Geography for 3-year-olds

My son's favorite subject right now is definitely Geography. He loves everything about globes, maps, water, land, etc. We have spent countless hours with our two globes and talking about the Earth, exploring outside for dirt, mud, rocks, water sources, and pointing out the continents anywhere we see them.

When we first started homeschooling back in September, I purchased a sandpaper globe. I introduced it to my son and showed him the different land and water areas. He has always been a tactile learner and likes the feeling of fine sandpaper, so this intrigued him right away. He spent a lot of time tracing the land, telling me which part was land and which part was water.

After he had a good handle on the difference between land and water, I introduced him to the idea of air, land, and water. Luckily for us, the lesson landed on a rainy day, so we went outside and collected some rainwater in a small mason jar, as well as a sample of the muddy, grassy earth. We brought those inside and examined them, noting the differences between them. With these mason jars, my son did some sorting activities. The first one was a land, water, air picture sorting with just the various landscapes. This was not easy for him in the beginning.

Following that, he sorted land, water, and air animals onto a mat that I printed and laminated for him. He really loved doing this. My husband explained the simple idea that land animals walked, water animals swam, and air animals flew. We use Toob animals, which can be purchased on Amazon or at your local Michael's store. Following that, my son sorted land, water, air vehicles on to the same mat. We also used the vehicles from Toobs.


Once he had worked on these for a few weeks, I knew he would be ready for the Continent Globe. I introduced this to him using the Continent Song. In the beginning, he would follow along with me while I sang and point the continents. Now, a few months later, he sings the song all the time and knows all of the continents! He even knows them by their shape, even though they are all given separate colors on the Montessori Continent globe.

I also introduced him to the different land and water forms using the book Water Land and some DIY land and water form tablets. You can see the DIY instructions in this post.

Next up I think we will do some continent boxes once I get them together!

Montessori and Pinterest

It seems like everyone uses Pinterest. For everything. If you need to search for any idea, you go search there. I know that I use it all the time to look for things because I can easily curate a number of pins about a particular topic in a short amount of time, especially if I do not have time to read a bunch of websites at the moment. I can keep all of my pins in separate boards and go back to them without having to scroll through endless bookmarks. The same happened when I stumbled across Montessori. I may have even saw it first on Pinterest.

I can do a simple search on Pinterest for Montessori and get hundreds or thousands of pins about "Montessori activities." Herein lies the problem. These so-called "Montessori activities" may not actually align with Montessori. Since Maria Montessori never patented her method, anyone can claim that anything is "Montessori," even if it isn't. Many of the pins that are on Pinterest ARE authentic sources of true Montessori concepts, but so many more are not. This is where I think people get tripped up. Who really knows about the philosophy, and who is just creating activities which they believe align with the philosophy (but they actually don't)?

We live in this social media world where people put on this facade of perfection. This means that in the Montessori world, you see pictures of amazingly neat shelves and minimalist-type rooms, carefully created activities that children are supposedly doing independently, and parent-led activities on trays that seem to fulfill the idea of a "Montessori activity."

Montessori is so much more than that. The prepared environment is so important for the child, as well as the prepared adult. But looking on Pinterest for "activities" to keep the child busy is not the point of Montessori.

One type of "Montessori activity" that I see a lot on Pinterest are sensory bins. While they may have their place, it is more ideal for a child to get that sensory experience in the real world, especially when they are at home. I do not need to dye spaghetti noodles different colors and put them in the bathtub with my child to work on texture (plus, the mess it will make that I will need to clean up!). I do not need to put rice in a big container and hide things inside for them to find. I do not need to spray shaving cream all over the table for them to play in. All of this just creates a mess with zero purpose. It is not an authentic sensory experience, and the adult is the one who ends up cleaning up thousands of grains of rice from the floor after the child inevitably threw the cup (at least that is what my children would do).

So, how can a child get a real, authentic sensory experience?

Take them outside! Do you want to work on textures? Have them feel rough or smooth surfaces. Collect different rocks and sort them by texture, size, shape, etc. Play in the mud, dirt, sand, or grass. Do not be afraid to get dirty. Let them pour water from cups and the hose, water plants, dump water on themselves, dig for bugs or weeds, etc. Explore the crunchy leaves in the Fall and the cold snow in the Winter.

If you feel the weather is too bad to go outside, sensory experiences can happen inside as well. Cook and bake together, smell the spices (or be like my 3-year-old and actually taste the spices - yes, he asks "can I try it?" for almost every single one), let them wash their hands for a long time if that gives them joy, or take long baths. I am sure you can think of even more real, hands-on sensory experiences that are not part of those "Montessori activity" lists you see on Pinterest.

My Husband's Role in Homeschooling

 As a stay-at-home mom, I tend to do 90% of the homeschooling. My husband works shift work, so when he is home depends on his current schedule. His days off also vary, but he usually works on the weekends. That being said, he has a role in our homeschooling. As I have said before, homeschooling is not a set time of day, but instead is integrated into our life during many moments.

