Montessori Spanish

Classroom Management

2012-01-23T21:36:00.003-06:00

I am looking for classroom management techniques in the Montessori classroom for Ages 6-9.
Here are a few I found. Three before me.
Classroom Management

Please comment with any articles or blog posts about classroom management in the Montessori classroom. I will keep adding to this blog post with new ones I find. Thank you!

The Christmas Photo Shoot!

2011-12-24T20:46:00.000-06:00

Trying to get the perfect photograph for our Christmas cards! Baby had a different plan!

Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad!

Ok, get me untangled and ready for pictures!

I can't sit still. What are you talking about?

I see Mommy! She has a cool thing that has a bright light coming from it!

Oh, that light! I am so tired. "I just love this picture!!"

Ok, now I am making my brother laugh!! My sister does not look impressed.

Ok, time to escape. Why are we just sitting here!

Here I come Mommy. What? Smile? OK!

Fall is already gone?

2011-12-21T20:05:00.000-06:00

Hi! It has been a while, right?! Three months to be exact. We have been doing great! The kids had a great Fall. The weather turned to a very comfortable temperature that had us outside a lot! This fall the kids enjoyed:

carving pumpkins

Trick-or-Treating

celebrating their 8th and 6th Birthday

and Thanksgiving with my husbands Family in San Antonio.

Isabela is excelling in word building and reading. She is in Kindergarten and reads better than most 1st graders.

Sweet Boy loves the zip line, gardening, the ducks, fish and chickens at his school

and is excelling in writing, spelling, and took off with Reading!

Baby is Standing and Signing!

2011-09-17T21:14:00.001-05:00

Sweet Baby is standing! He is now 17 months. He will stand for long periods of time and play while holding on. He has pulled to a stand but I have yet to see it! He does pull up to stand from a sitting position. We just went last week to get him orthopedic shoe inserts that help children with low muscle tone get the ankle support they will need so they do not turn in their feet when standing or walking.

Sweet!

I was saying with a high voice "look at you, sweet boy!" I was all excited which got him to start laughing!

This is the most delicious baby EVER! I can't begin to explain how sweet, how snugly, how happy he is ALL the time.

He is now also starting to use his hands to communicate with us. We are teaching him sign language and he is doing a great job picking it up. I teach him different finger plays and songs with the use of our hands and body. He will now ask for "itsy bitsy spider" by doing the spider part. He knows milk, more, food, and give me. He has also started to say the word 'bye', which is so exciting to hear.

Neighbor's Chicken Coop

2011-08-21T14:45:00.000-05:00

Our neighbor went on vacation this summer and we helped to take care of the chickens!

We live in a very cool area. It is the city but in our corner of the world we have a big population of crunchy mamas, chicken lovers, garden growers, environmentalists! Coming in October there will be a Chicken Coop tour in our hood! Can't wait!

Lego's, Organizing and Building!

2011-08-18T14:53:00.000-05:00

My son told me this summer he wanted more lego sets. He said he was "bored"! I told him if he re-built all of the Lego sets he already has that I would buy him more. WEEELLLL, my husband and him with a little help from Bella got to work and they built many of the sets. Not ALL but many! He said to me "Wow, I did not realize I had so many!" Yes, well, I DID!

Here is a picture of how we organized Sweet Boys Lego's a few years back. Organizing by Color makes re-building from instructions super easy. The little red box contains the little people and accessories (swards, animals, treasure boxes, etc...) This allowed Sweet Boy to easily find all those little people and little things for them. Sweet Boy loves this system for building but not so much for sorting. We all pitch in to help him sort back out once in a while when he has built all kinds of stuff and is ready to break it all apart.

The 10th Aniversary of my 30th Birthday!

2011-07-06T21:29:00.000-05:00

Well, I turned 40 a month ago. My husband threw me a big party and called it the 10th anniversary of my 30th birthday!!

Notice the cake says "Happy 10th Anniversary"!

Thank you my sweet love for a great birthday!

My sweet love!

And for a challenge I started P90x workout program. Have you heard of it? Yes, it is pretty popular. I bought it used from a friend and started right away. I am two weeks from graduating from the program! I was not in great shape when I started so I plan on doing it again. The program is for 90 days and I really love it. It is so great for me because I just do not have the time to go to a gym. I don't like the daycare at gym's and since I am hardly ever without one child or another, gym's just do not work out for me.

I did not think I would like doing DVD's at home but I actually enjoy it because it is something different every day. I also have some friends that are my virtual workout buddies (we text each other when we workout, how we did, and basically motivate one another if we are not feeling like working out that day!)

So my goal is to be fit by end of year!

Baby Update

2011-07-05T00:00:00.001-05:00

Sweet Baby is Crawling and Pulling up to his knees!! He is doing amazing. He is now 15 months. He is doing lots Blabbing, Loves Books, swimming and is exploring EVERYTHING!

Playing with the tops to the glassware.

Tasting ice cream for the first time! Not very sure about it!

He loves to swing.

He loves to observe our guinea pig.

Putting the cylinder in the box.

Getting the cylinder out.

Opening the drawers and getting out the blocks and putting them back in.

At crawling class! He has crawling down now and is working on pulling up to a stand now.

Montessori Training Resumed and Teaching

2011-07-03T17:55:00.001-05:00

I went back to finish my Elementary Montessori Training! I had a class in June and will have another class in July. I am almost done!! It feels GREAT to be back. I have also been teaching in a Montessori age 3-6 classroom half days for the summer and REALLY loving it! The co-teacher I am with is AMAZING. I am learning so much from her. I have asked the school to see if they have anything part-time for me in the fall. If not, I will at least sub for them so I can be in the classroom learning until I am able to do my internship.

Feliz Cumpleaños Andres!

2011-05-26T21:34:00.000-05:00

Sweet Boy is now one years old!!

We had family over to celebrate.

Andres had a great time eating cake and getting lots of attention from Grandma, Abuela and Tia!


Andres dug into the cake before we even started singing! That cake was sooo delicious!

World Down Syndrome Awareness Day

2011-03-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

March 21, 2011 marks the 6th anniversary of World Down Syndrome Day and each year the voice of people with Down syndrome, and those who live and work with them, grows louder as we celebrate the abilities, talents and accomplishments of people with Down syndrome.

Almost one year ago my life changed. 3-30-10, not the birth of my son but the day after, the day we were told he was born with an extra Chromosome, number 21, called Down syndrome. A moment in my life that I will never forget. A moment that I cannot fullly describe but the word fear and grief come to mind. I feared how he would be treated by this cruel world and I grieved my baby.

On this day of awareness I want you to know that my son is amazing, he is so sweet and brings so much joy to our lives. I want you to know that not a day goes by that I don't think about a milestone, am I doing enough, and what will he do or not do. I want you to know that I don't want you to feel sorry for me because I feel lucky, blessed and proud. Know that if you have questions do not be afraid to ask. I love to talk about my son and do not mind talking about Down syndrome. And from what I read, many parents of children with Down syndrome feel the same.

My life is filled with purpose and joy!

Such a Big Boy!


He LOVES water!

With Daddy a week ago, in need of a haircut! How he LOVES his daddy!

And the hair cut! Haircut number 5 and not even one years old yet :-)!!!

Jamming! Look at that beautiful posture!

School Week 26, 27, 28

2011-03-19T21:55:00.001-05:00

Art Class

Picasso Sculptures

Bella talking about her sculpture

Some of the children's work not including the Angel!

Geography


This is an animals of the world work. Most works around here are put together while we work on them. I do not have any time to prep so I got the map, a book with animals of the world, our tub of little animals and some Geography Kid Magazines and we got to work!

We stoped when the kids got tired.

Here the kids made a mountain out of sand, rocks and mud. They then slowly poured water on top and discussed their observations on where the water ran, the landforms formed and erosion.

Religion

Stations of the Cross Work discussed here.

History

Presidents Day. I loved these presidents cards from the $1 section of Target. The kids were very interested in hearing about all of the presidents. Surprised me!

Baby trying to eat the cards!

Language


Sweet Boy spelling.

Geometry

I found a page in a workbook that used the same shapes as in this work. they were even the same color. It was great. Bella really got into this.

She is basically finding different ways to make hexagons.

Sweet Baby working! This is the Object Permanence Box with a tray. This material develops hand-eye coordination and indirectly allows the child to experience object permanence.

Kids Work Bench

2011-03-15T22:32:00.000-05:00

We went to a schools silent auction a few weeks back and came home with this great kids workbench and accessories made by a parent. The kids have always loved to work with their tools, hammering nails, and building things but this bench has added a little space just for them!

This is when we brought it home. It lived in our living room until it got warm enough outside to put it on our front porch since we do not have any more space inside, no garage and no covered porch out back (not yet!).

Stations of the Cross Box

2011-03-15T22:21:00.001-05:00

Read all about how to make this work in Family in Feast and Feria Blog.

Stations of the Cross Cards and Details about the Box

Here is what our work looks like.

