3qI/AAAAAAAABRI/ASM5THKmdk0hntrHRwm-mhFnH658z0K7Q/s640/IMG_5110.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Tes has continued on with the Stamp Game. At this point she's done addition and subtraction work. We should move to multiplication and division next week.</div>
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Cat is working on her word problems. We are using <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Primary-Grade-Challenge-Edward-Zaccaro/dp/0967991536/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1460064271&sr=8-3&keywords=challenge+math" target="_blank">Primary Grade Challenge Math</a>. It was recommended by Jessica at <a href="http://keysoftheuniverse.com/" target="_blank">Keys of the Universe</a>, where we get our Elementary albums from. This is independent work for Cat and MJ. I have each chapter marked, blue for MJ and pink for Cat. As they work on a chapter, they pull off the tab.</div>
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Here Tes is using our microscope. I try to keep her working with the primary materials but occasionally I let her use this microscope just because it is so cool! We got this as a gift from my uncle who is a professor at a university. The biology department donated their old microscopes and we got one :).</div>
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We did a lot of work with the bells but there are just so many games to play that I feel like we'll never get to writing any music. The kids come back to this work every so often but with the little time we have to work on school, music tends to take a backseat. Hopefully as I get more organized, we'll have a bit more time to do this work.</div>
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Cat working with the bells as well and me playing with camera angles. I love this camera. Wish I had more time to play with it, but I don't. So school time is my camera time...lol.</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Swiper is able to work a little bit more now that he is older. Primary Montessori schooling starts around age 2.5 -3 and Swiper is already 2. He is almost ready to join our Primary class. Here he is working with the light switch tray...haha. He can actually reach them if that basket wasn't in the way. I believe there is a sensitive period for playing with light switches and that time is now.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-06ZiaYxz1m4/Vwa-hn7ZngI/AAAAAAAABR4/0yb-CkeI24EHSEhJMaht6edsKPg-j23nA/s1600/IMG_5128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-06ZiaYxz1m4/Vwa-hn7ZngI/AAAAAAAABR4/0yb-CkeI24EHSEhJMaht6edsKPg-j23nA/s640/IMG_5128.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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He has a small shelf with some of his own works that he can utilize during school. I'm really bad about switching work out though. He will easily get bored with the trays and then won't touch them for a month. I am very unorganized as far as the infancy years are concerned. This was my first go round with infancy using Montessori and there is always a learning curve. I have many nice materials that are age appropriate but they are hidden away and I forget I have them until I see them on Amazon! I recently got some Assistant to Infancy albums from <a href="http://www.mymontessorihouse.com/Montessori_Teaching_Curriculum.html" target="_blank">My Montessori House</a>. I got the album for 18mo-2.5yrs. Once Swiper hits 2.5, he'll be in Primary using the <a href="http://gardenoffrancis.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=27_24&products_id=267&zenid=b85c8e579d4bc641e4785d594e8042e8" target="_blank">Keys of the World Albums</a> like the others did.</div>
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Below Swiper is putting coins into a box with a slot on the top. It has a little drawer that you pull out to get the coins.</div>
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Love that yummy concentration face!! This work is called "Trying to unscrew the top of the spritzer so I can dump the water on the rug".</div>
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Tes was working on her numbers with the squared boards so Swiper naturally followed suit. </div>
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Lots of circles. Getting ready for cursive :). And he's looking like he's going to be a lefty! </div>
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Cat worked a bit on geometry. We were finishing up some presentations on angles from last semester. Here she was putting together triangles so we could name whether they were obtuse, right or acute angled triangles. This was about all we did and have moved onto lots of math work. Hopefully we can get in another chunk of geometry this semester. They are short and sweet. I like to spread them out between the other subjects. Everyone's always up for geometry.</div>
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MJ finally started Logical Analysis. We had 2 presentations and then we stopped. I've been reading some books on classical education which puts a heavy emphasis on grammar. We are also going to be starting Latin and so I need him to have a decent grasp on grammar before we move on to other languages. This lit a fire under my rear end, so I have been helping MJ to finish up the grammar boxes. He is 9.5 yrs old and should have finished them when he was 8. Cat is now working her way through grammar so she can finish on time. She'll be 8 this summer so we have a bit of time.</div>
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Below is the sentence "Tes cut the cheese", although I blurred out her real name. He had to break the sentence up into subject, predicate and direct object. He doesn't enjoy grammar too much, but he doesn't fight it. We are just working through it little by little.</div>
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Below MJ and Cat are working with our new <a href="http://www.pinitmaps.com/" target="_blank">pinmaps</a>! We got them last year but this was the first time they actually used them. They are very nice quality and are a great alternative to the expensive ones that I've seen. These maps are laminated and you put the flags together yourself. The maps fit on top of large foam boards with corner cuffs that hold the maps on. There is a great review of these maps on <a href="http://whatdidwedoallday.blogspot.com/2015/09/pin-maps-finally-set-you-can-afford.html" target="_blank">What Did We Do All Day</a>. I do have to say that the time it took me to make the flags was a lot longer than the 8 hours she estimated. I'd say it took about 24 hours, or maybe I'm just really slow at these things. It was time consuming because the small piece of tape used to adhere each flag to the pin would naturally pull itself toward the flag at an angel I was not aiming for...lol. So I'd say that I had to tape each flag twice. Still totally worth it, just want to give a more realistic estimation on time.</div>
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Tes has been reading for a few months now. She has gone through most of the reader series we own and likes to read along with me when I read aloud. She is the first to go through the reading/writing threads correctly and it shows. She is very motivated and has all the tools she needs. She enjoys reading and trying to read above her level.</div>
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Cat worked on a bit of biology. She's gone through this Story Material before but not all the packets I have. She used to shy away from the reading. Since she's been reading more, she has come back to this work. She has to read the little cards and match them to the pictures that fits the descriptions. The cards have information about all aspects of a particular animal. In the picture she is working with the squirrel packet.</div>
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And finally, we got to the Communication in Signs great lesson. I believe it is the 4th great lesson. This is the first time we've done this. It is basically the story of how people began writing. We have a great book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fun-Hieroglyphs-Metropolitan-Museum-Art/dp/1416961143/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460067514&sr=8-1&keywords=fun+with+hieroglyphics" target="_blank">Fun with Hieroglyphs</a>. It comes with a set of stamps for the hieroglyphs so the kids can create their own writings.</div>
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For now that is all I have in pictures. This work took place in January. Apparently I took absolutely no school pictures in February or March, even though we did school. Cat and MJ have finished up all the Least Common Multiples work as well as the Factors work. I think they are getting a little burnt out on the math so we'll probably start work in a section of geometry now. </div>
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We finished up the rest of the Sun and Earth section from the geography album and moved onto Biology. We've started some preparations (planting seeds) for some botany work and discussion of animals in preparation for some zoology work. This past month we did lots of gardening and landscaping, so the kids have been able to spend lots of time outdoors. The weather has been beautiful, so we are taking full advantage!</div>
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We also finished up the last Great Lesson which is The Story of Numbers. This presents the first numbering systems as well as other used around the world. Good stuff. Cat enjoyed this lesson and recreated a few of the charts with acrylic paints. We've also been painting a lot more recently. I also found a wonderful <a href="http://www.art4montessori.com/" target="_blank">Montessori art album</a> recommended by <a href="http://www.graceandgreenpastures.com/2015/12/art.html" target="_blank">Grace and Green Pastures</a>. The album is amazing. There is so much information in it and I can't wait to get started! Of course we'll be posting on it when we use it. That's it for now. Hopefully I can get some pictures in the coming weeks.</div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">Happy Easter Season!!!</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: large;"><i><b>Jenn</b></i></span></div>
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<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-79264166269330172642016-01-05T21:11:00.000-08:002016-01-05T21:37:31.146-08:00Off the blog break and some catching up!Ok, so we took a break last semester from blogging. I was trying to figure out how in the world I could get school done and keep a young toddler out of everyone's hair. I finally figured it out....I can only do school when he naps! At least that is when I can give presentations and give undivided attention. So far it is going good. Here is a little of what we accomplished last semester:<br />
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Tes is slowly dipping into reading. Here I think she is just looking at the pictures but she'll come to me and ask what a particular word says here and there, so she must be trying.</div>
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At the start of the year I was having either Cat or MJ sit with Swiper and help him do his own "work". He has a small shelf with some trays on it and a basket of books. Cat read to him on several occasions. </div>
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I can't remember exactly what MJ was doing here but he's been interested in WWI and WWII recently. I believe he was looking up some country in Europe, then he asked if he could work with the puzzle maps. This is a primary work, but I allow it from time to time depending on how desperate I am for them to just work so I can deal with Swiper!</div>
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In these next several pictures Tes was working on the graded figures. They are just plastic cutouts of squares, triangles and circles in different colors and sizes. </div>
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Tes building the trinomial cube inside the box.</div>
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Then she built it outside the box!</div>
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Cat was doing some great practical work sharpening all the pencils for everyone. This stuff is relaxing to me, I wonder if she feels the same.</div>
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Look at those sharp tips!</div>
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Tes working on the Formation of Numbers using the golden beads. This work teaches the child the pattern of building numbers and place value. It goes up to 1,999 with the beads and cards. Here I was giving her a number orally and having her build it with the cards as well as the beads. </div>
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Below Cat and MJ worked on multiples. MJ did a few chains on his own but Cat wanted nothing else to do with them. Each chain has sectioned off sets of beads from 1 to 10. For instance the 5-chain has 5 sets of 5 beads, amounting to 25 beads altogether (the short one anyway is 5^2, there is also a long chain that is 5^3) . They label each set to see the multiples of that particular chain. Below they are working with the short 9-chain and 10-chain. I believe this particular presentation was for common multiples, hence two chains and not just one.</div>
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After this chain work with multiples comes work on paper, where the kids have to circle the multiples of a particular number on a 10x10 grid of numbers. They see the patterns that multiples make across the grid. MJ and Cat both started this but Cat never went any further. MJ finished a grid for each digit from 1-10 including a sheet with *multiple* multiples! This was as far as he got with this work last semester.</div>
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Below Tes is working on the Teen Beads and Boards. The presentations starts with just the beads and then just the board, then combining the two. This work helps the child to learn the names of the teen numbers.</div>
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Here she is building the numbers using the cards. Below she is adding in the beads to the corresponding cards.</div>
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Below is the Ten Beads and Boards work. This helps the child learn the names of the tens as well as the linear process of counting.</div>
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Cat reading to Swiper again. He is pointing to the animal that she names for him to find.</div>
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Cat and MJ were given an overdue presentation of Congruency, Similarity and Equivalence using these blue triangles. We had all the other Constructive Triangle Boxes except this one. I finally ordered it because I needed some other items as well and so decided to just go back and see if they remembered the concepts. They actually didn't do too shabby.</div>
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Tes above and below building larger numbers using the beads and wooden material. This material is also used for operations. It is basically wooden hundred squares and thousand cubes that make it easier to work with as well as easier on the wallet :). Beads are expensive by the thousands.</div>
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Tes working with the Decanomial Square. She was trying to get it just perfect. And below is the final product. She's so proud (and so am I).</div>
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We continued to work with the Decanomial Square by removing pieces from the sides/bottom and seeing how they all fit back together. It was interesting but I did'n't get any other pictures of it. There is more work to do with this but she hasn't chosen it and I keep forgetting to remind her.</div>
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Binomial Cube blindfolded! She is actually very good at building the Trinomial Cube too but she is not confident enough yet to do it with a blindfold. She's been building it in layers, so maybe the blindfold is coming soon!</div>
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Moveable Alphabet. She *wrote*, "he likes vanilla icecream". I can't get her to work with this very often but am trying to since she's a bit behind on writing. She moved into reading faster and sort of left writing behind.</div>
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Some botany, art work! She used 2 different shaped metal insets to make this design.</div>
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Cat and MJ finishing up some long overdue work on Suffixes. This seriously is first year work that they never took interest in and I never finished up with them. Sadly they got this second part of the presentation and we never touched it again! Well MJ did but Cat didn't. We are really slacking in the language department. </div>
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Here Cat was working on fractions. We started this in primary but didn't get to operations. She actually enjoyed this work. I'm not sure if it was actually the fraction work or just the fact that she got to use whiteboard markers in the classroom.</div>
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Swiper figuring out what to destroy next. See the numbers laid out on the floor? Yeah those don't last too long when he's around. He thoroughly enjoys walking over to them and just stomping across them. Boys = Destruction.</div>
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MJ was motivated by the geography presentations. He recreated his own chart. This charts shows what would happen if the earth stopped spinning.</div>
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Swiper's in jail because he probably destroyed something that somebody loved. Possibly the work below, can't remember. He loves being on the wrong side of the gate. Perfect baby protection! Gate = Protection From Baby or For Baby?</div>
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Tes moved into operations work! Last semester she went through all four operations...woohoo! She was zooming through math work. Guess she was having a super sensitive period for it. Above she is collecting the addends from the trays and below she is putting them together to count out the sum and get the corresponding number cards.</div>
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Also, not pictured, I gave all the geography presentations for the Sun and Earth chapter, minus a few that I haven't finished the charts for. Below were the materials for the presentation on the Earth as a Sphere.</div>
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We took a break during the last week of Advent as well as the Christmas Season, which lasts for about 2 weeks in the Catholic church. And that is starting ON Christmas Day :). MJ's birthday is in December as well, so there is always lots to do. He turned 9!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> <b style="color: blue;">Happy Birthday MJ!!! </b>and <b style="color: red;">Merry Christmas!!! </b>and <span style="color: lime;">Happy New Year!!!</span></span></div>
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I'll be trying to post at least once per week for the second half of this year, so stay tuned for our new routine and classroom schedule. I'm a bit more organized this year....just a bit.<br />
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<span style="color: purple;"><b><i>Jenn</i></b></span></h2>
