Our Country Road

TOS Review: Heritage History's Introductory Curriculum for Young Reader's

2012-05-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm Lisa and I have a problem. I have an addiction to buying books. I think it comes with the territory of homeschooling, but used book sales are one of my favorite places in the world. A whole room just full of interesting texts, beautiful pictures, and stories of history. I could bring them all home. There is just one BIG problem.

You see, my husband was on to me and my book buying addiction. So, he staged an intervention. He informed me that the two bookshelves in our living room were MORE then enough room to store all the books I would need to own. Then he handed me a Kindle and told me I can use it to store all the books I wanted.

I was thrilled to own a Kindle Fire, but I have another confession. I am NOT technologically inclined at all. Seriously. I have to ask my 6 year old to turn on various electronic gadgets for me. She can hook up a DVD player, VCR, media player and more. Me? I'm lucky to find the on button.

Heritage History's Young Readers Classical Curriculum CD has been helping me with both of these problems!

The Heritage History Young Reader's CD contains 86 books, recommendations, and a teacher's guide. Yes you read that right, EIGHTY SIX BOOKS! And, I only have to find room for one tiny CD!

The books are all historical books that are now copyright free. Heritage History has compiled them and reformatted them into PDF, EPUB and Mobi files, giving you the option of viewing them on a Kindle, IPad, Computer, or printed document. The CD contains a GREAT tutorial on how to move the books from your computer to your e-Reader, hence the techie sounding explanation from me. I didn't know what a Mobi was before! I even got the privilege of telling my techie husband!

The books that Heritage History chose to put into the Young Reader's collection are wonderful! I like books, but there are so many that I have never read or even heard of. Many of the stories in this collection are new to me.

Some of my favorites include:

Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, Edward Eggleston

Stories of the Pilgrims, Pumphrey

American History Stories Volumes I, II, III, IV, by Mara Pratt

And a whole series of Twins stories from Lucy F Perkins. We are currently reading Dutch Twins and the kids love it! I think it's a cute story, too!

You can view the entire list of stories here. (Scroll down past the list of CD volumes)

The Heritage History CD's are compiled to be used as a history curriculum. Each disk includes a Teacher's Guide and recommendations on how to use the curriculum to get the most out of it for your child.

My children are just a little young to read these stories on their own, but I am excited to have such a rich library of texts to read from. We read each night before bed, and I know that these stories will keep us busy for a LOOONG time.

Now, I mentioned that the stories on the Heritage History disks are historical texts. All of which are copyright free. I mentioned this to my husband and he wanted to know why one would pay money for this product, then? I wondered the same thing! So, I began looking for other sources of the texts online.

First, I used the story we are currently reading, Dutch Twins, as my guinea pig. I could find it for free on the Amazon website, ready for Kindle Download. However, it did not have pictures! And, with three little ones reading with me, pictures are VERY important!! Next, I tried the American History Stories by Mary Pratt. I was able to find it, too for $1.99 each volume. Nearly $8.00 if you purchase just the 4 books in that series. I didn't go through all the stories, but if even half of them cost, you would save a lot of money to buy the CD collection.

You can, however, read all the stories on the Heritage History website at no cost. I found that with our Kindle e-Reader it is best to download and transfer. But, the Kindle Fire is setup so that the web-site versions are much easier to read then the actual download. That only works if we are home with the internet connection. If we are traveling I won't be able to read the web-site unless we are stopped somewhere with a Wi-Fi. The CD has the added bonus of being able to print out any portion of the text should you have need to do so. My only real complaint is that you can't download your digital purchase. Otherwise, I think it's great!

The Heritage History Introductory Curriculum for Young Readers is very affordable, too. Just $24.99 (plus shipping). There are other collections available for the same $24.99, they include Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, British Middle Ages and British Empire. You can also purchase the 5 CD set for just $99.99, a savings of $25.00. They are all loaded with fascinating texts that should keep your reader busy for many years!!

The Heritage History web-site is chock-full of wonderful information to use along with your learning. Be sure to check it out and see if an order is in your future :)

Many of my fellow crew mates also reviewed a Heritage History collection. Check out the crew blog to read what they had to say!

Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of Heritage History Young Reader's CD at no cost in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a postive review, all opinions expressed are my own.

TOS Review: WriteShop Primary

2012-05-22T20:00:00.003-07:00

About a month ago I was sent a new writing product to try with Mustang. It is called WriteShop Primary. We were sent book B.

What is WriteShop Primary??

"WriteShop Primary teaches the skills of the writing process at the very simplest level through activities, crafts, and picture books. It accommodates pre-writers as well as beginning and developing writers, so your youngest needs no previous reading or writing experience. Slowly and gently, the child is asked to help with the actual writing, first in simple words and later, through copywork. And by turning these stores into a little craft, he will have a project to proudly share with others." Taken from the WriteShop website.

Each WriteShop lesson has 8 activities to be broken up into 1, 2, or 3 weeks of lesson plans, depending on how you do your schooling. There are additional activities for each lesson plan if you would choose.

The lesson plans are clearly laid out and easy to follow. The books are beautiful and fun to look at. I also found the actual lessons to be easy to teach. I did run into one catch, however. I looked over the WriteShop Primary list of how to choose a book for your child. It seemed to me that Mustang could do the work in book A or book B from what I read on the list. Being able to do things like read and write color words made me feel that it was for students below Mustang's ability level.

Here is a sample of lesson 2:

To me, this lesson seemed far above what was described for book A. I thought maybe we could muddle through for this review and at least do lesson one. But, as I went through, it became very obvious that she was not.there.yet! In addition, starting from the beginning, the book refers to a teaching aid that was made in book A. The aid sounded great, and it gave instructions on how to make the aid if you didn't do book A. However, I felt like if we did all the work from book A without the lessons to go with it that Mustang may not get the full benefit of the teaching aid. Add that to the fact that I didn't feel like she was really ready for this work and I felt very stuck.

I really liked the layout of the material and it seemed to be perfect for my teaching style, Book B was just too hard!

Sooo, I went ahead and purchased book A! I am sooo glad I did!

First of all, I needed the product ASAP and decided to purchase the e-Book of Book A. So, I was able to see the differences between the e-book and the physical book. I much prefer the e-Book. The physical book is spiral bound and REALLY nice, but the e-Book is the best e-Book I've ever downloaded. It's compressed in a way that you only view one chapter at a time, which is so nice if you do like to print out a lesson at a time. You can't accidentally print out the whole book (which I have done on accident in the past), and you don't have to keep together all the loose pages in the student activity pack.

The lessons in book A are MUCH easier then book B. It starts off where I am doing the writing instead of Mustang, but this is a great way for her to watch me write. Sometimes, if there is too much writing involved she gets discouraged. The lessons allow her to start learning how to write creatively and develop sentences without the frustrations of letter forming.

There is a lot of picture drawing involved, which is something she really enjoys. The very first story we wrote she wanted to illustrate. The lesson plans don't ask her to do it until story four, but she just got a head start :). The lessons themselves are a lot of fun! They have a nice little script so I don't have to worry about messing up my lesson, which I like. And, Mustang seems to be enjoying them as well.

I would recommend them, but I would start with book A in most cases. I did find out that I had missed an additional placement chart that I think is a better way to determine level then the bullet point list.

The cost for each book starts at $24.25 and goes up depending on which book you buy. There is also a student packet (which is reproducible) that starts at $4.50. You can buy all the books from Elementary through High School on the WriteShop website. Through June 15, 2012, WriteShop is offering a 15% off discount for the review crew's blog readers. Use CREW15 at check out to receive your discount.

Many of my fellow crew mates also reviewed the WriteShop Books A, B, or C. Check out the crew blog to see what they had to say.

God Bless!

Disclaimer: We were sent a free copy of Primary Book B in exchange for an honest review. And we purchased Primary Book A because we wanted to! All opinions expressed are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

5 Days of Montessori: Online Resources and Freebies

2012-05-21T20:35:00.002-07:00

Today is a fun post for me! I hope it is useful to you, too. I think one of the nicest parts about Montessori Moms and Teachers is that they are so passionate about helping others on their journey. Because of this, there are so many helpful blogs, resources, and free printables available.

The best way to learn Montessori is to see it in action. It would be a good idea to follow a few blogs and watch what they do with their children and follow in their footsteps if you can. If I find a good one, I often go back and read a blog from the beginning. Reading their entire journey can help a lot!

I am going to highlight a few of my favorites. Hopefully, you will find some great new helps for your journey!

Free Curriculum and Printables:

Just Montessori

Blogs and sites with free Montessori printables:

My Montessori Journey

Homemade Montessori

1+1+1=1

Cultivating Dharma (free Elementary Albums)

Walk Beside Me

Kingdom of the Pink Princesses

Our Montessori Story
Counting Coconuts

Sites with printables for free and some for purchase:

Montessori Print Shop

Montessori For Everyone

Montessori For Learning

Montessori Materials

My favorite Montessori blogs (that aren't already on the freebie list):

Living Montessori

What Did We Do All Day?

Discovery Days and Montessori Moments

The Adventures of Bear

To the Lesson!

We Don't Need No Education

The Work Plan
Montessori Moments
Making Montessori Ours

This list is by NO MEANS an exhaustive list of all that's out there. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have forgotten a few goodies. I will be adding this post as a page in my blog and updating it anytime I find a new fun download or blog.

I also know that my list isn't as long as some and I hope it doesn't disappoint you! But, these are all links I have actually used and blogs I read often. I feel they have great content and are worth checking out!

Have fun checking these helpful sites out!!

Thank you all so much for joining me over the last 6 days! I wish you luck on your Montessori Journey!!

God Bless and Happy schooling!

We're linked up (check this link for a ton of great blogs!)

Garage Sale Treasures: Week 1

2012-05-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

Finally!!!! Yard Sale season is here again! Okay, it's been here, we just haven't been able to go to many.
This year the kids and I started off with a fun weekend of yard-sailing in a little town just 10 minutes from our house. It wasn't the best sales I have been to, but it was so nice to just head down for a couple hours and come straight back. Usually, we go yard sailing in the town 30 minutes away when we are in town for groceries. Grocery shopping and yard sailing in the same day makes for a LOOOONG day. So, it was super nice to have a relaxing day of just yard sales.
I thought I didn't get very much, though my pictures seem to show otherwise, LOL! So here we go, in order of how my photos loaded :).

