Orderly Stage

Well this weekend we did a little R&R - no not rest and relaxation - reclaiming and repurposing - rooms, plastic bins, tables, etc. The results are really nice. Thanks especially to my parents who helped make it possible.

Our attempts to get orderly coincide with my sons attempts to be orderly - which is convenient. Montessori calls the age and stage he is in the orderly stage. It is the truth. He will be sitting down, eating contently and if we leave the silverware drawer open while we are cooking - he is up pushing in the drawer. Yesterday, another child had moved the lid on the trash can. Little man took it upon himself to remove the bag, the liner and begin to take the trash out. He was half way across the kitchen before I got to him. Fortuantely he did it neatly and there wasn't much trash in the bag. He was pretty upset when I stopped his mission. He loves putting his plate away after he eats and finding trash to put in the trash can. Hopefully, some of his "put it back where you found it" will rub off on his parents.

Now I just need to get the cleaning supplies his size and use the Montessori lessons to teach him how to really clean! (Right now he is wiping down a table with his kleenex- even getting the legs!)

My son's first love

Well my son is smitten with the neighborhood stray cats - two in particular. He appreciates and recognizes the dogs, but he longs to see the cats. We'll be doing something inside the house and he will go to the window to look for the cat. He frequently makes his modified cat symbol while we are playing inside. If I tell him we need to put his shoes on to go outside he starts making the cat symbol. He loves cats. (Did I tell you I am VERY allergic to cats!)

It seems that the cats may be returning their love. I can't decide if it is a mutual display of affection or rent for using our front flower bed as a kitty litter box - but recently dead grasshoppers have been showing up on our doorstep. Much like the kind offerings I have heard cat owners say their cat makes for them.

I hope to get a picture of these cats to include in his A, B, C scrapbook someday. He really does love them.

Creating Literature "units" at home

One simple way to develop themes of study at home is to base your study around a good book. There are quite a few resources out there that can help you with this. There is a whole series for early homeschooling dedicated to this called Five in a Row. This series outlines a number of activities you can do for five days in a row based on a book you are reading. Another option is the popular story stretchers series (they have a book dedicated to toddlers and then older age groups). The other day I found the book Ready for Reading which reccomends 60 different books with quick ideas about what you can do to enhance the reading and connections and then it lists"extensions" for poetry and other books to read with a similar theme. Of course you can just read the books and enjoy them on their own merit.

This is obviously not a Montessori or a Charlotte Mason approach to learning but it is a fun and easy way to organize learning in your home. It is more similar to traditional preschool approaches.

Balanced Literacy

In the end, I of course advocate reading to your children and children hearing great books in school. I would never advocate children learning phonograms to the exclusion of good reading. However, in my experience, the education programs I have been around have not really taught anything about the mechanics of teaching reading. They helped you know how to pick good literature, create activities/ units around that litearature but nothing that resembled making sure that you taught kids the sounds of the language to begin to help them to decode. Programs that do both are obviously the best option. My issue is that very few teachers are truly prepared to systematically help students learn the sounds of the language and decode it so that they can learn to read. As the article points out they often teach rules that don't work and make the language more confusing than necessary.

In response to Flogger I found a great resource: I'll Tell You a Story, I'll Sing You a Song. This little treasure talks about why storytelling is so important (not just story reading - although that is very important too). It also includes a simple outline of the most common folk tales, nursery rhymes and similar things. Basically, as she says, these are all the stories that you know but you can't remember the details of them. I just started the book but I think it will help me to pursue storytelling with my little guy.

Writing Road to Reading

I am thinking that I might have blogged about this before - but it is SO important. For all you mom's out there STOP teaching your child to sing the alphabet song and spell the word cat - "SEE A TEE". That's not helping them. CAT is spelled /k/ /a/ /t/ - truly sound out the letters not just the letter names. It is confusing to learn letter names and the sounds and it is so easy to just teach the sounds the letter typically makes. Please consider getting either Reading Reflex or Spelling to Read and Write or something similar. They need to know that the letters we write represent the sounds of our language. They already have the sounds down (if they can talk) now they just need the pictures (letters) that represent those sounds. English has between 45 and 70 sounds (depending how you break them down) - not the 26 we find in the alphabet. This is my little rant but you can read the intelligent argument before the senate here.

Whole Language instruction (I took a class on this I think - or at least had to read a book about it for a class) - is a bunch of HOOEY! Please do not let your child be allowed to stay in a class that is ONLY using this approach. Can you imagine someone trying to tell you that you learn math by being around numbers and somehow you will magically understand how numbers work? NO! But that is basically what whole language tries to say about reading. Study after study confirms that whole language does NOT help children learn to read. I agree that just teaching phonics, phonograms or direct instruction WITHOUT hearing great literature and having a reason to want to read is an issue - but that doesn't mean that pleasure should be the primary goal of our reading programs. In fact, this fails because they may love to hear stories -but after a while, when they don't "get" reading, they begin to guess, feel stupid, and never are really able to read. Kids often take these things upon themselves and just figure it is their fault they can't read. Well, no one ever explained how reading works in a way that they understood. So please, learn the sounds of the language and teach your kids to listen to the sounds.

