Montessori Trails - Our Montessori Path Through Life

Botany - Fruit - Looking at Dragonfruits

2022-07-09T16:52:00.001-04:00

Making Up Words

2021-04-23T21:57:00.002-04:00

Because why not?

Where's the Pink Tower Cube? I don't know - let's go pour.

2021-02-20T23:08:00.002-05:00

New Videos for Primary

2021-02-13T22:02:00.003-05:00

With distance learning, I have started the primary videos all over again and introducing the concepts to my very eager family. Not just "Piglet" but Fishicorn and two more with as-yet-not-chosen screen names.

After so many issues with the older videos, I finally just started from scratch.

These videos represent a realistic experience with new-to-Montessori homeschooling. Their home is not "Montessori" but in the same spirit is generally clutter-free and open, laid out for the needs of the entire family. We used what they had on hand as much as possible until we started on the specifically Montessori materials.

Just a reminder to myself even how much of Montessori is not about the specific materials but about the environment and using what you have on hand!

Join us at Keys of the World for access to the primary videos.

1.9 GB
This image isn't even a third!

Accessing Keys Montessori Resources

2020-10-01T20:43:00.002-04:00

KeysoftheUniverse.com/elementary

KeysoftheUniverse-Montessori.com

KeysoftheWorld.com

GardenofFrancis.com

Elementary

Individual Subject Albums with Videos – varying prices

Add-on Online Support $15/subject
Accessed on private website

Full-Pay Albums, Videos, Support $400

16-segment – $40 for the first; $25 each thereafter (total $415)

8-segment – $65 for the first; $50 thereafter (total $415)

Elementary

Albums: Individual Subjects or Complete Set

Videos: Individual Subjects or Complete Set

Online Support: Individual Subjects or Complete Set
Accessed on private website

Adolescent Options

Primary (2.5-6)

Albums: Individual Subjects or Complete Set

Videos: Individual Subjects or Complete Set

Online Support: Individual Subjects or Complete Set
Accessed on private website

Infant-Toddler Options

Includes everything from Keys of the Universe Montessori and from Keys of the World sites.

Geometry Blooper - Let's try those Polygons again!

2020-08-29T19:06:00.004-04:00

Stage fright is a real thing, even when your face isn't on the camera this time! ;)

Poor foot!

Introducing Piglet

2020-07-22T14:15:00.003-04:00

My new video buddy

Piglet

New Video Partner for Keys of the Universe

2020-07-20T20:55:00.000-04:00

My darling niece is taking the place of Joshua (Legoboy) for making some of our Keys of the Universe videos.

Here is a blooper sample from our first set of videos filmed in over 9 months.

She needs a screen-name.... Hmmm.....

Despite being a temporary invalid, all-new to Montessori and we're not filming in my normal location, she is a great video partner so far!

There was a hair stuck in her stress ball - looked like it was growing out of the ball.

Legoboy's Schooling - What did he actually use?

2020-04-30T17:32:00.003-04:00

Legoboy used many resources in addition to Montessori throughout his life education. Many of these resources I have previously written about on Montessori Trails. A Keys of the Universe parent asked me to write some explicit posts about our supplements, so here goes!

The first Great Lesson story we tell in elementary is The Creation of the Universe or God with No Hands. This story tells of the creation of the universe and the formation of the earth, with the ultimate goal to demonstrate the laws of nature and the utter obedience of all particles to these laws.

Just about every child studies volcanoes so of course we did too! No particular resources used - videos, trips to our local museum, books.

He did fall in love with all things POMPEII! And as luck would have it, our local museum center had a special exhibit, so we picked up a few resources there: videos, books, cards.

The Story of God with No Hands opens up the Geography album. Within geography, we have studies on the universe, nature of elements, sun and earth, work of water, work of air, human geography, and economic geography. In addition to the Montessori experience, Legoboy utilized the following the most heavily:

Trail Guide to World Geography
Signs and Seasons (astronomy)
Cycles: An Introduction to Astronomy and Time
Solar System: A Visual Exploration of the Planets, Moons, and Other Heavenly Bodies that Orbit Our Sun by Marcus Chown
Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe by Terrence Dickinson
lots of videos, museum, outings
Tuttle Twins
various atlases and encyclopedias
Home Science Tools for science supplies and the microscope
Economic Geography Stamps - Montessori AMI-style

High School Work Plan

2020-04-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

Legoboy and I have had a few life experiences in the last 3 years. These experiences have ranged from absolutely amazingly wonderful to the most terrifyingly horrific.