On the Road Again

2011-03-13T15:16:00.001-05:00

After the Holidays I started thinking the kids should go back to school.   I have always been able to do many things at once but I finally found my limit! Working full-time, homeschooling full-time, a parent that takes care of 90% of of my children's needs, the one who takes care of 90% of the home needs, a new baby and babies special needs took me over my limit!

One really major factor, not like the ones above where not enough, was that I have seen my kids in a Montessori School and comparing it to home, I actually prefer the Montessori school environment. The energy and peacefulness and just amazingness of a Montessori School that breathes and lives Maria Montessori's philosophy is where I want my kids.

They kids have made their all day visits and are ready to return.   Sweet boy loves to be at home with Mom but said he loved being back at school and my daughter, I am sure you are able to tell by the pictures how social she is, can't wait!

It took me a little while to commit to going back to that school because of the drive. It is a 20 minute drive with light traffic. Like I had said before, it is close to us but because of a major highway we have to take there is traffic.   Once in a while, traffic can be very bad. There are side streets but I think it takes the same amount of time. I had been concerned with the baby riding in the car so long every day but I now have a wonderful lady helping me take care of the baby during the week so I am going to have her come before I have to pick-up the kids so he only rides in the car in the mornings. Which works out great because at the time of pick-up is the babies nap time.

I am happy to now be able to be done with work when the kids and my husband come home and have time for babies needs. My husband will have his wife back and my kids will have their happy and playful mommy back who does not go hide in the evenings to work!

So, back on the road again!

Lent Resources

2011-03-08T21:47:00.001-06:00

Here are some great resources for Lent geared to children.

Catholicmom.com
- From here I printed coloring pages for the stations of the cross and Ash Wednesday.

Family Feast and Feria
- From this site I made two works. Stations of the Cross cards with a box that contains objects where the children can tell the story. And rosary cards.

Explain and pray the stations.

I have two books displayed. One titled

The Easter Story by Patricia A. Pingry and Mary Ann Utt

and one titled The way of the Cross : Holy Week, the Stations of the Cross, and the Resurrection by Biffi, Inos.

I will take some pictures of the works I've put together and our table to display the works.

School Weeks 22, 23, 24 and 25

2011-03-03T21:00:00.000-06:00

Some other pictures from the past month!

For Chinese New Year we watched a few videos, looked at a couple of books, made origami items and talked about the Lunar Calendar.

We used the Melissa and Doug Origami Paper and Instructions Kit. The kids made cubes, stars, an airplane, and swan. Sweet boy watched me and his father and then practiced and practiced until he made all of them. Daddy made this one :-)

Bella working with CVC (Consonant - Vowel - Consonant) words.

I've been working on the Fundamenal Needs of People with the children. This is a book of different homes across the world.

Fundamental Needs of People is the study of how people in different historical time periods satisfied their basic needs. Currently we are talking about what ARE these basic needs and looking at books that show these across the world.

More information about Fundamental Needs of People Lessons
This is the only link I could find when I did a quick search. Montessori For Everyone.
If you have another link, let me know. I will add it here!

Baby working while we work!


I use many of the off the shelf Workbooks and modify to work for us. Here I cut one page in half and made two works for Bella. Here I provide the letters she will need. She actually ended up writing the letters because that is what she wanted to do! You could laminate this so you could re-use it.

Kids created their Noun Families!

Linear Time line Lesson for Sweet Boy.

Valentines Work

Making Valentine's

Making heart decorations for our classroom!

Zoology in the past month!

I made this to talk to the kids about the life cycle of a frog.


They chose to create little booklets for the frog life cycle. We found a few very cool videos online about different types of frogs and where they lay their eggs. The videos were rich in color. It allows them to see that not all frogs are green!! We also checked out some books on frogs but have not had the chance to actually sit an observe a live frog. Book From Tadpole to Frog by David Stewart Cute Froggie Activities!


Here is our new pet!! His name is Harry :) Harry is a Guinea Pig, in case you did not know! Harry is one of the mammals we are studying.

I am starting to create little baskets with pictures and little plastic animals from each animal group. We did activities between Mammals and Reptiles. I put all of the animals together and they sorted them after we had talked about what ARE the characteristics of a mammal and reptiles. Here is a simple website with the animal groups and their characteristics. Here is another very helpful website with resources on the Animal Groups.

Math

2011-02-23T22:00:00.000-06:00

Lately Sweet Boy has been working with fractions and geometry along with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.


Here I introduced Sweet Boy to Division. He LOVED division.

Here is a link of an article that cover how to teach Division with the Golden Beads.

Simple Division

Exchanging

Bella working with the Tens. She got it and likes it!

Graphing

Valentine's Day Printables

2011-02-13T19:52:00.002-06:00


First, a cute picture of Andres today in this 65 degree weather. Last week below freezing, today 65!

Now, I wanted to share these real quick before February is over!

Valentine Printables from activityvillage for cutting.

and hundredboard. There are several hundred board worksheets, some not filled, partially filled and all filled to check your work.

Templates for cutting or poking work.

I also printed a few activities from these wonderful Valentines downloads from Confessions of a Homeschooler. All of the ones I printed from here are for my pre-schooler. She is getting to see these tomorrow. I know she is going to be so excited. She loves all things pink and purple and hearts!!

Old Schoolhouse Expo Giveaway

2011-02-10T20:27:00.003-06:00

About two months ago I came across some old Old Schoolhouse magazines someone in our co-op was giving away. There were over 20 magazines. I picked up 2, did not want to be greedy and take them all! Well, one of these ended up having several articles on teaching children with special needs, a few of these children with Down Syndrome. Can you believe that! I was so happy to read all of the articles. If you are interested, the issue is Summer 2008.

I am happy to promote this online conference and giveaway one Expo To Go from the Expo held in October of 2010. This is an MP3 download of all the sessions from last years convention.

To enter this giveaway, leave me a comment sharing with us if you have ever attended a homeschool conference and if so what did you enjoy about it!

One winner will be chosen at random and the winner will be posted on the blog on February 14th, 2011. The winners name and e-mail address will be sent to the Old Schoolhouse Expo team who will e-mail you the log-in information.

Here is a link to Last Years Speaker and topics and speakers. This is a $20 value!

Here are some that interested me:

John Taylor Gatto speaks on classroom schooling

Multi-Level Teaching - Toddlers, Tweens and Teens, OH MY!

If I Could Do It Over

Teaching Writing: The Big Picture (K-12 writing overview)

Avoiding and Overcoming Homeschool Burnout

Homeschool Conference: Schoolhouse Expo

2011-02-09T17:25:00.002-06:00

Schoolhouse Expo Website

This is a flexible and convenient, online homeschool conference!

Homeschooling encouragement and inspiration—

when and where you need it!

May 16-20th

Early Bird ticket price of $19.50 ends Today, Wednesday, February 9th at 11:59 p.m. On February 10, the price goes up to $29.00 and the Bonus Freebies will no longer be available. On February 27, the full price of $39.99 will be in effect.

With each ticket you will get MP3 downloads of all the sessions from the convention. This will allow you to listen again to your favorite sessions or to listen to sessions that you may have missed during the convention.
There will be virtual goodie bags (valued at over $200!), door prizes, and even a virtual vendor hall offering freebies and specials!

School Week 19, 20, and 21

2011-02-06T20:01:00.001-06:00

Geometry

Lesson for Sweet Boy

Using the free download from Montessori for Everyone: Triangle Stars. Here is a link about this lesson from my blog. These are the blue right scalene triangles.

Geometric Solids Matching Cards from Montessori for Everyone,

Language

Lesson for Sweet Boy. Plural Article

Sweet Boy working on the 'sh' sound.

Sweet Boy wanted to write a story about Dinosaurs.


Bella working with the movable alphabet. She was working with me here.

Adjective Lesson.

Sensorial

Geometric Solids. Learning their names.


Sound Boxes. This is the first time she has used this all year. This is more for when she was 3 and 4 years old so they did not get much use with these two kids but I am sure Andres will use them plenty!

Working with Andres: Physical

2011-02-05T23:11:00.000-06:00

When I left the hospital with Andres, all the hospital gave me was a small pamphlet about nursing and children with Down Syndrome. Andres did not have any problems nursing so I put this away. I went to see the pediatrician the day after we got home and he gave me a list of resources.

1. Children's Medical Center Down Syndrome Clinic

2. The Down Syndrome Guild

3. Texas Early Child Intervention Services (ECI).

I immediately started calling. The DS Clinic gave us a ONE YEAR appointment. They only see children one day a week and each appointment is three hours so we got an appointment a year out. This was not help but we got on the list.

The Guild sent us a book and a large 3 ring binder. VERY helpful!

ECI is a statewide program for families with children, birth to three, with disabilities and developmental delays. ECI supports families to help their children reach their potential through developmental services. Services are provided by a variety of local agencies and organizations across Texas. ECI came to our home for an evaluation and quickly got us working on educating us and begin physical therapy.