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background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 108px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D47808901018253522%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&media=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-jZWC1oKY7w4%2FVoyKRjiAdQI%2FAAAAAAAABOA%2F8qovSpuLdhs%2Fs640%2FIMG_4249.jpg&xm=h&xv=sa1.37.01&xuid=yokeexJgbgqk&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 108px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D47808901018253522%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&media=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-jZWC1oKY7w4%2FVoyKRjiAdQI%2FAAAAAAAABOA%2F8qovSpuLdhs%2Fs640%2FIMG_4249.jpg&xm=h&xv=sa1.37.01&xuid=yokeexJgbgqk&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 42px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 108px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-75453113502717663432015-05-30T17:57:00.001-07:002015-05-30T17:57:32.280-07:00School Days - May 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Wow, 3 posts in 2 days! I had a lot of pictures to load from my camera. Might as well get them all done!</div>
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I did not get any pictures during our school days in May, except the last couple of days. It has been challenging with Swiper. He takes short naps and now he has been taking them later than usual. Once he's down, the race is on to see how much I can present in that short time, so the camera often gets forgotten.</div>
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Tes has been working on more reading. She hasn't been drawn to math lately. She is always choosing reading works. She likes the phonetic command cards. We've also been working through the phonogram object box. I change out the phonogram object every time we have class. We've done "ch", "sh", "ar" and "qu". She also chooses some practical life activities here and there like clay and drawing.</div>
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Cat continues to read small, short readers and she really enjoys the phonogram commands. We've also continued with geometry. We finished up Congruency, Equivalence and Similarity. I presented Polygons to her the other day, so that is where we are at right now. She hasn't been interested in math lately either. Yesterday she worked on a filler box for Grammar Box 2. The other day we did the second part of the oral noun exercise where she sorts cards into nouns and "not" nouns. I also gave her the Definite and Indefinite Article presentation. Sorry I did not get pictures of any of this!</div>
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MJ is finally decently comfortable working on long multiplication problems with the large bead frame. We are ready to move onto either the Bank Game or the Flat Bead Frame. I need to read through the presentations to figure out which one to do first. He is already 8.5 years old and we still aren't finished with the grammar boxes. I finally sorted all the cards for grammar box 7 but we haven't been able to start that yet because I never made the actual grammar box. When all the wood was cut, I somehow missed the pieces for that box...ugh! We tried to make it several weeks ago but the blade on our saw was so dull it was getting stuck in plywood! Well we finally got a new blade so it just needs to get done. He has mostly been working on reading. I've been going over some of the remediation sections in the album.</div>
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Here is what we were able to get pictures of the other day:</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0JoLJDHtL7E/VWk7KvD7WiI/AAAAAAAABBY/5mWm1RksGIo/s1600/IMG_2951.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0JoLJDHtL7E/VWk7KvD7WiI/AAAAAAAABBY/5mWm1RksGIo/s640/IMG_2951.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is another cd from the Putumayo Presents collection. They have a TON of cds. It's ridiculous. I'm glad there are options though. I bought this one to go with the book below.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WAOmuaSp0AI/VWk7Jzp824I/AAAAAAAABBQ/AjaEehpthbs/s1600/IMG_2952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WAOmuaSp0AI/VWk7Jzp824I/AAAAAAAABBQ/AjaEehpthbs/s640/IMG_2952.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I found this book on Amazon, as well as the cd. This book is one from a series. There are several other books on other countries. I like these books because they show one day in the life of a child in that country. In this way it is very relatable to the child. They can see what is the same and what is different. I start out by showing them on our puzzle maps and our globe, where the country is. Then we read the story and then we play the cd. I plan to get the other books as well paired up with cds. </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oOCh26ClFUM/VWk7M2s60rI/AAAAAAAABBg/M_y9uIOBazY/s1600/IMG_2955.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oOCh26ClFUM/VWk7M2s60rI/AAAAAAAABBg/M_y9uIOBazY/s640/IMG_2955.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Oh and here is a really neat aspect of the book! It is also written in the native language of the country. Love it! I still haven't given the 4th great lesson which is Communication in Signs, but this will tie in very neatly with it!</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-duefEf-nmX0/VWk7g8rVjjI/AAAAAAAABDc/YTkZ9jvjQLI/s1600/IMG_2978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-duefEf-nmX0/VWk7g8rVjjI/AAAAAAAABDc/YTkZ9jvjQLI/s640/IMG_2978.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here Tes is just being silly. She's actually looking for something in one of the bins to follow a command from the phonetic command cards. I think Cat put the stuffed animals in there while she was on the chair.</div>
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So I finally gave the presentation The Leaf.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HiFgwoJRALg/VWk7h-uELBI/AAAAAAAABDo/ew0fY-eaGEE/s1600/IMG_2979.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HiFgwoJRALg/VWk7h-uELBI/AAAAAAAABDo/ew0fY-eaGEE/s640/IMG_2979.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The leaves contain water which is made up of 1 oxygen and 2 hydrogen particles.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_TyDT-Jm-p0/VWk7jjal5MI/AAAAAAAABDw/yzQ9jEF4odA/s1600/IMG_2981.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_TyDT-Jm-p0/VWk7jjal5MI/AAAAAAAABDw/yzQ9jEF4odA/s640/IMG_2981.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The carbon dioxide in the air is made up of 1 carbon and 2 oxygen.</div>
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When the sunlight hits the green parts of the leaves, the 2 hydrogen separate from the 1 oxygen in the water molecule. The 2 hydrogen combine with the carbon dioxide to form food for the plant. This leaves the 1 oxygen that gets released into the air. At this point Cat's face brightens up and she exclaims "That's how the plants clean our air for us!!!" I try to keep plants in our home because I'm always telling the kids how we need them to clean the air since we are not outside and there are loads of chemical gases released from just about everything in our home. We don't open the windows too much here in Texas because it is obviously really hot most of the year, so the plants help us to get a bit of fresh air. I'm glad she was able to put that together herself. I didn't know how it worked either until I gave the presentation.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t_r9RFUcQmM/VWk7miJzYBI/AAAAAAAABEA/hZdBFvJOnLc/s1600/IMG_2984.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t_r9RFUcQmM/VWk7miJzYBI/AAAAAAAABEA/hZdBFvJOnLc/s640/IMG_2984.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here is the chart I made for this presentation. This is one of many charts from the elementary albums (Jessica has the image of this chart in her albums). They are called "impressionistic" charts. They are meant to make an impression on the child's mind, not provide accurate scientific information. The kids enjoyed this presentation and I found Cat looking at the chart afterwards for a bit. The molecule set was not part of the presentation but I added it in so they could actually see what I was saying as I was saying it. </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2lCNvnS4Evs/VWk7o1cBx5I/AAAAAAAABEI/GQt8Di-gDGs/s1600/IMG_2985.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2lCNvnS4Evs/VWk7o1cBx5I/AAAAAAAABEI/GQt8Di-gDGs/s640/IMG_2985.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is the set I used. I found it on Amazon. I think I saw this set used in someone else's blog but I can't remember which one.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3KVGjwi_eco/VWk7o3JEzHI/AAAAAAAABEM/qfjS2PTmNwQ/s1600/IMG_2986.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3KVGjwi_eco/VWk7o3JEzHI/AAAAAAAABEM/qfjS2PTmNwQ/s640/IMG_2986.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This led to Tes watering the plant. She is in primary but she often sits with us when I give "story" type presentations or experiments. She wanted to give the plant water so it can make more food. The presentation says to let the kids go outside to see how the plants try to get sunlight in order to make their food. I had a perfect example in our garden. We use our own compost and most of the time it is not completely composted, so there are always seeds and eggshells in it. When we added compost to our garden, a squash plant started growing near a tomato plant that I had planted. I didn't want to kill it and it was already too big to transplant so I just flipped it out of the garden since it was right at the edge. All the leaves were upside down. Well the next day they were all right side up again. I showed the kids and reminded them of the plant being upside down and how the leaves had now turned straight up. They were able to point out a few things in the yard that were very obviously reaching to the sun. A hanging basket for example. It is high so I had to point it out to them but I didn't say anything other than "check out the flowers in the basket". They immediately noticed how they were only growing on the side that gets the light, leaving the other side, under the shade, bare. </div>
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Next week we'll be back on track with school. Hopefully I'll be on here more regularly.</div>
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<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-15965468003809894652015-05-29T21:12:00.001-07:002015-05-29T21:12:39.817-07:00School Days - April 2015Ok so now that May is already just about done, I'll show you what we did last month in April...haha! We didn't do much. My son had his First Communion!<br />
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I spent some time taking care of things for the party and there was plenty of house cleaning to do. My grandmother also stayed with us for a week afterwards, so we didn't get any school done during that time.<br />
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Here is what we were able to accomplish, or at least what I was able to get pictures of:<br />
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Tes is working here with the number rods. This is Exercise 4: Impression of Addition. I've given her this presentation before but it had been a while. As you can see in the picture, you start with the 10 rod and create all the combinations that make 10. When you get to the 5 rod, you show the child that if you flip it over to the right, it will create 10, so two 5 rods equal the 10 rod. At this point she is working on Formation of Numbers with the cards and the golden bead material. I wanted to refresh her memory on this exercise so we can move on to Exercise 5: Impression of Subtraction and be finished with the number rod and card exercises. Obviously I'll leave this work out for her to choose, but I will be done presenting anything new with it and can focus on moving forward with decimal system work instead of filling in the gaps.</div>
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Here I finally gave the presentation on Separation and Saturation and Super Saturation. I heated up hot water and added salt. I was supposed to use some sort of clear container but I figured it was easiest and fastest to just boil water and pour it directly onto my comal! I don't even know if I spelled that right. It is my cast iron pan used to heat up tortillas :). As you can see the salt is clearly visible, or maybe that is mostly calcium! Either way the kids see that something was left behind, so the solution was separable.</div>
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Next I used a test tube to mix water and copper sulfate. You can see the copper sulfate towards the bottom of the test tube. We shook it until it dissolved in the water. We kept adding copper sulfate until it would no longer dissolve.</div>
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Next we heated up the solution to see if it would dissolve the rest of the copper sulfate. As it dissolved we added more, until it wouldn't hold anymore.</div>
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This is what it looked like at the end. I put as much as I could into the test tube. The liquid was getting thick although you couldn't see the copper sulfate separate from the water. But when I reached the end, obviously there was some at the bottom because this is the point...to see how much you can get in there before it won't dissolve anymore. We stopped here and I believe Swiper woke up at this point. I don't remember what we did after that but when I got back to the kitchen, the solution was cooled down and it looked like this:</div>
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Pretty neat to see how much was actually able to dissolve because of heat. It was packed in there!</div>
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At some point during the month, the kids became snail crazy! They found one snail and it led to another snail and by the time I knew it they had collected about 30 snails! They wanted to keep them and had them all inside a tupperware container. This is where I come in to guide them with their freedom by reminding them of their responsibility. I told them that they had to many snails and they were all going to die in that container. I required them to read about snails or else release them back into our yard. We discussed how life is something that we should treat respectfully. We discussed our role as stewards of the things on this earth. They were happy to take care of the little creatures but didn't seem too enthusiastic to read up on them.<br />
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MJ is looking some snail info up in our encyclopedias. We found out that snails need green and brown matter as well as lots of water.</div>
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Here's one of the little guys. Or two of them actually. </div>
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And some practical life work. Cutting up the sticks to put into the snail habitat.</div>
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Cutting up leaves for the snails a swell. Not sure why they didn't just put them in there whole. Cutting is more fun than not cutting I guess.</div>
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Well this is all I got on the camera, but we continued with the reading sequence with Tes. We didn't make progress into further works but just continued working on her command cards and phonetic booklets. We've also been reading some books on other cultures, although we are not studying any specific culture at this time. I just want them to get a little bit of exposure right now. I'll post more on the books in future posts. Most of my time has also been taken up by Swiper. I've been purging old things and trying to get this house simplified and organized for this little guy! He's working on me!<br />
<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-77999021111175399182015-05-29T00:04:00.000-07:002015-05-29T21:13:43.145-07:00Adventures with SwiperThis is the first infant I've had while implementing the Montessori method in our home. I figured I'd just show a little bit of how we implement it with Swiper. Right now he is 14 months old. These pictures were taken within the last 4 months.<br />
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<b>Swiper knows how to:</b><br />
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Fix a lawnmower!</div>
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And pour water on himself!</div>
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Actually, I just thought those were cute pictures but man, look at the concentration!</div>
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Ok, so here are some of the real ways I try to incorporate the Montessori philosophy in our home.</div>
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<b>Practical Living:</b><br />
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We have a small broom that he loves to play with. Anytime one of us is sweeping, he will pull this out. And if someone is using it, he will pull out the small hand held one in the cabinet behind him. He just brushes it back and forth across the floor briskly!</div>
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<b>Eating:</b></div>
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Here is his current setup for eating. The chair is 6 inches off the ground and the table is 12 inches high. When he wants to sit down he gets in front of the chair and then backs into it. I have to help him push it up to the table. Each morning for breakfast I serve him his food on his plate (we now use a ceramic one, not the plastic one pictured), which he retrieves from a shelf on another wall. I hand him his plate and he walks with it to the table. We also now use a placemat which is not pictured. I pour his milk for him and I set it on the table for him. I have let him pour his own milk from a very small creamer into his glass a few times. I need to do that again. I just got away from it for some reason...in a hurry probably :(.</div>
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Sometimes he uses his fork and sometimes he doesn't.</div>
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Here is his little glass. I got this from Montessori Services. He's using one hand...</div>
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Ok, now he needs both hands. Please note the outlet clearly reachable and visible to him...lol. It is now covered, don't worry!</div>
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Drinking! Success! Little bit of milk spilled on the table. Also, he should have a bib but I don't use one. I just don't have any. Actually I have one but he doesn't like it on. I usually set a napkin on the table for him. I need to make a spot on his shelf so he can grab his own napkin.</div>
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This is pretty much the norm right now. He drinks most of it and then pours some onto his plate to explore.</div>
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And yes, he still eats the food that is floating in the milk. Sometimes, most times, he takes some of the egg and puts it into his milk glass and then drinks the milk. Knocking out two birds with one stone.</div>