Barbie sheets for Mustang, $2.00. She currently has two loves, Barbie and Hanna Montana. You will notice this in the other photos, too.

Two really nice top and skirt sets for Mustang. I love this kind because they are comfy, modest, and easy to clean. Best part, NO IRONING :).

My favorite one. They were $2.00 for each set.

Three tops for Mustang, two are Gap. 25 cents each.

Hanna Montana top, 25 cents, Gap skirt, 50 cents, Flower jeans, $1.00. All for Mustang.

2 pair of sandals for Mustang, 50 cents each. The clear ones really aren't that dirty, the light on my camera hit them just right. Mustang really wanted them, too.

Mustangs GREAT find! A Barbie Karaoke machine that hooks up to the TV so she can see herself singing. Perfect for the Barbie/Hanna Montana fan :). $5.00.

Charger's find. A big-talking-Hudson Hornet to go with his big-talking-Lightning McQueen. $2.00

There are 2 great finds (and 2 great kids) in this photo. The Lego table made me very happy. It was on my list of wants for this summer, and we found one at a sale for $10.00. It was in perfect condition, but I was low on cash so I didn't know if I should get it or not. I decided to go on to other sales and think about it. Very next sale, I found this one for $2.00!!! :) There is also a Buzz Lightyear in this photo. He was $2.00. He will replace the one we have that is broken.

I ended up finding 2 fill a bag sales. One was fill a bag for $1.00 and one was fill a bag for $5.00. I really don't know which bag all of these came out of, but they were all part of one or the other. 9 long sleeve tops/sweaters for Charger for next fall.

Part of the fill a bags. Oh and I only bought ONE bag at each sale. Fold and roll clothes to get the most in. 1 par if jeans, 2 pair of Adidas wind pants, and a cute pair of shoes. All for Charger.

9 short sleeve shirts and a pair of pjs also part of the bag sales, all for Charger.

I have taken to dressing my little girls alike if I can. It was fun to find matching or coordinating tops for this fall at one sale. $4.00 total.

Super nice pair of dressy sandals for Mustang-should go very nicely with the new dresses. $2.00. Hanna Montana nightgown 50 cents (told you, lol). The pink Ralph Lauren Polo dress is for Mini Cooper and matches one that Explorer has, 1.00, and a super cute cherry dress for Mini also $1.00.

All these are for Explorer and fit into the fill a bags, except the shoes that were 50 cents.

I almost forgot this puzzle! It's been on my wish list for a long time!! It seemed like last summer I would show up at a sale to watch someone else buy it! $2.00.

A few little toys are not pictured, as are a pair of shorts for me that are too small. My total was $41.00, not too shabby.

Did you go yard sailing this week? Come join us at My Life on A Taffy Pull!

Have a great weekend and God Bless!

5 Days of Montessori: Lesson Planning and Our Day

2012-05-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

Hi!! Hope you are having a lovely Friday! Thanks so much for stopping by again to check out my series on how to start using Montessori in your homeschool! If you've read the previous entries, you now know What the Montessori Method IS, How to Set Up a Prepared Environment, you've had a look at some of the Montessori Materials, and you know Where to Start with the Montessori Method. If you haven't read them, I encourage you to go back and check them out. Now we move on to Lesson Planning.

Lesson Planning is a little different in a Montessori setting, but it is very important. The most important roll of the mom/teacher in the Montessori classroom has to be prepared. We discussed the Prepared Environment on Tuesday, and this preparation is just the beginning of the need to be one step ahead of your child. Depending on the needs and age of your child, the preparation will look a little different. The first preparation I had to do for all of my children was to read about each of the materials. Knowing how and when to present them allows you to be ready when your child asks you to show it to them.

The best way for me to explain this is to tell you how I prepare for each of my children. They are each in different spots in the Montessori journey and will give you a good feel for how it might look from 4 different ages.

How I prepare for Mini Cooper:

Mini Cooper is 2 1/2 years old. She is at the very beginning of the Montessori age range. Some Montessori schools require age 3, but the Montessori method does allow for a 2 1/2 year old in the very early lessons. For her, 'school' is really just another play time. At this age, it should be just that. I place the materials on the shelf and encourage her to choose the things that interest her.

When she wants to learn a new material, I determine whether or not she has learned the materials before it. If so, I will give her a presentation. If she hasn't, I might recommend trying something else first.

If she is walking around seemingly looking for something to do, I will recommend things to her. Sometimes she tries my ideas and sometimes she does not.

If she asks me to do a lesson with her, she usually wants to explore the Alphabet Box. She loves to look at the little objects and learn new words with me.

The toddler area in our classroom is mostly for her. It contains a wooden doll house and some wooden blocks. There are times when she just wants to play, and that's OKAY.

For Mini, my planning includes:

*knowing what materials she has mastered

*being ready to present the next when she asks

*being careful to provide eye catching and easy to use trays in the Practical Life area

Because I am working with Charger or Mustang, Mini Cooper is often left to herself for much of our school day. I hope that this will develop into my first true 'Montessori Child' who is able to choose works and work independently for hours at a time. I am excited to watch her develop!

How I prepare for Charger:

Charger is 4 1/2. He is right in the middle (age wise) of a Montessori cycle. He is currently in a sensitive period for building and language. I know this, because I observe what he chooses to work with.

Over the last week, he has chosen to work with the sensorial materials every day. He doesn't want to know what each one does, but he wants to know how he can use them TOGETHER.

We watched a science video on Monday, and on Tuesday Charger was trying to create Incline Planes with the Red Rods and the Number Rods. It would probably be a good time for me to put out some additional extension cards for the different sensorial works we have out. I also suspect this means he is ready for more challenging sensorial work and would enjoy working with the Binomial Cube. Time to place an order :).

Charger entered his language sensitive period almost overnight. He went from not caring about words or letters to all of a sudden waking up in the middle of the night to ask me how to spell a word. Seriously. This is one reason to be a step ahead. The interest can be sudden.

I first brought out the Sandpaper Letters, but quickly learned that he already knew all the letter sounds and wasn't the least interested in learning to WRITE his letters. He wanted to know how the letters went together to make words! I decided to try out the Moveable Alphabet and start him on the word drawers available from My Montessori Journey. This turned out to be exactly what he needed. {Steve isn't one of the pictures, he was thinking about Steve on Blue's Clues}.

It is okay to try and encourage a certain material, but be careful not to force a material on a child if it really isn't working at that time. Maybe they aren't ready yet, or maybe they are actually beyond that work.

I do a lot of one on one work with him. I find the best way to get him to work on something is to sit with him and answer questions along the way. Some work he is very able to do alone (the sensorial work), other work, such as math and language, he wants me to help him. I request that he work on at least one math or language work each day. I ask that he takes turns between the materials.

There are days that he doesn't want to do anything but play with Mini Cooper's toddler area. In this case, I usually request that he complete 2 works before playing. If he is still not willing, I will give him the choice of 2 works and then do it with him. It seems that sometimes he just needs a push to get him going.

For Charger my planning includes:

*Having 2 word drawers a week laminated and ready for him

*Having two math presentations ready and any materials needed available

*Watching and listening to him both in and out of the classroom to be ready for his next sensitive period. (BTW he is just starting to think about a writing period)

How I prepare for Mustang:

Mustang is 6 1/2 years old. She is at the very end of the Montessori Primary cycle and will be moving to the Elementary cycle in August (or thereabouts). She is my biggest challenge, but really the most fun!

She is the first born of a first born, and quite stubborn. She is also really wanting to be more independent, but I often find her making poor choices in the classroom. If given 100% freedom, she chooses the dollhouse and blocks every.single.time. It's easy, it's fun, and usually her sister will join her so she gets to be IN CHARGE. Mmm, hmmm.

I know her personality would have benefited from a real Montessori experience because she would have other students to compete with. As it is, she is currently at the 'head of the class' and doesn't have to try and learn something before the next person does. This seems to turn into an I don't care additude.

Come June, we will be adding in the Montessori work contract. A contract is written between the teacher and the child. They decided, together, what work a child needs to do in a given week. As the child completes this work, they complete their contract. Mustang is ready for this.

As it is, I currently give her a list of things each day that she needs to complete. She does a good job of completing them and I think she would enjoy getting to be part of the list making process.

I request she does at least one language work and one math work each day. She is working through the Blue Reading Series (for spelling), All About Reading Level 1 (for reading), First Start Reading book B (for handwriting), and Write Shop Junior Book A (for creative writing). She likes book work, and for the two of us curriculum seems to be a good thing to bring into the mix for language. Moving forward, she will be requested to complete 2 language works each day, alternating between the four areas.

My responsibility at this point is to encourage her to use her time wisely in the classroom. I also try to make statements that encourage her to find the answer. For example, the other day I mentioned to her that the Knobless Cylinders and the Cylinder Blocks can work together. She was quick to go find out how.

For Mustang my planning includes:

*LOTS of reading and research about the next steps in the Montessori Method (specifically Elementary)

*Preparing to present 4 math works each week

*Having the materials ready for her to complete her language lessons each week

*Encouraging her to make good decisions in the classroom

*Plan activities to allow her to be a leader, helping to turn her need to be bossy into a positive thing

How I prepare for Explorer:

Explorer is 7 1/2 months old. She would not be in a regular Montessori school setting, but as a homeschool family she is there some of the time (sometimes she is sleeping).

For her, I am trying to come up with things :). I have been providing her with interesting, safe, objects to explore. These are wood or cloth. As she becomes more mobile, it will be important to watch out for her safety as well. I intend to purchase more baby Montessori materials (yes they exist!), and also begin using her as my starting point for developing a more Montessori friendly home.

How I prepare for my children as a whole:

We do Bible and Culture lessons as a group. I found a wonderful site called Just Montessori. The owner, Lisa, is a Montessori teacher and has graciously posted her entire culture Curriculum-lesson by lesson, including photos! I have just been following step by step. It has saved me so much time!!