An article on Physical Therapy for children with Down Syndrome.
The Goal and Opportunity of Physical Therapy for Children with Down Syndrome

Montessori For Parents Podcasts/ Misc. Talk

2011-02-02T21:18:00.009-06:00

Have you seen these Montessori videos at www.edvid.com?

Beautiful!

Under "shop", they also have training videos. and parent videos. Following your Child: A Montessori Philosophy of Parenting DVD would be a great present to a new parent. I wish someone would have given me this DVD when I had my first child!

I also love to see the videos of the kids in the elementary classrooms. I am pretty sure the kids will be going back to their Montessori Schools next year and seeing these videos makes me want them there now! I'll post more about it when I've made my final decision (i.e. - when I pay!).

On another note. The school districts around here have been closed for the past two days and will be closed tomorrow. There is ice everywhere and no one around here knows how to drive in this mess. It is SO cold. Colder then it has ever been around here. We are still doing school! We have to take advantage that Daddy is here to take care of the baby. It makes homeschooling SO easy.

Enjoy the videos! Don't miss this one: Grammar Symbols in the Montessori Elementary Environment

Resource for Teaching Children with Down Syndrome

2011-01-28T21:44:00.003-06:00

My life has changed a lot since we learned Andres was born with Down Syndrome. Before Andres was born I thought I had it all figured out. I had done so much research about early childhood education and Montessori that I felt I was ready to teach him.

Now I have lots and lots more to read about and learn about. Montessori is great for Andres but there is a lot I need to be aware of.

"For example, if the child does not begin to point or hold up objects at the typical age, this may result in parents naming objects for the child less often, so delaying vocabulary learning. If the child does not begin to try saying words at the typical age, it may not be as easy to keep up the same level of talk to the child as it would be to the child who is talking and is demanding a response. If the child's words are unintelligible, the adult may need to ask the child to repeat the words, to be sure they understand what the child is trying to say, before they can respond. This disrupts the normal flow of conversation and the adult's ability to respond to the child's message by expanding or replying in a natural way.

All these examples indicate that when a child has even one area of delay or difficulty in her/his speech and language skills, this will almost certainly reduce the quality and quantity of natural talk to and with the child, in comparison with a typically developing child. Yet the child with difficulties needs more good quality language experience and learning opportunities than the typical child in order to make progress." Source: http://www.down-syndrome.org/information/language/early/

As I read and research I will share what I learn. I want to do everything I possible can to help Andres develop to his full potential.

Baby Update

2011-01-21T22:12:00.000-06:00

Sweet Andres is such a joy. He gave us a wonderful gift on Christmas Eve. He started to sit at 9 months!
Sitting, something I took for granted with my first two children, has been lots of work for little Andres.

Andres has two physical therapy sessions a month for now and I work with him the rest of the month. We will be starting aquatic therapy this Spring or Summer. Here he is with one of his therapist.


9 months 3 weeks. Andres at work! I still use the pillow for support.

Andres has pretty good side control but no back control yet. He sits if we place him sitting but not able to get himself up to sit yet but he is working hard at it! The best therapy for Andres is floor time so he is always on the floor. We do not use any type of contraption except for the highchair for eating.

Andres is very talkative making lots of sounds. He is eating really well. I started to blend the food we all eat for him so he is eating thicker type foods, what you would compare to Number 3 foods. He has no teeth but has no problem eating these as well as the teething biscuits, cheerios, tortillas and fruit. He also has had no problem holding and drinking from a sippy cup for about four months now.

I am currently working on trying to get Andres to clap. I sing the Happy Birthday song and clap at the end and put his hands together and work on clapping. I really want him to clap for his birthday. Also, when he begins to bring his hands together purposefully we can begin teaching him sign language.

"Young children with Down syndrome are usually excellent communicators. They use facial expressions, gestures, mime, and vocalizations to express their ideas. Because spoken language often develops more slowly than receptive language or a desire to communicate, sign language is often the tool they need to build their confidence communicating."

Homeschooling Blog Posts

2011-01-16T21:35:00.002-06:00

What a wonderful Post from Living Montessori Now. How We Homeschooled

Have you met Deb Chitwood from this Blog? Probably so since she has almost 300 followers and many more facebook fans.. Deb homeschooled two kids through Highschool and is now telling us about it! It is so comforting reading her posts because you know she did it and her children turned out great! As we go through life, raising our children, we always ask ourselves "Am I doing the right thing?". Will they be OK if I do this ______________. Fill in the blank. So many things we question.

The post How We Homeschooled and Top 5 Homeschool Lessons My Children Taught Me allows me to relax. Read them!

Ask - You never know

2011-01-16T21:16:00.000-06:00

The kids started Art Class last week in our neighborhood in a homeschool morning class with four other homeschool children. I've been wanting to put the kids in this class but it was so expensive. Well, I mentioned this to the teacher and she gave us and another family 50% off the tuition. I am SO excited about this class because this is Drawing with Art History. I've been wanting to do an Artist of the month with drawing activities to go with it but I can barely keep up with everything so this has been a relief.
I absolutely loved how the class was taught and what the children learned. Just wonderful. I also loved that it was in our neighborhood with my children's friends. The kids also loved the class. Very important!

Sweet Boy and His School Work

2011-01-15T22:35:00.000-06:00

Sweet Boy has not been very excited about school lately and it is my fault. I've been pushing him. The more I push, the less he does. But I realized this and have backed off.

Here are some lessons I've given to Sweet Boy. My problem currently is that he is not practicing after I give him lessons. In a Montessori classroom, the children see other children do the work and they get interested again. I need to remember to pull out the work myself so he will get interested. It works but I need to remember to do it! How do you get your kids or students to practice?

Language

Articles Lesson with the Farm

Using the Grammar Symbols with the Articles and Nouns.

Geometry

There have been many more lessons that were not very exciting to take pictures of!

For example: Line and Point!

Human Anatomy

History

I am doing Story of the World Curriculum with the kids. My kids LOVE stories on CD's so I got the CD's and Activity Book and they listen to the CD's OVER and OVER again. We do some of the activities in the activity book. I get the suggested books from the library and I then work Geography in there!

Geography

This is our Africa Continent Box.

We are currently studying Africa to go with the Story of the World Chapters we are working on. I sit and color with the kids.

My Sweet Bella's School Work

2011-01-14T16:59:00.000-06:00

My Sweet Girl turned 5 years old a couple of months back.

She LOVES learning. She is always wanting to do school work and wants to be challenged.
She never complains about school work unless it is easy. She calls it baby work!

Here is what Bella has been doing for the past two months.

Sweet girl is very motivated to read. We work with the movable alphabet, beginning sound cards with the pink and blue series. She also matches the words to the cards in the pink series. She does this work with her brother or me.

Sweet Bella is adding using the addition strip board or color beads. When she does addition problems, she usually does 4 or 5 problems. She has problems writing her numbers and I have been meaning to get number stamps but keep forgetting. Right now what I do is make the number she wants me to make with dots and then she traces it.

My beautiful girl LOVES Spanish and wants to do Spanish work and speak in Spanish. I tutor a little girl in Spanish and she loves to sit with us and work. This work she can do by herself but I do it with her because I want her to learn the vocabulary.

Here is her latest math work. She has been wanting to do this forever. She had seen it done in her classroom last year and wanted to do it. Her brother and her worked on it together.

Big girl is starting to work with money but does not understand it yet.

Here she is working with her all time favorite since she was 3 years old, pin punching!

Something she does a lot is copy words from wherever. She then asks me "What did I write?". I did it all by myself, she tells me!

Exploring the continent boxes is another of her favorites.

I pull this work out every so often because it does not get used enough and she has not mastered it.

Here she is with her MOST favorite part about homeschooling, playing with her baby brother. She tells me that if she went to school she would miss baby :-(. How sweet is that! Bella is such a great big sister.

Volcano Study

2011-01-12T21:16:00.000-06:00

Our Volcano Study began after I purchased a small Smithsonian volcano kit from Walgreens for about $7.

I googled the kit but could not find it. I did find this set from the Smithsonian store that includes 6 science kits. It includes the one we used.

Here is a small change I made to the kit so that I could put the string on faster. The string makes the volcano shape. You are suppose to put it through these little holes ( I am NOT that patient). So, I just got some scissors and cut the little holes so they are open and then you just press the string INTO the card board. See close-up picture above.

What else did we do?

1. Read books above Volcano's

2. Watched You Tube Video's of Volcano's. The videos allow them to experience the lava.

3. Around this time we did the Layers of the Earth Lesson. Here are some free Layers of the Earth Cards.

The kids really enjoyed coloring a layers of the earth and volcano coloring page.

ETC Press Inc. has free Parts of Volcano 3 Part Cards

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2010-12-27T19:46:00.000-06:00

We have been on vacation and will be returning in a week ready to start a new semester! Here is a few pictures of my sweet children!

We wish all of you a blessed Christmas and happy New Year with your family and friends.

Montessori Print Shop Giveaway

2010-12-08T18:50:00.000-06:00

Another wonderful Giveaway! Montessori Print Shop is giving away a Language CD with a Total of 108 Phonics Language Files! Go Visit and Enter to Win! This is their first of 12 Giveaways.

