Week three of our new series brings us to Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum. We stayed busy as always with our usual Montessori workload.
I’m currently reading Montessori Today: A Comprehensive Approach to Education from Birth to Adulthood by Paula Polk Lillard. This book is a great overview of the whole Montessori pedagogy, and I’ve been highlighting the dickens out of it.
One of the lines I felt particularly affirming spoke about the importance of Montessori children choosing their work after the initial presentation by the teacher.
“It is in this subsequent use of the material by the children that substantial learning takes place.”
I find this so true. I was asked recently how we get so much work done each week. I think for me the secret is I only do presentations on alternating days. On the other days, I ask my kids to choose work they already know how to do independently. This offers a nice reprieve for me to kind of catch up on what I need to be preparing for the next day’s work. But ultimately it facilitates that substantial learning Paula Polk Lillard mentions.
I was also joking a bit when I wrote on Facebook that I think Montessori Homeschooling is the freezer cooking method of the homeschool world. You prepare your environment up front then enjoy the fruits of your labors as you sip coffee and the kids teach themselves. Ah behold the beauty of child-led learning!
________________________________________________
March 26-30
Updating our calendar. You can read more about these beautiful wooden calendars here if interested! Do you spy our ultrasound image of teeny baby William (who is now not so teeny and due in 2 months)?? 🙂
Language:
Reading Lakeshore Readers like a pirate…
Here are the Waseca North America readers. I was surprised how difficult the beginner red level was on this set. Nevertheless…
The idea is to read the picture-less reader, match the image cards to what you read in sequence, then match the labels to the images.
They were enjoyed but not a favorite. Not yet anyway — we will see what more practice and more confidence says about that.
Mary worked on 3 part vocabulary cards from Maitri Learning this week. She enjoyed talking about the differences in a tornado and waterspout and mentioned how she’d like to never go through another hurricane. I’m with Mary on that one! But thus is Florida life I’m afraid.
The kids also just finished listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on Audible at bedtime and are now listening to the Magic Tree House series per Mary’s request.
Music:
I think that’s a good time to bring up violin. They’re polishing pieces for Homeschool Orchestra and Josie is a week and a half into learning the Harry Potter theme.
There’s quite a lot of work to go, but I’m crazy proud of her.
Geography / Cultural:
We started our North America portfolio work from Waseca Biomes. Isn’t it so pretty? I love all their artwork. Talented folks.
We are learning about different facets of the Temperate Forests of North America. On this day we talked about the Amish community and their way of life.
Waiting your turn is hard. 😉
Surprisingly no one revisited our Everglades mat this week, but we had so many new materials going on, I’m not too surprised. Hopefully next weekend we will have a field-trip (or two) that refreshes our interest in the Wetlands of Florida and all the ecology that implies.
Next week I’m going to have them start stamping their pretend passports as to what biomes we’re “visiting” around the globe. Hopefully I will get them writing some “research” reports too. Fun stuff — you’ll see.
Math:
Yet another week where Cheerio math reigned favorite math work. Josie probably logged another 4 hours this week adding and building numbers. I think next week we will definitely focus on two digit subtraction.
Mary worked on her five bead long chain. She make the connection on her own that the numbers made a pattern between 5s and 0s. I was elated about that.
Showing that the 5 bead squares make one 5 cube:
Being goofy.
Here you can see her working on this while Josie works on writing up her work plan. A little chaotic but nonetheless…
Mmmm caffeine…
Josie took a turn with the multiplication board.
She did beautifully and got through all the 3 times table.
More clock work. Show me a kid that doesn’t like assembling a clock though.
We got in more counting by 5s with this of course!
Fraction apples are still a favorite. The kids all enjoy swapping them out to see the different combinations they can add together. Sensorial exploration of fractions if I ever saw it!
Alas no apple fraction MUFFINS still. But with Holy Week couldn’t we argue it wouldn’t have been quite appropriate? Yeah. Best to save them for next week since I’m sure my kids won’t be sugared up enough on Easter candy alone. 😉
Sensorial:
Three part cards matching shape names. I have to really help her with reading these. Some I can’t even pronounce myself.
Sound cylinders while lanky legs look on. 
It is so hard to get this kid holding still.
This box of constructive triangles was new this week.
More geometrical names. Think this was the same day as before but just revisited.
Oh and I hung my timeline of life! We’re going to review that next week hopefully. Or maybe not. Realizing I need more shelf space for new materials… ha. Soon! I have super cool fossils to add to this work that should prompt a lot of interest! So much fun stuff, so little time before baby / Summer arrives.
Science:
Proud that we finally broke out the bohr model atom board. This method of teaching beginning chemistry and the periodic table is truly hands on and fun. I think this (or possibly the clock) was Mary’s most preferred work this week.
We made our own beads.
