Happy Memorial Day. Today is also my two-year-old little stinkers birthday. Lots of cake and watermelon to be had today. Of course today I have another guest post and inside look at an awesome homeschooling family! Be sure to check out the other interviews in our series so far.
Meet Elisabeth, of Mchomeschool, she’s essentially the Montessori math guru. Her blog has helpful tutorials on making materials plus recommendations on excellent resources. If you’re needing a more in-depth walkthrough of an elementary level presentation, don’t miss her Instagram stories — there is so much amazing content there! She’s hardcore rocking an authentic and practical elementary Montessori homeschooling experience for her kids, and I admire her so much.
Please introduce yourself.
I’m Elisabeth but everyone calls me E. I have 3 children: two girls (8 and 6) and a boy (4). We focus on elementary-aged homeschooling and lean heavily (though not exclusively) to a Montessori approach. I blog at https://mchomeschoolblog.wordpress.com/ and can be found on Instagram @mchomeschool.
Why do you choose to homeschool your children?
My husband was homeschooled so it was always an educational option for us. I was apprehensive at first, but when our family experienced a one year move to Texas during what would have been my oldest child’s Kindergarten year, it felt like the perfect “experiment” year. When she declared homeschooling “the best thing about our move to Texas” (and I strongly agreed), I knew we could homeschool longer term.
Now that I’m committed, I see a significant number of benefits for our family. To rattle off my top 5 reasons: 1) my children learn at their own pace, 2) they can pursue their interests, 3) we are able to meet the needs of our neurodiverse child, 4) sibling relationships are incredibly strong, and 5) my children participate in 2-3 extracurriculars but still get plenty of sleep!
I will say, we are taking it a few years at a time. Right now, I feel committed to elementary homeschooling for all the children, but I have no particularly strong feelings about homeschooling beyond that. It will be a well considered decision between my husband, each child, and myself how long we continue to homeschool.
One thing that makes us a little unusual is that I don’t homeschool preschool, and our children have all attended play-based preschool (when it’s not a global pandemic). In addition to homeschooling, I also work part-time, and I just don’t have the hours in the day to devote to both preschool and elementary homeschooling. Also, if I’m being completely honest, I’d say preschool isn’t my favorite age to homeschool, but I adore elementary school!
With all of the options, methodologies and curriculums available to homeschoolers today, what drew you to Montessori
homeschooling specifically?
I attended Montessori schools as a child. In some ways, it was a very easy choice because I’m simply replicating my elementary school experience. In other ways, it’s been a real learning process for our family because my husband was homeschooled but with a somewhat different approach. So I guess Montessori homeschool is how we put it all together! Once we got started, I grew particularly enamored of Montessori math. I have at least one “mathy” child and the Montessori method has allowed me to present concepts to her that are very complicated but made approachable by the materials.
Do you have a dedicated homeschooling space? Why or why not?
I do. It’s a small landing off our second floor. I’ve always had one, and it’s really important for me psychologically to even just have a few dedicated shelves that I can keep organized (in our 1st home, it was literally one shelf). For us, it’s helpful to have that boundary between school and other aspects of our lives. I also found that practically speaking, it was impossible to have play dates without a dedicated space because so many of the materials look like toys. They are so appealing but of course I don’t want them misplaced or damaged.
Oh man, can I relate to that! Definitely my experience too. 🙂
If you had the chance to tell yourself one thing at the beginning of your homeschool journey, what would it be?
I would tell myself not to buy anything until I had a clear conceptualization of what lessons it enabled and how that lesson fit into the scope and sequence. I wasted a lot of time / money buying things that 1) turned out not to be core Montessori materials and 2) materials that didn’t appeal to my children. It’s so easy to see hundreds of materials in a classroom and forget that those are meant to appeal to 20+ children. You simply don’t need all the same things; you only actually need what will be compelling to your children.
Great advice, and I love looking at how you came to homeschooling your kids and all the important considerations you continue to weigh about their education. Thank you so much E — especially for the help I’ve gleaned from your homeschooling posts!
Everybody look for a @mchomeschool collaboration with @Kindlingkids and @modernclassicalhomeschool for a super cool attribute material available later this week. I can’t wait to get to try it!