For Bible, we are now following the Judah Bible Curriculum and continuing to create Bible Activity books.

We begin our class time with a Bible story or devotional and then move into our Culture lesson for the day. I try to have one or two works a week that Mustang and Charger are required to complete. I also prepare one or two activities that are geared more towards Mini Cooper and are optional for Mustang and Charger.

A typical class time for us goes something like this:

*'Circle Time'-Bible story or devotional, memory verse

*Culture lesson

*Work period, mom works with one child on a presentation. This first person changes from day to day, we have a rotation of who gets to {or has to} go first.

*Work period, switch who mom works with

*Continue on the work period, switch again

I try to allow three hours for work, but sometimes it is only 2. Some days, it is obvious that 3 hours are not going to work, other days 3 is easily doable.

One thing I have found that helps us a lot is music! This has been a LIFESAVER for ME!! I find that playing soft music in the background helps me and my patience more then anything. Obviously, my mood greatly influences the success of the day and I am always looking for ways to relax.

I also allow the children to get one snack per class time, but they need to ask if anyone else wants one and bring enough for others.

During class time, if I see that one of the children would benefit from a lesson, I write myself a note. If it is something I am ready to present, I will do it right then. If not, I will look it up that night and be ready the next day.

On Sunday, I look over the both the Gettman Scope and Sequence and the Monteaco Scope and Sequence. I look over them with each child in mind, to see if they are ready for the next works on the list. If they are ready, I spend time reading over those presentations so that I am ready for them. If they are not ready, I think over what (if anything) I can do to help them get ready for the next work. If we don't have the materials for the next work, I try to place an order. I also prepare any materials needed for our Culture lessons and Bible lessons. I put anything I need (storybooks, 3 part cards, etc) in a bin and draw from it all week. If we don't get to something, I carry it over to the next week.

It took me a little while to get used to the way a Montessori work period flows. But, once I did, I really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of allowing the children to learn freely without me trying to make them sit still and listen. It has made me begin to truly enjoy teaching my children at home.

I hope that my blogging over the last 5 days has been helpful to you! I do have one more topic, internet resources, that I will be blogging about on Monday. I'd also love to add to these topics if you have any questions you'd like me to cover!

Thank you so much for joining me! I hope you will check out the 5 Days of Blogging that my fellow TOS Review Crew members have been doing.

Enjoy and God Bless!!

5 Days of Montessori: Where to Start, What to Teach, and What Order to Go In

2012-05-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

Day 4! Thanks for staying with me through this series! I pray it has been a blessing to you and your family. So far I've blogged about: What is the Montessori Method?, creating a Prepared Environment, and all about the Montessori Materials. Today, we are going to put it all together. I'm going to discuss the order of materials and how to plan a school day with the Montessori Method.

I've given you a lot of background on Dr. Montessori and the Montessori Method. If you've read through them you may now have a strong desire to use the method in your homeschool, or you've already decided that you want to. You may have even gone ahead and ordered some materials, but you really don't know how to start.

It can certainly be a bit overwhelming to start the Montessori Method. I mean, unless you were one of the lucky few that attended a Montessori school, it's not like you can pull from your memory of how you were taught. You are, like I ~~was~~ am, relying on the nice blogger moms out there to get you off on the right foot. I am not a trained Montessori teacher (though I am considering it), but I am speaking from homeschool mom experience.

As a curriculum reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse Review Team, I know that I prefer easy to use, thought out curriculum with lots of hand holding and step by step instructions. I was happy to learn that these types of instructions ARE available for the Montessori Method. These instructions, or manuals, can be purchased from a number of places, OR you can find some of them for FREE. Here are links to the ones I know of (for the 3-6 year olds)

Info Montessori Primary Guide (My overall favorite)

Montessori Teacher's Collective

Shu-Chen Jenny Yen

Montessori World Education Institute

Dr. Montessori's Handbook (free Kindle Download)

Dr Montessori's Handbook (free Project Gutenberg download)

Now, before you go off to these links, I want to explain what a Montessori Album is and what it is not. A Montessori Album describes in depth how to present each material. It explains the purpose of each material, the control of error, and the approximate age you should present it. What an album does not do is discuss these materials in order. Why they don't is still a bit of a mystery to me. The best answer I can give is that since this is a method, there is some flexibility and so the presentation order is left up to the child and teacher. However, I mention yesterday, that each of the Montessori Materials build on each other. So there is certainly a preferred order in which to present the materials.

This is where a Scope and Sequence comes in very handy. The Montessori Teacher's Collective (Moteaco) has one that I refer to all the time. It has each of the areas of Montessori instruction broken down by materials. It has been especially useful for me in the area of mathematics.

As I mentioned in my post on Monday, the Montessori Method is broken down into 5 different areas or 'subjects.' Language, Math, Practical Life, Sensorial, and Culture. Culture is broken down further into the areas of Geography, Zoology, and Botany (though some manuals put Botany under sensorial). Art is usually put under Culture and Music falls under Sensorial. If you were to follow the Scope and Sequence bullet point by bullet point down the row, you would do all of one area before moving to the next and then doing all of it. That isn't how the Montessori Method is designed either :).

Before you give up, there is hope! An author by the name of David Gettman wrote a great book, Basic Montessori: Learning Activities for Under Fives. (not an affiliate link). In his book, he outlines a scope and sequence that breaks down the materials according to sensitive periods. Dr. Montessori found that children tend to become interested in certain things as their brains develop that area. Just like a baby wants to pick up everything off the floor because they are refining their grasping skills (ask me how I know this), a child will have periods when all they want to do is draw, or write, or build because they are developing in that area.

Renee at Our Montessori Story was kind enough to type up this sequence and even offer it as a download. It will give you, in my opinion, the VERY BEST starting point for a newbie. In fact, I am still following this sequence with my children. There are always going to be children who advance differently, and that's OKAY. The Montessori Method encourages individuality and the ability to go at one's own pace. But, you as the parent/teacher need to know where to begin. Once you start using the materials you will get a better feel for your own child and know which direction to go next.

As long as your child is in the 2 1/2-5 age group, I would start by ordering the materials needed for Period One and go from there. You can present the materials from one area at the same time as another. In other words, you can present pouring beans between two jugs and the cylinder blocks on the same day. If your child has mastered the pouring you can go on to the opening and closing materials even if she hasn't mastered the cylinder blocks. If your child is 4 or 5, be prepared (especially in the financial area) for them to advance quickly through the materials. A child who is 2 1/2 or 3 will likely move through the materials at a slower rate.

IF your child is 6 years old, you will want to do some major research. The Montessori Primary class is for ages 3-6, and the Elementary class is for ages 6-9. Some of the materials overlap, some do not. I chose to go ahead and start with the Primary class with all my children because, even though Mustang is 6, I have 3 other children either IN the Primary class or who will be. It seemed it would still be a good investment to buy from the beginning of Period 1. If it had just been Mustang, I would have probably started in Elementary. As it is, she is almost ready for Elementary and I am not quite ready for her. I need to start doing some research of my own!

I mentioned at the beginning of my post that I was going to tell you how I plan our day and how I lesson plan. Turns out-I lied! After yesterday's ridiculously looong winded post, I have decided that I need to make shorter posts. So, this series is going to be at least 6 days. Somethings just can't be summed up in 5 :).

TOMORROW I will tell you about a typical day in our Montessori homeschool classroom and how I plan for each day. I hope you'll stop by!

I am blogging as part of a blog cruise from The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. We have over 65 bloggers blogging for 5 days about their favorite subjects. There are some GREAT topics that I have been enjoying. Be sure to check them out!

5 Days of Montessori: Montessori Materials

2012-05-16T22:11:00.004-07:00

Welcome to day three of my 5 day Montessori Series. I'm excited that so many of you have dropped by to learn more about how to incorporate the Montessori Method in your home learning! I love sharing about Montessori and I'm thankful that you are finding it helpful! So far, we have discussed What the Montessori Method is, and How To Create a Prepared Environment. Today, I'll be telling you a bit about the Montessori Materials.

The Montessori Materials are certainly the most distinct portion of the Montessori Method. They are the curriculum of Montessori. I am not aware of any other learning method that is based on materials. Often, learning methods have a book and use manipulative's to help enforce concepts taught in the book. In the Montessori Method, it is just the opposite, there are no textbooks. Any paper products are used to help show mastery of a concept learned with the materials.

Montessori classrooms are not filled with just any old item that looks fun or educational. They were carefully crafted and selected by Dr. Montessori. In her first Children's Home, Dr. Montessori worked with very poor children in a housing complex in Rome. When the school opened, many of the wealthy women treated the school as a charity and donated many beautiful toys to the nursery. There wasn't a lack of toys for these children to play with.

Dr. Montessori began to test out her materials by placing them on the shelf with the other toys. She found that the children began choosing her materials instead of the traditional toys. If a toy was not played with for a time, she removed it from the shelf completely. My understanding is that she did this with her materials as well, and that there are some of her creations that we have never seen because the children were not attracted to them :).

Montessori Materials are very beautiful objects. They draw a child in and captivate them so they will stay and work on the material. They are generally made of wood and are very durable, lasting through many children.

The materials are each designed to teach a specific concept. The concepts build from one material to the next, with each material teaching both it's own individual concept, and acting as a stepping stone to the next one. It is important to introduce them in a specified order so that a child has mastered the skills necessary to complete the materials.

Now, I suspect you see these photos and think. Well, those are lovely, they really are! I am sure my children would like them. But, come now-they are BLOCKS! My children need to learn their letters and numbers, we have plenty of blocks.

If you haven't read my blog before, let me introduce you to my daughter, Explorer. She is 7 1/2 months old. In the last 7 months, she has learned how to hold her head up, roll over, sit up, scoot, pick things up, put them in her mouth, respond to her name and babble a little bit. Of all the things I just listed, only 2 of them are language related. As humans, the first things we do are motor. We learn to roll, crawl, stand, balance, walk, and run before we can say much of anything.

