Multi-aged classroom

 

 



Well, it's about that time of year again.  We are working off of a year round calendar this year so we are getting started with school next week.  (Yikes!!!  I haven't made any of the materials that I dreamed of making yet.  Where did the summer go already??).

Before we start back this year, I did a little organization.  Of course..... I mean, what brings me more joy than reorganizing a room??  Oh wait.....tea and muffins. Ah.......  Ok back to the classroom.  I will attempt to describe a little about how our classroom is setup and how we will manage to "make it work" in one space.  Right now, I technically have four environments: Elementary, Primary, Toddler, and Nido (infants).  The Nido (not to be confused with my little guy Nito's nickname) is quite neglected along with the toddler (even though my training is in this area).  Nito is really working his way out of toddler and just dipping his toes into some sensorial and practical life material from primary.  This might make my environment a little more manageable with toddler materials put away.

We recently added a few more bookshelves to the environment and this has helped me to organize the materials more into categories than age levels.  It is not really ideal to have them intermixed, but it will have to work in our classroom for now.  Things might change as we add materials or as the children grow.  For instance, we now have a large bookshelf with all of the math materials.  I just put the primary materials on the lower shelves for Bubs to reach them and Kui can keep her racks and tubes and checkerboard beads higher away from Nito.  For someone who hasn't experienced it, there are ALOT of beads associated with racks and tubes and they roll very nicely on hardwood floor......right under all of the shelves.  Makes for cleaning up to be a challenge.  It's sort of like 52 card pickup with 4 times the beads!

Another nice element thrown into the mix is T-man.  He is now 11 months old and quite the destructive little fella.  He can make a room look like a tornado hit it in a matter of minutes!  It makes organizing the classroom quite interesting.  We may have to live with the bottom few shelves empty on each bookshelf until he moves away from being a shelf sweeper.  Not to mention that the smallest cube of the pink tower, the ones bead from the bead cabinet, and the small knobbed cylinders are all within his little grasp and make perfect choking hazards!  Good thing I have three little observant helpers to keep T-man alive during the school day.

I have added just a few pictures below of the classroom while I'm in the process of reorganizing.  The picture below is our bead cabinet and math shelf.  I still need to spiffy it up a bit, but it works for now.  My mom made Kui a quilted checkerboard and decimal checkerboard so they roll up nicely and are in the basket in the corner.  Helps save on space!

 



This next picture has a lot going on due to the size of the materials along with the shelving that I have and the best use of it.  The fractions are sitting on the top and are as close to the math section as I can manage for now.  Then below on that shelf is some practical life materials along with a dishwashing basin and table washing to the left.

 

I will post more pictures as I get things organized.  The other side of the classroom looks like T-man just passed through so I won't be posting any pics of that.  It is the elementary side and has some exciting materials for him to explore, including beer bottles used for making different tone sounds!  Gotta love it when you look over and see your baby blowing in a beer bottle.  Oh the joys of homeschooling.  Priceless......

 

2014-2015 Portfolio

 



Phew!  It's done.  Took me waaay longer than expected. It's definitely not a perfect representation of what we did, but it's a great recap.  I was actually feeling better and better about our year as I went through each subject area.  I guess you really do more than you think throughout the year.

I have included a few pages from various sections of the portfolio to just give you an idea of some of the paperwork that I saved.  For Montessori, there are not many worksheets so it becomes challenging to represent her work.  We did the best we could do for this year and hope that it will suffice. 

Multiples work

Poetry

Earth and Sun

Parts of the Leaf

Ballerina Dancer by Matisse

  

Typewriter work

I had an Elementary trained teacher look over her portfolio and hip hip hooray!!  It looks like we are on the right track.  She was very impressed with what Kui had covered this year, especially in math.  She was also very helpful in giving me tips and suggestions on the areas where I was weak this year, like science and history.  So, I feel like the hard work paid off and I am very excited about the upcoming year.

Stay tuned.  We are taking a few weeks off and trying to start back in July. 



Test results are in!

 

Well, it couldn't have been a better end to our first year of homeschooling.  We came home from our end of year homeschooling party and got Kui's test results in the mail.  I eagerly, yet scared stiff, opened them up to see how well she did this past year.  Drum roll please..........



SHE PASSED!!!! 



Thanks be to God.  She passed.  Now at least I know I can attempt this homeschooling process next year without a severe detriment to her education and her brothers.  (You know Bubs is starting to read and I don't want to mess that up.)  Seriously though, I am thankful she did pretty well.  Her scores can always improve, but for the most part, I was happy.  It gives me a good jumping off point for planning purposes for next year.

Early in the year, I was torn between testing Kui or just doing a portfolio.  I figured this first year, why not do both?!  I have plenty of time to gather, organize, summarize, and beautify a portfolio right?  On the testing though, it is a beneficial tool for the child especially since Montessori doesn't have any tests (or homework).  It gives the child a chance to experience the stress or pressure related to test taking and gives him an idea of what a future college entrance exam might be like.  Ok that is years and years in the future, but overall it is good practice.

I am currently working on putting together (a pretty pitiful attempt) of a portfolio.  There aren't too many samples out there for the Montessori child (because there are no worksheets in Montessori!!!!).  Anyway....I am trying to throw something together and maybe have an Elementary Montessori teacher take a peek at it.  She may be the one who tells me I should forgo punishing my kids any longer with the Montessori thing and just go straight for the old school homeschool curriculum. 

Stay tuned!

Phonetic Object Box

 

Is it calling for rain?  It looks like Bubs has an u..u..u..umbrella to use!