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Yum, milky sausage and eggs. Eating with his hands all while still holding the fork. Love it. Oh there's a napkin. I must have set that there. If I put a napkin in front of him, he automatically starts swiping it back and forth across the table. I never showed him how to do that. He just started doing that in the classroom with a rag that was on the table. He does that anytime there is a napkin, towel, rag, whatever on a table. He must have seen someone do it during class.</div>
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Here is another eating session. He is able to use the spoon when food is "sticky". </div>
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Feeding the Montessori way, is such a disaster. It has really aided me in becoming more patient. It helps to be prepared also. I always have a towel handy to catch him if he decides he's done and tries to walk off! When he starts walking away from the table, I lead him to the bathroom while telling him we need to wash our hands. He is good about following me on his own, but occasionally he thinks I meant to say " I'm gonna get you!" and proceeds to smile while running in the opposite direction! </div>
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I love his yogurt beard! He did this all on his own. Nice!</div>
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<b>Playing/Fine Motor:</b></div>
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Swiper loves this thing. He always giggles when they pop out. There are little springs at the bottom of each hole. He knows how to push them down while letting his finger slide off the side so the pegs spring up and out of the block.</div>
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He got it eventually. He only ever puts one in and then pops it back out. I try to show him how to put all 4 in but he can only concentrate on one at a time I guess. I'm sure there is some explanation for that but I am not trained. </div>
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<b> Around the home:</b><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9F0Cr_gIB4k/VWgEWsFVFCI/AAAAAAAAA-I/pJPiOcqOhnA/s1600/IMG_2587.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9F0Cr_gIB4k/VWgEWsFVFCI/AAAAAAAAA-I/pJPiOcqOhnA/s640/IMG_2587.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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Other than his little chair and table in the dinning area, this is the only other toddler sized piece of furniture we have. I got this chair at Walmart. It is perfect for him. We have a sitting area on our deck so I thought it would be nice if he had a place to sit as well. Not that he sits much but once in a while he crawls into this. I really want to get a little leather chair for the living area. One day!</div>
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I found <a href="http://thevillamariaweb.com/?p=720" target="_blank">this list</a> of blogs helpful and stole lots of ideas from these moms when setting up our areas. I'll post more on each area at a later time. Hopefully before he enters primary!</div>
<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-55035431277628737422015-04-13T18:29:00.000-07:002015-04-13T18:29:02.118-07:00Texas Bluebonnets!As is the Texas tradition, here are our bluebonnet pictures!<br />
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Tes decided to give herself a haircut a couple of days before Easter! We had to chop it all off at the front the day of our Easter pictures!</div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: x-large;">HAPPY EASTER SEASON!</span></b></div>
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<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-43574030408274467692015-04-10T21:59:00.001-07:002015-04-10T21:59:20.891-07:00School Days - Updates for March 2015Ok, so continuing to catch everyone up!<br />
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Here is what we worked on for March:<br />
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So Swiper has been observing us with the bells. So much so that he requires no presentation. He goes straight to the shelf to get a mallet, then picks a bell and *gently* strikes it with the mallet. He then proceeds to move across the shelf and strike a different mallet on the other end. It's too cute! He never choses two bells right next to each other. He will even strike one bell on one end and then lean over as much as he can without falling over to strike a bell 4 or 5 down the line, while holding onto the edge of the shelf for dear life :).</div>
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I was finally able to present the large bead frame paper to Cat. Here she was writing down each bead value without the zeroes. She just filled in the digit that represents the bead she was counting. She started with the first bead and moved it over, and wrote down "1". She proceeded on with "2" and then "3" and so on. When she got to 10, she moved them all back to the left and then slid a "10" bead over to the right. She then wrote "1" in the tens column on the paper, no zeroes. Under that she wrote a "2" in the tens column for 2 tens, etc. </div>
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When she was done, she taped all the pages together and created a scroll!</div>
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I think Tes had pulled out the land and water forms. I asked her if she remembered the names of them and she had. I believe it was the gulf and the peninsula. I showed her that we had maps to color and how to find the different landforms. In primary, the land and water forms are peninsula/gulf, island/lake and ishtmus/strait.</div>
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And here she is bored, I guess.</div>
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MJ working with some clay. I can't remember what he was making. I know it had nothing to do with anything school related or anything he was "researching", which is nothing at this point. I have since declared that all clay work must be created in conjunction with some sort of study. I plan to get some books for learning how to sculpt before I let go of that new rule. It's on my list!</div>
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And Tes started reading!</div>
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This is the beginning of reading. This presentation is the Phonetic Object Box. Or "basket" in our case. It is a container that has several objects that are spelled phonetically. It is introduced with the adult writing out an item on a slip of paper and the child finding the item from the box (basket). After they have matched all the items to the labels, they are free to work with "prepared" labels that have been created with print, as opposed to the handwritten ones in cursive for the presentation. The items in the basket are switched out daily with different ones. At this point she's completed all the levels of the Sound Games and sand paper letters. The sound games help the child to hear all the sounds within a word. You start with the beginning sounds, then move to ending sounds, then finish off with sounds in the middle of the words. This is started very early on with primary children. From there they move on to the sand paper letters, then to the moveable alphabet. As the child writes his/her thoughts with the moveable alphabet, they start to read what they've written. This is a sign they are ready for reading. </div>
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"Officer Cutie" playing with sharp pointy objects. Someone should arrest him! Or me!</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k3Trd5XY86M/VSR9zMxPu0I/AAAAAAAAA3E/M1-NA-bmqos/s1600/IMG_1542.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k3Trd5XY86M/VSR9zMxPu0I/AAAAAAAAA3E/M1-NA-bmqos/s1600/IMG_1542.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a>MJ working on a spelling list. This isn't official spelling practice, as far as spelling rules go. I just simply picked a puzzle packet and had him go over the words so we could make sure he knew how to spell them. The ones he messed up on, he looked over and then did again. We basically continued this until he got the last one right.</div>
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I think this was a presentation on congruency, similarity and equivalence with one of the hexagonal boxes. These are constructive triangles that were used in primary and carry over into elementary. When we finished up Cat wanted to work on her own designs.</div>
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I finally gave MJ the presentation on compound words. He should have had this last year but I never got there. He didn't like reading (still doesn't) and so I did't want to push the work with reading and then writing out words from a list. He's doing fine finishing up all the word study work this year though. It includes suffixes, prefixes and compound words.</div>
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Swiper waking from a nap! Awesome hair! He gets this awesome wake-up head from his Great Grandpa!</div>
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Someone does not want to get started with school! That, or he's conceiving an evil plan to destroy everyone's school work.</div>
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I suggested to Tes that we work on the seed puzzle since Spring was arriving, or maybe it had already arrived at this point, can't remember. Anyway, we went over the parts and the names. Then we read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seed-Sleepy-Dianna-Aston/dp/1452131473/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428458042&sr=8-1&keywords=a+seed+is+sleepy" target="_blank">this</a> book. There are other books by this author and they are all LOVELY! The illustrations are beautiful and the kids really like them. The statue and the book are there because we had just gone over adjectives orally. It is a game where you ask the child to bring you things without using the adjective like "bring me the book". They keep bringing you books while you keep saying "that's not the one I wanted". They are supposed to ask you "which book?" You finally give them some adjective to describe the book. "The honeybee book." You don't go into the name "adjective" but you just want to draw their attention to the role adjectives play for future study with grammar.</div>
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Cat and Tes had been wanting to make a pillow for the longest time. I'm so bad at getting things ready on the shelf for them when they are interested. My prioritizing is beyond bad. It's just something that I have a hard time with and am really starting to face as I try to implement Montessori to the best of my ability. Anyway, here is Cat ironing away per instructions in the Keys of the Universe albums for sewing a pillow. First we have to hem the edges that will create the opening for the stuffing. The iron is just a small traveling iron and the ironing board is a small table top one.</div>
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One edge for Tes!</div>
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I don't know how Dr. Montessori taught young children to knot the thread. It does not seem simple When I'm trying to show it. I showed her several times and it was just a bit complex for her. She can make a simple knot with a shoe string, or on the bow tie frame, but it seems harder with a tiny piece of thread for some reason. I guess because of the lack of the other "end". You are working with one string and one "end". Hmm...sounds like something we can practice with a shoe string! Mental note: put a shoe string in the classroom on the shelf (five years from now). Regardless, we got the knot tied so we could move on.</div>
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Here is Tes threading the needle. She's good at this part!</div>
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Cat making stitches.</div>
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Tes making stitches.</div>
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Now that Cat's pillow is hemmed along the short edges, she had to sew the long edges together to close the sides up.</div>
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Tes pinned her sides for stitching! They both did this really well. </div>
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Ok so this basically took FOREVER. I think it took our school period to something like 5 hours! We were exhausted and hungry and cranky by this point. And I didn't even get a picture of the finished product. I'll post one soon!</div>
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While all the pillow work was going on MJ was placing the images onto the blank Timeline of Life. Swiper was sleeping at this point, thank goodness.</div>
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Here, Tes is working on the Phonogram Shadow Box. This box comes after some work with several phonetic works. This presentation is a box of small phonetic objects and only one object that has a phonogram in the spelling. I write out on labels each item, saving the phonogram object for last. When we get to the phonogram object, I point out the phonogram in the word and then we use the phonogram alphabets to spell out the word along with several other words using that same phonogram. The phonogram is spelled out using red letters while the rest of the word is in black.</div>
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Prior to this we worked on the Phonetic Object Box over a couple of weeks changing out objects every other day or so. Then we worked on Phonetic Cards which are just phonetic word cards that are used to practice putting in sentences. Then we worked on Phonetic Booklets, stage 1. These booklets are just homemade booklets with a picture on the left page and a phonetic word on the right page. She has read through a few of them, but I'm not keeping track of which ones. She's also done Phonetic Commands, which are little cards with commands on them using phonetic words like "get a map". The only non-phonetic words are "a" and "the". She enjoys doing those command cards while Cat does the phonogram commands. This way they are both doing silly things and both reading!</div>
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That is all I captured for the month of March, although there was plenty of other works going on. I forget to pull the camera out some days and then other days the battery isn't charged, while other days Swiper just keeps me on my toes with no free hands for a camera! </div>
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March was also the month for Swiper's first birthday! Happy Birthday cutie patootie! Hopefully I'll be able to post soon on some of the stuff I am able to work on with Swiper. He is growing so fast and working on all his practical life skills!</div>
<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-6785274417317135552015-04-07T17:26:00.000-07:002015-04-07T17:26:02.532-07:00School Days - Updates for rest of February 2015Ok so blogging is hard and takes FOR. EVER. Especially if you have small kids. So we've been gone for a month or so and our back to give an update. I can make time for blogging when I take advantage of fast food instead of cooking and cleaning up our mess afterwards! Bam! An extra 3 hours right there :).<br />
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Ok so here goes:<br />
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The latter half of February went smoothly....I guess, I really don't remember. I have pictures to prove we worked on stuff though!<br />
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Here, Tes is working on her hammering. This is definitely practical around here since we are usually trying to make something out of wood.</div>
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I guess this is another day since she's wearing a different shirt. For some reason we were going over the sand paper cyphers. I think she chose this work. I turned it into a phone number lesson. We practiced dialing Grandma's number, Daddy's cell phone and Momo's number.</div>
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MJ and Cat working together with the phonogram commands. Not really group work but there are enough cards that they can both do them for a while without repeating. This is primary work for practice reading words with familiar phonograms. It also tests reading comprehension since they have to act out the command. This way you know if they read it correctly or not. And of course they can always ask for help if they are unsure of something. Elementary kids wouldn't be working on this, but I allow MJ and Cat to do anything reading-related since they are behind with reading. They can always use refreshers with phonograms at this point.</div>
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Here is Tes's work writing with the moveable alphabet. I was strongly encouraging this because I wanted to get her going with reading, which comes after lots of moveable alphabet practice. This says " (Swiper) went to the pizza place" She wanted to add more but I think Swiper either woke up from a nap or I was trying to put him down for a nap. She won't really do this without me being right next to her. She'll wander off and mess with MJ and Cat when I'm out of the room.</div>
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MJ continued working on the large bead frame with long multiplication.</div>
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Oh and we finally introduced the Hand Timeline. It is one of the Great Lessons that is basically the backbone of the elementary Montessori class. It is a series of stories about how the world and life came into being. This lesson opens up History, which is the written record of human life on earth. I had written it down on our whiteboard for the kids to put in their journals. I didn't get pictures of it though. Can't remember why. I think I was having a hard time keeping Swiper from messing up the long cloth. You unroll it to show how long people were here before they started writing. The story that goes with this presentation goes into human life and our needs. It naturally flowed into a conversation about the how we meet those Fundamental Needs in our everyday life. </div>
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This is our Fundamental Needs chart. Pictures are provided in Jessica's albums over at <a href="http://keysoftheuniverse.com/" target="_blank">Keys of the Universe</a>. I made this last year and presented it to MJ. This is the first time it was presented to Cat.</div>
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Here is the Fundamental Needs chart for Food. These images are also provided by Jessica in her albums. It is just an example of how we meet one particular need in the first chart. Cat and MJ decided to create a chart for the needs of Defense.</div>
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Here they are cutting the circles. This project was really good for showing me just how much I need to show them...lol. They just started cutting out a bunch of circles. They started to glue some on the board before even deciding what they were going to draw or how many circles they needed. They had not even drawn any sort of graph so they'd know where to place the circles. I had to sit down and have a long discussion about "planning" with them. I helped them to make a list on a separate piece of paper for all their categories of defense, like what kinds of materials they'd use and what kind of weapons they could think of. They worked on this for a few days. It was pretty funny. They had drawn things like blankets (to hide under if a bad guy comes) or poison berries (to poison the bad guy with)...lol. Shows how much tv my kids are exposed to. Or at least how much "bad" tv they are exposed too. The only "real" weapons I saw on their chart were a gun and a spear. I believe electricity was on their as well, because that where you get the news on tornadoes in the area so you can run for you life to save yourself! This experience was definitely an eye opener! We have some thing to discuss!</div>
