Oh man I love me some Montessori materials. EVEN when they’re a little wonky. I ordered a set of grammar symbols off of Amazon (I know but Prime). Not only did they not arrive in two days (gasp), but they arrived damaged. You can’t really tell because it’s just the points of two of the pyramids smashed in a bit, but eh. After many emails to try to return them, the company finally gave me a refund and said, just keep the damaged goods. Actually what they said is, we will not send you a replacement unless you give us a good review on Amazon — to which I scoffed haha, no. And after the next email from them said the same thing, I got Amazon involved (ok so sometimes ordering through Amazon is pretty great). Anyway long story short, I got a refund, and they said just keep the materials.
Next problem…
I was all set to present the article lesson when I thought to myself, Huh. That article pyramid is not a light blue. It’s the same color as the adjective.
Then after some momentary self-doubt and hustling for light blue paint, I had another mini DIY moment. Bam. Light blue article.
And now they’re beautiful at least in my eyes. More importantly, like Tom Brady, they did their job (sorry Jags #football #ADHD) and the article grammar lesson went off without a hitch.
This is a demonstration of the article game.
We are in truth a little late to be introducing this grammar lesson since my kids are 7 and 9, but I was instantly impressed with how interested they were in working on this and how easily they grasped the concept. I really, really love Montessori grammar (and math and sensorial and practical life and every other Montessori area actually). If you want to have fun homeschooling, the Montessori method really holds so much joy just waiting to be tapped into and explored by both the educator and students.
(After my paint job)
Like I’m a shooting star leaping through the skies
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I’m a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
I’m gonna go go go
There’s no stopping me…
I have found that kids tend to understand grammar more quickly if you wait till they are a bit older to introduce it. I think yours are the perfect age. I also flat out refuse to teach sentence diagramming like we were taught in school. I have found that for my kids something along the line of Easy Grammar’s underlining and crossing out was MUCH less painful for my kids (and me).