As I said above, the Montessori Materials build on concepts already learned. When a 2 1/2 or 3 year old enters the Montessori classroom they are very capable with their motor skills, but their language is still very much developing. They can use their hands, balance blocks, and build a tower, but many of them can not hold a lengthy conversation about height and length. They will have a difficult time saying orange, for example, but can quickly match two orange tiles. Dr. Montessori understood this about a child and chose materials that encouraged a child to use and master the abilities they already had before moving to things they did not yet grasp.

Another reason Montessori doesn't start with ABC and 123, is that the purpose behind letters, numbers, and language are to label things. When a child observes two things of different sizes, she can see-concretely-which is bigger and which is smaller. She can see which is taller and which is shorter. The words 'tall' 'short' 'big' 'small' are just that-WORDS. Words to describe something. Words that are chosen to mean what our language says they mean. We could have chosen the word RAINBOW to mean tall and the word CRAYON to mean short. When looking at the two items, the words would not change that one is taller then the other.

The Montessori Materials work from concrete to abstract. They show a child how something works and how it relates to other things. Then, the words are introduced so that the child can explain what they know to someone else.

So, enough about the whys. I want to show you some of the materials. Because, a picture is worth 1000 words :). There are MANY different materials, each of which are really neat. Here are a few of my favorites.

The very first materials presented in a Montessori Classroom are the Knobbed Cylinders. The only two skills needed to do this work are 1) The ability to use the pincher/grasper fingers, and 2) Enough strength to lift the cylinders. The blocks themselves are quite heavy, but if a child is unable to carry them mom or teacher can help.

There are 10 wooden cylinders in each block.

They increase in diameter from 1 centimeter to 5 1/2 centimeters. This is the first of four blocks. The child treats this as a puzzle, finding the correct home for each of the cylinders.

Once the first block is mastered, they are able to add block two. This block looks exactly the same on the top,

but they are different heights.

All the cylinders are placed in the middle to be placed in the two blocks.

Mini Cooper is 2 1/2 and able to complete this work. You would continue to introduce all the blocks until all 4 are being used at once. There is a wonderful description, with photos, on infomontessori.com

Margaret Homfray gives a wonderful presentation on the Knobbed Cylinders.

I want to show you this. Last year, I purchased the Mini Knobbed Cylinders to save us some money. DONT DO IT, lol. The Mini Knobbed Cylinders are soooo mini, that they really are hardly the same material at all.

The material that everyone thinks of when they think of Montessori is the Pink Tower. Aside from being pink, and therefore very attractive to young children, it is a brilliant material.

The first cube is 1x1x1 (centimeter) cubed. The second is 2x2x2, the third 3x3x3, and so forth. So, from age 2 1/2 to 3, a child has the opportunity to internalize what a cube looks like. This can be very helpful down the road when you are trying to explain what 7 cubed is.

Each material has a self-checking or control of error. Since each block is one centimeter smaller then the next, you can take the top block and slide it along two sides of each block to check your work.

The Brown or Broad Stair is a similar material. The first prism measures 1x1x20 centimeters. It goes up in height and width, but not length. The longest is 10x10x20 cen.

Each of the prisms matches one of the pink cubes.

Because of this, each material not only has it's own exercises, but figuring out how the materials work together is another element of learning.

They are very inviting. I had barely finished my photos when Mini Cooper decided she wanted my work :).

Margaret Homfray also has a lovely lecture on the Pink Tower and Broad Stair.

These are the yellow Knobless Cylinders. They decrease in diameter and height.

They build a tower.

But, they also work together with cylinder block two.

The red cylinders are all the same height, but get smaller in diameter.

This tower is a bit trickier to build.

It matches with cylinder block number one. Each of the 4 knobless cylinder sets match with one of the four cylinder blocks.

Again, Mini Cooper decided to steal my work.

Here is one more lovely lecture from Margaret Homfray presenting the Knobless Cylinders.

I don't know about you, but teaching math scares me. I am horrible at math. I was happy to get out with a passing grade. The Montessori Method has given me AWESOME tools to help teach math. This one is the Golden Bead Material. Here you see a place mat. Across the top is labeled Thousands, Hundreds, Tens and Units. Below each label are the amount of beads-a Thousand Cube, Hundred Square, Ten Bar, and a Unit.

The unit is just a simple golden bead.

When building a number, the child literally gets the amount of beads needed to match the number. As you can see, there are 2,694 golden beads in this photo to match the number cards.

The beads are used to do concrete math. In this photo, Mustang is learning multiplication by giving each of her peg people the same amount of units (yes there are two people on the last set, Adam and Eve always go together). A child is presented addition, multiplication, subtraction and then division-using all four place values, from the start. Again concrete. You don't have to explain it, you just show them the process. The actual writing down of problems isn't done until later.

After the Golden Bead material, the children move on to the Stamp Game. It is used in the same way as the Golden Bead Material, but it is the first step towards abstraction. Instead of using large bead blocks, they get stamps to represent the quantities.

Here you can see a quantity of stamps to match the number. This material will bring in written problems and be a part of the lessons for quite awhile. We just (as in today) began using the Stamp Game, so I don't have action photos, but check back over the next couple weeks as we get into it more :).

There aren't any math lectures from Margaret Homfray. Why I don't know, I would have loved to see them!

You don't have to be a Montessori school to purchase materials. The famous Montessori Materials supplier is a company by the name of Nienhuis. My understanding is that they are an 'authorized supplier' and have copies of Dr. Montessori's original blueprints. That said, they are very PRICEY! If I were running a school and had a large budget to work with, I would consider their products, but since I am a homeschool I have gone with a couple of discount suppliers.

The two suppliers I have worked with and will recommend are Kid Advance and Alison's Montessori (not affiliate links). There are a number of other suppliers out there. If you choose to use another supplier, I would suggest doing a little research to be sure they are a reputable company before sending them money.

Some Montessori Materials could be made by hand if you have the time and resources. I find that I have more money then time these days (though I don't have that much money!) and have not ventured to make any materials. Because of the great care that Dr. Montessori took to create her materials, I do recommend that you are careful to make materials that capture the intention of the material you are trying to make at home. The blog What Did We Do All Day has a great database of homemade Montessori Materials from the web. Check it out if you are more crafty then I am :).

As you can see, Dr. Montessori created some amazing materials! Which you have, or are going to order. But, then, what do you do with these materials? There are so many of them, which do you order first? How do you lesson plan a Montessori homeschool? Where and how do you begin? Come back tomorrow and I'll discuss the Scope and Sequence of the Montessori Method and how I lesson plan in our homeschool classroom. (And yes, when I say tomorrow, I likely mean around midnight. It's when I blog!)

Thanks for stopping by!! Goodnight and God Bless!

Oh, and don't forget to check out the other 65+ blogs and their great topics this week!

TOS Review: Library and Educational Services GO SCIENCE

2012-05-15T22:46:00.000-07:00

Sunday was Mother's Day, so I took the day off. This meant the house was in general disarray and I wasn't ready to give any new presentations on Monday. Monday became Sunday, meaning no school. I was really thankful to have a substitute for our normal learning: Go Science from Library Educational Services.

Go Science is a series of educational DVD's full of fun and exciting science demonstrations. The DVD's are about an hour in length and have about 14 experiments on each one. The demonstrator is Ben Roy who teaches science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is a former director of a science program on TV. He uses his expertise to provide entertaining science experiments to teach students age 6-14 about our world, and most importantly our Creator.

We reviewed Volumes 2 and 3. Volume 2 teaches about Simple Machines, Sound and Weather. In Volume 3 we learned about Magnetism, Engineering, Electricity, and Design.

The Go Science DVD's are designed for ages 6-14, so I wasn't sure how my 2, 4, and 6 year old's would like them. I chose a couple of the segments and watched them with my children and then asked if they wanted to see more. They all said yes! I was impressed at how all 4 of them-even my 7 month old-were drawn to the TV and watched intently as Mr. Roy showed them lots of really neat experiments.

Today after school, they were given a chance to watch any TV they wanted to. They asked could they PLEASE watch the science movies?!

I was also very impressed at how many things that Mustang and Charger could remember about the things they learned. They told me all about sound and fire and dry ice-among other things. So, not only were they having fun, they were learning!

The episodes were originally produced for a religious TV show, and you can tell as you watch. They are short and all end with the same hang tag "Every time we learn something about science, we learn something about our Creator, God." It is a GREAT truth to learn, but after hearing it 14 times (once every 10 or so minutes) it can get a little bothersome. That said, I love that it is being drilled into my children's minds!

The only thing I found frustrating is that the segments are not all taped at the same volume, so you want to have your remote handy while you watch.

One reason I really LOVE the segments is that I can play just one experiment at a time without having to show the whole DVD if it is something we are learning about.

The Go Science DVD's are available through Library & Educational Services for just $8.97. The entire set of 6 DVD's is available for $47.95.

Library & Educational Services is a wholesale company that serves churches, schools, libraries AND home educators! They offer wholesale prices on many different products at 30-70% off! They offer a number of great homeschool products in addition to Go Science!

Many of my crew members reviewed other Go Science DVD's. Check out the TOS Review Blog to see what they had to say.

Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Disclaimer: I received a complementary copy of Go Science Volumes 2 and 3 to use with my family for the purpose of review. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.

5 Days of Montessori: The Prepared Environment

2012-05-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to day 2 of my 5 days of Montessori posts! I am joining up with over 65 fellow members of the Homeschool Review crew to bring you 5 days of posts on over 65 different subjects. There are a lot of great posts with helpful info. Be sure to check them out (follow the button at the bottom).

Yesterday I discussed what the Montessori Method is and how it can be helpful in your home. Day two of my Montessori series brings us to the Prepared Environment.

Before you begin bringing in materials or begin preparing presentations, you need to prepare your environment. In order to get a true direction, lets discuss what the first 'prepared environment' looked like.

The first Children's Home (or Casa Dei Bambini) was created in what was, essentially, the 'projects' of the day. It was an apartment complex of poor families that mostly worked at night. During the day, the children ran freely around the complex. Dr. Montessori wanted to try her recent findings from the work she had done with her institution patients on 'normal' children. So, she asked if she might start a small day care/school for the children in this complex. What they gave to her was one of the apartments in the complex.