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Here is Tes working with the moveable alphabet again. This was on another day and I was showing her how to space her words with two fingers. I made her practice a few times. I had noticed that she just kept starting new words right at the end of previous ones.</div>
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She chose some princess attire for this school period. Tes is 4.5 yrs old and I believe this outfit is a size 2T. It is definitely a favorite!</div>
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Swiper is still swiping things from the table from time to time. He really loves chewing on these polymer erasers! He swipes them every chance he gets.</div>
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For the past few weeks we'd been listening to this cd. Putumayo Presents has a great variety of music from many different countries. The variety even includes things like children's music and lullabies. I have many of them on my wishlist. Anyway, I had just chosen one at random and purchased it to add some culture into our days. The kids really like this cd. It was played over and over. </div>
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Swiper doing a handwriting lesson :).</div>
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Now THOSE are weapons for defense...haha! No more tv for Swiper!</div>
<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-13598401131432323092015-02-23T23:10:00.001-08:002015-02-24T08:51:44.462-08:00School Days - Last 2 Weeks (2/11-19/15)I have been super busy making card materials. I'm trying to finish up all the language folders as well. Take a peek at my "Free Downloads" page. I have created a tab for this under the blog header. I want to share what I can as I make stuff to hopefully save some headaches for others who are using <a href="http://www.keysoftheuniverse.com/">Jessica's course</a> or any AMI course for that matter.<br />
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Anyway, I'm back to give a quick update on what we've been working on. It's not much but you can still see what Montessori homeschooling looks like with a baby :). We did not have school on President's Day, Mardi Gras or Ash Wednesday :).<br />
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Here is what we've done:<br />
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Swiper pretty much just looking for trouble every few seconds.</div>
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I couldn't resist posting this one! He has a birthday coming up and I needed a good shot. Perfect! Crazy hair and all!</div>
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He was hiding behind the bead cabinet and kept popping back to see us.</div>
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Not sure what this is. He's leaning back as far as he can before falling over. </div>
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Cat and MJ working on a dragon book together. Not totally school but I'll take it since there was some writing going on with it.</div>
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And this is what the floor looked like a few minutes into that session with Swiper poking around at stuff.</div>
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Like I said I've been making tons of card materials. I pulled out my old stash stored in a box from the days before I found Jessica's albums and we were sorely lacking! I need to redo some of the original ones I'd made because I didn't know they were supposed to be part of a complete 3 Part Cards set. I had only made picture cards. Plus my personality wants everything to be uniform, so I couldn't just whip up a batch of matching labels. I need ALL my card sets to be the same size and format, thank you very much :). So this is what I've been working on the past week and a half. You can find the ones I've finished on my <a href="http://ohnopancakes.blogspot.com/p/downloads.html">Download page</a>.</div>
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Here is Tes working with one of my old sets. We pulled out 4 sets and she sorted them by category. I think they were vegetables, clothes, church items and I forget what the other set was. Anyway, she knew most of the names of things except several in the church category. I realized that I need to explain better what is going on with these items when we go to Mass. These cards are part of the Social Classification sets. They basically help the child organize their world by allowing them to classify things in their minds. The cards are used for Vocabulary Enrichment so the child can express themselves better by knowing the names of the objects around them. Generally we teach the kids what things are called in everyday life, but I was surprised at a few things she didn't know the names of. I never thought to stop and make sure she knew what something was called. Shows how much I probably refer to things as "that thing right there" or "that (while pointing to it)". </div>
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This one is for daddy to look at while he's at work :). Hi Daddy!</div>
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Here Cat and Tes are working on two different things while helping me out with Swiper. I think Tes was doing sound games but Swiper was trying to get the miniature objects. She was showing him the tiny My Little Pony brush. Cat was waiting on me to give her a number to make on the Large Bead Frame, so she was checking out a book that was next to her on the shelf. She's been coming along good with those numbers. At first she was having trouble creating numbers in the ten thousands and hundred thousands, but she seems to have gotten better and faster.</div>
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Swiper is definitely not ready for math yet.</div>
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Cat, Tes and MJ all having their turn at the bells. We always begin a presentation going up and then down the scale to train their ears. This presentation was a simple matching game. We took one set of bells to the table and they had to chose one from the shelf to match and then go find the match on the table.</div>
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MJ listening with his eyes closed. So then he realized that these bells have numbers engraved on
them. Then he started covering his eyes so he wouldn't "cheat" by looking at the numbers. Stupid numbers! I was wondering how long it would be before the kids noticed. The girls only noticed after MJ said something out loud.</div>
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Tes checking out her match. She had a little trouble at first but eventually found the right bell. She had to go back and strike the bell on the shelf a couple of times. We will continue playing these games daily. The kids are really enjoying them. MJ has been playing songs on the bells and has now started playing songs on his keyboard as well. He's had that keyboard for several years now and has only really ever played the preprogrammed tunes or the funny sounds. I'm glad these bells have sparked an interest in making music. </div>
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Here Tes was working with the Moveable Alphabet. She jumped from stage 1 to stage 3. Stage 1 is just forming single words. Stage 2 is forming small phrases or article/adjective/noun combos like "the pink tower" and such. Then stage 3 is forming sentences that leads to paragraphs. She pulled this work out and wanted to make sentence after we'd only done one session with multiple words a few weeks ago (I think when we started the blog up again). Anyway, the above picture says "Frisco watched a movie." Frisco is my grandma's dog. The kids love him. She always wants to use his name with this work.</div>
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Here, she wrote out "Ice Cube is cute." Ice Cube is her Ty blue penguin stuffed animal. She did pretty good but she was off with the phonetic spelling of "ice". I said "How do you make the sound 'I'" and she said "I know this is an "I" because I heard you say it before when you pulled the letter out". This is exactly why we don't teach the letter names. Instead of her using "ie" to make the long "i" sounds, she used just the single letter "i" because the NAME is the sound she needs. Either way this is not a spelling lesson, which we will work on down the road, but it gives me a sense of what we need to work on with her sounds.</div>
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Cat has been continuing her fraction work. I presented equivalences with her. Here she is putting multiple pieces into the half section of the halves frame. She is finding equivalences of half.</div>
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This was fun. Tes has already done most of the work with the geometric shapes. After going over the album pages, I realized we hadn't ever played this game. She found an object from the environment that was the same shape as each of the geometric figures.</div>
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This was my favorite! Look at that, same color and everything! I was totally thinking that she would go digging through our miniature sound objects looking for a little egg that we have. I didn't think there was anything in the environment that had that same shape. I'm glad I'm not leading the teaching here...lol.</div>
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And a classic pose!</div>
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I didn't get a picture of it, but I worked with Tes on sorting some animal cards into the classes of vertebrates. We talked about their differences and then I pulled out these <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Roylco-R-59250-Whats-Inside-Animals/dp/B001UFICY0/ref=pd_sbs_indust_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=06P4DVQBRAQNHYM320E6">pictures</a>. The kids spent the rest of class looking at each one on the window. They are pretty neat because one side has a picture of an animal (or human) and the back side has the skeleton. When you put it up to a bright light, you can see the skeleton through the picture. </div>
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You can kind of make out the skeleton here.</div>
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I think Tes has it turned to the skeleton side here.</div>
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Today this was the only shot I got. MJ worked on a long multiplication problem. He still tends to write his numbers backwards so I gently remind him and he fixes them. When he showed me this problem that he made up, I said "So you have 4867 multiplied by 'POO.'" He was all too excited to tell his sisters what he'd done and we all had a good laugh for a few moments. We'll see if he remembers next time. </div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: large;"><b><i>Jenn</i></b></span><br />
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<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-52082008349943793182015-02-11T08:46:00.001-08:002015-02-11T08:46:25.228-08:00School Days - Monday and Tuesday (2/9-10/15)The first part of this week went decently. I'm finally starting to get into the groove of this "schooling with a baby" thing now. It takes much more planning and preparation to make sure I have everything ready to go in order to pull it off in short instances when he goes down for his cat naps! As long as I have prepared my plans and pulled all the album pages I need, I can just go right to them when I have any spare moment. And every second counts. Literally, every SECOND! :)<br />
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Here is what we did:<br />
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Monday:</h3>
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Cat worked with fractions again yesterday. I introduced writing fractions to her. I showed her one example and she labeled one fraction from each set. She had already started putting them away when I took this picture. Sorry it's blurry, I was just trying to hurry....ya know, keeping an eye on Swiper while I do this.</div>
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Here she labeled each fraction piece from each set. There is a "1/4" missing. I'm not sure what happened to it. I'll have to make another one.</div>
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I was finally able to move on with circle nomenclature in geometry with MJ. We worked on lines in relation to circles. We talked about secant lines, tangent lines and external lines. I plan to finish up the circle work with another presentation on two circles in relation to each other. Very similar to this one.</div>
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Here are Cat and Tes working with the story basket. Apparently the actual basket is part of the story as well. I think it's a hill. I would have never thought to use it. Shows how stunted my imagination is. Their's are still fresh!</div>
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Tuesday:</h3>
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MJ finally worked on long multiplication with the large bead frame. Right now I am requiring him to work at least one problem each day until next week. I need to show him the partials presentation and he has to be able to do these entire problems in order to see what the "partial answers" are. He did good today with a little bit of help. I'm pretty sure he'll be able to do it tomorrow with even less help. His problem today was 8283 x 22. He messed up at some point the first time we went through it because when we started to write down the final answer, there were millions beads on the right side that shouldn't have been there. So we started over, this time going a lot faster. It also helped him with his multiplication facts because he was able to remember all the multiplying he had just done without looking at his chart. We keep the multiplication control chart from primary with us for this work since his facts haven't been memorized yet.</div>
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Tes working on a stereognostic bag blindfolded. These bags have contents that the child is supposed to feel and then separate in to the two outer dishes. They range from really easy, like a ball and a cube to hard, like a penny and a dime. There are 8 bags in all. I keep these bags in a basket on the shelf. They are all numbered and she picks out random ones each time. I should change out the contents in each bag on a regular basis but I can't find the time to do that. </div>
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Somebody is sleepy but won't go down for a nap. Buster (the stuffed dog) will have to do for now.</div>
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Here is Cat writing in her journal. She is writing down the time. Not sure what is going on here. she has an extra "10" over to the left and is writing the time over to the right??? Just thought I'd share that she's at least writing in it.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9U3wrZ9q1MU/VNp6OGIpNuI/AAAAAAAAAmk/Qups7bmJSIY/s1600/IMG_1297.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9U3wrZ9q1MU/VNp6OGIpNuI/AAAAAAAAAmk/Qups7bmJSIY/s1600/IMG_1297.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RmscyBp0JQ0/VNp6Y77h1RI/AAAAAAAAAm8/Q7rdLBM2vfk/s1600/IMG_1300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RmscyBp0JQ0/VNp6Y77h1RI/AAAAAAAAAm8/Q7rdLBM2vfk/s1600/IMG_1300.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a>Ooooh and these got me so excited. These are not the REAL Montessori bells like <a href="http://www.montessorischoolathome.blogspot.com/2014/03/week-8-march-3-2014.html" target="_blank">Abbie's</a>. They are still nicer than the handbells that were here previously. I didn't like that the kids could not play a song on the handbells. You had to pick each one up in order to strike it with the mallet. I found these over at IFIT and they are a fraction of the price of the real thing. It was something I could afford. These bells don't include sharps or flats which is a bummer, but not a deal breaker. I can hold off on introducing sharps and flats until the elementary presentations with the tone bars. As soon as these bells arrived, I set them up in the school room. As soon as MJ saw them, he started trying to figure out how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He has a good ear, despite not having too much bells experience. He was able to figure out the notes on his own.</div>
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Anyway, today I gave the official bells presentation with the mallet and damper. I played up and down the scale for them and had them each try. Then MJ showed everyone that he could play Twinkle Twinkle. I'm glad they are excited to use these. The fact that they are on stands makes such a HUGE difference. Tomorrow I plan to give them the matching presentation and then start playing all the games in the album with them. </div>
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This has been one of Swiper's new games. He squats behind something and then pops up when you say "Where did he go?" I want to eat him up!</div>
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Buster got a hold of the bells. I don't remember giving him the presentation.</div>
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Ok so I put the bell there (just in case you were wondering) and used this setup to give Tes the presentation on "observing" others. Cat and MJ were working on suffixes together so I needed another body to role play with her. She had to lightly tap him on the shoulder as he was playing the bell and wait for him to respond (I was really responding for him, he's a puppet) and then she asked if she could observe him. He said yes, so she sat quietly with her hands in her lap and watched. The kids were cracking up at my Buster voice. For some reason I hear Buster talking like Yota from Star Wars.</div>
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Ok Swiper what are you up to now? I heard something.</div>
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Ok he's definitely got a metal inset, but I swear I heard some knocking or banging of solid objects a minute ago...</div>
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Aha! Good thing class was over. I had to clean up all his messes! At least we were able to get some learning in, despite Swiper's messes. The kids are pretty good about helping clean up his stuff. Good practical life lessons in working together and helping mom out :).</div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: large;"><i>Jenn</i></span></div>
<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-66317716301378953672015-02-10T14:32:00.001-08:002017-04-19T07:01:25.313-07:00School Days - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (2/2-4/15)Last week we only had school 3 days. One day we had a playdate, which required a bit of cleaning and tidying up. Then we used another day to go visit my mother-in-law who recently had surgery.<br />
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Anyway, this is what we've been up to:<br />
