I need some education...

We're in the process of setting up the new Montessori materials that we've received. Elena is very excited about learning to use all of them. Of course, this means that my mother and I have to learn how to present them (though I suspect that my mother will gravitate more toward doing some of the read-aloud and craft stuff on the more Sonlight side of our curriculum rather than the Montessori presentations, but who knows). One foundational thing I'm trying to get a good grasp of is the "Three Period Lesson." http://www.infomontessori.com/sensorial/three-period-lesson.htm is a good, relatively detailed description of how it works, but here's the summary I'm trying to get solidified in my head:

1. Naming: "This is an ovoid. This is a square. This is a triangle."

2. Recognition: "Point to [hand me] the ovoid. Point to the triangle. Point to the square."

3. Recall: Instructor points, asking "What is this?" (Requiring the child to come up with the name).

1. This is... 2. Show me... 3. What is this?

I'm prepping to do this with the new teen bead materials ("This is eleven..."). See http://www.infomontessori.com/mathematics/skip-and-counting-teens-quantity.htm

We've also been looking at the new puzzle maps. I haven't looked up the official presentations for these yet, but have allowed Elena to take out (and then put back) the pieces on the continents map while I give her the names and have her repeat them (I suppose in a sense, this is step one of the three period lesson). What this has really highlighted to me, though, is my general lack of good geography skills. I did know all the continents, but I had to look up some of the countries on South America (the easiest continent, in my opinion), and that was the only continent I was even CLOSE to knowing all the countries on. But this is part of the joy of homeschooling--getting to learn along with one's child! Because there's no shame in 1. not knowing everything and 2. showing your child how you find out information.

Familial relationships seem to have finally sunk in. Elena can now pretty accurately identify how people in her family are related to each other ("Your father is my grandfather." "Your brother is my uncle."). This is interesting because it demonstrates some of the fading of the egocentrism that goes with this (Piaget) stage of development. Strong egocentrism orients everything to the self ("Who is that woman?" "My mama." "Is she also Papa's wife?" "NO! She is MY MAMA!"). Along with this, as one would expect, we are seeing the development of theory of mind, though this is far from complete in her. No examples come readily to mind right now, but I do remember noting them.

Part of me also wants to note her understanding of familial relationships because I think there is buried somewhere a desire in me to prove (to myself?) that she's learning things at home that she would be learning if she were in school. But I actually have very little idea of what kids learn in the early school years. I'm confident that things like language, math, and geography are covered, but lately it's occurred to me that were Elena in a more traditional school, it might also cover things like learning the seasons of the year, making a family tree, and maybe even stringing a necklace (which she learned to do recently, much to her delight).

Even though my stated philosophy is to not worry much about what she's learning because she's naturally driven to learn and because if left uninhibited and provided with a rich atmosphere, she'll pick up on what she needs to, there's still a part of me that wonders how what she gets here at home compares to what she would be getting elsewhere. More out of curiosity than any sense of doubt that we're doing the right thing by educating her here.

And because I know that once we reach school age, we'll have to be "proving" regularly to the state that she's learning at home what she'd learn at school. So I think that's the source of this desire to practice extracting out of the million things she does during the day some of the things that might be considered "school activities."

Breathing

We were reading about sharks and how they draw water over their gills and extract the oxygen from it. This led to a discussion of how humans get oxygen from the air when they breathe. I asked Elena, "Have YOU ever breathed before?" She looked at me and a smile spread across her face as she exclaimed, "I just did!" Then she spent the next several minutes giggling and saying, "I just breathed AGAIN!" It was a hoot.

mycology lesson

We have some interesting mushrooms growing in the yard that Erich suspects are some edible form of ink caps (Coprinus comatus, "Shaggy mane inky cap"). Elena is participating in the identification with Papa. They went out and got a couple fresh mushrooms. They're making a spore-print and are drawing the mushroom, all in the effort of accurately identifying it so as to determine whether it is safe to eat. I'm not entirely sure what Elena will pick up from this exercise, but it sure seems educational. Though part of our teaching philosophy is that just about everything she does is "educational." Still, the mushroom identification is a fun lesson.

Science Lesson

We have been trying to go to the library more often. On our most recent trip, Elena picked out a book on bones (among other interesting books). Reading this with her has led to a discussion of how the brain is protected by the skull and the spinal cord is protected by the spine, but what Elena seems to have latched on to the most today is how the brain sends messages to her body through her spinal cord. Now, every few minutes, she'll say, "I just moved my leg again! My brain sent a message telling my leg to move!" like this is the most miraculous thing. Which, I suppose, it is.

Materials

We decided to take the plunge and purchase the rest of the primary Montessori materials. KidAdvance has the best prices by a large margin and we got a good deal by getting a classroom package (http://www.kidadvance.com/productdetails.asp?pid=255&catid=7). KidAdvance let us cut out the elements of the package that we already owned and substitute in other materials that we wanted. All the materials have now arrived. We checked through them looking for damage and missing parts. Instead of allowing Elena to open all the boxes like presents, though, we're going to set up the materials on the shelves and unveil her new "school area" to her for Christmas. This is in order to reduce the temptation to misuse the materials or to treat them as toys. In the mean time, we're going to turn the large boxes into a fun tunnel house. :)

"How do you spell 'bleach?'"

Lately, Elena has been asking how to spell things. We've found it much more effective to write things out for her rather than to verbally tell her how things are spelled. Often, we use her chalk and slate to spell things out. She has happened to ask for several words lately that use the "ea" long-e sound as well as /ch/, so she's slowly getting more comfortable with those. I haven't seen her read them in a book yet--I suspect that she'll be excited to see them in writing when they come up.