MFE Giveaway

2010-12-07T17:14:00.000-06:00

Montessori For Everyone is having a Giveaway! I love giveaways!!

The first give away is a $100 gift certificate from MFE Online Store and from Alison’s Montessori, this lovely Uppercase Tracing Board

Go HERE to visit their giveaway!

School Week 11 and 12

2010-12-04T19:49:00.000-06:00

October 18th - 29th

Botany - The Pumpkin

After discussing the life cycle of a pumpkin we carved it and discussed it using some discussion questions I found on-line but currently cannot find. I will keep looking and link back.

Field Trip to the Science Museum

The Museum had just opened the Dinosaur Exhibit

Practical Life


Sweet Boy has become more confident in making his breakfast and lunch. Sandwiches, toast, pouring cereal and milk to name a few things.

Zoology - Study of Sponges

We spent two weeks studying the sponge. Our studies always include 1. A book 2. A trip somewhere to see a life specimen if possible and/or a video (YouTube) 3. Three part cards 4. Coloring Page/Labeling 5. Sometimes an Art Project

History

Both kids created their Personal Time Line - Read about this Lesson Here

School Week 10

2010-12-01T22:42:00.001-06:00

October 11th - 15th

Time Work. I created small time cards for the kids to practice.

On one side I have the time written like so: 10:15. On the other side there is a clock face with the answer. They look at 10:15 and create the time with the red foam clock from Target $1 section and then look on the back to check their answer.

Bella is working on Whole Hour: 12:00, 1:00, 2:00 etc..

Sweet Boy is working on everything else! He had already learned whole and half hour at his previous school so I started with quarter hour and then went to all other times.

Necklace Work

Gardening

Sensorial

Life Cycle of a Pumpkin

Part of our Leaf Study which you can read about here.


Addition Strip Board Created from 2 Pequenos Traviesos

School Week 8 and 9

2010-11-27T20:03:00.001-06:00

September 27th - October 8th

Painting

Bella writing after we did a reading lesson.

Puzzle of animals and their homes after a Noun Lesson for Sweet Boy.

A visit to the Arboretum

We went to the Arboretum with a Part-time school's field trip. We have several friends in this group and they invited us to this field trip. Sweet Boy got to learn about the early Texas Pioneers in this 2 acre exhibit.

Babies first swing ride!

Pin Punching

Metal Insets

Writing with the movable alphabet. I currently work with Bella to help her figure out the middle sound. She does not have a problem with the beginning or ending sounds.

Transfer work. She is transferring pom-poms with tweezers.

In Geometry we have been working through the Geometric drawers. For the Polygons the kids created a Polygon book. They cut the shapes out and labeled. I helped them with this project.


We have been practicing skip counting every day. We are currently working on counting by 2's, 3's and 5's. Bella will skip count up to 10 and Sweet Boy up to 100.

Bella practicing her numbers. What I do with Bella is to ask her to practice one number a day, any way she wants to. I give her ideas like painting, sandpaper letters with sand or sand paper letters and then writing on blackboard, number worksheet, etc... There are days that she does not want to and then there are days that she will work on 5 numbers! It all evens out.

Disney World!

2010-11-26T21:56:00.001-06:00

We just returned from an exciting Disney World Vacation!

My sweet friend who lives in Orlando. We stayed with her and her family and got to spend lots of quality time together!

Sweet Boys favorite, trains!

My sweet friend and her hubby!

Peter Pan ride.


Baby enjoying, It's A Small World ride.

Playing Putt-Putt Golf.

Leaf Study

2010-11-15T21:33:00.000-06:00

We began our leaf study when Bella asked me to go with her to pick leaves.

This was over a month ago. Our study lasted about a month.

Here Bella has her bag of leaves and decided she needed to trace them in her notebook.

Both Bella and Sweet Boy did leaf rubbing.


Another week I presented the nomenclature - Parts of a Leaf for Elementary Age.

I made this Felt Work for Bella since we do not have a Leaf Puzzle. This is very simple, great for 3-5 year olds. I got this work free from Maybe Montessori.

On another week, we reviewed and got leaves to look at the different parts on real leaves.

On a bike ride around the neighborhood we picked lots of leaves and taped them to cards and worked on naming them. I wrote the names on the back.

On another week we used our leaves to sort by leaf margins, blade shape, and veins.

Leaf margins. On another day, we reviewed the leaf margins. I taped them on the door, said the name of the leaf margin and it's definition and we placed the names in it's place and found a leaf to place under it. We used the magnifying glass to look at the edge closely. This can be a little tricky!

Homeschooling Reflections

2010-11-06T21:34:00.000-05:00

My love hate relationship with homeschooling.

I LOVE that we don't have to be at school by 8:30am. I HATE that we don't have to be at school by 8:30am!!   What do I mean. Well, I love that there is NO rushing but I don't like that some days it is so hard to get started.   That some days it is 10am when we are starting our school day. With a baby you just can't say "Ok, we are starting at 9am". It is just not going to happen unless I have someone helping me with the baby.

I LOVE all of the time I get to spend with the kids. I HATE all of the time I spend with the kids!! OK, I would love to miss them a little :-) I LOVE Co-op days so that I can miss them!

All kidding aside, I've been reflecting a lot lately. Since I do work, I feel that I am not doing justice to the kids and my husband.   I used to read to the kids before bed every night and now I am so tired that I don't and the thing is that my husband does not take up the slack here.   Most of the time now I get the baby to sleep and let my husband get the big kids to sleep. We used to share this job. Once the baby goes to sleep I sit in front of the computer and get to work on my school work (answering e-mails, grading, checking on my students, doing my online office hours, working on SACS( our College is going through Accreditation). I get my work done and go to sleep. When I should be planning for the kids, I am working for the College, when I should be spending a little time with my husband or with the kids in the evening, I am working or just too tired to want to.....

Another reflection.   I don't feel I have enough time in the day to do everything I want to do with the kids. So, if they went to school then I could just concentrate on the 'cool' things I want to teach them outside of school time that I don't have time now because I spend a lot of time on basics and baby and life.

Another reflection. I am one person, trying to do the job of educating my child which usually takes 7 teachers at school. Two full-time teachers in a Montessori classroom, the Spanish, Nature, Music, PE, and Art teacher. These teachers get a planning period and a lunch break.   And don't get me started on the support group at school: lunch, materials makers, cleaning people, etc. etc.

Another reflection. There are many things I will want to start doing with Andres during the day that I will not be able to do or will have to hire babysitters so I can do it. His PT is starting to be more frequent, I can enroll him in aquatic therapy and music class (all free). Hard to do because they are weekday mornings.

What was I thinking.... (Don't answer that!)

I've come to the conclusion to at least one thing. If I homeschool next year (yes, I said IF), I will be using a curriculum that tells me what to do each week with weekly support meetings like "Classical Conversations" and keep Co-op OR I will join a part-time school (2 days at school, 3 days at home).

So, I will keep reflecting.

Shoe Polishing

2010-10-29T19:31:00.000-05:00

Shoe Polishing Work!

Items from our home.


This gets used A LOT! We all have shinny shoes!

Decorating for Fall

2010-10-23T17:16:00.017-05:00

My favorite season!

The kids love October because they get to dig through all the fall and Halloween decorations and help decorate! I love Fall because of the beautiful colors, the cooler weather, leaves falling, the pumpkins, and mums. Ahhhh!!

After the house is decorated I then sprinkle Fall and it's beautiful colors in our school.

Leaf shape sponges from Michael's.

Play-Doh with Halloween and Fall cookie cut outs

For making cards. The kids get a piece of construction paper decorate their card and write to and from.

They have made several cards for Grandma and Daddy!

For tracing and coloring

Necklace Work

Stamp on the tree, color and add leaves!

Cards and Counters

Add caption

Small, Medium, Large cards.

Look at the very bottom of this link for Halloween Cutting Skill Pages
This link has lots of great cutting skills pages.

School Week 7

2010-10-22T16:21:00.000-05:00

Week of 9/20/10

All about letters.


Presentation of all land and water forms. Kids LOVED it!

Used sandwich containers and clay.

Making thirds. We are doing this for whole - tenths.

Craft for letter 'Z' for Bella.

Baby Hanging out!


We finished Friday with Texas State Fair Parade and play time!

School Week 6

2010-10-14T22:55:00.000-05:00

A few pictures from Week 6 - September 13-17

Rhyming Puzzle - this was a challenge for Bella.

Geography puzzles were popular last month. I will sit with Bella and help her with these puzzles. I use a book to see where the pieces go. I wrote the name of the country on the back of each puzzle piece. So, I'll pick up Spain and say "Spain" look it up in the book and then she will put it in its place. This is not how this work is suppose to be taught but I like doing it this way.

Penny Work from Goldmark Montessori.

