The Joys of Montessori Homeschooling: The Good Shepherd

My child, Bubs, attends a weekly atrium class at our church. The idea is for the 3-6 yr. old child to learn about the Catholic faith with a Montessori approach. To learn more about the atrium, visit the national website here. I have been teaching a class at our church since my daughter was two years old. I took this year off to have a baby, but I value the program highly and wanted to incorporate some of the presentations into my home environment. I started with the materials I could make quickly, like the chasubles, and moved to the ones that required a little more effort.

So, now I am on the Good Shepherd. I absolutely love this presentation and what child doesn't like to work with little sheep?! I delegated out the wood projects to my dad (me + circular saw = missing phalanges). I think I should stick to the scissors and a glue gun. I scoured the Internet searching for these 10 wooden sheep and a shepherd. I came up empty for months until a good friend of mine told me about The Shepherd's Closet. Sure enough. They had exactly what I needed and for a reasonable price. So I ordered them.

The sheep have arrived!! I was so excited to get started with my new craft project. I whipped out the newspaper, paint, brushes, had music playing, etc. and got to work. I had all the bases painted green and two sheep painted white. Then my husband walks in......He wanted me to show him how the sheep were to sit in the base. I was like, ok! Then I went to put my nicely painted sheep into the green base and.......it wouldn't fit!! None. Of. Them. Fit. Sigh. My nice craft project came to an end.

In the meantime while I was waiting for my new sheep to arrive, I started making my sheepfold. I am not talented enough to make a proper one with dowels, rope, and a gate, so I just went with stones stacked on top of each other. We'll see if it will hold up. I just used a hot glue gun to put them together, but on the first try, my husband touched it and they all fell over! Needless to say, I might be using dowels in the end. We will see how long this one can survive with a two year old and soon to be crawler in the house! I figured I already spent hours making it I might as well use it.

My sad attempt at a sheepfold.

So, I then had to call the company and tell them that the sheep did not fit in the base. Long story, but they sent me new sheep and guess what? The new ones fit!! All of them. (I will tell you that I cringed each time I tried a new one just waiting for it to be too big.). So I started the painting process over again and they turned out great.

Now I was attempting to paint my shepherd. Did I mention that my brother was the one who got the artistic gene? Anyway....I did my best and my daughter reassured me that it looked like the picture I was copying it from. I then moved on to making my booklet and finally I was done!

Now the moment of truth, the first presentation. It was beautiful for the first, um thirty seconds or so, then Nito decided to throw a tantrum! Bubs was so sweet and said it was ok to take care of Nito first. Once Nito was settled, I lit the candle and said, "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again". Then I read from the booklet and he thoroughly enjoyed working with the material.