Needless to say, schooling had to work around and through life, as it always has for us: fully integrated and meeting our family's unique needs.

Legoboy and I worked together to develop his high school work plan. Way back when, we started with a daily work plans, moved to a weekly and a monthly (click on the "work plan" tag at the bottom of this post to see our other work plans through the years). Now, we can start looking at mapping out a multi-year education plan.

Legoboy was looking at college studies in architecture and started his high school plan with what those kinds of colleges were looking for in a potential's student's history. Together, we then compared those to the local high school requirements and developed a personal transcript form.

We then went through it and filled in names of courses and resources used for each. He organized which items he wanted to do in each year, if there was a preference or an order, so he could get a feel for where the non-preferences would naturally fit in.

A notebook contains our notes for each course, which flesh out the names of the resources on the transcripts, describe the required areas of study in each subject, desired areas of interest in each subject, final project for each subject and any other pertinent information.

Legoboy finished up all but one of the final 9th grade requirements in October of 2019, having already begun some of his 10th and even 11th grade plans. The plan was to take the month of November off, with the exception of finalizing his research paper which was more for fun than for academics.

He took the resources he was going to use for 10th grade and organized them out by the months of the school year. This wasn't a perfect document because some of the bolded main headings didn't make it onto the printed page from the Excel made he had created.

He really wanted to organize things into something akin to a block schedule. Fewer areas of focused study, more intensely, then swap it up. Just a few things were every month, including literature and apologetics.

Each month we were to read together at least one book of extra-cultural origin, with the goal of reaching around the world, with representative samples from each continent.

He was also continuing with his taekwondo (working towards second degree black belt) having started discussing 28 hours earlier about opening a school with his first instructor. Service projects and involvement in our church community as well as the community at large through various venues.

He had started applying for jobs and would have started driver's education in December.

The specific resources don't matter at this age as much as the planning, the organization - the personal responsibility and integrity.

But for those interested, here are some highlighted resources that suit Montessori educated students:

Cover Story and One Year Adventure Novel
Mike Waski's Algebra and Geometry resources
Life of Fred
Ramsey Solutions - Foundations in Financial Peace
Generation J Camp

One thing he was REALLY looking forward to and we were starting to case out a few options:

Speech. Read: DEBATE. He wanted to master the fine points of debate. ;)

I wish he had lost the final debate of his life.

Elementary Work Plan - Age 8 - over three summer weeks

2020-04-20T07:00:00.002-04:00

Want to download this one?
See this link: Description of this Montessori work plan

I found these work plans in my son's papers.

June 18 work plan, finished the following week.

Then July 4 week.

He was 8 years old that summer.

These elementary Montessori work plans were developed based on the conversations we had together about next steps in each area, personal goals and plans, items already on our schedule (outings, etc.). The work plan conversation takes into consideration local education requirements (my parental and our family values, checking the local school requirements from time to time to see what kind of terminology is used and topics are covered), his personal interests and our family culture.

Joshua assisted me with our family business from the very beginning, so there are references to office management in there.

He was also helping to make some videos as well as needed/wanted review on some concepts, so you'll see some typically earlier items on this list. Some things we just didn't start until later, because he is a typical child in the regard of there never being just one right path!

We worked together as a team his entire life. That doesn't mean we did everything together, joined at the hip; it means we coordinated together and supported each other's personal time/interests. In that spirit, even at him being 8 years old, I still did some of the work plan writing for him.

Some more details

The first work plan pictured here was two weeks worth of work. Inititally it had one week on it; most of which he finished, but enough was undone that we just carried it over to the following week and added to it.