The first Children's Home was exactly that, a Children's HOME. It was an apartment with all that included in 1907. The children were allowed to use the entire apartment for their learning. Montessori schools continue with this layout. They usually include a kitchen and dinette area, complete with running water and sometimes a toaster or microwave. They also include bathroom facilities that do not require 'permission' to be used. Some are even fortunate enough to include a garden and play area that the children can go in and out of at their leisure.

So how does this translate into a home environment? Well, this does get a little tricky. Ideally, a child would have access to basically everything that they need to. Access to drink, food, clothing, materials for cleaning themselves and their environment. Maybe, even the freedom to come in and out as they please. In today's world this really isn't always possible. And, even if it is possible, it may take some extreme changes to make it happen.

In the home environment, I feel it is best to start with the learning spaces first. Unless you have decided to make your entire home Montessori friendly, your learning area should be a separate space. This allows your children the freedom to use everything in the space without being in trouble. A designated school room would be ideal, but if you aren't using a school room, be sure that the things in the room are all things that your child can use.

As an example, I will take you on a tour of our learning space.

As you can see, we use a basement space. We used to use an extra bedroom, but we grew out of that space. It is still bright and airy and offers many different spaces to do work.

It is important to offer comfortable places to do work. Children should be offered tables and chairs that fit them. Because I have children of various sizes, we have 2 small tables, one mid sized table, and one large table that used to be our kitchen table. There is also a lot of floor space.

At the other end, we have a carpeted area. We use this area for our story and circle time. There are also more 'play' type items here, a doll house and blocks. You can see a large bookcase in the back of the picture. In general, it is best not to store school supplies that the children can't use in the classroom. However, if you must, choose to put them on higher shelves that are out of their line of vision. The items on the bottom 2 shelves are for my children, the other 3 shelves are mine.

The materials should be placed at child's eye level. I was lucky to find these book shelves at Walmart for just 15.00. I have one more in a box I need to put together, and one in the toy room that I intend to steal. Walmart has discontinued this shelf and I like the uniform look.

I attempt to put materials from the same subject together. The left has math, the middle has sensorial, and the last has practical life (a little bare since I took the water materials out). As you can see, however, it is hard to fit them on the shelves. I am often trying to come up with new places to place things while continuing to strive for order and beauty.

My space is a continual work in progress, and I hope to do a major overhaul here in July to allow for a toddler area for Explorer.

Other bloggers have shown their spaces. Some of my favorites include:

What Did We Do All Day (extremely well thought out)

Discovery Days and Montessori Moments (great layout if you don't have a school room)

Barefoot in Suburbia (mix of Montessori and Waldorf)\

Montessori Moments (LOVE.THIS.SPACE)

Living Montessori Now's Pinterest board of Prepared Environment

Really, the space is going to reflect your family a lot. Just, keep in mind the major points:

*beautiful

*comfortable

*organized

*safe

*easy to maintain

*completely kid friendly

*and Fun!

Tomorrow I will be discussing the beautiful Montessori Materials. What they are, how they are used, and where to buy them!

In the meantime, be sure to check out the rest of the crew's amazing blog posts.

Happy Reading and God Bless!!

5 Days of Montessori: Day One What IS Montessori?

2012-05-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

This week, I'm blogging about how to bring the Montessori Method into your home. You can read my list of topics in my intro post.

Since you are a blog reader (I figured this since you are currently reading a blog), you have likely read a few (or a hundred) blogs about families that use the Montessori Method in their home. You have read about their unique lessons, beautiful materials, and observed their thoughtfully planned environment. You like what you see and want to use this method in your homeschool, too. But, you're a newbie homeschooler and so confused right now anyways, you have no idea how to start with a workbook let alone an entire learning method. Let me tell you, you are not alone.

In fact, you are likely one of the many moms who I have recently spoken to in person! And, I was once just like you. You know what I did? I threw my hands up and started using a workbook curriculum. Yes, I did. Are my kids hurt for it? No. But, I wish I could have started with the Montessori Method at the beginning. Hopefully, some of my tips in the next 5 days will help you to start from the beginning.

First of all, understanding the Montessori Method is the cornerstone to making it work in your home. The Montessori Method is named for Dr. Maria Montessori (yes, I know you knew that). She was from Italy (again, you knew that) and she attended the University of Rome where she was not well accepted because she was a woman. I am not going to go into all the details of her early days, because you can read them on Wikipedia or any number of other websites.

She began working with children in a mental institution, where she found that, if given the right materials, all children can learn. In fact, they can learn many things that adults didn't seem possible. In her work she refers to children as having an 'absorbant mind' (the title of her book) she explains that children can, and do, learn at an amazing speed from birth to about age 7. We should use this time to allow our children to learn all they are able since it is very easy for them during this period of their life.

The very best introduction to the Montessori Method, and Dr Montessori herself is given in a lecture from Margaret Homfray. Ms. Homfray was first a student of Dr. Montessori's and later a friend and collegue. She gave lectures to students at the AMI training center (I believe) and they were recorded for all of us to see. It is her set of lectures that taught me the most. I strongly recommend you take the time to watch this and all of her lectures as you begin your journey.

In a homeschool environment, the Montessori Method is different then some other homeschool styles. However, I feel it is one of the most perfect methods to use in a home environment. Probably the number one reason I have heard that families have kept their children home is because they want to give their child the 'best education for THEM.' In other words, they don't want their child to get lost in the shuffle of a 'one size fits most' kind of education. Especially if they feel that their child doesn't fit into the 'most' catergory. They want to tailor the learning style to their child rather then the other way around.

So, we try out this curriculum and that curriculum and we switch after 3 months because it doesn't work or our child is bored. Then, kid number 2 comes along and is NOTHING LIKE kid number one and we start to pull our hair out. Been there???

The Montessori Method has a very different approach. It treats all children as unique individuals, capable of learning both easy and difficult tasks and concepts without the blood, sweat, and tears of book learning. The children are presented with various materials and allowed to explore them visually, mentally, and sensorially. They can look, touch, build, smell, listen, compare, and contrast. Then, they have the freedom to repeat until they feel ready to move on to the next task. Likewise, they have the freedom to leave the material behind and never touch it again if they feel they have it mastered. Each child gets to move at their own pace, taking time to work on the things that interest him.

I won't lie. The Montessori Method does require some work for mom. One must first learn about the materials to be able to present them. There will be lots of books to read, blogs to observe, videos to watch and questions to answer. Some find that a training course is the best way for them. There are online courses available, if that is the direction you choose. Others choose to use the MANY online resources to help their journey. I will give you a bit of encouragement here, though. Most moms who have chosen the Montessori Method are very interested in learning about it. The research, though time consuming, ends up to be a lot of fun for Mom.

The Montessori Method breaks learning down into 5 different areas or subjects: Mathematics, Language, Sensorial, Practical Life, and Culture. Mathematics and Language are self explanatory :).

Sensorial is the discovery of things via the senses. Materials of different size, shape, color, smell, texture, weight and taste are given to students to discover. These discoveries allow them to understand better the world around them and it's relationship to them.

Practical Life is the learning the care of ones self, their environment, and how to serve others. It is one of the highlights of the Montessori Method in my opinion. Students learn everything from how to wash their hands to how to serve food to another.

Culture includes everything else :). Zoology, Botany, Geography, and Social Studies. Our world and everything in it is discovered in this area of learning.

The Montessori Method is a great learning style for homeschools with multiple aged children. Mom sets up the classroom, and all of the children age 2 1/2 and older can benefit from the materials on the shelves. Montessori schools were designed to combine multiple ages and learning levels. This allows children to learn alone or with a friend from time to time. At home, this allows for learning with a brother or sister.

I could type for hours and hours, but I'll leave you there for now. Tomorrow, we will talk about preparing your environment for the Montessori Method. I hope you'll join me!

I'm not the only one blogging all week. Check out the crew blog to see the many great topics being covered this week!

God Bless!

And we're linked up!

5 Days of Montessori

2012-05-13T21:19:00.003-07:00

This week our The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew is doing a 5 day blog hop. We have each chosen a topic to blog about for the next 5 days. I chose my favorite thing to blog about, the Montessori Method :).

If you have followed my blog at all, you are scratching your head and asking-um, that's all you blog about, why make a special 5 days. You are right. I have decided to focus on 5 Days of Montessori in YOUR house. You've watched my children in action, now it's your turn to bring the Montessori Method into your home. You're in the process of planning for next school year anyways, why not use this as your chance to make it happen?

Over the next 5 days I will be exploring:

1) The Montessori Method

2) The Montessori Environment

3) Montessori Materials

4) Scope and Sequence of the Montessori Method

5) Online Support, Sharing, and Freebies to help you on your journey

If you are considering the Montessori Method, I hope you will stop by this week and check out my posts. I believe they will be helpful on your journey!

God Bless!!

TOS Review: Judah Bible Curriculum

2012-05-13T11:24:00.001-07:00

About three years ago, I started making with my children Bible Activity Books. If you have been following my blog at all you have seen these pages from time to time. Recently, I started to question how well this was working. I was a little slow at preparing the lessons, so we have been going very slowly. I realized at this rate, my kids will take their entire school career to get through the Bible once. On top of that, the activity pages are soon going to be too babyish for Mustang. How was I going to incorporate the two age (and soon 3 or 4) groups?

I began to look for a new Bible curriculum for my family to help me with direction. I wanted a program to tell me when to teach which stories and help me figure out how to help my children understand what they heard. I looked over a handful of devotional type programs, which I nixed quickly. I also looked over a few programs that seemed to have the meat of what I wanted, but were not adaptable for multiple ages. When I was asked if I wanted to review the Judah Bible Curriculum, I was excited to get to try out another Bible program and see if IT was the program to fit our need.

