Preparing the Montessori Environment At Home

What do you do with an unused bonus room?  Create a Montessori classroom, of course!

Now that it is summer, we are embarking on our new homeschooling adventure.  All of my teaching supplies and materials need a home.  In the world of Montessori, preparing the environment is serious business.  The Montessori classroom is carefully designed for the children who will be learning there.  Several very basic principles come to mind.  The furnishings and any decorations are on the sight lines of the children, and furnishings and materials are scaled down to a child's size when possible.  The materials themselves are grouped by practical life, sensorial, math, language arts, culture and history, science, music, art, and peace.  Children move about the classroom as they choose, working at a table or on the floor with a work mat.

Building a Montessori environment in a home poses a few challenges.  Rooms in a house are usually not empty.  Unless one has planned from the beginning to make one a classroom, there is stuff to purge, or move to other locations.

Bonus was a playroom...

Music and media...

Library and "Man Room" of sorts.

So, I developed a plan of action!

Step 1:  Move or Purge stuff.

Step 2: Plan what areas of your room (or house) are suitable for what activities.

Step 3: Figure out what furnishings you already own that you can use.  Low shelving is key.

Step 4: Look around on the internet for montessori classrooms; research and plan some more.

Step 5: Try out some furnishings to see what it looks like; determine what other things must be found or bought; get down on your knees and look around - what will the space look like to your children?

Step 6: Success!??

I actually haven't gotten to step 6 as of yet.  Above you can see Little Dude helping me clean while I am setting up some low shelving.  At first, I wanted the kids to stay away while I created their space, but having them work next to me proved to be better as I could already see what was working about the space and what was not.

I am very excited about how things are coming along.  It will not be my "perfect" Montessori classroom, but I remind myself that my home (much to my disappointment) was not actually designed with the Montessori method in mind.

I think I found shelves that will work for the Metal Insets!

Pumpkin's writing desk was found at a thrift store.

Our patio is already our gardening area...

And it's shaded and concrete - summer art projects!

 I have a long way to go before our classroom spaces will feel "done."  As I finish spaces I will post again to show the progress!

Learning Everywhere

The school year has ended and my children are feeling free.  They prefer to spend the majority of their day outdoors searching for interesting artifacts, checking on our tomato plants, getting sprayed with our hose, and riding on their scooters.  Through it all, there are learning opportunities should we be paying attention.

Beautiful blue eggshells were found on the grass this morning.  How did they get there?  What kind of bird has a blue shell?  Also, I was reminded that it was about time to begin a collection of summer findings.

An old shoe box or egg carton works perfectly for storing small treasures.  Cotton or a few pieces of toilet paper keep things safe.  Later, the kids and I can research the objects and label them. I'm sure we will have plenty of items for our collection this summer!

By the way, our hypothesis is that the egg is a robin's egg based on its size, color, and that we've seen robins in our yard before.  

Praying Mantis Study

We had some new guests this morning at breakfast time.

Praying Mantis Nymphs

Our praying mantis egg case was finally hatching!

Several weeks ago, I had ordered an egg case so Pumpkin and Little Dude could learn more about this fascinating insect.  They love the praying mantis and had kept one briefly last year to observe.  Pumpkin expressed an interest in learning more about them not long ago, so I found I could order one through Insect Lore.
Find a link to the Insect Lore store here.

Egg Case When it First Arrived

Egg Case Found in Our Yard

I called to Pumpkin and Little Dude and very soon we had most of the neighborhood children on our back patio observing and talking about them.

Pumpkin Observing Nymphs

The kids and I enjoyed releasing the tiny mantis nymphs around our yard.  We are looking forward to seeing them throughout the summer as they grow.

Little Dude Picks a Spot

Happy in His New Home

They are "Cute!"

Home Sweet Basil

To celebrate this fun day, I made a Praying Mantis Life Cycle Freebee.  To download it, you can click here.  

I'm going to use it as a way to review what we've seen so far and to talk about how the mantis grows and will (hopefully) lay more egg cases in the fall.  I've made the freebee in black and white for ease of printing and also so my children can color it in.  I hope you enjoy it!

Check back as I hope to post an update on our growing Mantises and more activities to try.

Dandelions

On a perfect spring day a little over a week ago, I couldn't help but pull my van over to the side of the road for a better look at some fields of a crop I didn't recognize.  The canola plants were as tall as myself and the view was stunning.  I pulled Pumpkin and Little Dude out of van to go check things out.      They enjoyed the fields for approximately three seconds before they began to pick dandelions.  A part of me was disappointed but it wasn't surprising: the dandelions were plump, rounded, and numerous.

When initially studying about Maria Montessori, I remember her advise to "follow the child," and he will show you what it is that he needs.  When I pay attention to what my children are telling me with their actions and interests, learning naturally occurs.  

I do not claim to be a perfect Montessorian.  I am far from it.  Instead, I am trying to use what I understand of her method to keep my intentions pure and to remain trustful that my children will always guide me should I choose to follow.