Astronomy: The boxes indicate he had activities to do on separate days (they could not be grouped together). He was working through the book Signs and Seasons and there were daily observations and record-keeping. This chart was work over 2 weeks. He had finished the first week (June 18) in chapter 6, so we added chapter 7 activities for the last week of June. Hence the additional boxes.

Homemaking: "Office assistant" refers to a set of particular skills/experiences he wanted to learn at that time - I don't even remember what they were those particular weeks but it could have been organizing paperwork, typing some things on the Montessori Trails blog (he created the infant-toddler page with the list of links at one point, for example). "Organize" was probably referring specifically to our home. We had some minor life adjustments at the time and needed to get our physical space more up to date with our needs.

Latin: He used Lingua Angelica at the time and he created the flashcards. We still have them. I just found one the week before last that he had been using as a bookmark recently. Crown was the English word. Crown in Latin? Corona. His godfather was going through the items on Joshua's side table when he found this card and was completely floored. The timing.

TKD: Taekwondo - he had 1-4 classes a week (open class, he could attend any number of them) and he practiced at home. He liked to have that on his work plan so he had a better idea as he looked at it each day how much time he could allocate for each thing.

Chores: standard chores - morning, mid-day and evening times.

Attitude: there was something he wanted to work on at the time to improve himself.

First LA simple: Logical Analysis, simple sentences - from the Elementary Montessori Language album.

Adj = Adjectives: he was working through the grammar boxes again as he wanted some review on them.

Exercise 4 Verb: Language album again. I don't recall the timing, if this was a presentation or a work. But he didn't get to it, even after two weeks. It looks like we got to it the following week.

Runes: His chosen language study at the time. He chose what he studies, how long, goals, when the goals were met, if the goals needed to be changed, if it was just for fun exploration, if there was an intended outcome. But he had time for these personal studies every day.

Speech: he was in speech therapy and chose to write it on his work plan to ensure he remembered it when planning for each day.

Ec-Geo stories: Economic Geography stories. He was helping me research to write these for publication. We never did finish! But we had fun looking stuff up!

4 River Civilizations: Egyptian, then Sumerian - these were our chosen presentations for those two weeks.

History Question Charts: If I recall correctly this was his first presentation on those so he used them to answer questions about the above two civilizations. Once he knew they were available he used them several times on other cultures.

Millions: I have no idea what this was!

Bead Frame: The golden bead frame (flat bead frame). To finetune some skills that we hadn't covered earlier.

Fractions: Underneath he noted that the lesson was on notation. He needed some review because I know we had done those earlier.

Geometry Story: to hear it again

CSE: Congruency, Similarity, Equivalence --- Geometry work

Water: the river = The Work of Water, the River Model. Yeah he loved this. But we didn't get to it then. It came later.

Leafs: Clearly we were still working on spelling ;) We did all of the leaf explorations in the Biology album over the course of this week, the next and later that summer.

Ecosystems: Biology album again. We read books, watched videos and went outside to find some micro-ecosystems.

The second chart:

Sometimes he or I would note on the work plan the intended day to focus on an activity, such as "Th" for Thursday.

Create "cold" foods - this was an herbal study we had going where we were learning about herbal remedies. So we prepared foods that were suitable for assisting someone with a cold.

Office assistant and declutter continued from the week before, but he also sewed a pouch on the sewing machine. He sewed other things at other times.

Latin - continue the lessons in our own way.

TKD, speech, piano, music cards and Latin cards we decided he needed to practice daily. This is when he started piano - and LOVED it.

For fun, he also built paper pyramids and a paper castle. I still have them somehwere.

Logical Analysis: we added the extensions

Book of Kells: we read it together and he copied some of the art
Illumination - artwork inspired by the Book of Kells

Verb box and commands - Grammar Boxes

History: Calendar from Signs and Seasons

History in 3 Phases from the Montessori History Album

BC/AD timeline

New World Civilizations: Montessori History Album

Practice long multiplication, adding/subtracting fractions of different families (denominators)

Game 3a and 3b from the squares and cubes chapter in the Montessori Elementary Mathematics Album

CSE of the Constructive Triangles from the Geometry Album

Continue long division

He wanted to work on the memorization of math facts. Finally, at age 8, he finally cared!

