a gypsy caravan

Still Life by Annie

Entitled "Maria Montessori's Nightmare"

Polishing Exercises

Polishing is a very satisfying activity for young children and for adults as well.  I allow the kids to work on the polishing tray once they are of the age to follow directions well and use the polish correctly.  It is not a tray that I would use with a toddler but a very mature preschooler could do the work well.   

Christopher is very fond of shiny things and has taken a liking to this work.  I have picked up a number of sterling silver items at yard sales or thrift stores for him to polish which can later be used in our learning room.  He has polished up some of our pitchers for pouring exercises and several of our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd materials.

The tray consists of a small glass jar of liquid silver polish, a couple of q-tips and the item to be polished.  He has enjoyed dipping the q-tip into the polish and seeing the immediate results of his work.  After it is shiny, the item needs only to be rinsed under warm water and dried.

Here he is polishing the item we use as a ciborium with our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Materials.

I think there is something wonderful about taking a dirty, tarnished item and making it beautiful and clean.

Woodworking Skills: The Tea Table

Both of my sons enjoy working with hand tools. Benjamin began when he was four, hammering nails in a piece of soft pine.  We supplied him with the real things although he was very young.  He had a great respect for the tools and used them correctly from the start.  At that time, we kept a small workbench in our basement that I had purchased from a Montessori school that had closed.  It was just the right height for a young child to work efficiently and safely.

I would like to tell you that the bench is neat and orderly but that is not the case.  It is now kept in our garage (among many other tools, bikes and toys) but it still gets quite a bit of use. Benjamin now does his work at his father's workbench or outside because he has grown too tall to use the small workbench. Christopher, on the other hand, is able to use it comfortably.

Last week the boys disappeared into the garage for quite some time.  When they came back in the house, they told me that they planned to build a tiny tea table for their sister, Mary, out of some scrap wood they had found. Mary just loves to play with her miniature tea set and sets up elaborate parties with her dolls and animals.  I told the boys that the table was a great idea.  They went back outside and set to work.

After building the table, they sanded it smooth.  Then, they consulted their sister as to what color she would like to have it painted.  She chose dark purple.  Since we did not have any dark purple paint in the house, we took a trip to the craft store to pick some up.  While we were there, they also chose some sparkly "jewels" that they used to decorate the top.

Here is the finished product:

It stands about 7 inches from the floor, just the right height for a little girl and her dolls to sit around and share a spot of tea.  :)

While this table is not "professional" quality, it was made from the heart. It serves a wonderful purpose for its recipient, who will never forget the little tea table her brothers made for her.  I also think the skills used and learned while making it are so valuable.  But most of all, I shiver with happiness that these boys chose to spend their afternoon doing something to bring joy to another person.  That, to me, is worth more than anything.

She’s Bananas for Bananas!

Mary has been honing her practical life skills past few weeks by learning to cut, arrange and serve food.  She helps me at snacktime to assemble the snacks in a basket, put out the drink cups and fill the drink dispenser with ice water.  But her favorite thing to do is to slice bananas. Bananas are her specialty.  She cuts several each day because they are soft enough for her to slice with her small knife.  You might think it a great thing that she wants to spend her days cutting fruit instead of, say, scooping ice cream, but the truth of the matter is that she does not like to eat bananas, only to cut them.

(For some reason, she also likes to wear her sunglasses in the house ala Cory Hart.)

Baby Annie has become the lucky recipient of all of Mary's bananas.  Sometimes she eats two or three bananas a day thanks to her big sister.  Because her stomach is only the size of a walnut, the bananas pretty much cover breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

(Annie being cooperative with Mary's banana slices.) 

The baby sits and watches Mary slice her first banana with eager eyes at breakfast time.  When lunch rolls around, Annie looks a bit less enthused but will still comply.  By dinner, she pitches the banana slices on the floor within seconds but little Mary says, "Eat your good bananas Annie."

The funny thing is that it does not seem to phase Mary that her sister is not always very grateful for her third bananameal.  She just seems pleased with her work and sincerely dumbfounded as to why Annie might not be appreciative.  I have tried to break it to her gently, that perhaps Sister would like a bit more variety but Mary does not appear to be moving onto other fruits or vegetables anytime soon.  She did, however, go out into the herb garden yesterday and pick a large handful of fresh parsley and basil and attempt to feed it to Annie who stared at it but did not graze.  Here's hoping Mary moves on to cutting bread cubes or cheese for poor Annie very soon! 

Hang in there, baby!

Fun for Prewriters

Mary wants to work alongside her brothers while they are doing their lessons but she is easily frustrated with a pencil and paper, wanting to be able to write letters on the first attempt.  Three is a time when fine motor skills are becoming more developed but often not as fast as some children desire.  I really like Montessori type materials for teaching writing.  I have some that are traditional materials and some that are homemade.  Here is something that I recently put together to help Mary with her writing skills.