When I looked over the Judah Bible Curriculum website I read that it is:

A Principle Approach to Bible Class.
Develop a comprehensive knowledge of the Bible.
Build strong, Godly character in your children.
Study the Bible together.
Study the hand of God in the lives of individuals and nations.
For homeschool, Christian school, Sunday school.
Teach your children living Biblical principles to guide their lives.
Apply God's word personally in every area of life.
The Bible is the textbook.

I LOVED the last bullet point. This is what I had been using myself with the children-the Bible as the textbook. I was certainly interested to read more. Then I read that students will get through the Bible (or at least key points) in ONE year!! Again, happy. Last I read that the students will get to make a NOTEBOOK. Uh SOUNDS perfect!

So, I downloaded the program and jumped directly to lesson one. Yep, I am going to show you my true colors here. I *might* be the kinda person who reads lesson one and then only goes back to the intro if I don't understand something. You CAN NOT. Let me repeat CANNOT!!! Do that with the Judah Bible Curriculum. I was so confused and didn't know what to do. I sat on it, prayed about it, talked about it to a few friends, and decided to start again.

This time, I started at the beginning. I read the 'why' I read the 'how' I read the 'when' I read, listened, and FELL IN LOVE!!!!

I am telling you my saga because I know if you buy the Judah Bible Curriculum and go about it the same way I did you will come back yelling at me for allowing you to purchase the program. I think it is a great program, but I want to be sure you understand it from the start.

What You Get:

The Judah Bible Curriculum includes 3 parts: The K-12 Curriculum Manual, Elementary Notebooking ideas booklet, and and Eight Lecture Teacher Training Seminar.

How it Works:

In each lesson students will study a passage in the Bible, memorize a Bible verse, and make a page for their Bible Notebook. This notebook is something that they will be able to refer back to for years to come. Writing down their thoughts will also help your student internalize what they have learned. The scope and sequence allows you the freedom to study each Bible text, knowing that you will not miss any part of the Bible as long as you follow the program each year.

Also included in the program are Teacher Training Lectures. I really enjoyed these lectures! They are intended to teach you about each of the Biblical stories and people that you are about to teach your children about. I have read the passages before, but being reminded of them just before teaching my children helps to get me excited about doing so.

My Thoughts:

As I got further into my understanding of the Judah Bible Curriculum, I realized that it is a LOT like what we are already doing. There is a lot of guidance in the scope and sequence and the weekly lesson manual, but after that there isn't much direction. This is by design, but can create a lot of work for you the parent. When working with younger children, you decide what is going on their notebook pages. There are 'Key Sheets' included for notebooking as an older student, but no forms included for younger students. There is, however, an entire manual of examples and ideas for you to use in your notebooks. I really liked that!

If I wanted a hand holding, detailed lesson plan and workbook, I would NOT buy Judah Bible Curriculum. However, that's not what I wanted. Judah Bible Curriculum is going to allow me to keep doing what we were already doing, but it will give me the tools and direction I need to continue with it for the next 12 grades if I want to.

I hope it is enough of an endorsement to say that we are going to be using Judah Bible Curriculum for our curriculum. It is exactly what I was looking for and I am blessed to have it.

Judah Bible Curriculum retails for $44.00 as a download or $74.00, shipped, if you want a hard copy. You only order once and you can use it for all your children for all 12 years of school. VERY affordable.

I would certainly recommend checking out their website and reading over the many reviews at the TOS Crew Blog to see if Judah Bible Curriculum is a fit for your family like it was mine.

Thank you for reading and God Bless!!!

*Disclaimer, I was given a free copy of the Judah Bible Curriculum to use with my family. I was not required to write a positive review, all opinions expressed are my own.*

Montessori Monday: The 2 Year Old Among Us

2012-05-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while since I showed you what Mini Cooper has been up to. She is a very busy bee around our room, not sticking with any one work for too long, but certainly checking everything out. She has some solid favorites. Mini is now 2 years and 9 months old.

Probably her favorite thing, recently, was Dog's Colorful Day. I found this idea on Just Montessori and My Montessori Journey. I was lucky enough to find this book at a yard sale!! Always great when you already have it in your Amazon cart and get to buy it for less :). The cards are from My Montessori Journey.

We read the book (again since we had already read it with everyone) and used the printables, our pom poms, and the tiles from color box 2 to match our colors.

Mini Cooper has really been into colors (and the color box) lately, so this was really fun for her!

Other things she has been doing include:

Practical Life:

Cutting...

Lots and LOTS of cutting.

I gave her a living/non-living page that the older kids were doing.

She cut hers to shreds.

You guessed it, cutting. In fact, if you look closely in some photos (not this one) you will notice her new self given hair cut. She has since been banned from the scissors.

Water basting.

It took her awhile to catch on, but it became a favorite once she did.

Latches board-huge favorite!

Sensorial:

Building a tower with the red cylinders.

And knocking it down :).

Matching the pink tower to cards from Montessori Print Shop.

Green knobbless cylinders.

Mini knobbed cylinders. Which, by the way, when I received the knobless cylinders, it made me realize JUST HOW MINI our Mini Cylinders are. I realized that the true cylinders are MUCH more challenging and, likely, fun. So, after a few months of saving, we finally have the REAL Knobbed Cylinders headed our way. I am SO.STINKING.EXCITED!! I hope the kids like them, too :).

Racing marbles down the pink and brown stairs. The kids came up with this one on their own. It was such a pleasure to get to watch them.

Language:

Matching sea animals. From iChild.

Pin punching-this lasted about as long as the photo. Maybe another time!

Culture/Geography/Botany:

Sorting land, air, and water cards from Montessori for Everyone.

Sorting land and water animals. Well, actually, she just pulled out all the whales and lined them up. That works.

Hemisphere map with control map. She is very good at this one!

Everything else :)

Marble run.

Doing her own thing. I never quite figured it out, but the cylinders were people in her story about Dog. It was funny.

She is really becoming a great little worker and I am so thrilled that she has the oportunity to learn with the Montessori method from the beginning. I'm so excited to see how she does on her journey!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

We're linked up!

Summer Fun Montessori Trays

2012-04-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

This week was our last class for our homeschool co-op pre-k group this year. Next month we will be having parties and taking field trips and then we will be enjoying our Summer!! We wrapped it up with a learning centers class. This week I had some help and it really made it way more fun! I brought 17 activities, and another mom brought 19 activities. It was great to have so many options. I hope that I can have help again next year.

Before I show you what was on my trays, I want to let you know about an AMAZING resource for new Montessori moms (or old ones), Justmontessori.com. Thanks to Our Montessori Story, I learned about Just Montessori a couple of months ago. She has provided her entire curriculum online for free. I know I *could* make up my own, but hers seems to be perfect for us. It has made my life so much easier just to follow her lead. I still have to gather the materials and put my things together, but I don't have to come up with a plan. So, um, yeah, most of these ideas came from her :).

Sweeping seashell pieces.

Pouring seashells.

Seashell cards and counters.

Exploring seashells.

Land, Air, Water sorting work. From Montessori For Everyone.

Ocean animal matching from iChild.co.uk.

Melissa and Doug sea puzzle.

Catching water animals with a 'net.'

Transferring marbles with tongs.

Basting water (shown without water lol).

Scrubbing rocks.

I found the cutest scrubber and just had to make a tray out of it. It wasn't until the children used the tray that I realized the scrubber was too big for them. Oh well, I found myself a cute new scrubber.

Open and closing tray.

With new things to open and close.

Living/non-living sort.

From The Helpful Garden.

Plant/animal sort also from The Helpful Garden.

Stamping 1-5 from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Color yourself basket.

I found the people at Hobby Lobby.

Natural Moutrishka (sp??) Dolls (Hobby Lobby).

Last, but not least, construction paper, magazines, scissors and glue. A few of the kids (especially Mustang) really got into this one.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have found some ideas that you can use with your little ones. God Bless!

We're linked up!

Montessori Monday: Mustang's Math

2012-04-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I feel like I've finally 'caught up' to where Mustang is with her math abilities. It is still a slight struggle to convince her to do her math work, but once she starts she really seems to enjoy it. It's nice to feel like she is learning something new instead of continuously repeating things.

I want to mention here that there seem to be a number of different orders of presentation available. After starting and getting confused on a few of them, I finally decided to go with the Monteco Scope and Sequence for math. Some of these were presented before I decided on this order.

Intro to the decimal system.

Getting beads to layout on the mat.

Symbol layout

Forming her first number.

Here's where I messed up the order. I should have gone back to the 100 board and chains, but instead we did an intro to addition.

We used peg people for our three students.

Handing out the beads-or money as she called it.

Making a big number.

First addition problem.

She loves using the peg people, the other kids love watching her.

We backed up and did a super quick review of the teens boards (printed ones).

And Tens boards.

Then moved to the hundred board.

She doesn't like the board-but she DID like the worksheet to go with it. Go figure.

So on we went to the 100 chain. She loved it and marked it quickly with the arrows.

She really enjoyed making 100 squares out of the 1000 chain, too. She started doing it BEFORE I had a chance to show her, too!

I thought she would like the 1000 chain-nope. She doesn't like 'long' work. She wants to do things quickly. Hates fixing her incorrect work, too. Mustang worked on the 1000 chain for about 10 minutes one afternoon. She asked if she could leave it for the next day, which I agreed to. She never touched it again-except when I made her pick it up.

The short bead chains were completely different she LOVED them!!

She built the square pyramid on her own-I didn't show her at all.

She enjoyed filling out the bead paper from Montessori Print Shop, too (it's a freebie). She finished her bead paper chart today.

From here we will go back to the golden bead material. I'm not sure when, if ever, she will return to the long bead chains. I don't currently own them (quite a lot of money) and, if the 1000 chain is any indication, I don't know if she will work on them anyways. I am saving for them, however, so maybe!

Thank you for stopping by! I hope your learning is going well!

God Bless!

We're linked up:

Montessori Monday: Geography and Landforms

2012-04-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

First off, I hope you all had a great Easter week! Mustang spent the last week in an art camp and I carted her 1/2 each way back and forth all week. Then Mini Cooper got sick, and we ended the week with our yearly gymnastics night with our Homeschool Co-op, so I'm sorry for not doing much blogging lately!