Leaves: finish and classify

Explore How animals live and move via videos and books

That feels like so much even for 21 days of schooling, but it was just so natural and flowed for us. Some activities were 5 minutes, some took a few hours.

Toddler Montessori: Shape Sorters

2020-04-12T11:57:00.000-04:00

Joshua loved this toy when he was an older infant and toddler.

I painted the pieces blue so as to isolate the concept of shape, but I left the box unpainted. The bottom I lined with felt because the sounds of the pieces falling into the box.

When he got older, we used the same pieces to learn the names for each of the shapes and all of the related sensorial games from the sensorial album.

Remedial Mathematics - Video Fun

2020-04-09T12:36:00.000-04:00

Just another one for fun.

Remedial mathematics, variation on the 2nd period of the 3 period lesson. Having a little fun - and then it backfired on me!

;)

Square Roots Videos - NOW POSTED

2020-04-07T09:27:00.000-04:00

My son left us in November. I still have many unedited, unposted Montessori lesson videos to share with the world.

I will edit them. I will get them posted. My Joshua is the star of the show. Both wonderful and absolutely heart-breaking.

This weekend, I created the videos for the Square Roots - they are edited and posted for all Keys of the Universe mathematics owners.

Where can they be found?

Keys of the Universe course page with the albums: keysoftheuniverse.com
Keys of the Universe discussion community (private link for those who purchase the online support)
Keys of the Universe Montessori: keysoftheuniverse-montessori.com - online support and/or the videos purchases will get you access.

No bloopers this time. But in the months since my son's passing, the golden bead units have come up missing, so here is a clip of me using the green beads in place of gold for the units!

Geometry - Parts of a Circle - Old Work

2020-03-18T16:41:00.000-04:00

Some of +Joshua+'s work.

Labeling parts of the circles - and some decimal math work.

I love how he decided to abbreviate "circle" as "circ." - saves SO much time! LOL!

Montessori Trails Blog-iversary - 8 years

2020-02-15T11:52:00.001-05:00

This (click here) was our first post 8 years ago.

Oh my how times have changed. My beautiful boy is in heaven now and I am facing life without him.

Legoboy's Business Contributions: 3-dimensional Scripture figures

2020-02-08T13:23:00.001-05:00

Legoboy, my beautiful Joshua, has contributed so much over the years to our family businesses.

He has helped design products, tested products, worked on various stages of the making of physical items. From the beginning he has always taken care of all mail delivery (to the mailbox or going into the post office) and pick-up.

His appearance in our Keys of the Universe videos was on a contract basis.

He was setting himself up to take over all customer service for Garden of Francis. He would call himself the GoF IHM. Not Immaculate Heart of Mary. Garden of Francis Iron-Hearted Maiden.

We were working together to find a different shade of green for the background on Garden of Francis. He really didn't like it and he thought it was distracting customers, potentially turning some away. We never did get that fixed.

There has been so much more.

Most recently, he financially invested in one portion of our Garden of Francis business: 3 dimensional Scripture figures. The morning he left us, is when the agreement was put into place and the investment made.

The materials arrived later that week and I finally got everything in place in January.

Here are some samples. I also have a Divine Mercy Jesus, a standing prophet, a seated writing prophet, Bridesmaids oil lamps and flasks (sized to hold birthday candles).

Flight into Egypt

Close up of angel

Annunciation

Nativity

Empty Tomb
figures for all Gospels

Shepherds
(the set includes an angel)

Last Supper
(set includes 12 apostles)

Wise Men

Annunciation

close-up of baby

My love

2019-12-15T13:45:00.001-05:00

28 days since I held you in my arms and told you help was on the way. 90 minutes you suffered pain I can't even imagine.

You are my heart. My soul. My strength. My everything.

As I type this, 28 days 10 minutes ago I ran outside, hoping I was wrong. That you were just at the gym. I saw the box at the mailbox and the car with the trailer in front of it - and I knew. I just knew.

Just two more seconds. That's all the difference it would have been.

I love you. I miss you so much. You ARE love. The truest love.