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I sat down with MJ and finally created some sort of workplan. We had a conversation about what he had been doing the previous weeks (I have been recording everything everyone does in my planners). I took some notes on things he likes that I had not prepared for him yet, so I could work on getting those on the shelves for school work. He REALLY wants to sew a pillow! He also mentioned how much he likes copy work! He said he enjoys practicing his handwriting when I give him words to practice. Anyway, in this picture he had already pulled out his first work which was watercolor painting, when I had to stop him so we could go over his workplan. From his workplan he made a short (3-4 item) list of the things he wanted to accomplish the following week. It was much easier than I had anticipated. If you want to know more about what we did, I followed <a href="http://www.montessorischoolathome.blogspot.com/2015/01/working-work-plans.html" target="_blank">this advice</a> and <a href="http://montessoriguide.org/" target="_blank">this video source</a>. If the video isn't on the front page, then you can search for it. It is called "Meetings and Conferences".</div>
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Swiper is up to his usual shenanigans! I sort this under practical life - practicing taking his clothes off. These are definitely not Montessori approved clothes, since he can't take them off himself. And if you happened to catch it in the picture above this one, his diaper is on the floor. He practices taking that off often as well. It is Montessori approved!</div>
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MJ working on his artistic expression.</div>
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Tes worked on fetching sand paper letters again. She really enjoys this although she is way past this stage. She could use the work so I don't mind her going back to it.</div>
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Swiper loves this little round box. He actually takes the lid off and puts it back on. I was surprised he could do it. He will sit and concentrate on it for a good 5 minutes or so. </div>
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Tes loves posing for these pictures. She is fetching the letter I requested.</div>
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Swiper <i>trying</i> to help with the sand paper letters.</div>
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Swiper's help being rejected and the materials taken away :(. </div>
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Another "hidden" letter. She puts these things everywhere.</div>
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Cat worked on equivalence this week. The triangle and the square are equivalent pieces because they are both 1/4th of the whole. And of course, she had to build houses with them. I noticed Abbie's kids doing the same in her posts this particular week as well!</div>
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Tes worked on metal insets. I showed her how to use two shapes superimposed onto each other. This work is designed to help the hand with writing grip as well as nourish creativity with design work.</div>
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Here is her finished product. Her and her sister put happy faces on EVERYTHING.</div>
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Then she turned it into a book to give to her Momo (the one who had surgery). </div>
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MJ worked on the commutative and distributive laws again with the multiplication bead bars. He was noting it in his journal.</div>
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This is a picture of Cat's journal. She loves writing that capital cursive "F". I had recently showed her how to write the time and work on one line. I think I have a picture of her journal entries in another post where she puts everything in completely random places. She would use a whole page for one time and one work! Anyway, we fixed that. :)</div>
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As I had looked over the equivalence work, I noticed that follow up work included fractions. I'd gone over fraction with her probably a year ago and we haven't touched them since. So I pulled the fraction circles out for review. She immediately pulled out two pieces to show me they were congruent. She caught on really quickly with the fraction work and at one point exclaimed "Hey, I've done this before!" It was funny because we were on the third presentation before she realized it was familiar to her.</div>
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Here Cat is working with clay. She enjoys sculpting miniature creatures. </div>
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Ok, this particular day was rough! Tes pulled out the land/water forms and filled the trays with water. This is fine but she hadn't done this yet since baby has been around. He went straight for it. </div>
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At first it was ok. He just stood there playing with the vehicles.</div>
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Then moving his way to the other side of the table and becoming more excited...</div>
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...he did this. :( Dumped the tray over and water was everywhere. Good thing these things are shallow. I figured this would happen which is why I was just standing close by. </div>
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But then it quickly got ugly and wet, and there was no moving past this to let anyone work in peace and quiet, so we had to move to another location...</div>
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Bathtime so Swiper can get his water needs met while I help Cat work on creating numbers with the large bead frame. Please ignore my disgusting bathtub caulk. It is yucky because we don't ever use this bathroom, so it's just not on my priority list right now :). I guess I better get to it though since this looks like a decent place to hold some schooling while Swiper is entertained!</div>
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I just like this picture :).</div>
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Here MJ was working on the grammar box. He had to put the cone "against" the cube. Prepositions!</div>
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And those grammar symbols are oh so inviting!</div>
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This is a picture of our "story basket". The foot is not included. I just introduced this to Tes and she really enjoyed it with Cat. I change the contents daily, or at least try to. They have used it every day since. It just includes little objects from our reading/writing object cabinet. We use those objects for sound games and phonetic and phonogram reading work. I'm trying to add more of this type of stuff onto our shelves that is not strictly "academic", so the kids can have more variety and not get burnt out. These things are included in the Keys of the Universe/World albums but given my lack of time, I tend to concentrate on the core academic materials (reading, writing, arithmetic). I'm breaking out of that habit :).</div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: large;"><i>Jenn</i></span></div>
<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-6883725020143808732015-01-29T15:18:00.002-08:002015-01-29T23:04:46.095-08:00School Days - Wednesday and Thursday (1/28-29/15)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Yesterday we didn't really have school because my presentation took all the time we had. I planned my presentations and the first one on my list was the second part of Combining. This presentation included demonstrations on mixtures and chemical reactions. It took me all of one hour to set up, with a baby in tow. Then it probably took another 30-40 minutes to present...with a baby in tow. Not recommended. I'm sure everyone knows that you shouldn't be using toxic chemicals while holding a baby. Which is exactly what I didn't do, no I wasn't holding him, which is exactly why it took so darn long. I had to have the doors open for ventilation and he kept trying to go out in the backyard to attack the kitty in between my demonstrations. Time spent taking gloves off and on while chasing a baby between experiments sure does add up! We will be sure to have daddy around for all our next experiments! I originally intended to give this presentation last week but things just don't happen the way planned with the baby around. I didn't want this to get pushed yet another week. I still have to give the last part of Combining which deals with crystals (saturation and supersaturation) before we can be done with this section of geography.</div>
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So, needless to say, I didn't get any pictures of the demos :(. I still have one of them sitting on my dinning table because it never reacted the way it was supposed to. Probably because I used the wrong kind of sugar or didn't add enough potassium chromate or...or...or..any number of things I forgot or misunderstood. Either way the kids got the point. The mixture demos were smooth as well as the following 3 chemical reaction ones. We basically showed that mixtures don't cling together and can separate and that chemical reactions are when things combine to form new things.</div>
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So on to today:</div>
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Swiper practicing handwriting! That's the double fisted crayon grip! </div>
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Tes setting up the formation of numbers work.</div>
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Tes giving me the beads that correspond to the number cards. As you can tell she is getting it wrong. She started giving me 6 ten-bars for the 6 card, but then she realized as she saw that she already laid down a ten-bar. So she put the 6 tens back and grabbed 6 units in the cup. Love it when they fix their own mistakes! She actually gets these right every single time, so she doesn't really NEED the practice, but she keeps choosing this work. As Montessori says, the children will repeat things numerous times as it is fulfilling some internal need. </div>
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Here MJ was working with grammar box 5 again. This is the second filler box for this grammar work. His reading has been improving. He is reading more fluently and not so "choppy". Hopefully we can move on to grammar box 6 next week. </div>
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Cat also worked with the grammar box today. She is on 2 and this was her second filler box. She changed her mind about liking this one. She said it was "hard" and "boring". She did it like a pro for it being hard...lol. Each phrase card only has 2 words on it, one of them being either "a" or "the"!</div>
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Today I introduced Tes to the teen beads. This works helps the children memorize the names of the teens. Here she is counting the beads for "thirteen".</div>
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When I ask her to show me which set of beads is which teen, she puts Uni next to it. That is Uni for unicorn :).</div>
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And she wanted to pose for this one.</div>
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Cat working on congruency. I introduced the first presentation for geometry today. Really I should have started with the story of geometry, but baby was sleeping so I jumped right into this work to avoid itty bitty hands on itty bitty insets! </div>
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Here she is seeing if they are congruent by putting them back to back to verify same size and shape.</div>
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Then someone woke up.</div>
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And was so excited to be alive and headed straight for the insets!</div>
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Practicing giving things to me.</div>
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And don't forget to taste it!</div>
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Cat confirmed these are congruent.</div>
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We also went over similarity. She showed me 2 squares that were congruent and 2 that were similar (same shape, not same size).</div>
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Cat putting her work away. Those are the cabinets that hold all the iron insets for geometry and fractions. One cabinet is empty. I'm waiting on the remaining insets to be delivered soon.</div>
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Tes working on the trinomial cube. She needed a little help because she got one of the layers wrong. She sometimes puts the top layer in the middle and things don't line up correctly. But she catches herself because she uses the lid to check the red, blue and yellow pattern on the side. When it is wrong, she tries to fix it and then tells me so I can help her figure out why it's not right.</div>
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This has nothing to do with Montessori :)! He is so not normalized yet! </div>
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Practicing rhythm :) and taste testing as always.</div>
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I gave the suffix and prefix presentations to Cat and MJ today. MJ had this last year but then never touched it again and Cat had it earlier this year and also never touched it again. So I figured we'd have it as a refresher. Next week I'll be requiring follow up work on this as well as presenting compound words. These tackle boxes hold our phonogram alphabets. They are just little cards with each letter of the alphabet on them so the kids can manipulate with word study stuff. I purchased these sets from Jessica over at <a href="http://www.gardenoffrancis.com/" target="_blank">Garden of Francis</a>.</div>
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And Swiper handing us all the bead squares from the cabinet one at a time. You should see the floor, which I didn't take a picture of. Beads everywhere. I think all babies are drawn to this gorgeous material! And by the way, that cabinet is on wheels, so it is always in different parts of the room. Just in case you were confused by trying to figure out the layout of the room!</div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: large;"><i><b>Jenn</b></i></span></div>
<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-51286808623438207112015-01-28T00:19:00.000-08:002015-01-28T17:37:02.723-08:00School Days - Monday and Tuesday (1/26-27/15)So Tes and Swiper both had fevers this past weekend. They are both better now but have moved into the runny nose stage. Swiper is still clingy and not completely his 100% self yet. So school has been on the back burner for the last two days. We still gave it our best shot though!<br />
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Here is Swiper making a mess! He pulled down the cd box and is trying to open a case! Don't mind the junk in front of him. That is the landing spot for all things needing to exit the classroom :).</div>
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Cat worked on labeling some bead chains yesterday. Cyndiquil (might have spelled that wrong) helped out. He's a Pokemon, in case you were wondering. The bead chains are used for lots of different things. In this work she is practicing multiplication facts as well as setting a foundation for cubing and squaring work later on.</div>
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Tes practiced her "m" on the big blackboard.</div>
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Swiper getting stuck in the easel.</div>
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Like I said, Swiper has been icky the passed few days. I spent most of Monday trying to put him down for a nap. He was fussy and didn't want to nap nor be awake. Not sure how that works but it is what it is. This is what I came back to. Cat and Tes sorting through shape and color flashcards. I guess easy work is the choice when mommy can't present much. I need to get some <a href="http://www.montessorischoolathome.blogspot.com/2015/01/working-work-plans.html" target="_blank">workplans</a> going with Cat and MJ so these kids of activities happen less.</div>
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MJ waiting patiently for me to present something to him after the 4th interruption from Swiper! I ended up giving him the lesson but we were both so worn out that I'm not sure he retained any of it. I'll likely have to do it again to see what he remembers.</div>
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And that was all we had for yesterday. Today was only slightly more productive.</div>
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Tes worked on more letters. We started a new board with lines for ascenders and descenders but I had her practice the letters on a blank board first. She likes to put happy faced in all the spaces just like her big sis :).</div>
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Cat giving Swiper a walking lesson. </div>
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Yay for "p"!</div>
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MJ working on more gems with clay. He could do this all day long! He just about did.</div>
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Thirsty?</div>
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Cat worked on forming more numbers on the large bead frame. We did numbers in the millions today! She enjoys this, which is good because she needs lots of practice in order to move onto the next phase...writing them on paper.</div>
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Oh my gosh, please ignore that nasty dirty totally undusted vent back there. Ick! Dusting is on the list for school chores tomorrow. We don't even have a school chore list but we will tomorrow!</div>
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Tes wanted to play the hide and seek game with the sand paper letters. She hid them all over the room and I told her which one to go fetch. In Montessori, children learn the letters by their sounds, not by their names. It is less confusing when they learn to read and write. When they see the letter, they automatically think of the sound it makes. So when I ask for a letter I ask for "the letter that makes the sound 'p'". When she brings the letter back to me, I have her trace it and she puts it back into the box.</div>
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Found "uh".</div>
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Tracing "uh". :)</div>
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I introduced Cat to the grammar boxes today. This is grammar box 2. She thought she was going to hate it but ended up liking it. She very specifically said "I like this work", when we were done.</div>
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For this work she reads the phrase/sentence on the large/long card. Then she finds the corresponding words that make up the phrase/sentence and places the symbol for that part of speech for each word. </div>