The long-term goals here are that we’re able to build our own models simply by looking at the periodic table, figuring out how many rings are in the electron shell by examining the horizontal periods, identifying the charges and figuring out the number of electrons through simple subtraction.
The short-term goals are that she knows the nomenclature: the parts of the atom are called subatomic particles, and they consist of the proton, neutron and the electrons, the nucleus contains the protons and neutrons and the electron orbits the nucleus. Then I’d love if she could build the first 20 elements independently using cards.
Honestly though I just like to hear her say “subatomic particles.”
Believe it or not — she loves this work.
This is building Calcium. I later fell down a Reddit rabbit hole trying to comprehend the 2-8-8 rule vs the total number of electrons the third ring can ultimately hold vs why 8 makes for a more stable atom. I gave up on this because even though I have always loved Chemistry my brain prefers other tasks.
True story, when I was told in high school that my electives choices conflicted on my Senior year schedule, and it was either take AP Chem or Steel Drum since they were both during the same time period, I took Steel Drum.
I would always take Steel Drum.
But anyway, I love that she loves this.
Catechesis:
Since it was Good Friday we did a kid-friendly Sorrowful rosary, colored some pictures and watched Prince of Egypt so they’d understand Passover a little better.
This book series of religious art depicting the mysteries of the rosary is really a fantastic find and highly recommended.
Time to draw…
This is Mike’s drawing of “Jesus riding on His giraffe.”
Mary’s depiction of the crucifixion.
Josie’s depiction. Note both girls included cobblestone streets which is a detail we noticed in one of the paintings in our book.
All of the religious art we looked at was truly an amazing facilitator for conversation. We talked about Veronica wiping Jesus’ face, what it would be like to be Simon being pulled into action, and how Jesus seeing His mother would make Jesus and Mary both so sad. We talked about how Jesus loved even the angry crowds of people jeering at him. We talked about the thorns that we had growing in our yard on our roses and lime tree. We talked about who Pilate was and what his wife dreamed and what washing your hands symbolizes. We discussed the rich symbolism of the innocent and obedient Paschal lamb being sacrificed which was depicted in several paintings, and we talked about the Eucharist.
Then we watched Prince of Egypt to get a better understanding of the Passover story. I have no shame in using media to convey Biblical stories I wish my kids already knew. I figure as long as they do eventually get committed to their memories and hearts, I’ve ultimately done my job. 😉
Snuggling with Dad during Prince of Egypt on Netflix.
I caught Josie praying independently a good 15 mins or so today the Sorrowful mysterious with the book. And Mary spent forever working hard on her drawing. Proud of these little ones!
And that in a nutshell is this week. I’m sure I’ve left some out again, but it’s funny that I can’t remember anything we’ve done unless I snapped a photo of it. Maybe one day I’ll write a post describing our study of musical genres that takes place in the car — our “school of rock” lessons. Today I exposed the kids to “Jesus Freak” on the way home from therapy.
____________________________________________
Our upcoming plan for next week involves hopefully a field trip to see the Florida Panther and other wildlife (fingers crossed), apple muffins (fingers crossed) and a slew of other activities.
Such activities include:
Waseca Biomes Masters for the North America Readers
Masters to make books about the Amish community
Introducing animals (etc) that live in the temperate forests of N America
Stamping animal research
Apple fraction muffins
Field trip about Florida wetlands
Cursive shaving cream fun
Waseca grammar cards (nouns and articles)
Atom element cards (1-10)
__________________________________________
Interesting pins this week are as follows:
1) How adorable is this two cup measuring cup from World Market? I have plans for setting up an independent baking station soon. Again too many ideas, not enough time…
2) Also how cute is this little tray for shaving cream writing?
3) We had First Holy Communion portraits taken thanks to great friend being very generous and sweet. The photos came out SO cute. 
We got some family portraits done too with my big ole belly. Updating our Christmas photo in the right hand bar finally.
4) Always reading, reading, reading studies about music. I know the “Mozart effect” cannot increase IQ obviously (like music training can in fact!), but I still like to play it when we have our “subsequent use” of materials for substantial learning.
I always teach a lesson first sensorially, quietly so the focus is on the materials in action and not deciphering my words. The second presentation is when I add in the verbal explantations. Anything past that I feel like we can strengthen the connections being forged by giving both brain hemispheres a little workout to music while processing our work.
Here you can see the kids in action on Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg1G1XqDFJ3/?taken-by=cosmic_montessori
5) Oh one last thing! We did some gardening and our squash are getting quite droopy in the hot afternoon sun. We learned that if the plants are healthy in the morning and evening, it’s generally a sign of an immature root that cannot wick moisture up to the giant leaves quick enough. Makes sense and I’ve learned something new despite growing squash in the past!
Our tomatoes and peppers are loving the March heat though. Hope our little yellow squash grow some roots quick!
Well that is my verbose and lengthy week in review. Hope it was half as fun to skim through as it was to experience firsthand. Got to love staying busy.