So proud

Coloring the Mexico flag I did a little Unit for September 16th.
I read the following books to the kids: Stories of Mexico's Indepence days and other bilingual children's fables.
Mexican Independence Day and Cinco De Mayo - MacMillan
They colored the flag and Mexico on a map of North America,

One morning the kids woke up wanting to play kitchen. So, I told them how about playing restaurant!

They created Menus. They decided how much everything cost. I wrote Bellas menu and Sweet Boy wrote his.

Sweet boy took my orders! Here he said "Sorry, I'm a little slow. Just learning to write!!!"

They loved it. I had a little purse with money to pay them.

Making Lemonade is a favorite Practical Life Activity.

Adding. I will be posting about this work later this week.

Bad Day

2010-10-12T21:47:00.000-05:00

What a day.

I have two classes with a total of 60 students that end tomorrow so I've been stressed about grading.

The physical therapist came today at 1pm to visit Andres and even thought I went through this with the kids and talked about how to behave and what to do while she was here my son acted HORRIBLE.

My son did not want to do ANY work because he got a new lego toy and that is ALL he can think about.

My daughter went to Catechesis this morning and wined all day after that. "I don't want to do any work. I worked hard this morning..." I told her it was fine to not do anything but then she complained about that!

Went through all of the effort in getting everyone out of the house on time to get my son to Catechesis at 2:30pm and the office told me "I'm sorry, we forgot to call you. 1st grade Catechesis was cancelled today due to testing" ARGH. I had to wake the baby up from nap for NOTHING.

I wanted to call my husband and say we are enrolling the kids in school. I can't do this any more...

So, I came home, yelled at everyone, made my son do work before he could go out to play with his friends and slowly chilled out as I worked with him.

I sure do hope tomorrow is better.

Continents

2010-10-10T19:41:00.000-05:00

I had this display up for the past month. This is a table between our kitchen and dinning,

Works Found here:

- Label the continents

- Make continent booklets

- Label the Oceans

- Continent Nomenclature

- Ocean Nomenclature

These labels are fantastic for Bella since she is just starting to read, The color of the font matches the continent color.

If you are not familiar with the Montessori Method here is a short explanation of how this material is used and at what age.

Ages: 3 and 4

-Will be presented with each continent. The teacher traces with her finger the continent puzzle piece and says the name. The child is encouranged to do the same. 3 period lesson is done.

-Child will match the puzzle pieces to the posterboard.

-Child will pin punch the continents. You can have these pre-traced on construction paper that matches your puzzle pieces,

Ages 4 and 5

- the child can create a continent book with each continent colored. They can write the continent names if writing.

- Continent and Ocean Nomenclature. Simple matching name to the continent.

Ages 3-5
Take the pin punched continents and make their own world map. The students that are writing can label the continents.

Ages 6-9
- Continent and Ocean Nomenclature - these actually have the picture, the name and a card with information.

- The child has a notebook where they write the continent and ocean name and write their own information about the continent or ocean. They DO NOT copy the definition from the nomenclature.

- The child can free hand their own continent map and color or paint and label. Pretty much they can do whatever they wish here. If you provide felt they can create a felt map or map with construction paper or whatever other media you wish to have here for them to create their continent map.

1st Grade: How the school day works and Curriculum

2010-10-02T21:19:00.002-05:00

Here is how I work with Sweet Boy and what I use.

1) I have a folder with 5 pockets for him. In that folder he will find work that HAS to be done that day. He does this folder work any time he chooses in the day.

2) He chooses work from the shelves.

3) He gets one or two lessons a day from me. I TRY to do a minimum of ONE Geometry, Fraction, Geography, History, Language Arts, Grammar, Botany, and Zoology lesson A WEEK.
I use the following curriculum. Montessori Research and Development Elementary Manuals.
These lessons are done in both Spanish and English.

4) I also have one Artist and one Musician we study a month. I do not have a curriculum for this. I use free resources on the Internet and check-out books from the library.

5) We have 30 minutes of planned physical activity when we do not attend Co-op. Read about our Co-op here.

Folder Work

Here are the works in his folder.

1. Spelling words. Some options I use for spelling. Only one of these is used a day.

a) A list of 5 words. He reads these to me, I then say the word and he spells it out loud and then either writes them on paper, white board or in a spelling notebook, OR paints them, OR writes a sentence with a at least 3 of the words, OR whatever else I figure out to get him to practice. I really try to make this fun by making silly sentences and finding fun ways to practice spelling. I always ask him how HE wants to practice. I will give him choices.

b) We could also be talking about something in the morning that he is interested in and we make a list of whatever it is we are talking about. He loves this. Like what he wants for his birthday or Christmas. Things about Baseball. Lego sets he wants. Animals from a country, etc...

c) A little container with objects for spelling or match the word to the pictures and use these for spelling.

OR

d) Finally, we could be writing a little research about something from the Cultural area and these will be our spelling words. Example: Writing a little about each of the water and land forms.

2. Math Problems. These are switched between: Math Facts (He uses the beads to help him if needed), golden bead or stamp game addition/multiplication, fraction work, money work or geometry work. Some times he does 2 or 3 of these a day. For example: he could do golden bead addition, fractions and money work. BUT he needs to work on addition daily (could be two or three problems).

3. Logic Worksheets from Lollipop Logic.
I am actually not doing one a day on these any more. More like two a week. But when they were easy we were doing one a day.

4. Fun Worksheet. For fun I put a connect the dot, maze, or search worksheet. He loves these.

5. A book to read to me.

In this folder he also puts work in progress. For example: currently he has a little book of fractions, parts of the plant and the continents that he is slowly working on.

Not in the folder but daily work.

He also has a Spelling Workbook (McGraw-Hill Spelling Level 1student book) he works on every day. He does at least 2 pages a day.

We are currently doing 10 sight words a day because he knows many of these and it is a review. We are working from the Dolch Word List.
Once he gets to words he does not know I will scale down to 5 sight words a day.

Sounds like a lot? If I were to add up how long it takes him to do this, I would say one hour. The exception is on days when we work on research. He writes a lot more and it takes longer.

Throughout the week we work on memorizing a prayer, the date in Spanish and English, and the weather in Spanish and English. Regarding the prayer. I am working on us memorizing mass prayers so the kids can be more involved during mass time. This should help with them not getting bored.

We also have computer time when we can get it in, usually 2 or 3 times a week.

I question myself weekly if my son is doing enough, not enough or too much. I just don't know. How do you know?

My First Link Up!

What do you do with your 1st grader? What is your curriculum? Link up, I would love to see! Please link to the exact blog post and not just to your blog using Mr. Linky below.

School Week 5

2010-10-01T21:22:00.000-05:00

Here are pictures from 3 weeks ago!

I wrote about our Botany lessons last week.


100 Board

Bella's Legos

Break time with little brother!

Making 10's. In this work the student tries to see how many ways he can make ten with two numbers. We use the short bead stair to try out different possibilities. This worksheet comes from Goldmark Montessori.

3D Bug Puzzle

Sink and Float Work

Cards and Counter Cards

Thus a transportation puzzle. Sweet Boy read the words for Bella to match to the pictures.

Plants - Botany Unity

2010-09-27T21:12:00.001-05:00

We started our plant study by planting seeds, talking about the needs of plants, watching a seed in a plastic baggie grow a root, and planting that root and seeing it grow into a plant.

Presentation of the parts of the plant. In this work you see the parts of the plant using a tree. The definition cards are for Sweet Boy because he is in 1st grade. For the 3-5 age group you only name the parts of the plant.

After talking about the parts of the plant I had the kids do a tree craft.

We used the pre-made labels and added Spanish Labels to practice.

Here is a close up.

On another day I wrote the name of the parts of the plant in both English and spanish for sweet boy to glue onto his tree. Bella watched. She did not want to add these to her tree.

Here is a close up. They color the entire tree on the first page. The second and subsequent pages look the same but they only color one part of the tree and write the part they colored. So you have 6 pages that look the same but the student only colors one part of the plant on each page and labels if ready to write. You can see the control chart that Bella is using. Bella does not write the parts of the plant only sweet boy.

Baby Got a Hair Cut!!!

2010-09-18T21:00:00.002-05:00

I've got ears!!

He is sooooo cute!! I just love his hair cut!!!

We took "Andresesito" (this is how Bella calls him!) to a kids hair cut place. I had enough with all of the hair. It was just so long. They cut about 2 inches. He could use more cut but that is a good start! Bella did not want him to get a hair cut. She cried and did not like it at first but now she is used to it!

School Week 4

2010-09-15T22:22:00.097-05:00

I thought I had posted this a few days back but it dissapeared....
Here it is again.

A few pictures of Week 4

We read about ants and put sugar and food out for them to see how they carried it.

Bug Microscope. He was looking up ant information. We also read a book on bugs and were discussing number of legs for different bugs so the kids pulled out the microscope to find out more information.

Bella worked on sequence work.

Here Bella is working on matching the lowercase letters to the uppercase letters. I got this work from Montessori For Learning.

On one particular cool morning I took a walk around the neighborhood with the baby and the kids rode their bikes. The kids then spent over an hour just testing out to see what would happen to different things they put on the wheel as it turned. Sticks, grass, rocks, dirt, etc...