Our Montessori road has been going pretty well, IMO. I'm still working on trying to figure out how much is too much to expect in a day, and which works to present to whom when, but I think those are good problems to have.

Here's what we have been up to in our group lessons over the last couple weeks:

Sandpaper globe. Supposed to teach how the land is water (smooth blue) and land (sandpaper). They were mostly interested in how it spins around... BTW, I purchased this globe from an eBay seller. The quality is crummy. I would recommend going through Allison's.

Landforms have been SO MUCH FUN!!!

We did them together at our kitchen table. I still am not okay with much water in the school room, maybe someday.

I poured in our blue water, and then they looked at them.

But of course, swimming is much more fun!

We did a set a day for 7 different days.

One warm day, we took the landforms outside.

They took turns with the sets, and I game them each a small pitcher of water. I started out letting them add the blue food coloring, until Mini Cooper decided to color her hair when I ran inside for more water. Then I just added it myself.

They really like to flood their landforms.

Pouring the water back into his jug.

We also explored waterscapes and properties of water thanks to our recent review book What On Earth?. You can read about it here.

Mustang worked on the three part cards and definitions.

Charger worked on just the 3-part cards.

The cards really helped in trying to remember what the landforms are actually called.

And then we went on to the continents globe (a good one from Allison's). But, that's for another day!

Thanks for stopping by!! God Bless!!

We're linked up!

TOS Review: AIMS Education Foundation What on Earth?

2012-04-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks, we have had the opportunity to use a neat resource in our learning., What on Earth? from AIMS Educational Foundation.

AIMS stands for Activities Integrating Math and Science. The foundation was started in 1981 with a grant from the National Science Foundation. The goal of this non-profit education is to provide teachers with helpful resources to integrate Science and Math along with with other subjects. AIMS wants to provide a more meaningful integrated approach to learning rather then dividing the different subjects.

What on Earth? is a 137 page teacher resource and idea book for teaching about what's in, on, and changing about the Earth. It is written for ages Kindergarten and First grade, though the lessons were easily adaptable for my 4 year old. The book also includes a CD so that you don't have to copy the reproducible pages, you can print them off!

Themes included in What on Earth:

Resources: The Earth has resources that are used to make all kinds of things. Resources can be conserved by recycling, reusing, and reducing their consumption.
Rocks and Soils: Rocks and soils have observable properties.
Water: Water is found in oceans, lakes, ponds, and rivers.
Changes: Earth's surface can quickly change due to hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, and wind and wave action.
Day/Night: The sun and moon are objects in the sky that have repeating patterns of movement.
Seasons: The seasons form a repeating pattern. The changes in weather help determine our clothing and activities.

What did we think?

Well, we have been learning about Landforms already, so I chose the unit on Water. It went really well and the kids seemed to enjoy the lessons.

The first lesson in the unit talks about different types of Waterscapes. The CD included with the book has a bunch of beautiful photos showing examples of the different Waterscapes: lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and oceans. Mustang and Charger especially liked seeing them. We also drove by a number of Waterscapes and discussed which was which.

The second lesson in the unit taught about the properties of water. This lesson involved water, sand, pouring, and general messiness, so we moved it outside.

Mini Cooper checking out our makeshift water bed. (Excuse the landforms, we were supposed to use books, but the landforms are plastic and we were getting ready to use them, too.)

We poured water down our pan of sand to see what would happen to the water and the sand.

The sand in the bottom pan after running down the 'land.'

Making observations about the water before and after.

This demonstration was very simple to prepare and even easier to show the kids. They seemed to understand the point, that water collects sand and other particles as it flows. It helped to actually see it in action. The rest of What on Earth? seems to be just as easy to understand and prepare, and I am looking forward to using more units in our learning!

I think that the AIMS Education Foundation did a wonderful job of integrating the subjects as I didn't feel like anything was added just to make sure that all subjects were covered. This would be a great resource for a teacher who is trying to hit all the required learning elements, but doesn't want to do a bunch of extra stuff just to do so.

From a homeschooler's perspective, I felt that it was easy to adapt to my crew. I guess having a 'mini' class of 3, I appreciate things that are written to more then one student at a time. As I mentioned before, it was also easy to prepare (majorly important). From a Montessori perspective, I felt that the book offered a number of different lessons that could easily be turned into individual learning trays to allow for further exploration of a subject.

With 30 lessons in What on Earth?, it could certainly be used as a year's science curriculum. However, you would probably find yourself using it as a supplemental or unit study resource.

What on Earth? currently retails for $21.95 and comes with a one location license to make up to 200 copies. I would really recommend this one for a homeschool co-op group!! AIMS also offers a ton of other subjects in the same format for up to grade 9, E-Activities, a magazine, lab kits, and much more!

Some of my fellow crew mates tested other AIMS books. If you would like to read what they had to say, check out our TOS Crew Blog.

Thanks for reading and God Bless!!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of What on Earth? in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review.

TOS Review: Amazing Animals by Design

2012-04-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

Why is a giraffe's neck so tall?

Why do zebras have stripes?

Did all of these things happen by accident?

When John and Sarah visit the zoo, they ask these questions and many more. Their parents and the zookeepers keep using the word design, but what does that mean? With its relevant message and exciting presentation, this is the perfect book to help introduce children to intelligent design.

You've read books that answer these questions before. Usually the reason given is due to their 'environment.' Or maybe and old legend or tale. Worse yet, part of their 'ever evolving features.' Not this time!!

My children and I loved this adorable book! It has a great story line that kept their attention through the entire book. The dialog is perfect. I don't like books that feel like the story line was forced to make a point. Amazing Animals by Design is not that way at all, it flows wonderfully and entertained old and young alike! The pictures are vibrant and eye-pleasing. Just perfect.

The best part, though, is that author Debra Haagen gives the correct answer to these questions! Crediting an intelligent, purposeful creation made by an amazing God!

She chooses 7 different animals (pictured on the front of the book) and explains how they were specially created to be able to survive in their chosen homes. I loved reading these facts, some of which even I hadn't ever heard about before.

Simply one of the VERY BEST books I have read. I HIGHLY recommend Amazing Animals by Design!!!!

Amazing Animals by Design by Debra Haagen is available in print ($8.99) or eBook format ($7.99), and is available from Tate Publishing and Enterprises.

Author Debra Haagen is a fellow mom blogger who homeschools her children! She is even part of the TOS review crew, which made reviewing her book even more of an honor. Her experience in finding quality products was evident in her book!! To find out more about her, check out her author website, Amazing Animals by Design blog, or her review blog.

If you'd like to hear what others thought of her book, check out the TOS review crew blog.

Montessori Monday with Explorer!

2012-04-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that right! It's Explorer's turn for the spotlight this week.

When she isn't napping, Explorer joins us in the school room, too. There isn't a lot she can do since she doesn't sit or crawl just yet. But, she loves to just be there with us and watch what we are doing. I have plans to add a baby area to our room, but it's not done (or um, started) yet.

I do try to provide her with an object to Explorer on her mat. Hopefully, this will help her get used to the idea of working on a mat, and learn about something new.

Last week, I added a mirror to the room just for her. She LOVED it. This isn't a new idea. I have read many times about putting a mirror in a Montessori baby's environment. She doesn't have her own space anywhere in our house, and likely never will, so I thought the school room would be a great place to put it.

It didn't take long until Explorer was joined by her siblings. Apparently, mirrors aren't just for babies. They have been have a wonderful time with this in our room. It's kept Explorer busy for quite awhile, too!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

We're linked up:

Book Review: Gabby's Stick To It Day!

2012-03-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

Gabby's back ... and she's brought a Kindle Fire Giveaway with her!

Meet Gabby for yourself here. || Read what people are saying here.

Enter today - Sheila and her publisher, Thomas Nelson, have put together a prize package worth over $200!

One lucky winner will receive:

A brand new KINDLE Fire with Wi-Fi

Gabby, God’s Little Angel

Gabby's Stick-to-It-Day

But wait! There’s more …

The winner will be announced on the Gabby Landing page on 4/2/12. In the meantime, enter to win the Kindle Fire then head over to the Tommy Nelson site and download the Gabby coloring sheets, watch Sheila's Gabby video, sign up for news about upcoming Gabby and Thomas Nelson products, and much more.

About Gabby's Stick-to-It Day

Gabby is a little guardian angel with a big job to do! Watching over Sophie is hard work, but Gabby knows that God wants her to stick to it.

Gabby, God’s Little Angel, flies to the rescue as Sophie attempts to help others but has a little trouble sticking with things. Sophie tries to be helpful by washing the family dog for her mom, but she gives up when she’s the one who ends up all wet. She then tries to be kind by reading to her little brother, but he has plans of his own, which include a splash of cereal right in Sophie’s face! When Sophie is ready to quit once again, it’s up to Gabby to encourage her to keep trying and to teach her what the Bible says about perseverance: “We must not become tired of doing good. We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9 NCV)

About the author, Sheila Walsh

Sheila Walsh is a Bible teacher, speaker, singer, and best-selling author with more than 4 million books sold. Sheila Walsh is the creator of the award-winning Gigi, God's Little Princess® brand, which has sold over 1.5 million units and won two National Retailer's Choice Awards. As a featured speaker with Women of Faith®, Sheila has reached more than 3.5 million women by artistically combining honesty, vulnerability and humor with God's Word. She resides in Dallas with her husband Barry and son Christian.Visit www.sheilawalsh.com for more information about Sheila, her other books or Women of Faith.

What Did we Think?

We LOVED Gabby's Stick-to-it Day! Not too long, not too short, lots of humor, and great for the imagination! The beautiful, whimsical pages are sprinkled in angel dust (glitter), and my girls just loved looking at them. We all enjoyed reading this adorable story to brighten the gloomy day we chose to read it on! One of the best kids' books we have read in a long time!!

Gabby's Stick-to-It Day would make a great gift for the little angel in your life! Not too late to add it to an Easter Basket! Gabby's Stick-to-It Day retails for 14.99, and is currently on sale for 11.99 on the Thomas Nelson site.