Funeral Homily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV5ZPEsQej8
(this link will be updated in the near future)

Be encouraged homily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDZgQsCuCsA
13:40 is the key section
Pronouns are not Fr. Meyer's strength. ;)

Go Fund Me - anything above expenses will go into a college scholarship fund for students who achieved a black belt prior to college. Or if anyone wants their donation to go specifically to the college fund, that will happen.

Jesse Tree ornaments by Joshua

2019-11-30T13:08:00.002-05:00

My son, Joshua, helped design these ornaments. He hand-burned our first set. I have not been selling them the last few years, but recently pulled them out, touched them up and prepped a set for showcasing. 

The day he left this earth, Joshua had pulled out our Christmas boxes to get out the green ornament hooks - and the day before he had pulled out our small tree on which to hang them. 

I finally got them together and they are available for sale. They can be in your mailbox in 2-3 business days if it's the only thing you order. Or in your hands within 3 hours if you are local. 

Our Christmas season, as well as Lent and Easter sets will be available soon. Then I will work on adding the variations. 

Jesse Tree Ornaments at Garden of Francis

Legoboy - My soul - My everything

2019-11-19T22:25:00.001-05:00

https://www.andres-wuestefeldfh.com/obituary/joshua-welsh
https://www.fox19.com/2019/11/18/year-old-pedestrian-hit-killed-dearborn-county/

Botany Cabinet: Focus on the Essentials

2019-07-06T23:30:00.000-04:00

An excerpt from the elementary biology album that reminds us why we use generic shapes in the botany cabinet, as opposed to leaf names specific to a particular region:

Once the child gathers a large body of knowledge from sensorial exploration, she can then begin to order and classify it.

An example of how this happens is by giving the child the name of the new shape rather than just giving the name of the plant from which the leaf comes. For example, the child can see that this plant has obovate leaves and so does this plant. That plant over there has sagittate leaves. When you give the name of the leaf shape, you give the children a tool to classify leaves and plants alike. Just giving the names of the plants, does not provide a basis for ordering and classification. This base of information is also built up through the use of nomenclature material in the primary. The nomenclature material is used by children who are reading and also those children who are not yet reading. Through the use of the nomenclature material, children learn the names of plants, parts of plants, names of animals and names of parts of animals. Eventually, all of this information can be ordered and classified. Another source for building up the child’s store of information comes from the stories, the poems and the songs that the teacher introduces about plants and animals.

All of this work becomes a foundation from which the children will launch with her work in the elementary.

Home-made Montessori Videos - Elementary and Primary

2019-06-18T17:48:00.000-04:00

I make videos to support those who are using the Keys of the World and the Keys of the Universe Montessori homeschool guides.

They are full-on real-life quality. I LOVE that!

We homeschool. And we believe in reality. We don't have a studio in our home, but we do have the following:

a child who has been Montessori homeschooled since he was born
visiting children who receive presentations on a routine basis
a natural living environment in which we provide the presentations and experiences
a desire to share our experiences, real and messy, with you in as an authentic manner as possible

The videos were never meant to be stand-alone instruction. Some people wanted videos they could show to their children in lieu of giving the presentations themselves. There are a few reasons this won't work well:

Montessori experiences are about interactions within relationships; the sharing of knowledge while exploring together. While I am not opposed to watching videos for learning as my son uses such resources as Cover Story, One Year Adventure Novel, various art and geography related videos, it is important for the adult to also explore these materials as well, in order to best guide the child in his own explorations. Culture an attitude of exploration and discovery.
Montessori training itself uses a similar model we have here: trainees watch the instructor provide the lesson to a sample student (another trainee or a group of trainees), while everyone else watches. Then the presentation is discussed from start to end (by "discussed" I mean, walked through it step by step) while taking notes and writing one's own album pages.

I have long suggested watching the videos while reading through the album pages, then running through the materials oneself while watching the videos and looking at the album pages, tweaking where appropriate for your natural voice. Then present to the children.
As homeschooling parents, we're not Montessori trainees; but because Montessori is rather detailed regarding the academic presentations, I feel the best approach is to get as close to training as possible without belaboring the point.

