Nature has always been an important part of my life, ever since I was a child, and this was one of the things I wanted to share with my children. To be able to discover it together, to see them explore it, in their own unique way, and to teach them nature's importance, and how to protect it. Nature is the one place where you can learn not only to connect with yourself but live in harmony with the environment. It teaches you to protect and respect life, and each living thing, big or small. … [Read more...]
One Day in the Life of a Homeschooling Family
Do you wonder sometimes what a day in the life of another homeschooling family may look like? Unless you are a part of a dynamic and large homeschooling community, you may not have time or energy to connect with others on a regular basis to discuss your routines and timetable. As per a few requests I would like to offer a glimpse into our daily learning life and share how we manage to provide a high-quality education to our three children in the home environment. In the morning children … [Read more...]
Spring Hands-on Activities for Preschool Children
In our classroom, the change of season or special occasion generated elevated excitement as children always anticipated finding freshly prepared materials on the shelves. For that reason, I gathered a collection of Spring themed hands-on individual activities for your preschool students. Spring vocabulary cards for the memory or match-up games, storytelling startups and for building sentences. Classifying cards with birds, bees and butterflies. I spy with my little eye game Size … [Read more...]
Rain Could In a Jar Science Experiment Plus Types of Clouds Printable
This Rain Cloud in a Jar Experiment is a great way to engage your children aged 3-6 in conducting a simple science experiment before heading outdoors. Looking up in the sky on an overcast day can be quite relaxing and entertaining. As I was inviting children to fill in the cup with water and pour coloured water over the shaving cream "cloud", I explained to them that water, when heated, evaporates turning into water vapours. These water vapours turn back into water drops after reaching cold … [Read more...]
New to Montessori Homeschooling?
When a family decides to take a route less traveled to homeschool their children the number of questions and choices you have to make is staggering and overwhelming. The list is never-ending - from what approach to take to how to manage household and expenses on one income, and of course, there is socialization. In fact, it is getting harder and harder for children to deal with issues that arise due to the mental health crisis children are facing today. The socialization aspect of the … [Read more...]
Editable Homeschool Planner
Keeping my teaching and planning organized always brought a sense of control and enabled to shift focus from curriculum goals and teaching agenda to one-on-one interactions with students on a more meaningful and deeper level. That allowed me to be present with the children and stay on top of the homeschool classroom organization. You can't overestimate the power of having a functional system to plan your teaching process at home. So I designed a Homeschool editable planner. I … [Read more...]
What Goes Together In Nature? A classifying activity
There are many ways to use cards and activities to prepare children for reading. Along with learning to identify sounds (in Montessori classrooms children learn sounds, not letter names) children need to develop comprehension skills. What Goes Together In Nature? is an activity that can foster the development of comprehension skills, teach vocabulary, make associations and help students classify. I always prefer to use photographs when I design my printables - they are more a representation of th … [Read more...]
Learning About Birds in the Montessori Preschool Classroom
Birds play a crucial role in Nature and represent a great diversity of the animal kingdom. There are roughly between 9,000 and 10,000 species of birds. Choosing to study birds is always guaranteed to be a popular topic with children in the school and a homeschool classroom. I created a set of materials that can help you to generate more interest and engage children into a learning process - reading, spelling, sorting, train memory while getting familiar with some of their favourite feathered … [Read more...]
How to Teach Sequencing Skills to Children Plus a Free Printable
Sequencing cards are great for developing children's logical thinking and reading comprehension. They tick many boxes when it comes to teaching students and especially beneficial for children with special needs. Sequencing skills are essential for students to master because they: build vocabulary. develop narrating and storytelling skills. help students learn to sequence events and actions. help students to learn to group their thoughts. introduce different concepts (life cycle, … [Read more...]
Practical Life Activities to Help Survive the Cold and Flu Season
A change of seasons brings a whole kaleidoscope of new emotions, feelings, colours, excitement and anticipation. Changes in nature create a unique atmosphere in classrooms and call for new adventures and learning opportunities. However, it also means that our bodies have to adjust as well. In autumn and winter there is less sun exposure, less time spent outdoors, the immune system is not as strong. All these factors bring on challenges of the cold and flu season. Challenge is especially real in … [Read more...]
Hands-on Montessori Homeschool Activities for a 5-year old.
Our choice to homeschool has been predetermined many years ago. I've spent hours meditating on this decision, thinking of the best ways to implement the Montessori approach and self-directed learning in the home environment. I have to say, only this year after my daughter turned 5, I realised that this is precisely what I was dreaming about and even more. Homeschooling has become such an essential part of me, as a mum, my place to escape for a short period three days a week from all other … [Read more...]
Learning to tell time – Hands-On Ideas
I have noticed that generally, children get interested in clocks early on - before they are old enough to be able to read the analogue clock all on their own. For children to be able to tell time with analogue clocks they need to : be able to recognise numbers 0-60 know fractions be familiar with the definition of past and present, a.m, pm., afternoon, noon Usually, preschool children do not know these math concepts. However, schedules and time is something that often becomes an … [Read more...]
Most Valuable and Practical Montessori Lessons Learnt in 2016
I believe that one of the most fundamental and necessary aspects of survival for Montessori parents and teachers is a strong and connected community. Whether it's a virtual or physical space - we all need it, place and people that make you feel understood, accepted, where your voice is valid. We sharpen each other's knowledge and inspiration to do usual tasks differently, but most importantly, we help each other create stronger connections with our children. One of my favourite things in the … [Read more...]