Sink and Float. I presented this work and then put it on the shelf. The kids pulled out the work about 3 times this week.

More grinding work. It never gets old!

Each petal has a color name. The child reads the name or you read it for them and they paint the petal that color.


Here is the flower pot. Aqui esta el tiesto. They can paint this any way they wish. Then you make the stem and attach to the leaves.

Our Schedule

2010-09-14T22:18:00.000-05:00

A little about our Monday-Friday schedule.

Monday - Homeschool All Day

Tuesday - 8am-9:45 Bella goes to Catechism Class. Sweet Boy and I work.
A little more school here in the middle
2:30pm-3:10 - Sweet Boy goes to Catechism Class.

Wednesday - Homeschool All Day.
4:15pm Church Choir

Thursday - Co-op
10:30-4pm. At Co-op the kids take a Geography/History class, have lunch and then take four classes
(PE, Music/Theater, Games(Playing Board Games, Cards, Puzzles), and Cooking)

Friday - Homeschool All Day.
Field Trips are scheduled on Fridays through the Homeschool Co-op so we will attend those that interest us.

Catechism is 5 minutes from our home. My husband takes Bella in the mornings which allows me to work with Sweet Boy alone. I pick up Bella and take sweet boy in the afternoons.

Co-op - This is a huge homeschool co-op in this area. It is a very structured co-op with many classes to choose from starting at 8:00am until 4:00pm. I go to my office with the baby during co-op.

Bella is also involved in Y-Guides with my husband and Ballet/Tap. Sweet boy is in Cub Scouts with my husband and Baseball.

We are all very happy with this schedule.

Geography Resources - Flag Cards

2010-09-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

From Homeschool Creations

Here are free flag cards

School - Week 3

2010-09-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

We have been enjoying the cooler weather here in Texas. Look at our dead grass!

This is how I get sweet boy to go to nap while working with the kids. There is just no time to sit and nurse/rock quietly. It is NOT going to happen. So, I've learned to nurse and put him in here after nursing. He goes to sleep and then I take him out and put him in his crib!! Walking around in this hotsling puts him right to sleep. I also have to say that this is the easiest baby carrying contraption I have found. I tried the Bjorn (I'm not that coordinated), Ring Sling(too many parts) and the Warp (oh my, not sure I can do that)!! I did not even have to read directions on how to use this. I just looked at the picture and there!!

Five Kingdoms Presentation. For this presentation I checked out a book at the library to read about the Five Kingdoms. The more I know the more confident I feel talking about these. I gave the presentation once and reviewed on another day. I downloaded this work from here. I put color dots on the back for control.

Flags of the World.

United Sates Puzzle. Both kids did this map separately. My son did NOT want to work with Bella. This caused an ugly meltdown and me loosing my temper.

Happy working along side each other, after Bella had her meltdown and I mine!

Stamp Game. Sweet boy lets his sister give him the units, tens, hundreds and thousands he needs! It works out great.

Writing with the moveable alphabet. I ask him to do this work. Do not think for a minute he picks it out on his own!

Coffee grinding. They love this work and since I need the coffee grounded it works wonderfully for all of us!

Transferring beans. Any kind of transfer is also always popular.

Do you want to go back to school?

2010-09-03T21:13:00.007-05:00

When we told the kids last Spring we were homeschooling they were a little sad to leave their school. I was sad also since I really liked their school. Bella said she was going to miss the monkey bars and friends and I had finally found a school Sweet Boy liked. For a long time I did not know if I was doing the right thing. We have now been homeschooling for a month. Today I asked the kids if they wanted to go back to their old school and they said NO WAY!! That made me feel good!

The weather has been so wonderful around here. Here in Texas we have a saying "If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes and it will change." So true. Last week it was over 100 degrees. This week it is in the 70's! I love that we have been getting up and first thing we do is play outside. I love the relaxed mornings outside, drinking my coffee with baby, while watching the kids playing. And as I sit there taking it all in, I think about how at this lovely time we would be in the car, rushing to get to school on time and I would be praying that there would not be any traffic congestion.

Not rushing to get any where. Just enjoying our sweet baby! Yes, this is during school time!

These moments make me love homeschooling. If you do not homeschool, I don't want you to think it is a bed of roses. On the same day that I experience these lovely moments, the kids fight, someone complains about school work, I loose my temper, I feel lonely, tired, and/or frustrated. Just the fact of life. But I am learning to not react to fights, apologize when I loose it, get out of the house when I feel lonely, and follow the kids lead when it comes to school work.

Flags of the World

2010-09-01T13:01:00.004-05:00

Sitting on our Map stand.

I found this work at Walgreens for $5! The flags are magnets. This is difficult for little ones because it has pages with the map and flags of all of the countries so you have to search for the ONE magnetic flag for that particular country. You place the flag on one large page(see above) that has the map of the world. But the control does not look anything like this! Challenging for my almost 7 year old. Frustrating for my 4 year old!

School - Week 2

2010-08-27T15:39:00.000-05:00

I'm a week behind in posting. I've been having trouble downloading my photos from my new iPhone. The new operating system for the iPhone has been causing me lots of head aches...

OK, so here goes last week! I'm going to post soon how I structure our days and how things look like day to day here at home!

Geometric Solids. Sweet Boy saw this blind fold at the dollar section of Target and got so excited. This added that little extra something needed to get this work out!

Bella practicing her numbers.

Starting our garden. We are growing lettuce, peppers, green onions, and tomatoes. We will be transplanting these into big pots.

Noun Lesson with the Farm. These labels are in English on one side and Spanish on the other side. I used the dictionary in front of the kids to translate the words and wrote the Spanish word on the back of the English word. Bella walked around for days with this dictionary after I used it!

Feeding Baby! Bella loves to feed the baby. Both the kids help with diaper changes and bathing!

Pink Series Words. These are the CVC (Consonant, Vowel, Consonant). I'm going through the pink series words with Sweet Boy as a review. We should be done with these soon.

Puzzle during break time! Sweet boy will usually work with his legos.

Noun Key Experience. I've been doing my presentations with some words in Spanish and some in English.
The kids love on the baby ALL day long! They are really a huge help. The baby loves it and I love it!

Giggle Giggle Quack

2010-08-23T12:17:00.000-05:00

As you know, we LOVE the Theater. Where we live there is a Children's Theater. We attended for free! This was part of the Target Free Art + Culture Days this summer.

Duck, always getting the other animals in trouble!

Chicken!

Cow!

Pig!

AND Farmer Brown!

Knobless Cylinders

2010-08-21T22:52:00.000-05:00

Here is how I have the Knobless Cylinders work on shelf (Minus the sticker on the binder!)

I googled pictures of Knobless Cylinder work and enlarged them and printed them. Here is the ones I made.
I also found some Cylinder Work Cards for free and printed them. I put them in sheet protectors and put those in a 1/2" clear binder so my kids will notice them.

I personally LOVE to do this work myself which draws lots of attention and interest!

Here is Bella working after she saw me working with these.

Geoboard

2010-08-17T21:01:00.000-05:00

This is a very popular work. I googled "Geoboard" and clicked on "Images". I copied an image and pasted it into a word document. I then grabbed the sides of the image to enlarge it. I then printed it. I did not laminate but should probably put in sheet protector. The kids can then try to copy the shapes. The hexagon and octagon are difficult for my 4.5 year old but no problem for my 6.5 year old.

I plan to change the pictures weekly or every two weeks. The next pictures I want to print are some examples of making letters with the Geoboard. The Geoboard cost $3 at a teacher store and comes with the rubber bands!

How did our first week go?

2010-08-12T22:26:00.014-05:00

WONDERFUL!!

I absolutely loved our first full week of Homeschooling. It was so busy that I felt that our days were too short. This was a big surprise for me!

I was actually anxious the night before (like when you start a new job or have a new group of kids when teaching)! I thought that I would not have enough materials and lessons planned for the kids. I actually OVER Planned!

I made sure to plan something out of the house daily. Library, Pool time with friends, have friends come over to play, etc. It is 105 degrees here so we just cannot be outside right now unless we are in the water.

My son was a little reluctant the first and 4th day but I think it was from swimming the nights before. Just tired. They both did great at sitting through the lessons and participating in the lessons.

Bella was a maniac! She LOVES to work and made up some works for herself. Like this one above!
The first two days she did ask about TV ALL DAY! They watched a lot of TV this summer.

The kids did fight but not bad. The fights were not during school time though. The fighting happened during break times, lunch times and after school times. Not sure what that is about...

Our youngest student studied with us and we loved every minute he was awake during our school time!

I will be making changes to the school room this weekend. After this week I figured out that it is just too crowded.

We tended to work in the room in the mornings. Crafts on the dinning room table and worked in the living room in the afternoons for reading and spelling. So, I will be moving books to the living room making this our "library" area. All art will be in the dinning room where we can spread out! This will give us a lot more room in the school room.

