My Life in Mono...

Montessori Update

About 2 weeks ago, M and I had our very first Parent Teacher meeting.  I was really looking forward to the meeting as I have not had any real feedback from her class Directress.  I was also curious to know how was she progressing and adapting at Montessori "school".

A little bit about the Lil' Tiger.  She is turning 4 this year, she goes into full time daycare with Montessori "school" Cycle 1 in it.  She loves going to Montessori and is very happy in it.  Before going to Montessori, she went to a Reggio Emilia inspired centre.

Her class Directress is amazing.  You can see that she is so passionate about what she is "teaching" and really believes in the teachings. Her feedback was amazing and she keeps telling me that she can see the changes in the Lil' Tiger and how fast she is picking up things.  I did tell her that I try to do Montessori style jobs at home so it flows from home to Montessori. 

There are a few areas that the Directress said that the Lil' Tiger could improve on, one was her "calling" her friends from one side of the class to the other side.  Oppps... I think this is partly my fault because at home, we usually "call" each other from one room to come into the other room. I think I need to work on that too.  I can't really remember what the other one was but it's something small that I am not too worried about.

The LT could recognise a few letters and numbers now and I am really happy with that.  She can count up to 30 without any hesitation, a major milestone for me since she only could count to 10 this time last year. She excels in her math skills, pictured above where she is making geometric paterns from wooden shapes.

I am quite happy with her progress there and I really wish I could send her to a full time Montessori school next year but, that is really out of our budget.  So, in the meantime, I will still try to have Montessori jobs/activities at home.

The silent mind

This quote by Maria Montessori made me think about how I have been teaching and how I will be teaching the Lil' Tiger in the future. It really made me see things (in this case education and life skills) in a different light.

“Do not tell them how to do it. Show them how to do it and do not say a word. If you tell them they will watch your lips move. If you show them, they will want to do it themselves”.

The other day, after reading this quote, the Lil’ Tiger came up to me with a problem.  She asked if I could help her unzip her favourite pencil case.  Instead of just unzipping it for her, I told her to look at my hands.  I unzipped and zipped the pencil case a couple of times without uttering a single word and gave the pencil case back to her, zipped, and told her it’s her turn to do it.  The Lil’ Tiger unzipped the pencil case with ease and the look on her face was priceless.  To know that she has done something for herself was amazing. 

The next day, she was sitting on our lounge room floor with her wooden blocks, Papa Nic came over and together they built buildings and houses.  I was observing from the kitchen and I could see her just watching Papa Nic built his house with full concentration.  They both said nothing.  She then copied what he did and her house looks exactly like his.  Amazing.

On Sunday, I was making tortillas to freeze, and the Lil’ Tiger decided to sit and watch me in the kitchen.  As I was kneading the dough (again quietly without saying a word), I could see from the corner of my eye, she was trying to copy my hand movements and muttering to herself.  She sat there watching me for a good half hour and then went to her table and played with her playdoh.  She copied everything I did, kneading and rolling out the tortilla and told me she made “tortia” as well, just like mummy! 

It is really amazing how the mind works.  We, well I, spend so much time telling the Lil’ Tiger or any one how to do things over and over again and 4/5 times, I fail at it.  This is the reason why! They were watching my lips! They were listening to me instead of watching what I was doing.  Even I learn better that way.  That was how I learnt to crochet.  By watching youtube videos on mute because I find all the talking and instructing very distracting.  Now why hadn’t I thought that it would be the way the Lil’ Tiger would learn as well?  Maybe I should start showing her how to do it instead of telling her how it’s done from now on. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK? DO YOU AGREE?

Matching alphabets

This month, I am starting to introduce the Lil' Tiger to her alphabets. I am starting out slow as I am also still trying to learn how to teach her the alphabets.  

I spoke to her carers at daycare to see what activities they are learning there at the moment and coincidentally they were learning their alphabets and numbers too! YEAY! That way she wouldn't be too overwhelmed by all these things that she needs to learn. 

I laid out a simple matching game for her one afternoon using flashcards that I already have on hand.  I only used the first 10 alphabets just to see if she finish the activity.  I got her to watch me match capital letters to small letters. Once I was done, I reshuffled the cards and laid it down randomly for her.  The LT did brilliantly she matched almost all the letters correctly. :) 

My next goal now is to introduce the alphabets individually. We are starting with the letter  O this week. 

 

Coloured Salt...

If you are following me on Pinterest or on Facebook (if you are not, you should by the way), you would know that I have started my Montessori journey with the Lil' Tiger.  I was intrigued by the way children learn when I went to an open day at a Montessori school near by.  I was amazed by how the children have some sort of freedom in how they learn, more on my journey later. 

One of the activity that is recommended for the Lil' Tiger's age is tracing letters, shapes and patterns.  Usually this is done with a tray and some sand. Now, I have no access to sand and I don't think people would like it if I take some from the beach so I searched on Pinterest for a while and finally saw this post on The Imagination Tree using coloured salt! What a brilliant idea! 

All you need is 3 simple things that you already have at home.  

• A bag of Salt
• few drops of food colouring of your choice
• a huge ziplock bag (I got mine from IKEA).  

Add the salt in the ziplock bag, add a few drops of the food colouring slowly and mix.  All done.  If you added too much food colouring (like me) I suggest you wait for it to dry overnight first before using it. 

Easy right?  Now to get the Lil' Tiger interested in doing a little tracing with it. :) 

Our ANZAC Day...

How did you spend your ANZAC day? Today we got to sleep in a little bit.  I know people usually get up before the break of dawn to get to the dawn service but I thought this year we would just stay home and reflect.  

I told the Lil' Tiger about the soldiers that went out to fight for the freedom of our country and also what it means to live free in Australia. I know she may not grasp the true meaning of it but I hope if I do this every year she will understand it one day and appreciate the sacrifices that these men, women and animal did for our great nation. 

This afternoon, our ANZAC activity is to make poppies from paper.  I downloaded the template from Tiny Me and pre cut a few petals as prep.  I gave a pair of scissors to the Lil' Tiger and taught her how to use it properly.  I think she still needs a lot of pratice using it properly but she is getting there. :)  She did well with the glue stick though. 

We were also suppose to bake ANZAC biscuits but I forgot that I ran out of golden syrup at home.  Owh well. Maybe next year hey? I hope next year I will get myself together and maybe plan a day of it. 

How did you remember/celebrate ANZAC day with your little ones?