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Ok, so I took another crying pic! :( I didn't mean for him to look at me when I took it. He was throwing a huge fit because we took the grammar symbols away from him. He tried to swipe a little blue triangle and stick it in his mouth. They sure are pretty and oh so colorful! He threw himself on the floor. After I snapped this shot, he screamed! Like breaking-glass screamed. He was frustrated :(. He moved on fairly quickly though. He's easily distracted at this age.</div>
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MJ also got some grammar box work in. I introduced grammar box 5. This one introduces prepositions. He enjoys doing the commands, but not sorting out all the word cards. This work is supposed to be done by age 8. MJ turned 8 in December. I'm just trying to finish these up quickly so we can get going on logical analysis. Then we can revisit this stuff and go deeper. And yes, that is a chair lying on the floor to the right. Swiper push it over so he could use it as a walker to get to the other side of the room.</div>
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Here is one of his completed sentences. There are 2 or 3 sentences on the card. The only difference in each sentence is the preposition. He replaced "with" with "without". Huh?</div>
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Doing one of the commands from a sentence.</div>
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Looking for a card. See the "prism under the cylinder". Montessori subjects are integrated into each other very nicely. The prism and cylinder are from primary work he did a while back. The sentences use commands to pull lots of things the children are familiar with that are elsewhere in the classroom.</div>
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This is what our schoolroom floor looked like when we were done. Just so you know. It's not nice and purrty in here very often. I think most of this was Swiper, but some of it was Tes. The kids like to pull things from the school room to play with afterwards. And NOT in the way Maria Montessori intended. Hopefully some of the materials purposes are being absorbed through their play. Hopefully :).</div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: large;"><b><i>Jenn</i></b></span></div>
<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-79861385808290490902015-01-22T19:13:00.000-08:002015-01-22T19:23:07.534-08:00School Days - Thursday (1/22/15)Today we were pretty busy. So busy in fact that I actually wasn't prepared to move further ahead...ugh! I knew I hadn't planned enough for the day. I should always plan as if Swiper is going to be napping the whole time, just in case. He went right to sleep about 20 minutes in and woke up about 30 minutes before it was over. I was finishing up my last presentation with the last kid.<br />
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Anyway, here we go:<br />
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Swiper has been handing things to us since yesterday. He hands it to me and then waits for me to give it back. He did this with just about all the puzzle word packets.</div>
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Here MJ is working on sculpting...</div>
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...this. It is a gem. Dad has been reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Squire-Scroll-Jennie-Bishop/dp/1593170793/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421973937&sr=1-1&keywords=the+squire+and+the+scroll" target="_blank">The Squire and the Scroll</a> to the kids for about 5 nights in a row. He got the idea from that book.</div>
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Cat worked on the large bead frame again. She worked on making numbers up to the 100,000s place with a little help from Elsa. She has no skirt on because the girls were so excited that she had a "bathing suit" under her dress.</div>
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Here, Tes is practicing on the chalkboards again. And of course Tes needed a little help as well from Anna. Also in her "bathing suit". These were her last letters for this chalkboard. We are moving on to letters with "tails" on another chalkboard next week. By the way, we don't do school on Fridays for right now. At least not until Swiper is a bit older.</div>
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She always wants to pose! And yes, her hair is a hot mess! It's pretty much out of bed, into clothes and down for breakfast. We're working on fitting the hair in.</div>
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Cat asked me to take this one :).</div>
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And this one :).</div>
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Here Cat is working on noun work from the elementary albums. We went over an oral noun presentation before Christmas, so we reviewed what nouns are and then verbally listed different nouns in different categories (clothes, foods, etc...). Then she wrote a list of nouns in one category of her choosing. She thought of the noun and I spelled it out for her on the paper to her left.</div>
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Tes worked on the formation of numbers again. We did 4 digits today with some zeros in there. I had to finish presenting something to MJ so I asked Cat to continue with Tes. </div>
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This is pretty much what I got. She did help a bit with like one number, and then they got into a fight. Cat laid the "90" card on the tray and Tes got 60 (the card was upside down to Tes). When Cat counted them out to verify, she said Tes was wrong and Tes yelled at her that she tricked her on purpose. Then Cat screamed at her and said she wasn't helping anymore. It was cute, funny and sad all at the same time. I helped them out and they made up.</div>
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This is what I was trying to do with MJ during the fiasco. Puzzle words. He's been doing good with his assigned daily reading of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Boy-Real-Savage-Aveyron/dp/0763656690/ref=sr_1_cc_4?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1421982465&sr=1-4-catcorr&keywords=wild+boy+aveyron" target="_blank">Wild Boy</a>. I was helping him the other day and realized there were several puzzle words in the book that he just couldn't get down. So we practiced those today as well as an extra puzzle packet. At least 3 words from the extra packet were in today's page of reading for him. He was excited that he knew them!</div>
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Swiper was asleep up to this point.</div>
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Rise and shine!</div>
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We got the cards picked up just in time, but he was still eyeing the beads.</div>
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Already trying to make phone calls.</div>
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MJ checking out the flooded creek. It rained pretty much all day. The kids gravitate to this window every 10 minutes or so. I think he was trying to see if the crane was out there.</div>
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Swiper actually gets a tad bit of formal Montessori for infancy. He has been putting the ball into the hole lately. He only does it a few times and then starts chasing the ball around like a cat. </div>
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And here they are celebrating. So very unMontessori of them :).</div>
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And now it's a walker...er, a kneeler? He pushed it all the way to the other side of the room. I totally should have rotated this picture but I forgot and my computer is way too slow to go back and do it and upload it again. So it's sideways.</div>
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MJ worked on grammar box 4 today and we went over permutations. We moved the verb around to see how silly the sentences sound. "your hair comb" or "your comb hair". He thought that was pretty funny. When we were done he finished the filler box for this work. The grammar box is the wooden tray/box that holds sentence cards and all the words in the sentence for the child to rebuild. Each word is in a corresponding section of the tray/box for it's part of speech. This box has the article, noun, adjective and verb. The sentences are commands so the child has something to do or act out. This is how you know they are actually reading.</div>
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Tes checking out the creek.</div>
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She was drawing a picture of something outside and got sidetracked with practicing her drawings of Swiper. </div>
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At one point she started crying and asked me to draw Swiper for her because she draws him "too fat". I told her he was fat and it was ok. She moved on.</div>
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Where did he go?</div>
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There he is!</div>
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MJ gets really, like REALLY, sidetracked or distracted (whatever you want to call it) when he works on anything having to do with reading. I was talking to him about something he needed to be doing and he was in a complete daze, just staring off passed me. And this is what he was doing as I was talking louder and louder, completely ignoring me.</div>
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Tada! Not sure what that is but the girls enjoyed it.</div>
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I got a little laugh out of it too before I got back on his case about focusing. It was pretty funny. </div>
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Here he is back to work. The sentence said to scratch the table. He can read! I knew it!</div>
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I just wanted to share that we have been listening to these CDs since Christmas time here in the classroom. The kids love them. They are from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Vivaldi-Classical-Kids/dp/B00062IDKG/ref=pd_sim_m_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0GSEMNR8WFY5Q9KGR262" target="_blank">Classical Kids</a>. They also have audio stories that contain music from specific composers. We have them but haven't listened to them yet. We are enjoying the music so far.</div>
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Well that was long. I'll probably start posting twice a week since most of these pics look the same as yesterdays and the day before. They generally work on the same things for a few days before moving on. I'll probably post next week unless I find something interesting to post tomorrow :). Have a good weekend!</div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: large;"><b><i>Jenn</i></b></span></div>
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<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-58700995872601529502015-01-21T21:28:00.002-08:002015-01-21T21:28:24.965-08:00School Days - Wednesday (1/21/15)Today's school time was short. Swiper was not cooperating and then I got completely sidetracked with trying to find something that I needed for a presentation I was in the middle of giving. Story of my life. I'd love to be prepared for all these presentations, but I can barely find the time to present just once, let alone practice presenting beforehand. Anyway, I got the point across. So here is a very SHORT look into our day:<br />
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Cat continued with the large bead frame. Today she worked on building numbers with it. We started with single digits and worked our way up each category adding them in as she "mastered" previous ones. She was able to go up to the 10,000 place. Tomorrow we'll try to get in 100,000s and 1,000,000s. I believe this is all she did today. She observed her brother sculpt some clay as well, but did not pull anything else out.</div>
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Tes did more work with the formation of numbers using the golden beads and the number cards. We worked 2 categories and 3 categories today. So I gave her number cards with 2 digits and she brought me the correct number of beads. Then I put the cards together and said the name of the number altogether. We also did this with 3 digits. She focuses very well with her work. Every time we finished a number she put all the beads back very slowly making sure they were setup just right. When Cat did this work about a year ago, she complained about having to put things back all. the. time. It is definitely noticeable that Tes has been a Montessori student right from the get go compared to the other two. Anyway, tomorrow we'll do 4 digits and hopefully move on to some operations next week. Tes has really impressed me with how well she is doing. She is not messing up one bit with these exercises. I need to get her going further along so she can be more challenged!<br />
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Swiper was up to his usual. Today was a bit rougher because we had the golden bead material out while he was awake. I usually try to pull it out when he goes down for a nap. He kept trying to crawl all over the number cards and beads. I was blocking them and he was crawling on top of me to get to them. He even went around all the tables (basically around the whole room) just to get to the other side where the beads are since we had it blocked off from the front. This picture is of him throwing his fit. Just thought I'd share so other Montessori homeschoolers with babies know they are not alone :). Poor baby. I shall never take another crying picture of him again :(.<br />
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All better and ready to move on to more destruction.</div>
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MJ worked with some clay today, but I didn't get a picture of it. He sculpted a cupcake...yum! I also presented to him more circle nomenclature. Today he learned about semi-circles, semi-circumferences, arcs, chords, segments and sectors. I seem to lack pictures from his presentations mostly because I present to him last since he seems most "normalized" at this point. He's been choosing work well on his own lately and has kept himself quite busy while I work with the girls. They seem to need more guidance right now so they cling to me and continuously ask for new presentations. I'll get some pictures of him tomorrow!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: purple; font-size: large;">Jenn</span></i></b></div>
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Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-2355784848223265942015-01-20T23:42:00.001-08:002015-01-20T23:44:50.763-08:00School Days - Tuesday (1/20/15)Today we didn't get to do as much stuff as we did yesterday.<br />
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Cat worked on puzzle words today. There are 17 packets of puzzle words to go through. These consist of the most frequently used words in our language (I think),that are not phonetic. Each packet contains about 6 words. Cat is on packet #8. In this picture she was writing down "puzzle words" in her journal. The journal records what is being done with her time during school. She logs down the date, time and a small description (just the title for now) of the work she is doing. I didn't get an actual picture of work with the puzzle words.</div>
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Tes worked with the chalkboards again. She has 3 more letters to practice on this board until we can move onto the triple lined boards.</div>
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Swiper working with the clothing frames.</div>
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Sorry about the blurry picture but I couldn't resist :).</div>
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Tes wanted me to capture more images of her work.</div>
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Cat drew a picture of Swiper at work with the frames!</div>
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Swiper tasting the contents of the bead cabinet. The cabinet contains beads that represent squares and cubes of the numbers 1-10. It is used for work with squaring and cubing as well as memorization of the math facts.</div>
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Cat was introduced to the large bead frame today. This allows her to do operations with numbers in the millions. And yes, that is a pencil in Swiper's mouth! I got it though :).</div>
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Here she is noting her work in her journal. I usually spell out the title of the presentation I give her and she copies it into her journal. She only attempts to sound it out and spell it herself every once in a blue moon.</div>
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Swiper having a go at the small bead frame.</div>
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Swiper was busy today! He loves this polygon work with straws!</div>
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MJ working with the United States puzzle map. This work is a primary work, but I had not introduced it to him until he was in elementary. He has been practicing putting it together since he saw a video of a friend working on it from another blog. I pulled out the labels for this map to add some further reading practice, as well as memorization of the state names. </div>
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MJ also worked out two commutative/distributive equations similar to the one he did yesterday. He did one solely on paper and then one with the actual beads. I'm really impressed with his focus on these math activities. It was very tedious for him in the beginning. I would get very frustrated that he couldn't manage to sit through a whole presentation, but now he is working multiple problems in a row and is not complaining at all. He seems to be enjoying them. Score! And I forgot to take pictures of his work. I think I was chasing Swiper around with the camera or possibly trying to put him down for a nap. Sometimes I feel like I'm putting him down during the entire school period. He likes to "pretend" he's sleepy by rubbing his eyes and clinging to me and fussing, only to get in the room and then start jumping on the bed and trying to do everything but sleep! So back out to the school room we go. </div>
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Swiper is amazing at practicing his balancing skills. He was eyeing the other bells above his head while he tested out one of them. It seems that he gets more work done in one day than all the kids get in a week! He's gonna be one smart cookie!</div>
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Cat pulled out some random flash cards to work on when I had disappeared into the room to put Swiper down for a nap, again. NOT Montessori, but at least she kept on working. Usually I'd walk back into the room to find something crazy going on, like say...</div>
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I have no clue. She made up a game and it included building a wall with their "dinosaur board". I made this board a few years ago for them to play with all their dinosaur figures on and we used it to block off some of their work from Swiper. </div>
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Today I worked with Tes on forming numbers. I picked a random card and had to give me the corresponding beads. We also reversed so I'd get a random quantity of beads and she'd give me the corresponding card. We started with one category at a time and then moved onto two categories. Then Swiper woke up.</div>