I actually asked my husband the other week what he thought his role in homeschooling was. His answer was that he made the money for me to buy supplies. While that is true, he has a very important function in our family as homeschoolers. I often observe him doing things that he may not even be aware that he is doing with our children, usually when I am busy doing something else.

My husband is knowledgeable in many areas that I am not, so we are able to guide our children in different areas as they come up. For example, my husband is an excellent mathematician. He is able to do math in his head about which I can only dream! Our son has showed a lot of interest in numbers lately, and I have caught my husband doing some counting work with our son without him even realizing he is doing it! We have different approaches to teaching and guiding, so our children learn in various ways. The other week, he did some kitchen work with our son - making jello, making pancakes, etc. Those are simple ways that he is involved which also integrate a key component of our homeschooling: practical life.

To be honest, my husband's biggest role in homeschooling right now is that he takes the baby for her nap every day after lunch. He works midnights, so he sleeps during the day. Our daughter naps for about 2.5 hours in the afternoon right now. By taking the baby for her nap, my son and I get crucial one-on-one time which is not only paramount to his education, but also to our bond. Sometimes we stay home during this time, but we often venture out of the house for a little bit. We can go to the library and explore, run some errands (yup, errands count as part of homeschooling! - socialization, math, language, etc.), go to the park, etc. We can obviously do this with the baby as well (and we do, a lot!), but having that one-on-one time is important for each child to have.

My husband serves a great role in our homeschooling of which he is not even aware. I am grateful of his support on this journey. He does not know much about Montessori - and what he knows is what I have told him. I do not expect him to sit down and read her books or learn about the teaching method. That is MY job. Having his support is the most important, but he teaches them without him even knowing! Isn't that cool? You can guide a child without even realizing it. And that, to me, is one of the quintessential concepts of homeschooling.

What Homeschooling a Preschooler is Really Like

Homeschooling is not sitting around a table doing worksheets for a set period of time, or creating a block of time within the day to "do school." Homeschooling encompasses every part of our lives, where skills are gained daily in small increments. So, what does a day of homeschooling really look like?

It is early. 6:30 a.m. Both of my children are awake, and subsequently, so am I. We take some minutes to talk quietly in bed, have a few laughs, and cuddle. Then we start our morning routine: potty, change, and downstairs to eat breakfast.

The homeschooling day has already started. Completing the morning routine is an exercise in encouraging independence and patience with one another. Social skills are happening at almost every moment of the day when you have siblings.

After we eat breakfast, I usually do some morning chores and the kids have some independent work time. I invite my son to help me with the chores if he wishes, but he usually goes right to his shelves and starts on work that he does every day (here is where I tell you that his favorite "work" is his Mr. Potato Head and it is the work that he chooses every single morning as the first thing to do).

The rest of the morning depends on what we have planned. If we have a morning activity, we get ready and we leave. This varies by day - from swimming lessons to library time to speech therapy to visiting the animals at a local park. If we don't have a morning activity, we stay home. This repeats again in the afternoon depending on if we have errands to run or an activity to attend. All of these things provide essential skills for my children.

So what happens if we have no activities and we stay home? I will ask my son if he would like a lesson or what he wants to work on. His current favorites are sound games and sandpaper letters, pattern blocks, art work, puzzles, and cutting work.

I have NO planned lessons for the day. Here is where I think homeschooling is different. I have overarching goals for the school year. These are things that I believe my son will be able to achieve by May or June, but it is not a big deal if he doesn't. But I do not write out what we will do every day. I follow my children and their interests.

So what DO we do ALL day? (Besides activities and errands) And, what is my role as a homeschooling mom?

We learn (and guide)! If my son wants a lesson, I give it to him. Sometimes it is a formal three-period lesson, and sometimes it is a quick lesson. Most of the time he can figure out a work on his own without my guidance. I am always around to guide him through a work if he needs it. My son does language all day, every day. He talks non-stop. He works on letter sounds. My son also does math every day. We count everything. He works on "how many?" questions and quantity work. He does practical life work such as helping with the laundry, vacuuming, dusting, washing windows, feeding the pets, baking, etc. He does sensorial work outside or works with the materials I have for him such as sound boxes or the pink tower. We read a lot of books! I mean, a lot. This is an area where we practice some turn-taking because the baby wants to turn the pages as well, so we practice patience with waiting. I help him work through those really tough moments where his emotions overwhelm him, where he is angry or upset or sad about something.

The best part of every day is that we laugh and smile together. Every day. Even on the really hard days where life is really getting us down, we always end up laughing about something. Preschoolers think a lot of things are really, really funny.

At the end of the day, he has learned a lot. His knowledge is growing every single day. Some days we do a lot of work, and other days are more relaxed. I am grateful I get to spend these days with my children, guiding in their knowledge and seeing how they discover this beautiful world that we live in.

DIY Montessori Sound Cylinders

Sound cylinders are used in Montessori education as a sensorial material at the primary (ages 3-6) level. They help the child refine their auditory senses. The cylinders look the same except for the red and blue tops, so they isolate the sense of hearing. The child will initially match the sounds of the cylinders by shaking them and finding the two that have the same sound. There are also extension activities with the sound cylinders.