I purchased this shadow box from a local craft store.  It is approximately 8" x 10" and about 2" deep.  I also purchased a small bag of craft sand. Mary has been using it daily to learn to write her letters.

(How I feel about my readers :) )

Here is Mary tracing the letters in the sand. Pardon the blurry photos but she really doesn't sit still for very long...

After she is done, she levels the sand and starts again.

We first use traditional sandpaper letters to trace and as an example while using the sandbox. I have had these since my oldest child was a preschooler but they are surely not necessary for this exercise.   Simple index cards with a letter written on it would suffice just fine as an example.

I initially had her sitting on her mat on the floor but I have a crawling baby about the house who thinks sand is a delicacy so we have since moved to a small table.

All in all, the box and sand cost less than $5.  She uses it every day, sometimes several times. On occasion, she will play in the sand and make a mess and then I know it is time to move on to another activity.  I like finding simple, inexpensive ways to help the kids learn.

Madonna of the Chair

My dear mother, knowing my love for Montessori education and philosophy, brought me this gift the other day.   I have wanted one for years.  I am just delighted to have it hanging in our learning room.  Maria Montessori had a painting of Madonna of the Chair in each of her Children's Houses.

"The littles ones may not be able to understand the symbolic meaning of the Madonna of the Chair, but they would see in it something greater than the other pictures which show fathers, mothers, grandparents and babies.  They would enfold it in their hearts with religious feelings."--Maria Montessori

Raphael's painting actually contains the person of St. John the Baptist, who in my rendition has been cut out.  To view the entire painting as well as a history of Raphael, click here. I love how the people in Raphael's paintings are not thin and whispy but rather chubby and healthy looking.  Baby Jesus' legs look a bit like my Annie's!  Couldn't you just give them a squeeze?

Maria Montessori on Education

• "Education begins at birth."

• "The first duty of an education is to stir up life, but leave it free to develop."
• "Education demands, then, only this: the utilization of the inner powers of the child for his  own instruction."
• "The first essential for the child's development is concentration.  The child who concentrates is immensely happy.  The more the capacity to concentrate is developed, the more often the profound tranquility in work is achieved, then the clearer will be the manifestation of discipline within the child."
• "We must help the child to liberate himself from his defects without making him feel his weakness."
• "No social problem is as universal as the oppression of the child."
• "One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child itself."
• "The first duty of the educator, whether he is dealing with the newborn infant or the older child, is to recognize the human personality of the young being to respect it."
• "There is no description, no image in any book, that is capable of replacing the sight of real trees and all of the life to be found around them in a real forest."
• "Bring the child to the consciousness of his own dignity and he will be free."
• "Education is a natural process, carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment."
• "The child should love everything he learns.  Whatever is presented to him must be made beautiful and clear.  Once this love has been kindled, all problems facing the educator will disappear."
• "Discipline must come through liberty...We do not consider an individual disciplined when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute and as immovable as a paralytic.  He is individual annihilated, not disciplined."
• "Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed."

Montessori Practical Life–Care of Self

Learning to care for oneself is the first step toward independence.  Children want to be independent and, as parents, we are the people to show them the skills they need to succeed. Many parents (with good intentions) will see their little one struggling while tying a shoe or buttoning a button and will do it for them rather than showing the child the proper way to do it. We need to remind ourselves that any unsolicited help is a hinderance.  Ideally, the parent would explain how to perform a task, making sure the child understands and repeat it with the child until she has the hang of it.

I jump for joy when my children are of the age to dress themselves.  This comes at a different time for each child.  My first two children (boys) were interested in dressing themselves somewhere around the age of three and a half.  My oldest daughter, however, is an entirely different story.  She was barely two years old and not only could pull on her clothes but button her sweaters and zip her coat as well.  There is simply a difference in fine motor skills from child to child.

Many parents and teachers like to purchase dressing frames for their children to practice the various dressing tasks.  While a child will learn to dress themselves with or without dressing frames, children do enjoy using them to practice the various closures. Montessori catalogs carry dressing frames that feature buttons, zippers, velcro, laces, snaps, buckles and the like.  These are helpful to have around the home but can be quite an  investment for most homeschooling parents.  A relatively easy way to make your own dressing frames is to purchase wooden 8 x 10" photo frames for the bases.  These can usually be found on sale at most discount stores, saving you from having to build the wooden base yourself.  With the glass removed, you can make your dressing frames using any fabric and fasteners you'd like.  Simply attach to the front with tacks, being sure to hem the fabric first so that it does not unravel with use.  If the fabric gets soiled, remove the tacks and launder the fabric in the washing machine. 