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We also had nice surprise today in our backyard. Our yard backs up to a (usually) dry creek. Lately the creek has actually been holding water. This as brought some new life to our neighborhood! This crane is huge! I'm sure it is as tall as MJ, if not taller. And when it flies away, it's wingspan is pretty darn long! The kids were checking this guy out below.</div>
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I wish I could have turned this into some sort of amazing learning opportunity. I envisioned pulling out a bird book (which we don't have) and checking out all the details on these birds and having the kids draw some pictures or label something. Yeah that didn't happen. We had to take off and go visit <a href="http://www.montessorischoolathome.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">these guys</a>!</div>
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We'll be back later this week!</div>
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<b><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: purple; font-size: large;">Jenn</span></i></b></div>
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<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-7617634488640152152015-01-19T21:40:00.000-08:002015-01-21T21:38:41.650-08:00We're Back!So we took a looooong break. Things got really hectic as I tried to organize school and life kept happening! We are back now and we have a school room and a new baby! Well he's actually already 10 months old but I've just now finally gotten organized enough to get going again. That plus we got a new camera, so the pictures won't be so horrible.<br />
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So here's a peek at what we did today:<br />
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Cat and Tes working independently.</div>
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Tes working on the beginner sewing basket. It's just a piece of vinyl in an embroidery hoop with holes punched in it. She is using a very large needle with a piece of string that is similar to a shoelace. The string is knotted at the end with a pony bead attached to avoid pulling it all the way through.</div>
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Here is her work journal. She is only in primary (so she doesn't need to use one yet) but she likes to do what her brother and sister in elementary do. So she has her own journal. She says she writes what she is doing. That says "sewing". :)</div>
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Here is her finished work. She then takes the lace out one hole at a time and puts everything back in the basket ready for the next person, or in our case, the next time SHE wants to do this work. There are no other primary students in our class to do this work.</div>
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Cat worked on the trinomial cube today. She is already in elementary, which doesn't include this work, but I let her chose it because I'm happier with her doing something than rolling around on the floor saying she has nothing to do. She picks this from time to time. Especially when we've come off of a long break. This work is the physical representation of the equation (a + b + c)^3. She doesn't know this, of course, but it helps build a solid foundation for understanding and working with this equation when the time comes. She had a little trouble today, but she was able to finish it up once I pointed out that two of her layers were switched.</div>
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The finished cube!</div>
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This is the first thing MJ worked on. It is the equation (2 + 4)(5 + 7). The first set of parenthesis are the "2" and the "4", which are represented by vertical dots. This is because the initial work was done with bead bars: a 2-bar and a 4-bar. He multiplies those bars 5 times, then 7 times and gets his answer. He is now able to do it completely on paper without having to use the beads. The boxes of dots on the paper are his way of working the problem out. Then he counts up all the dots (we're still working on multiplication facts) and gets his final answer. Notice his final answer is written backwards. It should be "72" but he wrote "27". It happens.</div>
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Here he is fixing his answer.</div>
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Today I also showed him how to work similar problems with the golden bead material. Those beads differ from the ones he's been using for multiplication. Golden beads include single beads (units), ten bars (10 units joined on a wire), hundred squares (100 beads joined) and thousand cubes (1000 beads joined). I didn't get any pictures of that work. I kept forgetting to take pictures here and there.</div>
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Here is Tes again, working on the lined chalkboard. Today she worked on writing the letters "n", "e", "o" and "c". This chalkboard is only for writing letters that have no tail or high back. I'm sure there is a term for those things but that's what I call them. Basically letters that only stay within one line space. She has a few other letters to practice this week and then we'll move onto the next chalkboard with 3 line spaces for the rest of the letters.</div>
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Here Tes was working with the moveable alphabet. Up to today she had only been composing single words. If you'r trying to read the words, yes, that is "poop" and "peepee" that you see there. Cat helped her compose those yesterday. Thank you Cat. Today I introduced her to the next stage which is writing short phrases like "the pink tower" or "the red box". I had to ask her a question which would lead to an answer that we'd then compose on the rug. This work is not for spelling. That will come later. Right now we just want her to be able to sound out words that come from her own head so she is able to express her thoughts. I do, however, show her how to spell "puzzle" words when we write things together. Puzzle words are the words that do not follow phonetic rules, like "the". And that is Swiper (this is what youngest munchkin shall be called) at the bottom of the pic destroying her work so I can take a picture. I got to him just in time. He only swiped off two letters!</div>
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Here is Swiper manipulating a glass pitcher, after knocking over all of color tablet box 3 (behind him).</div>
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He's checking to see if the pitcher has water in it. Darn, no water.</div>
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Here is Cat working on her phonogram commands. We have a box of small cards that contain short (3-5 words) commands on them using words that have phonetic spelling containing phonograms (sets of letters that make a sound together). I'm fairly certain there is a better way to articulate what a phonogram is but that's what it is to me. Anyway, this is basically for reading practice. She has to do whatever the command is to show that she was able to read it.</div>
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Her command was to "get sixteen sticks". She went outside to go collect the sticks.</div>
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I also gave her the presentation with the hierarchical material and the cards today. It is material that shows the relationship between quantity of 1 all the way up to 1 million. And I forgot to take pictures of that :(.</div>
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Here is MJ practicing reading. He is reading out loud to me so I can help him with the words. He is not a fluent reader yet. In Montessori, children will start reading at about 4-5 years old, maybe even sooner. It comes easy at that age and they enjoy doing it. I missed that window because we had just found Montessori and I had not gone through the Language part of it yet. By the time I got there, MJ was into elementary Montessori. At that point, we are not focused on just reading anymore. He is supposed to pick it up on his own as long as I give him short lessons frequently and he is doing work that requires some bit of reading. Well with having a baby and 2 other kids to work with, I have neglected this area. So he is behind. And it is discouraging for him. And I don't want to push it because I don't want him to hate reading like I did when I was a kid. I wouldn't pick up a book unless there was some sort of negative repercussion involved if I didn't. So currently what my plan is, is for him to read one page of this book everyday. It is for children so the spacing is very wide and the chapters are very short. We're talking 2-5 pages here and there are a few pictures. Some are longer though. At this age, in order to build confidence, you want to give them something that they can handle while also challenging them a bit. This way they see that they can do it, and they are not overwhelmed. I'll add more pages as he gets better and faster. I chose this book because I knew it would interest him. It is called Wild Boy: The Real Life of the Savage of Aveyron by Mary Losure. Maria Montessori's teaching methods stemmed from the studies of this boy. He was found living in a forest at a young age by himself. He is seriously Mogli from the Jungle Book! Anyway, Maria Montessori talks about this boy and the man who studied him A LOT. </div>
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Here is Swiper testing out the functions of a bookmark. Not edible. He had just been brushing up on his Spanish reading as well as object permanence, as you can see to the right. :)</div>
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Here is MJ and Swiper having a table slap contest.</div>
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Swiper picking up his mess, after he dumped out all the puzzle word packets onto the floor. He's picking them up one by one and giving them to MJ.</div>
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About 4 down and 13 more to go. </div>
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Ok so he's not so good at finishing a task that he starts. Packets are still on the floor. It actually looks like there are more now. He moved onto some measurement work and is finishing up his Spanish practice.</div>
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Swiper working with the wipey bag. He tasted it multiple times to make absolute sure it was not edible. But only after he got some page turning practice in with Goodnight Moon, which is not Montessori approved for his age. No talking rabbits allowed.</div>
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This did not happen during school hours. I had to squeeze it in while dinner cooked on the stove. I presented the different ways things combine. Today we looked at solutions and suspensions.</div>
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Marble and hydrochloric acid</div>
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Water and cupric sulphate.</div>
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Water and sugar.</div>
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Test tubes: sand, water, water, chalk powder.</div>
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The first 3 combinations combined (solutions). The last 2 did not (suspensions). It took the hydrochloric acid FOREVER to dissolve the marble chips. I must not have put enough, not sure. Either way, it finally dissolved by the time we went to bed. </div>
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I was also able to give the black strip presentation. It is a very long strip of black material that represents the amount of time (or work) that went into creation of the world up to the point humans arrived. It is meant to give an impression of all the work done to prepare the earth for our coming. We sure are special :). Wind blew the strip all over the place (yes I forgot to put rocks on it), but the kids brought bricks to the rescue and we were able to resume the presentation. And I couldn't take pictures of that since I had too much stuff in my hands and daddy was helping me out with Swiper!</div>
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That's all I have for today.<br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Jenn</b></i></span>Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-2364814874066404892013-02-12T11:57:00.000-08:002013-02-12T11:57:29.556-08:00Mardi Gras and Lent Preparations<h2>
Mardi Gras!</h2>
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So today is Mardi Gras! The day before Lent starts and a type of celebration to get all your partying and indulging out!<br />
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We had Pancakes for breakfast. From what I've read the tradition for pancakes is because people use to fast all during lent. Not fasting by "giving up" something like TV. They fasted from the finest of foods, including things like butter, milk and eggs. So on Mardi Gras, they'd eat pancakes all day in order to use up those ingredients that they wouldn't be using for the next 40 days. While we are NOT giving up milk, butter or eggs (I am not that devout yet, lol), we did have pancakes for breakfast in order to remember the significance of what's coming. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it!<br />
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The little one licked the plate clean!!! Love that lip sticking out at the bottom!</div>
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<b>Penitential Season - Bury the "Alleluia"</b></h3>
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Since Lent is a penitential season, we do not sing the Gloria or say "Alleluia" at Mass. The liturgical season is meant to prepare us for Easter. We are not celebrating yet, so we put the "Alleluia" away. We got this idea from <a href="http://catholicicing.com/2013/02/mardi-gras-activity-for-kids-bury-the-alleluia-for-lent/" target="_blank">this</a> great site! We went with the printable version since I didn't have time to go buy letters. That's how things go when you plan 2 days in advance and only have 1 car that hubs takes to work. I also printed out a picture for our almsgiving box from the same site.</div>
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We made a banner. </div>
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I put the banner into a baggie and we will literally bury it in the backyard. MJ has been digging holes in the backyard lately so this fits perfectly with his current interests. I had him bury a couple of broken rosaries the other day and he made a cross for them that he stuck into the ground. It looks like we have a pet cemetery back there...lol. Anyway, on Easter we will resurrect our "Alleluia" and hang it in the home for the Easter season.</div>
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We also plan on eating a King Cake tonight. I'm suppose to put a little baby in it but I'm not sure how that is going to work. The only baby we have is a dollhouse baby from the girls' room. I'm not sure they want me to bake it. We might just be having Cake!</div>
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Lent</h3>
Lent starts tomorrow with Ash Wednesday kicking it off. During Lent we generally concentrate on 4 aspects of the season: Almsgiving, Service, Acts of Charity and Self-Sacrifice. The most recognized of these is generally the Self-Sacrifice, where everyone decides to "give up" something. So what are we going to do for Lent?<br />
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<b>Prayer and Penance - Stations of the Cross (for kids)</b><br />
Since the season is penitential in nature we are going to shoot for more prayer throughout the season. We plan to do Stations of the Cross with the kids on Friday. Not at the church though. Here at the house. I want them to understand what it is before we go participate at church. They are more inclined to pay attention if the recognize what is going on.<br />
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We will use these materials.</div>
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I'd seen this idea floating around Catholic blogs in the past couple of years. There is an item that represents each station.</div>
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Station 1 - Jesus condemned to die (string/rope to represent Jesus' hands tied together)</div>
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Station 2 - Jesus carries his cross (small wooden cross)</div>
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Station 3 - Jesus falls first time (bandaid with "1" on it)</div>
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Station 4 - Jesus meets his mother, Mary (Mary medal from a necklace)</div>
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Station 5 - Simon helps Jesus (small heart for love)</div>
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Station 6 - Veronica wipes Jesus' face (small piece of cloth with Jesus' face drawn)</div>
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Station 7 - Jesus falls 2nd time (bandaid with "2" on it)</div>
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Station 8 - Jesus comforts women of Jerusalem (tissue for their tears)</div>
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Station 9 - Jesus falls 3rd time (bandaid with "3" on it)</div>
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Station 10 - Jesus is stripped (piece of purple cloth)</div>
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Station 11 - Jesus nailed to cross (a large nail)</div>
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Station 12 - Jesus died on cross ( small crucifix)</div>
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Station 13 - Jesus is taken down (picture of Pieta by Michaelangelo)</div>
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Station 14 - Jesus is buried (stone to represent the rock closing the tomb)</div>
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I put a box of items together 2 years ago and we never used it. Well this year we are dusting it off! I actually duplicated the items so each kid could have their own to follow along. I also found <a href="http://ukbookworm.blogspot.com/2008/02/stations-of-cross-three-part-cards.html" target="_blank">these</a> cards to print. I laminated them and cut them out so the kids could match the item to the corresponding station picture. </div>
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<b>Almsgiving - Almsgiving Box</b><br />
We will be collecting food for the poor and delivering it to St. Vincent de Paul at our church. We just posted the sign on our wall over a laundry basket to collect the food over the weeks.<br />
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The girls already being generous. They wanted to give away all our food!</div>
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I had to stop them at the open packages of pasta and rice, and stuff in the refrigerator...lol.</div>
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<b>Service </b><br />
We are undecided on this one. I think Hubs mentioned volunteering at a soup kitchen or something along those lines. We want to be able to do something the kids can see and join in. We will be praying at the N I-35 abortion clinic as part of 40 Days for Life. Not sure if that falls under service or prayer. We are praying with the potential of providing a life saving service if a woman changes her mind. Things that don't fit into categories (at least a category in my head) drive my brain crazy...lol.<br />