 

Bubs was thrilled to start this work.  He really started it a few weeks ago back in April, but I wanted to wait until he did his second box before I posted on it.  Just to give some additional examples.  However.....I don't seem to have any of those pictures.  Hmm..must be on the broken camera.  Oh, but hey!! Guess what??  We have a brand new snazzy camera on its way.  Can't wait to start using that thing.  I mean, of course, the Ipad is great and all, but not so fun transferring pics back and forth. 

The phonetic object boxes are quite fun and just what Bubs needed at the time to boost his interest in reading.  He is clearly over the sandpaper letters and almost over the sand tray.  He also isn't a moveable alphabet fan either.  We had some difficulty working with this because the shapes of the sandpaper letters don't match to the moveable alphabet for every letter exactly.  So Bubs got frustrated having to essentially learn sounds over again.  I still tried to make it fun, but this new presentation helped ease the tension.

So..I bought the really cute package of objects from Montessori Services.  Wow!  There are a lot of small objects in that bag.  Even a small drum with two miniature drum sticks.  Let's just say it's a miracle that I still have those drum sticks and that they aren't lost in the carpet, in the belly of T-man, or even worse, up Nito's nose!!

The first object box I set up for Bubs had beginning sounds that were phonetic (single symbol - single sound).  Objects like jug, bus, hat, box, mop, cat, etc.  There were 12 objects total.  I would tell him that I am thinking of an object and then I would write it down on a small strip of paper.  Then we would take each sound and say it.  We would say it faster and faster each time until we blended all of the sounds and said the word.  For example, hat.  H. A. T.  h   a   t, h  a  t, h a t, hat.  By the time we were saying all of the sounds together, he would screech and then immediately find the object that I had written.  It was so sweet to watch it click and see the joy on his face.

 

Can you see the old-timey vacuum cleaner in the upper left corner?  Nito thinks its a lawn mower!

 

 

Here Bubs is trying out his g, g, g, glasses. 

 

We still have only two boxes out on the shelf for this work.  Bubs is now to the point where he can work independently matching the labels to the objects.  However, I am struggling with trying to figure out how to get him to read all of the sounds on the label and not just the first one.  He tends to just read "b" and match it to the box for instance, but the label actually reads "bee", not "box".  Maybe it just takes time, but we will keep working on it.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Practical life

 

 

Bubs was busy busy with a lot of practical life today.  I asked him this morning what he was excited to work on today and out of the blue he said ironing.  I was like, "ironing?".  He was like yeah.  I want to iron my clothes on my hook (the ones from Mass that I make him hang there because they aren't dirty).    Gotta try to cut laundry down somehow!

 

  

 

 

Here Bubs is watering this desperate plant.  So sad to see it hanging on for life!!

 

 

He went to water the plants, inside and outside while I was getting the ironing board set up.  We have a few sad pots of herbs along with a few flowers on the deck.  My husband says that our house is the plant hospice!  I can kill a plant pretty quick.  (See that sad little plant above?!)

It was absolutely hilarious to watch him water the plants on the deck.  If you remember my post on Parts of the flower, we have a bumblebee issue on our deck.  There are about 2 or 3 that like to buzz around and then collide into each other and scatter in different directions,  it makes for quite the "enjoyable" time outside.  Soo....let me setup the visual for you.  Our deck is only like 15 x 15 at most and we have a circular table with four chairs. Then I had a drying rack out there which didn't allow for much room to move around. So Bubs got his watering can and ran out onto the deck and went around the drying rack to reach the pots.  Well, then I hear him screaming, "shoo shoo" in a high pitched voice!  Then I see water spraying all over the deck and then him screaming, "ah ah!!" Then he runs inside and only part of one pot is even watered.  We were all laughing so hard at him, even T-man (the baby).  Bubs said so sternly and with such a serious face, "I'm not going out there again to water any more plants."  It was so hard to keep a straight face at this point.  I told him he needed to at least try to finish watering and then he could come back inside.  So then he convinced Nito to go out there with him (as if two people out there on the deck would scare the bumblebees away).  Nito said no way, but Bubs told him he could help water.  What toddler doesn't love a chance to use water?!  Well after all the drama, the plants finally got watered, no children or bumblebees were injured.  However, Bubs did give a good swing toward one of the bees with his watering can and I thought for sure that bee was coming back for him.

 

Btw....if you are wondering why he is wearing a different shirt, I will sadly admit that it was laundry day and he didn't have anymore uniform shirts.  This was as close as we could get.  In the ironing pics, he finally had some clean by then.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of him "shooing" the bumble bee away with his watering can.....

Phew....then he moved on to ironing.  Teaching them young ya know.  If he doesn't become a priest one day, some lady will be quite lucky to get this little boy of all trades!  Ok so he chose some shirts from upstairs off of his hook and we began.

 

 

 

 

Don't mind the pink hanger (ok let's call it salmon).  He wouldn't choose a different one!



 

Window washing was the next activity.  Bubs likes to reach the highest part of the window available.  So of course the stepstool allows him that extra reeeeach.

 

And of course, look who is following his big brother around.  Actually this scene did not end so well.  Bubs had taken a break to go to the bathroom when Nito saw his chance and swooped in.  Ahhh, if only we had audio to accommodate this picture.  On another note, Nito is quite excited that he can spray the water from the bottle and he can open it to refill it.  Now if only I could get him to use the squeegee instead of having a puddle of water at the bottom of the window on my hardwood floor.