There is discussion for some of the presentations and that conversation will vary depending on the child and the adult and their understanding and previous knowledge. Also, you should certainly ad lib in areas where the child is requesting more information, or allow the child to ad lib!
The videos are not accurate presentations in time and space. The yardstick on the screen is not a yard long, it is screen size. Where I ask my son to bring cards for the Elementary Bank Game, I don't video him moving to the other side of the room and bringing them back. I do video where I see a thought-process taking place to show what they looks like from the outside, but once a procedure is down pat, those portions aren't included. If your child were to watch the video and try to follow along, there would be many starts and pauses which would detract from the presentation and the work itself.
It is impossible to video everything that is contained in the albums. Much of it would be me just reading out loud. And yes audio-options are coming after the videos are made! This option will be available for the theory album and all the subject introductions.

The videos are a learning tool for the adult to see the work in progress, to follow along with the album pages and to aid their own practice with the materials. We adults have so much to learn from these experiences as well!

Above all else, I love feeling like I am speaking to YOU: a homeschool parent or a teacher in a school - speaking to you personally. Because I am. And I invite further discussion on the discussion community (online support). Let's chat!

Montessori Albums and Guide page has been Updated

2019-06-15T14:35:00.003-04:00

The Montessori Nuggets blog page has been updated to reflect newer resources and updated links for Montessori albums and guides available to homeschoolers.

Please visit Montessori Nuggets: Montessori Albums and Guides to check out the options.

Please do let me know if anything should be added or updated!

Family Tragedy

2018-02-21T18:43:00.003-05:00

A tragedy has struck our family.

I struggle to see the good that will come from all this evil; my deepest core knows it is there, somewhere.

Please pray for my family; that the next 18 months will not only go by quickly but may be drastically shortened. That we will continue to grow together as a family through this tragedy and after it. That our family home businesses will not be out of date when this tragedy is over - and that enough residual income will continue to support my son during this time.

Keys of the World and Keys of the Universe

2017-12-29T14:40:00.000-05:00

Legoboy and I have been working on some new projects!

New websites and some new structure on the current sites:
**Products are being added daily to each of the new sites**

Garden of Francis

(new site is in-progress - once all products have been transferred over, the old store will close and the new store will replace the current site; for the time-being purchases are accessible through both sites)

New Site for Garden of Francis:

All of the offerings from both Keys of the World and Keys of the Universe in distinct purchase options:

Mentoring via Albums/guides
Mentoring via Videos
Mentoring via Online Support
Certificate of Completion payment and instructions
Materials (download and physical)

Home Goods

Soap
Cloth items

Christian Formation

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd materials
modified Godly Play materials
Prayer table and family altar cloths

Liturgical Celebrations

Organized by the liturgical season
Crocheted rosaries

The familiar site for Garden of Francis:

All current offerings (no changes)

Soap
wood cutting
custom orders
downloads for Montessori mentoring
liturgical seasons
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

Keys of the Universe

No changes have been made to the outward offerings.
Upcoming changes:

Mentoring via Videos will be a separate purchase, with the current prices set as a combined price separated to lower amounts.

Those people who already have video access will continue to access it in the same place as now AND will be able to access the videos in their new homes on the online support.

Mentoring via Albums

complete albums continue to be offered.

Mentoring via Online Support

online support continues to be offered.

Keys of the Universe Montessori

All Keys of the Universe elementary Montessori offerings in distinct purchase options:

Mentoring via Albums/guides
Mentoring via Videos
Mentoring via Online Support
Certificate of Completion payment and instructions
Materials (download and physical)

Keys of the World

All Keys of the World Primary (ages 2.5-6) Montessori offerings in distinct purchase options:

Mentoring via Albums/guides
Mentoring via Videos
Mentoring via Online Support
Certificate of Completion payment and instructions
Materials (download and physical)

The Shepherd and the Vine

All of our religious-based offerings from Garden of Francis, separated to their own site as well.

Christian Formation

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd materials
modified Godly Play materials
Prayer table and family altar cloths

Liturgical Celebrations

Organized by the liturgical season
Crocheted rosaries