If you would like to read what other families thought, check out the Litfuse Review Blog.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway!! Good Luck and God Bless!!

Disclaimer: We received a free copy of Gabby's Stick to-It Day in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are our own.

Montessori Monday with Charger

2012-03-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

Charger has been completely in to language the last week or two. He stops me in the middle of playing a game to say B! Ball starts with B! Or how to spell a word. One night, as he was going to sleep, he yelled down asking how to spell moon. It's pretty fun to watch.

It started when I brought out the sandpaper letters.

He has been doing sound sorts over the last few weeks.

M is for music box :).

So, today I pulled out the Moveable Alphabet to see what he would do. His first word was 'jet.'

Dog was next.

Followed by duck. He was spelling the animals from Word World, lol. Now, he didn't know that duck ended in -ck. At first he had duc because those are the sounds he heard. But, having seen duck written he knew that it was missing a letter. He tried l because he knew it was a taller letter. Finally, I just told him.

Then he ran out of words that he could think of (he was very excited and having a hard time concentrating), so I grabbed some CVC objects and he used those. Sun and bib.

Pan is on top, ant he came up with on his own. I did have to help him 'hear' the sounds, but he figured them out on his own. I was very proud of him and he was so excited!! We have been spelling words all night, I'll have to come up with more for tomorrow!

Other things that Charger has been up to:

Practical Life:

Lacing people beads.

Lacing transportation sewing cards.

Lacing shape beads (are you seeing a theme?)

Cutting food.

Dry pouring! He never chooses pouring, but apparently this little set attracted him.

Mathematics:

Number rods

And extensions.

He really gets into his work.

And is very excited when he completes it. I am so thankful for the Montessori Method because I can tell you he would NOT sit still and learn these concepts with worksheets!

Table top rods.

Introduction to addition.

Spindle boxes.

He also worked on cards and counters, but I don't have a photo of that. I am not sure if we will move forward yet or not. He CAN count to 10, but he gets bored or distracted and just starts quickly placing his counters or spindles. This usually results in boxes 8, 9, and or 10 having the incorrect number of counters. We may keep working on it, but for now all he wants to do is spell anyways :).

Sensorial:

Geometric presentation tray blindfolded.

One day, we tried the experiment of rolling a marble down the brown stairs. I wish I would have had my camera that day, because he LOVED it. He liked the musical part, but just rolling the marbles kept his focus for a good 45 minutes!!

So, those are some of the highlights (or at least the things I caught on camera). I am very interested to see where the next few weeks take us!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

We're linked up:

TOS Review: Action Alert

2012-03-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks we have been trying out a new Internet protection service, Action Alert! I have 4 young children, 2 of which are old enough to use the computer. I want that computer experience to be fun, clean, and safe. So, when we were asked if we would like to try a computer program designed to do just that-I was so excited to try!

What is Action Alert?

Action Alert creates a kid safe PC with web site blocking and filtering. It allows control of computer use with comprehensive time controls, protects against Sexual Predators, Over sharing, Sexting, Gaming addictions, Inappropriate Videos and Pictures, control over Internet searches and MUCH more.

Action Alert is the ONLY Internet Safety solution endorsed by the Child Safety network.

It was the winner of Disney's iParenting Award.

And was featured on the Today Show.

So, yeah, it came very highly recommended and I couldn't wait to try it out!!

I downloaded Action Alert and had a lot of fun playing around with its many options. I love that you can designate times when the computer can be 'off.' I have a 6 year old that loves to sneak down at the CRACK OF DAWN and turn on the computer. I could use Action Alert to keep the computer from coming on at all.

The next feature I love is that Action Alert will actually DVR the activity on a computer for as long as there is time left on the log (clean it off occasionally). I was able to watch what the kids had done for the morning and see what sites they accessed.

Unfortunately, it was as I was watching the playback on the computer that I realized it wasn't going to work on their computer *sigh.* We let them use an older computer that doesn't have a lot of RAM. The Action Alert software was taxing the computer so much that it couldn't load their beloved action packed, sound filled, moving picture websites. It did just fine on searches and email, but that's not what my kids do with the computer at this time in their life. I also found that it would not allow my computer to wake back up from sleep mode when I wasn't using it. A little frustrating because I would have to reboot the computer to get it work again.

So, I have mixed emotions on Action Alert. I love what it can do, and what I saw it do, but I didn't like the side effects. I would check out the specs to verify it will work on your computer before purchasing the Maximum Protection.

Action Alert offers two options. Their FREE option {free is always good!} is everything you need to set up a kid-friendly computer in minutes. For $29.99 you can add great features such as: multi-user protection, fully customizable features, and full social networking monitoring.

Give it a try, the price is certainly right! If you would like to hear what other families have to saw about Action Alert, check out the TOS Crew Blog.

God Bless!!

Disclaimer: I received a free download of Action Alert Maximum Protection in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Mini Coopers Montessori Tot School Wrap Up

2012-03-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Mini Cooper is 2 1/2 years. She is at the very beginning of the Montessori Primary cycle. It is an interesting age. She is very eager to try the things that interest her, and to do them over and over. She is also very interested in making messes with the work she uses, which tries my patience! We are trying to find a middle ground :).

Some of the things she has worked on over the last few weeks:

Practical life:

Pouring beads between a jug and two votive holders 'cups.' She was so pleased with herself.

Lacing beads, or in her case sorting them.

Spooning lentils.

Sensorial:

Geometric presentation tray.

Showing off her completed pink tower.

Creating her own extensions.

Touch boards. Her response to the rough side was 'ouch!'

Language:

Working on her pincher grasp to put marbles on a duck.

Matching pictures.

Sorting animals and things.

Another pincher grabber, moving little chicks from one crate to the other. Next week this will be a practical life exercise when I add tongs :).

I found the little chicks at Hobby Lobby.

We have been having a lot of fun! Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless!!

We are linked up:

Explorer Update

2012-03-16T20:12:00.002-07:00

We had our follow up with the GI doctor on Monday.

It was a BEAUTIFUL 83 degree winter day (yes you read that right) for the two of us to drive our 5 hour-or so-round trip journey. Explorer traveled wonderfully! Thank God!!

We arrived in plenty of time to have lunch and then head up to the office. We were sent directly to the lab. They had decided to rule out Cystic Fibrosis, even though she has no other symptoms. So, she had to have a sweat test. Let me tell you, that made ME sweat. Scary looking test!!!

After the sweat test, they drew her blood. She is too funny. She cried when the nurse first stuck her, and then grinned at her. Explorer is VERY friendly. I'm also convinced that she knows how to say the word "Hi." She said hi to the lab tech, two nurses and the doctor. She said it when she first saw each one of them. I am impressed. Must be the homeschooling *snort.*

She has gained MORE weight. She now weighs in at 18lbs 3 oz and is 26 inches long. She's only 5 months old and was a preemie. Um, can we say giant? :)

Lab results show that her enzymes are still elevated, but just slightly. All the other tests have come back negative, so there is still no clear reason why. I am so thankful that all the other tests are negative, though!!

We will have a repeat lab in 3 months, but we get to go to the local hospital. No cool hospital and super nice doctor (not that our local isnt nice), but no huge drive so I'm very glad!!

You would never know that there was something 'wrong' with her if you saw her. She is the happiest, friendliest, and biggest kid ever. She loves her jumperoo, and is have a great time rolling over and trying to figure out how to crawl. She is such a joy!!

Thank you all for your prayers! I'll continue to update if I get more information.

God Bless and Happy St Patrick's Day!!

Mustang's Weekly Wrap Up

2012-03-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

So I started to write everyone up in one post again, and it was too long and confusing and I couldn't add any commentary. I am going to do separate posts for each kiddo as I have a chance. There will be some duplicates, and some not. Hopefully, I wont bore you!

Mustang is age 6 1/2, she is still in Primary Montessori since we are really just starting. She is on the fast track (pretty much as quickly as I can buy and present the materials), but we are starting with period 1, in all but Math and Language.

Some of her highlights from the last few weeks:

Practical Life:

Button frame (this was easy for her).

She has been helping a lot in the kitchen. She asks all the time if she can help me with the dishes. I am trying more and more to let go. I just ordered child size cleaning supplies, so hopefully she will enjoy using them.

Sensorial:

Geometry cabinet presentation tray, later blindfolded.

Touch Boards-she liked them the most of all my children. She is really into her sense of touch at the moment.

Geometric solids. I used a natural set I already had on hand and added in the Platonic solids made of cardstock. Mustang really wants to make her own nets-I told her she could soon!

Mathematics:

Our fast track has been taking us down a review of math as we go through the math materials. She is ready (previous knowledge wise) to start the golden bead material. But, I wanted to get there the correct way. So, we have been using the materials ahead of it quickly. She is almost there!!

Sandpaper letters.

Number rods.

And extensions.

Table top rods, intro to addition and subtraction.

Spindle boxes.

Cards and counters. These are homemade using red floral gems. This was very basic for her, but we had never discussed odd and even numbers. So, it was fun for her to learn something new.

This cards and counters worksheet is from Wikisori.

Language:

Mustang is still going through her All About Reading and First Start Reading.

She was excited when I downloaded books for her to read on the Kindle Fire!

Art:

Well kind of art. She was observing Charger working on his math and drew this 10 rod.

Then, she drew a barnyard scene-we have been reading Charlotte's Web.

Another day, she drew a spider web and a lot of spiders. Unfortunately, all the drawings were on our dry erase board. That's a large part of why I took the photos-this is my only way of preserving the drawing.

Culture is kind of at a stand still. I just received our sandpaper globe and landforms, so we should be moving forward next week.

Oh and we had one other unplanned Practical Life! HAIR CUTTING!!! Mustang thought that she would like to be like her aunt, so she cut Mini Cooper's hair!!! Grrrr!!

Mini's hair on Tuesday.

Mini Cooper's hair on Wednesday!

Yep, over 6 inches. It looks cute-after I fixed it-but I'm a little sad (now that I'm not angry). I'm glad that hair cutting is not a normal part of the Montessori Primary education :).

To see what other kids around the blog world are doing check out Montessori Monday on Living Montessori Now!