Sound cylinders are an easy DIY if you are homeschooling your child or want to do sensorial work. I could not find cylinders, but I did find small boxes at Michael's that were 99 cents each. This project took me less than 10 minutes (most of the time I was searching for items to place in the boxes and I burned my finger on the hot glue once, so you can easily do it under 10 minutes)! It is cheap, quick (less than $10), looks great, and all of the items in the boxes are things I found around my house.

For this project, you need the following:

• 8+ (even number) similar small boxes, cylinders, containers
• Hot glue and hot glue gun
• Markers, paint (I did red and blue acrylic paint), 2 small paintbrushes
• Non-perishable items from your house

 Next, I marked the bottom of the boxes with a small dot - one color for 2 boxes. This helps to remind me which ones match as well as control for the child to see if they are correct.

After that, I went to my pantry to see what I could find to place in the boxes. I wanted sounds of varying grades - from soft to loud. I made sure that none of them sounded the same. I chose sugar, uncooked rice, uncooked pasta (rotini), and coins. Don't fill the containers too much because you want the items to move around and make noise.

Then I glued the tops back on to the boxes. I put a small dab of hot glue on the very top of each side of the box and put the top back on. The tops are pretty tight fitting, so it worked really well. My only mishap is that, since the boxes are a heavy paper material, the sugar was coming out of one of them when I shook it. I just put some hot glue all around the edge of the top to keep the sugar inside. I did not do this for all the other boxes because it was not necessary.

Ready to be painted!

The final step was to paint the tops. This is done so the child can place the boxes back in their groups after finishing the activities. One red box matches one blue box. It makes presentation easier (so I don't have to look at the bottom of the boxes) as well as an aid to put the material back on the shelf as it was.

Ready for the shelf!

I hope my son will enjoy these. I will present them to him tomorrow morning! :-)

Montessori Spaces in an Apartment: Living Room

In November, we moved to an 3 bedroom apartment from our house, and the amount of space we had shrunk. I still wanted to maintain (and actually expand!) on the areas we established for our children's work, as well as give them access to specific things to aid in their independence. 

The most prominent area in our home is our living room. This is where we participate in most aspects of our family life, but it is also the area where I homeschool our son as well as where he plays. We needed to streamline the space as much as possible while still offering the children enough shelving and open area to complete their work. We initially had cube shelving which worked well until I wanted to put out specific materials on trays for my son to complete. I started doing trays when he was close to 3 years old. I tried before that age and he would throw the objects everywhere, so it was best we did not do any tray activities until he was a little older. 

Our shelving started out looking like this:

It was messy. The trays stuck out. I hated how it looked. I found the area not appealing at all and even though my son would do some of the work, it was not often and he would often leave things on the shelves untouched. When we got some money, we changed his main shelving to this:

This is two IKEA Trofast shelves. They fit all of the trays perfectly and it looks really neat. I was able to place the baby's toys on the far right side and separate my son's works by subject while also keeping his open-ended toys on the same shelf on the far left side. The shelf is wide and can fit larger objects on top. I love how it looks. We also have the small bookcase on the right of the shelf that allows the books to show their front covers. I love this clean look.

I will show the rest of our areas in the upcoming blogs, particularly how we have made certain areas of home accessible to our children to give them as much independence as possible.

"Of all things, love is the most potent" - Maria Montessori

When my son was around a year old, I stumbled across this quote and decided to research Montessori education. As an educator, I wanted to give my son opportunities to grow and learn, just as any parent. After doing (a lot) of research, I fell in love with the idea of Montessori education, and we decided to enroll our son in a toddler program at a local Montessori school for the following school year. He started at just 15 months, and it served both as our primary childcare and his education since we were both working full-time. Throughout the school year, he blossomed into a little boy that could do things independently and desiring to complete tasks that I did not even think a toddler could do by themselves! I waffled back and forth about getting my certification in Montessori and teaching at a school, but we decided that I would stay home with our children since I was due with a baby girl in the beginning of September.

This decision led me to research homeschooling, particularly using a Montessori style. We had already implemented some aspects of Montessori into our home life - our son's toys were displayed on open shelving and/or in baskets. I had begun removing toys he did not play with or did not serve any purpose, and eventually replaced most of them with all open-ended toys. When our daughter was born, we set up a small movement area with a thin mattress and a mirror for her which expanded slightly with the use of the IKEA play gym and a sheepskin rug. I carefully selected toys for her and started to change our setup with the addition of specific Montessori materials.

My parenting style is greatly influenced by Montessori education and the desire to raise my children inside that lifestyle. I chose it because it speaks volumes to be as an educator. Follow the child. Freedom within limits. Giving my children the opportunity to discover something for themselves and allowing them the space to explore their interests for as long as possible was important to me.

atThis blog will follow our homeschooling journey, as well as raising a baby from the beginning in a Montessori-inspired way. I hope you will join me on this path as I teach my children and learn along the way as well.