Homeschooling November 2013 Part 4

Something to think about…

Here, I showed K this picture of the baby. We talked about what babies can and cannot do and what he, now almost four, can and cannot do. Then we compared both the baby and himself. He was so proud that he was bigger, that he could talk and walk and feed himself and dress himself and ride a bike with no training wheels, etc. The lesson was this: now that you are this big, there are more things you can do and are capable of doing. It is good to be aware of it and step up to the plate. He was excited to be a “big kid.”

Here, we talked about this Happy Book. He is nice and clean and shiny and happy. Then I showed him a picture of a Sad Book (not pictured). It is tattered and torn and dirty and sad. We discussed how we are supposed to treat books (and all school materials in general) and how we want our books to be nice and clean like the Happy Book.

More fine motor skills practice here. He is doing well. What was funny with this picture is that the areas to color are much larger, so K would kind of “get tired” of using the same color and kept switching around until the entire picture was completed. At first, my orderly instinct wanted to tell him, “No! You must finish one area before moving to the other.” But you know what? I said nothing to him and that was ok. He did a good job and did finish the entire picture.

K got another letter from his British penpal this week. It was Halloween-themed, even though Halloween had passed. That kind of stuff is NEVER an issue with little ones. He loves getting letters from H. We have been able to have a letter exchange at leas once a month (he gets one once a month and H gets one once a month as well).

I love Montessori’s Large Number Cards because the numbers are color-coated by base ten placing (all ones are green, all tens are blue all hundreds are red and all thousands are green again). The lesson was a complete success! I didn’t think he would be ready, but he was and I am SO glad that I tried. Now, he is pointing out all numbers over 100 that he sees ad he is successfully naming them! I’m so proud of him!

We read the story of the antelope and her new neighbors. Honestly, this is one of the things that Montessori is very against, so I am kind of so-so about this. Maria Montessori believed that children should be grounded in the real world and learn the “right” way the world works. She discouraged fantasy play during learning hours, and this includes stories and books. All books in the Montessori environment are to be real stories. So, for example, if we are to read about elephants, the book would most likely be an informational book. There is no such thing as elephants that talk, so no books would display such stories, including cartoon-like images. All pictures must be real images (taken with a camera) and not drawn. The images and the stories must be realistic. I can definitely see the value in that, but at the same time, I think that my almost 4-year old can tell that antelopes and anteaters can’t really talk and don’t really live in houses. I personally think that these stories have brought more opportunities to talk about what is real and what isn’t than if I were to only read realistic stories to him. That is just my personal opinion, though. I am open to do more research on the matter and change my conclusions if need be.

It only took him like five minutes to get going and once he started, he did not want to stop! What a guy!

In Spanish, we learned a few animal names, both domesticated and wild with flashcards and pictures. We also sang some songs and reviewed some of the stuff we’ve learned (like greetings, colors, numbers, etc). It was cute. We also practiced cutting.