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<b>Self-Sacrifice - Give up something</b><br />
We will basically just sit down with the kids and give them a few options for things they could give up. My intention is to also get rid of all TV time for Lent. We have already limited our watching to one day per week, so I don't think it will be that big of a fight, but I could be wrong. We'll see how it goes. As for mom, she'll be off the computer :(. No Facebook, no blogs, no emails....good thing I don't make money off this blog. I do have to pay bills and such but I'm limiting myself to specific periods of computer, like to update this blog and possibly source out info on homeschool or religious related things. But no "fun time". Dad says he might give up ESPN.....LOL!....yeah right. (Just kidding, I love you Hub!)<br />
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<b>Acts of Charity - Crown of Thorns</b><br />
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Store bought wreath (what we will use)</div>
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Salt dough wreath</div>
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Playdough wreath (we did this before but it crumbled apart every time they touched it)</div>
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I've seen this before on a few different blogs as well. We have done this before so we will do it again this year. You make/buy a wreath of just twigs/sticks and put toothpicks in it to look like thorns. Every time the child performs some charitable act they get to take a thorn (toothpick) out of Jesus' crown, relieving him of suffering. This is great and really made an impression on them last year because all year long they say they are either "removing a thorn from Jesus crown" when they do something nice or they say they are "putting a thorn in Jesus' crown" when they get in trouble.<br />
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Well that sums up what we'll be up to for the rest of this week! Oh and Valentine's day is also on Thursday! I'll post something then so you can see what we did :).<br />
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<h2>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">Jenn</span></i></h2>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-77130734175362419862012-12-06T17:14:00.000-08:002012-12-06T17:14:51.205-08:00Advent, Montessori and St. Nicholas Day!We've been busy this week. Montessori is rockin' along and MJ is reading! I'll post more on the reading tomorrow.<br />
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Advent</h4>
Advent started this past Sunday. We put up our advent wreath as well as our "advent calendar".<br />
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Advent Wreath</div>
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We basically light the first candle each night and say a few advent prayers after dinner.</div>
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"Advent Calendar" (ok not really a calendar)</div>
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So this is how we are counting down our advent season. I just got all their little people that consisted of the nativity set and more sheep and goats from other Little People sets that we have. I wrapped up all the people and animals and we open one each night that will ultimately be a complete nativity scene on Christmas. Of course baby Jesus will be the last one to open :).</div>
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Montessori</h4>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">This week I was able to do a few things with Tes. </span></h4>
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Knobbed Cylinders or Cylinder Blocks</div>
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She can do 2 at a time now and is ready for 3. There are 2 purposes to this exercise. As with all Montessori materials, there is a direct and an indirect purpose. The direct purpose is to sharpen a child's visual discrimination with size. The indirect purpose is to prepare her grip for handwriting by using a pincer grasp to handle each cylinder.</div>
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Color Box 2 </div>
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Lately she has been matching random items she finds to other items of the same color. This particular morning we were awake very early, before Cat and MJ, and Tes was telling me that her Squirt (the green turtle) matched the green plant on her shirt. So I picked up on my Montessori-inspied observation of my child and recognized that she is hungry for some color matching! Color Box 2 it was! Let me tell you that we have tried this only one other time about a month ago. After I initially presented the box to her and she watched me match all the colors, she then proceeded to just play with the tablets as if they were little people. She had no interest in matching them up. BUT THIS TIME....I only got to match up 3 of the colors before she started taking them out of my hand to do it herself. Montessori was right and I was not observing my child properly the first time. I remember specifically thinking that she was probably not ready but I just wanted to get her going on some "school stuff"' already. Funny how they actually *get it* when they are ready for it. They just absorb it...just like Montessori says. You'd think I'd listen to the lady by now instead of trying to do things in my own time instead of the child's time. </div>
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So here Tes is putting her color tablets away happily. Children will actually clean up after themselves because they crave order. We just have to nurture it in them and they start doing it in other areas of their lives as well. Thank you Montessori...lol.</div>
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Happy St. Nicholas Day!</h4>
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I bought <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Nicholas-Story-Christmas-Legend/dp/0758613415/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354842239&sr=8-2&keywords=st+nicholas" target="_blank">this</a> book for the kids so we can read it tonight before bed. I meant for us to read it today but they had so much fun playing outside I didn't want to interrupt.</div>
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I put gold covered chocolate coins in their shoes so they'd find them in the morning when we came down stairs.</div>
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Showing us their gifts!</div>
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We also had some hot cocoa this morning! With marshmallows!</div>
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And for pretty much the rest of the day, this is what they did! I raked all the leaves into one pile and then they pretty much scattered them all across the yard by jumping in them and throwing them. They put the leaves in boxes and dumped them on each other and rolled around in them. Ahh to be little again. I wanted to join in but figured I'd look like a lunatic rolling around in leaves in my front yard! </div>
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I'll elaborate on MJ's reading progress tomorrow.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Jenn</i></span></div>
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Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-27744866135068199462012-12-04T06:08:00.000-08:002014-10-19T21:42:58.897-07:00Happy Birthday MJ!!MJ turned 6 on Saturday. He had an airplane themed birthday party. It turned out great! Here is a rundown of everything that went on.<br />
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First were the decorations.<br />
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Clouds!</div>
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These are clouds to hang on the ceiling with fishing line and tape. I used fake snow from Hobby Lobby. I got the idea <a href="http://intentionaladventures.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/birthday-celebrations-things-we-made/" target="_blank">here</a> and of course found it on Pinterest. </div>
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Birthday Banner!</div>
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I made this with a bunch of cardstock and scrapbook paper that I collect as I find them on clearance at Hobby Lobby. You gotta love Hobby Lobby. I get packs of regular priced $19.99 scrapbook paper on clearance for $4! And no, I don't do any scrapbooking...lol. I just like the paper and know I can put it to good use for crafts and decorating. If I ever decide to scrapbook though, I'll be set.</div>
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Then came the activities.</div>
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We have the party setup as a Flight Academy. The kids got a name badge, a training log and a pilot's license once they complete their training (play the games). I got the idea from this <a href="http://www.karaspartyideas.com/2012/05/flight-academy-party.html" target="_blank">post</a>. So I'm basically a big copy cat and love my Pinterest!</div>
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The last activity was to eat the cake and then they completed the course!<br />
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Thanks to all our friends and family who celebrated this wonderful day with us. It was very special for MJ! </div>
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Here is his finished present!</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Jenn</i></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-20032493055700192022012-11-28T14:47:00.000-08:002012-11-28T14:47:47.282-08:00"Mushy Stuff" and MontessoriSo I recently found this floating around Pinterest:<br />
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MJ had been asking me for this stuff ever since we attended our parish's Halloween party. One of the little prizes was a tiny little tub of this stuff...I don't know what it is officially called. Anyway, he's been asking for "mushy stuff" since then. It was very easy to make. I found the recipe <a href="http://kimmccrary.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-fun-magical-monster-slime.html" target="_blank">here</a> from the Pinterest picture.</div>
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Here is the process: mix borax and water</div>
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Then mix glue, water and food coloring in another bowl and combine the two bowls.</div>
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You drain out the excess water and then knead until it resembles something that came out of your nose during the flu season. Good thing we didn't color this stuff green.</div>
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Tes was amused for about 3 seconds and then moved on to water play. She is putting a bubble beard on her face.<br />
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Then we headed upstairs for some school work. I haven't gotten into the hang of blogging yet so I kept forgetting to take pictures of things. But I did capture a few things before they put their work away.<br />
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MJ is working on his Object Box for reading. In the initial presentation of this material, I showed him 8 objects and then proceeded to write down one of them on a strip of paper. He had to sound out the word and choose the object from the box. I did this with all 8 objects and then put the box on the shelf where it is now available to him anytime he wants to practice reading. We have over 80 objects that I did this with and we rotate them in the box every few days. He is getting faster and he is getting more confident!</div>
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Here Cat is matching her colors and naming them to me using Color Box 2. This is actually work for a 2.5year old but I hadn't done it with Cat in a while and wasn't sure if she knew the color grey. Plus she gets pink and purple confused sometimes, so I wanted to get it straight before moving on to Color Box 3 where she has to grade the shades of each color. We also did grading with Color Box 3 but of course I forgot to take a picture...lol. </div>
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We also played some sound games so Cat can start recognizing the ending sounds of words. She has beginning sounds down pretty good now. Once she can recognize ending sounds, we'll move onto the middle syllables of words. I also presented 3 more Sand Paper Letters to her today. She learned "d", "o" and "w". </div>
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I wanted to do some sensorial and practical life work with Tes but I'm so behind with MJ and Cat that I have been giving lots of presentations instead of letting them chose their work. Once they are caught up, they will be able to work with more materials on their own and I can concentrate on Tes. She at least already knows her colors and how to stack the Pink Tower and the Broad Stair. Hopefully I'll get pics of her tomorrow.<br />
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We have lots of party stuff coming up so Momo is coming over tomorrow for much needed help and then Gma C is coming on Friday to help decorate, or at least entertain the kids so I can decorate...lol. Have a good day!<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Jenn</i></span><br />
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<br />Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-53609645379402580172012-11-27T13:55:00.000-08:002012-11-27T13:55:21.899-08:00Upcoming Birthday and Advent Plans<h3>
MJ's Party Plans</h3>
This weekend is MJ's birthday so we have been getting things ready all week. I'm trying to get more organized and things are coming together slowly but surely. This year I actually planned the party about a month ahead of time. I gathered all my ideas on paper and then it sat there for another 3 weeks...lol. That was still better than last year. Anyway, this past weekend I started creating things based on my ideas. <div>
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And we built his present. Here it is before it was finished.</div>
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It now has a middle shelf and pegboard on the top frame. I'm working on a sign to put on top that has his name. Hopefully he'll be as excited to receive it as we were to build it. And in case you have no idea what it is, it's a child-sized workbench.</div>
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Next year if I could just get this stuff done a week earlier, I'll be all set and not running around like a chicken with my head cut off the week of. You live and learn I guess, but the learning is definitely a s-l-o-w process. </div>
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I'll be posting pictures of the party after this weekend.</div>
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Planning for Advent</h3>
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So this weekend also starts off the Advent season! This year I have a few good ideas we will be putting into practice. I've never actually planned a liturgical season yet so this year should be fun. These are a few things that inspired me.</div>
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<b>Advent Calendar:</b><br />
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This one</div>
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and this is my absolute favorite</div>
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I can't actually find this on the site anymore to show you the front of it. I had bookmarked this and didn't realize I saved the picture of the back! I'd actually like a *true* advent calendar that allows you to adjust the days for the current year since advent doesn't necessarily start on December 1st each year. So I'm thinking we are going to make one using these as my inspiration. I have a few ideas already but I have to decide and then draw up some plans! That's the fun part!</div>
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<b>O Antiphons:</b><br />
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I also want to lead up to Christmas by celebrating the last seven days with the <a href="http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=958&repos=3&subrepos=1&searchid=939646" target="_blank">O Antiphons</a>. I have never done this before and only read about them once. This is a short and sweet description of what they are:</div>
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<i>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 22px;">December 17 marks the beginning of the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 22px;"><b>"O" Antiphons</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 22px;">, the seven jewels of our liturgy, dating back to the fourth century, one for each day until Christmas Eve. These antiphons address Christ with seven magnificent Messianic titles, based on the Old Testament prophecies and types of Christ. The Church recalls the variety of the ills of man before the coming of the Redeemer."</span></i></blockquote>
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This was my original inspiration</div>
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This is from the <a href="http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Shower of Roses</a> blog. She is one of the Catholic blogs that I follow and her ideas are just lovely!</div>
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Anyway, the Messianic titles are in latin as follows: </div>
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O Sapientia - O Wisdom</div>
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O Adonai - O Lord and Ruler</div>
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O Raddix Jesse - O Root of Jesse</div>
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O Clavis David - O Key of David</div>
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O Oriens - O Rising Dawn</div>
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O Rex Gentium - O King of the Gentiles</div>
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O Emmanuel (meaning God with us) - O Emmanuel</div>
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Each day starting on December 17th, we recognize these titles and the last title lands on Christmas Eve. When you take the first letter of each title starting with Christmas Eve (Emmanuel), it spells out ERO CRAS. This means "Tomorrow, I will come". Each O Antiphon also makes up one verse of the song <i>O Come O Come Emmanuel. </i> Just beautiful! </div>
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That sums up my first *real* post. Tomorrow I'll post some of our Montessori work. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Jenn</i></b></span></div>
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Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47808901018253522.post-46192915154317555252012-11-15T10:20:00.000-08:002012-11-15T10:20:23.746-08:00Once upon a time......there was a girl and her husband who had 3 children. The girl wanted to be able to share her family's journey in faith, homeschooling and just family life in general. So she created this blog. I hope you find our days interesting and inspiring. Enjoy!Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11790216049171384980noreply@blogger.com0