Clothing should be accessible to the child in a dresser with low drawers or a closet with a low bar installed, allowing easy access to take things out and put them away. The child who is involved in laundry folding will usually not mind putting their clothes away when they are finished. Little children like to have a mirror low enough to view themselves.  Not only does this help with dressing but makes brushing hair much easier.  By keeping all hairbrushes, toothbrushes and washcloths within reach, children can begin to take responsibility for their personal care.  Our children each have a small basket under the bathroom sink cupboard in which their items are kept.  Toothpaste with flouride, however, should always be out of children's reach as it can be toxic if swallowed by young children. (There are many natural children's toothpastes that do not contain flouride.)  Washcloths are also kept in their baskets so they can wash their hands or faces if needed.  We like to keep a small nail brush available for the children to use when they have been out in the dirt.  Towels are hung in reach of little hands. 

These are all simple things that make it easier for the child to take care of himself.  A child who constantly must ask for help becomes a frustrated child. When we take the time to make our home a friendlier place for children to learn and achieve their own independence, the child will gain confidence and blossom into the person he was created to be. 

Montessori Practical Life–The Kitchen

Little ones gain experience and confidence early in life by working alongside Mom in the kitchen.  A child as young as two can slice bananas with a small non-serrated butter knife.  Then the fruit can be arranged by the child on a plate and brought to the table for snack time.   In our home, we have a number of small cutting boards, aprons and utensils to fit little hands.  There are many great Montessori catalogs that carry such items and specialty stores such as Sur La Table carry small wooden spoons, little whisks for beating eggs and miniature pizza cutters.  Mainstream stores like Target carry a fine line of kitchen utensils that can be used by young children.  Our kitchen has a small cupboard that holds the children's cooking utensils, small baking sheets and serving trays. 

My boys have worked in the kitchen since they were toddlers; helping with food preparation, assembling meals like lasagna, kneading bread and, when they grew older, doing light supervised cooking at the stove.  I think it is important for a young man to be able to find his way around a kitchen as not all young men go right from their mother's house into their wife's.   Certainly, many go off to college or have an apartment of their own and need to know how to feed themselves.

I not only believe that both boys and girls should learn to cook for practical reasons, but because the kitchen is a perfect place to learn math: measurements, fractions, liquid volume, and temperature.  It is also an excellent place to start conversations about science; covering topics such as how yeast makes bread rise, what foods are acid/alkaline, how mold forms :) and what pasteurization means.  Social studies include: where spices grow in the world, how native cultures used corn as a staple food and why some people choose to be vegetarians. 

We have a drawer in our kitchen where aprons are kept.  The wearing of an apron not only keeps one's clothing clean but signifies the beginning and end of a work period.  My almost three year old daughter takes her apron out of the drawer and asks what she can do in the kitchen each day.  She has taken a liking to peeling and slicing bananas, cracking and slicing hard-boiled eggs, tearing the lettuce for salads and using mortar and pestle to pulvarize herbs and garlic.   The older children can make french toast, bread porkchops, chop vegetables for soup and make biscuits from scratch. 

Each of my children have gone through a "nut cracking" stage, usually around age 5 or so.  We have a variety of nutcrackers in a basket as well as hard shelled nuts of different varieties.  The children like to experiment with the various nutcrackers and use small metal picks to extract the nut meat from the shell.  They have a tin for the freshly shelled nuts and a small bowl for the shells. Usually fresh nuts are found in the grocery stores around the Christmas holiday so the children serve their nuts to guests that visit our home. 

Maria Montessori believed that we should "never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed".  It is very important for children to complete an activity without the intervention of an adult unless the child seeks out the help of the adult.   Many well-meaning parents and teachers interfere with a child's work in order to "do it right" and end up ruining not only the child's concentration but undermining his motivation as well.

Young children often work on an activity simply for the joy of doing it.  They may repeat the task over and over again, not simply to gain competency or to do it in the quickest manner but for the simple happiness derived in performing it.  An adult may do a task with efficiency in mind and to get to the end result.  A child who is learning and actively participating in the family's work may often be found around the kitchen "under foot", but given the proper tools, can be a participant in the work of the family.   

We have gone through quite a lot of bananas and hard boiled eggs these past few years while the children work in our kitchen.  All are happily enjoyed after little hands prepare them with love. 

The Joyful Child

Oh, Happy Day! I am always so excited when the newest edition of The Joyful Child graces my mailbox. This catalog is pure delight for folks who respect Montessori philosophy, enjoy preparing their home to be friendly toward little ones or just LOVE babies. Aside from the rich, educational text that fills its pages, this Michael Olaf catalog is chock full of quality products that appeal to small people: tiny aprons, tools for little hands, wooden toys, cotton clothing, real child sized instruments, and lovely books. This catalog is one of my favorite late-night reads. Its companion Child of the World is also a handy Montessori resource with products for children aged 6-12. Now you know what I will be doing late tonight!