Our school day started between 8:30 and 9am and we finished between 2 and 2:30pm. We had 30 minutes or more break in the morning and one full hour of lunch/play time. The only thing I did during our school time was school. Other than some quick morning chores, all of my attention is on the kids.

Here are some more pictures.

School Starts Tomorrow!!

2010-08-08T15:58:00.015-05:00

We are ready for home school to officially begin! We have been unschooling all summer. This means that I just put works on the shelf and they may work one day and not for two days! Just whenever they felt like it.

I've been telling the kids lately "Homeschool starts in a weeek...2 days.. etc..!" My son asked me "But, haven't we already been doing school? :-)" YES, but officially we will have a start date! August 9th! We will take first day back to school pictures and have a special breakfast! We purchased lunch bags, new school supplies, signed-up for co-op and we are ready!

Today, I want to share with you a few pictures of our school room. My loving husband worked hard along with me to get it arranged, shelves put together, etc.. We arranged the room three times!! The kids finally said "OK, this is good. Do not change it again :-)".

I have a map shelf ordered and I've changed and added works a little since I took these pictures.

When you enter the room and look to your left, this is what you see.
The shelf with the globe is the Botany and Zoology shelf. To the right of that is Language.

This is going to be the practical life shelf. Right now it has a few items that should not be there!

Small shelves have sensorial and Spanish. Next to that is one shelf with Writing/History, next to that is Math. Golden Beads will be on a different shelf. I just put those out today so I don't have a picture.

Here is the kids desk, tall shelf full of books (organized), and my desk.

Here is the chair I use to nurse the baby and to read to the kids. Next to that is the kids table.

Here you see where I display some books for the kids. The little reading area!
Also notice the two doors. I have two closets that are organized with materials, games, puzzles, and things I am saving and collecting for the baby.

This is a very small room so it took some creative arranging to get it this way!!

I have so much to share with you.

I plan to post about my planning, the kids co-op, a tour of each shelf, and what is behind the closets in the school room!

Free Knobless Cylinder Cards

2010-08-03T20:44:00.004-05:00

We officially start school next week! Since the school room is ready, the kids have already began working! School room tour soon!

I was trying to find free Knobless Cylinder Cards and came across yet ANOTHER great resource! Polestar Montessori. Here is the link to the free file.

By the way, just me working with these and making different patterns has sparked my kids interest. I also found images of extensions on the web and printed them out so they can look at them and try to replicate.

Andres' Birth Story

2010-07-29T23:31:00.036-05:00

Andres just turned four months old and I feel it is time to tell his birth story. I have been wanting to write this for a while now but every time I started I began to cry and I started to feel the pain. It is time. So here it goes friends.

Somewhere around 21 weeks pregnant I went for a Genetic consultation. It is advised that women over 35 do this. I was 38 at the time. I went not thinking anything was wrong with my baby, I just wanted the 2D sonogram. The genetic doctor asked if I wanted THIS test and THAT test and the other and I said "no, just the sonogram please". I felt and still feel there is no point in doing all of those test. If something was wrong, I would worry the entire pregnancy. So, I had the sonogram and everything looked great. The doctor said I was having a healthy baby boy. I went home happy.

The next time I went to see my OBGYN, the nurse asked if I wanted to have the quad screening test. This is a blood test that will test for a genetic disorder. Many women who experience an abnormal test result go on to deliver healthy babies. I had this test with my other two kids and so I did it with this one again feeling 100% sure that nothing could be wrong with my baby. Thinking this is just procedure.

Less than a week later I got a voice mail from the Nurse at my OB’s office that the Doctor needed to talk to me about my quad test. I called back but the Doctor was busy, it would be a few hours before she could call me back. NO, I thought, there is something wrong and I need to know now. I asked the nurse to please tell me what was going on. I could not wait for the Doctor to call me back, I was anxious. She told me my quad screening came back positive for Down syndrome. She kept talking but I heard nothing. I hung up the phone and called my husband at work scared. He said not to worry, everything would be OK. Later that day the Doctor called and said she had talked to the Doctor who did my 2D sonogram and that he had not seen anything wrong with the baby. She said I could go on to have an amniothentisis. My husband and I had already discussed this and without a hesitation had declined the test. We wanted this baby no matter what. We did not need any more tests. So with that, I put it out of my mind and did not think about it again. Not for ONE minute did I think about it again. Everyone finds it hard to believe but I just though the blood test was a false positive. So I went on to have the most WONDERFUL pregnancy.

Sunday, March 28^th, two weeks before my due date, I just knew the baby was going to get here early. You just know these things. I went into panic mode to get everything done that needed to get done. We cleaned the house and got everything ready for the baby to come home.

At 3:30am on Monday March 29^th I started to experience labor pains. Since this was baby number three, I knew the drill. The contractions came every 20 to 30 minutes. I was so excited. I had everything ready for my perfect little boy. I could hardly wait to meet him. I remember the joy I felt when I heard my two other children cry when they were born. Such joy! I was ready to meet him and hear him.

That morning I decided to just wait at home until the contractions came closer. Even though I was having a c-section, I did not want to be sent home once I got to the hospital. I wanted to make sure I went in and stayed in! My husband went to work (he only works 5 min away) so he could get things ready for his substitute teacher.

I called my Mom that morning and we all went into exciting, “OH baby is coming mode!” I asked Mom to pick up a few things I needed before she came to pick up the kids and I packed for the kids to stay with Mom. A friend of mine in the neighborhood just happened to stop by and she stayed with me and the kids until Mom got there. We all had a great time getting through my contractions!

Once the contractions got a little closer I called my husband at work and said it was time to go! The baby was coming! We took our time getting to the hospital. No rush, things were progressing very slowly. As we were walking into the observation area I heard a woman screaming through a contraction. I thought, “Wow, I don’t feel THAT bad”. When we opened the doors the woman looks up at me in tears, it was a neighbor of mine! She also had gone into labor!

Quickly I got hooked up to the observation machines and within an hour they told me the baby was coming today! My c-section was scheduled for 6pm that evening. (There was a lady before me delivering triplets!).

As my husband and I waited for the c-section we texted all of our friends that the baby was arriving today! We laughed and goofed around and were anxious to meet our little man! We were just two happy parents with no worries.

The triples took longer so my sweet Andres came at 7:07pm. It was a sweet birth, same as the others. The doctor filled us in play-by-play and within a few minutes I heard his cry. SO SWEET!

When I saw Andres I thought “Wow, he is more beautiful than my other two children” I suspected nothing. He was beautiful.

We were taken into recovery were I got to nurse the baby and my family and children came in to see us. Excitement and joy was all we experienced.

I went to sleep happy that I had a healthy, beautiful baby boy.

The next day the nurse takes Andres away to the nursery for the doctor to check him. The normal check-up. My husband and I are happy, talking on the phone and texting everyone about Andres’ birth. A few hours later the Doctor came into our room, introduced herself and asked a question that I can’t remember but something to the effect “if there had been any problems during my pregnancy or if we knew if there was anything wrong with the baby or maybe it was did I see anything wrong with the baby”. I did not think anything of this question and said “No, everything was fine”. Then she said “We think your baby has a Chromosomal condition.” I just starred at her unsure of what she meant. “We think he has Trisomy 21”, continued the Doctor. “What is that?”, I asked. “Downs Syndrome”, she said. And my world stopped.

My eyes watered but I held back. In my mind I made the decision to not feel. I needed to remember this conversation. My husband was behind me so I could not see his face. I did not turn to look at him. I couldn’t let myself cry, I needed to talk to the Doctor. Nothing existed in that room except the Doctor and I. I kept eye contact with her. She kept talking saying that they had sent a test to a special lab but the result would not return for a week. A WEEK? I exhaled as I thought, “I can’t wait a WEEK to know”. I proceeded to ask her why she thought he had Down Syndrome. She told me the signs that she had seen and so after telling me everything she had seen my heart felt heavy and I then knew there was no point on waiting for the test. She knew and now I knew. The minute she left our room, I broke down crying in my husbands arms. I could hardly breath. It felt like a bad dream.

I cried every time I thought about it. My husband was so sweet and positive. But no matter what he said it did not make it better. I just wanted to hold my son and protect him. Those 4 days in the hospital and weeks after were very difficult for me. Finally, the test results came back and even though I did not need to see them I got them and as I read them all of the pain came back. My father was with me. He said nothing, just sat with me in silence.

As the days, weeks and months passed, I slowly started healing. I saw my son grow healthy and acting just like any other baby. Andres is very healthy. The only physical problem he was born with was three small VSD's which the Cardiologist says will close within a year.

We started calling Andres our Angel. We felt we had been blessed with an Angel.

God trusted us with such a special person.

We knew our world had changed never to go back to the way it was.

Our children will also be changed.

When I look into these Angels eyes, I know he knows who I am.

I feel the connection between us. I feel his love.

I miss him when he sleeps.

I love him so much.

Our family is now complete.

Baby Activities

2010-07-26T08:00:00.003-05:00

What is the baby due ALL day?

