Must Read Blog: My Montessori Journey

It has been a recent goal of mine to start reading blogs I follow from start to finish. This last week, I finished the first one on my list, and boy did I pick well!!

I am sure that My Montessori Journey is not a new blog to your list by any means. Miss Laura has been blogging since May of 2008 and has been featured on The Montessori Goldmine, The Crafty Crow, and One Pretty Thing, in addition to MANY homeschool blogs and Tot School posts that I have come across here in blog land. If you haven't heard of her blog, you are seriously missing out. If you have read bits and pieces of her blog, I highly recommend an entire read through.

What it's all about:

My Montessori Journey is written by Miss Laura, a Montessori teacher in a rural Mid-west school. She was a Montessori teacher many years ago, then taught in a public school for about ten years. In the fall of 2008, she was blessed with the opportunity once again teach in a Montessori school. She started to her blog to document her journey back into the Montessori classroom.

If you start with her at the beginning of her blog, you can follow her as she sets up her classroom. She takes a ton of pictures and has very helpful explanations. For the first year, she has a post every single day, so there is a ton of information on how she runs her class and examples of the activities she is putting out.

I LOVE how she can put together work for her students out of nearly anything. She is also very particular in how the tray looks to her students. She mentions more then once how she wants to appeal to as many senses at one time as she can. Choosing beautiful bowls over plain ones, making colorful aprons for bubble making, and handmade Capri Sun pouches to hold language cards are just a few of the many ways Laura pays extra attention to presentation, right down to the smallest detail.

I also really appreciate how Laura takes the time to show how she takes many internet resources and uses them in her classroom. She mentions that one of the goals of a Montessori education is to teach independent learning. On more then one occassion she models how non-Montessori materials can be used successfully in a Montessori classroom. This is especially wonderful to me, as I am not in a Montessori classroom, but still want to use some of the principles in our home school.

My Top 5 Favorite Posts from My Montessori Journey:

5. Home Library Organization

4. Build a Flower Garden

3. Math in a Bag

2. Language Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. The language posts are by FAR some of the most helpful parts of My Montessori Journey. Laura's expaination of how to teach letter sounds is a goldmine of information that I have already begun to implement here at home.

1. Word Drawers. This is another of the language posts and is the #1 post on My Montessori Journey because she offers a ton of free downloads. If you read the language series you will find out what to do with these drawers. I know we will be using them in our schooling and I cant wait.

So, if you havent already, make sure you add My Montessori Journey to your list of must read blogs! Have you read a great blog? I would love to know of blogs to add to my own must read list!

God Bless :)