End of rant.

Displaying Learning

Yesterday one of my listserve's pointed me to a new concept for me- the lapbook. Basically these are folders that students create (with visuals, small books, drawings, etc.) that demonstrate what they have learned about a topic. I found another site that calls this Scrapbooking for school - which is really what it is. I even found a place that talked about creating digital lapbooks. I really like the concept because it develops a record of what the child has learned and what they got from it and pieces can be put together over time and then organized for a"final product". I think the digital one is probably a good idea for older students (plus it teaches them useful computer skills). I am resising the urge to join the listseve about lapbooks - I already spend enough time reading listserve messages. If I end up homeschooling - I definitely think this is one "product" we will develop. If you think books just have to be square - think again! The Big Book of Books has all types of different shapes, sizes and ideas about making books interesting.

Also, I found an idea called the "mini office". I am not totally sure why they call it that but it's a good idea. As one site says it is an extension of the lapbook and is basically a reference for students. So students or teachers can develop a folder that keeps the most important information about a topic handy - whether math or blends in English or whatever else. This is just an easy way to organize them. Instead of always looking for that one sheet of paper - this puts it in an easy place to access and keep it looking nice.

How is 3rd grade language arts like 6th grade math?

Answer: In 3rd grade you move from learning to read to reading to learn. In 6th grade you move from learning math basics to using and applying math at higher levels. It is important that students have the basics of language or math down before they move on to these next levels. Unfortunately, many students aren't getting the basics and they can never successfully move on to the next level. I have heard this about language before - but never about the switch necessary in math. Often so many other things are happening in middle school that they never really "get" math. Later I'll talk more about approaches to teaching math.

Reading hiSTORY

Well, I have spent more time on the Charlotte Mason Ambleside (here is another overview) website recently. Wow - they have a LOT of information there for people interested in this approach. I am really enjoying reading through the booklists - they actually have a 36 week curriculum for books you should read to your first, second, third grader, etc. The nice thing about the books she chooses is that they teach history (one of my favorite subjects) through short stories that show the drama and excitement of the subject. Many of the books she recommends can be found at Yesterday's Classics. The reviews for these books are EXCELLENT on Amazon. So, even if you are doing something like Hirsch's Core Curriculum you could easily incorporate some of these stories into your approach. One of the primary texts that they use is apparently online - Fifty Famous Stories Retold. One of the points that the CM approach highlights is storytelling - not just book reading - so that you encourage children to create their own images in their head. This might also be a good reason to get books on tape - then everyone can enjoy the listening experience. She also emphasizes reading poetry - which is not my strength - but it seems like a good idea. Viking Tales is also a work that is listed - so my husband will certainly approve of this approach. He might even be willing to read that one to the kiddos! Here is another link to learn more about living books - so much information out there!

Quite a few years ago they were selling the 6 book series of the Charlotte Mason approach at a local used bookstore. I got the series for a STEAL of a deal. I think I might actually try reading the first book in the series. The online forums at ambleside have a "book group" that reads a chunk of it a week and then talks about it. They also have much of the text and some overviews online.

My poor child may end up very confused as his mom tries to patchwork together a curriculum. I would think, if nothing else you could easily incorporate the readings suggested on the Ambleside website to add depth to your child's reading repretoire - regardless of where they are getting most of their schooling.

Fantasy vs. Imagination

I am a part of a montessori yahoo group (okay 3 groups). Anyway, one of them recently has been talking about Montessori's approach to children's literature. It has been VERY interesting. I have not read about this myself but apparently she discourages any type of fantasy literature before a child is 6 years old. This is because young children cannot tell the difference between real and make believe. So she discourages any books where animals where clothes and speak, where mythical creatures are involved and similar types of things.

Along the same lines she makes an interesting distinction between fantasy and imagination. She talks about fantasy play not being helpful to kids, while imagination should be encouraged. Fantasy play is when kids pretend to be a pretend character (like Batman, Arial, etc.). Imagination is when they pretend to be something that is real (a pilot, a teacher, a bus driver - whatever). The idea is that in fantasy play they are not really being imaginative they are fulfilling someone else's script (even if the words/ actions are there own). In imaginative play they truly are using their imaginations.

I am still learning more about this topic and I might have to hunt down some original sources. It did make me pause and think. I have known some 4 year olds that can only think about being one character - it becomes and obsession.

On a related note I started looking at the Charlotte Mason approach again. They basically have her whole curriculum laid out online. This includes a great reference list for books (scroll down the page to find it) worth reading. There is also an interesting conversation about how to choose books worth reading. Both approaches focus on helping the child learn for themselves - but they have MANY differences. Good thing I have another couple years to figure out which way we might lean.