HE

Sleeps A LOT
(Baby at 3 months)

Lets brother and sister read to him!

Hangs out in the play pen enjoying the scarf!
(safe from brother and sister!!!)

Works on rolling over!

Works hard at reaching for objects.

Lays and stares at strange things Mommy puts in front of him!

Hits those strange things Mommy keeps putting in front of him!

Another Great Resource: Primary AND Elementary Downloads

2010-07-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

Here is another great resource.

Kyle, a former Montessori teacher has created TONS of materials for Primary AND Elementary. I love ALL of her downloads. This is an incredible price for ALL that you get. There is lots of materials to work at the elementary age level which is difficult to find.
Thank you Kyle!

Montessori For Learning

You will see my kids using these materials this year!

Loteria: Game Night!

2010-07-23T23:15:00.005-05:00

We are ALWAYS together! But, we thought it would be fun to start some official family nights!!
We started family movie night, game night, and book night. The book night is where we all read together not just me to the kids or my husband to the kids.

Here is a picture of us playing Loteria, a Mexican Bingo game. This was SOOOO much fun. My husband is Mexican so he actually played this as a child. The deck is composed of a set of 54 different images, each one in a card. To start the game, the caller (cantor, or singer) randomly selects a card from the deck and announces it to the players by using a riddle or humorous patter instead of reading the card name. The riddle is the fun part. For example:

El paraguas (The Umbrella)

Para el sol y para el agua. (it stops the son and it stops the water). You sing out "EL PARAGUAS"!!

47 La corona (The Crown)

El sombrero de los reyes. (The kings hat)

The following two have rhyming words so I will not translate.

48 La chalupa (The Canoe)

Rema que rema Lupita, sentada en su chalupita.

49 El pino (The Pine Tree)

Fresco y oloroso, en todo tiempo hermoso.

Here is a link to the riddles that go with the cards.
I found the game at a Fiesta Supermarket for a few dollars. The kids really enjoyed playing the game and most of all, they are really enjoying family night!!

Baptism

2010-07-13T08:00:00.004-05:00

I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Proud Godparents!

We just returned from a trip to Brownsville. We had a private Baptism for Andres arranged by the Godparents, my sister in-law Rosie and friend Father Franco. It was beautiful.
We are so blessed to have this wonderful priest in our life! I only wish we lived closer.

After the Baptism we had a beautiful dinner at Father's house enjoying our time with the family! A special thank you to my sister in-law for doing all of the work!!

Homeschooling Transition

2010-07-11T14:19:00.015-05:00

I loved the post Homeschooling the First Year: Transitions from the Homeschool Classroom Group Blog. It had me laughing because Michelle could have been talking about me!!! Read it, you will love it! She is doing a series on homeschooling the first year.

The panic attacks are less these days!!!

Last year was a piece of cake. I was schooling half days and it was pre-k 3 and kinder. So, simple, so easy. Now, it is ELEMENTARY...dum, dum, dummmmm. 1st grade should be easy, RIGHT? Nope, not with Montessori! You've got Language Arts, Mathematics, Geometry, Fractions, Botany, Zoology, Geography, History, Physical Geology, Art, Music, and Religion. I am a teacher but I have had to teach maybe three subjects at a time NOT 12. They really should pay Elementary school teachers more money!!

Also, the days I play referee all day, I don't want to homeschool and the smooth days where everyone is cooperative I feel that I can do it!

When my daughter tells me "Mommy what can we learn? Let's go into the school room so you can teach me something" or I see my son writing, writing, writing, adding, adding, adding, I know I want to be part of this!!

GOOD DAY!

This happened yesterday. Sweet Boy started using the moveable alphabet. He has been doing lots of writing for the past month, all on his own. Just wanting to write and copy stories from books.

He got the moveable alphabet and started to make words

and then decide to make a little story. This is a sentence written right to left and bottom up. "A cat had a hat." I then talked to him about left to right and top to bottom.

He fixed it and wrote another sentence. "His name was chad."

He then decided on his own to write the story on a piece of paper! I was very excited because Sweet Boy is 6 1/2 years old and up to this point had hardly any interest in the moveable alphabet and did not show a lot of interest in writing either.

And are you asking what is Bella doing when all of this is happening? She is doing exactly what he is doing! Sometimes, she will take his papers and trace his numbers and letters. She will ask me to help her make a word with the moveable alphabet and she will then trace the letters.

Both kids make pretend lists, after lists and check off what they have "accomplished"! Lists are part of my life so they have made them part of theirs!!!

So, as far as today, we are schooling at home!
Happy Sunday!

That is not how my teacher does it!

2010-06-30T14:03:00.010-05:00

I have presented the geometric solids (video presentation), red rods and constructive triangles to my children. They have had these presentations at their schools already but I wanted to present them also since I purchased the materials and they will be on our shelves. The funny thing is that as I present they tell me how their teacher did it and they teach me a thing or two!!

The only problem is when they say “No, that is not how you do it. My teacher does it this way!”. This can get frustrating when I have something new to show them. For example: I showed the kids a game with the geometric solids where they close their eyes and name the solids by just feeling them. Well, at first my son said “no, we don’t do that at school. We can’t do that”. So, I had to tell him that I had seen this game in Bella’s classroom and basically gently convince him that it was OK. This is going to happen a lot so I better get used to it…

Bella doing the red rods. She stopped after the fourth rod.

Hmm, how is this go again?

When I presented the red rods to Bella she asked her brother to help her do the maze. Sweet boy had forgotten so I quickly googled it on my iPhone, showed them a picture and they figured it out!

The three of us walked the maze! I really love how this works on balance. Bella has a difficult time doing it since she is so hyper. She has to slow down which is difficult for her but she loved it and tried it many times.

We have been on vacation but we will get back to work when we return!

Sweet Baby Pictures!

2010-06-17T21:00:00.000-05:00

My sweet little man is 2 1/2 months old.

I love this little boy sooo much. I look at him and I can see that he knows who I am.
When we talk to him he will talk to us with his first sounds: acoo and ooh! He is smiling, laughed once and is rolling over!! Every milestone is so special.

And his brother and sister are CRAZY about him!
The first thing in the morning they ask for is their sweet baby brother!

My Dad

2010-06-16T05:00:00.001-05:00

Opening Day of the Texas Rangers.
It is a family tradition for us to go. This is the first year in 10 years that I do not attend.

Here are some pictures of when my Dad came to town. My Dad lives in Puerto Rico. This is where I lived until the age of 11. I scheduled him to come in two weeks before the baby was due. Well, Andres decided to show up early and Dad arrived the day I was leaving the hospital. He was very disappointed because he wanted to see me and my belly, get to go out, and be there for the action! He said he wanted to enjoy me. Pero Dios sabe lo que hace! But God knows what he does!

Dad was such a HUGE help. Wow! God love him.
He is such a logical, patient, calm and loving person.
He drove me and Andres to our many Dr.'s appointments and took care of the kiddos when they arrived from school.
He was also here to sit with me and talk while it was just him, Andres and I.
To sit and have our coffee which we LOVE so much.
To hear my stories and remind me how things are just they way they are suppose to be.
To comfort me when I cried...
I wish I could have my Dad close to me.
I miss him.

Happy Father's Day Papi!

What we have been up to!

2010-06-12T20:00:00.000-05:00

Arts and Craft

From Michael's.

Math

Sweet boy has been doing addition work on his own. He says "I am going to do plusses"! He has been writing math facts and adding on a play cash register we have. Bella tries to do everything her brother does so she takes his work and traces over the numbers!

Spanish

Language

Bella is always asking for "Homework Mommy!"

Beginning sounds, r, p, s, i.

Beginning sounds c, m, a, t
Some of these small items came from the kids lego, barbie, and playmobil items. They do not like me taking their little toys. When Bella took out the little items she said
"NO, my barbie toys. You can't use these!!"

Physical Education!

Pump it Up
Open jumping days.

Our next door neighbor lets us use their pool while they work!
Great neighbors!!

Science

Looking for bugs in the backyard. Add binoculars and it is a huge hit!

Here the kids have little bug nets and containers to put their bugs in.

Making fossils with plastic bugs and play dough.

Sweet Boy asked how does a spider make a web. I went online and found this video that answered his question! Lately he has been asking LOTS of what and how questions so I am on the Internet ALL of the time looking for answers!

Below:
This work from last year has been popular.

I purchased sea animals at Target last year and found real pictures of the sea animals on-line and had them printed at Walgreens. Bella names them and matches them. I have labels for Sweet Boy to read and add to the work.

So much fun!

Talking Microscope

2010-06-10T10:54:00.000-05:00

I love this Microscope. Sweet boy had been asking for a Microscope so I thought I would start with this $40 Microscope from Mardel, a teacher and Christian store. It is called GeoSafari Talking Microscope

The Microscope comes with slides of bugs. The slides have a code the kids enter and the microscope tells them all about the bug. It then has quizzes. They love this microscope and we have learned so much about bugs!

You can also put anything under it to see it 5 times its size. We looked at leaves and flower petals to look under the scope.