Our Country School: Choosing a Style

Yesterday I gave a tour of our school room. Those of you who are new to the Montessori style probably noticed a few similarities between our classroom and a Montessori classroom. Those of you who are well trained {or even partially trained} were cringing the whole time I would expect. I guess that's because I am at a crossroads, well sorta.

Mustang will turn 5 in September. That means she is 'too young' for Kindy according to the school cut-off calendar. But, we home school so we dont abide by the public school cut-off calendar. Really, it means we dont label our kids with a grade at all. That said, unless I am choosing to be an unschooler, it's time to put some sort of order to this madness AKA a curriculum.

I am really not much of one for a curriculum per se, but I do think I need a bit of a guide so that we are not just studying what I feel like teaching that week. Mostly, to make sure that we dont miss something. But, also because I dont want to fail to teach something because I dont like it only to find out that Mustang LOVES it and is good at it. Case and point, she is one of the fastest runners in her AWANA class. I have never, ever, been good at running.

I fell in love with the Montessori Method over 10 years ago when a sweet family friend was visiting from BC. She was in the process of completing her Montessori training at the institute near her home. She told all about the classes and the materials and the way the children learned and I was HOOKED. I looked into training in my own area, but they only provided it for teachers who had their Bachelors degree and I didnt yet have my Associates. So, I let the dream die.

Now that I have started homeschooling, the dream is beginning to live again. But, there is a lot of problems with this! #1-is by far the cost. Yes I realize that if I went and bought a new packaged set of A Bekka or Bob Jones materials each year and bought the consumables for each of my younger kids, I will also spend a lot of money. But, the fact is that you can get around the costs when using a 'boxed set.' I have purchased Bob Jones books for a quarter and been lovingly gifted a box of A Bekka books that will be used in a few years. With Montessori, its just not that easy-at least in this area.

I also chose to home school so that my children are not conformed by ANY style. Mustang is really into worksheets right now, so I bring out worksheets a lot. From what I see, worksheets and Montessori dont mix. That said, any schooling other then unschooling will always have some conforming involved, so one has to determine which would be the best for their child to conform to.

I do think I have come up with the best solution for us at this time. Montessori 'light.' I read this term on the blog What DID We Do All Day and love it. To be fair, she didnt define the term, so hopefully I am not way off in my labeling of myself.

My number one goal in our 'classroom' will be to have child lead learning. I have work on the shelves that they can choose to work with or choose not to work with. Secondly, I want the works to be hands on.

What I dont want to lose out on is a chance to try other things. Each day, we have a story time and possibly a color sheet or other work that isnt self guided. For example, during our Davy Crockett lesson I would put one or two things in Mustang's bin that she needed to complete that day before going on to the work shelves. This does not go along with the Montessori style of learning, but it does go along with real life. She enjoyed what she did-cutting, gluing, etc, and was often given a choice of which item she wanted to work on in her bin first-though there was occasionally something she didnt want to do and did anyways.

I am going to try and make or buy Montessori materials as I am able and slowly add them to the shelves. But, I dont want to be limited to only Montessori materials. If I think something will be a good fit for our learning I wont hesitate to put them out. I guess I am viewing a sort of Tot School, only not just for Tots.

If this post made any sense at all, I will be amazed. Clear as mud-to quote my father. I just wanted to try and put into words what's going on in my mind so that you know as you read where I am coming from. You will likely see me seemingly jump from style to style and that is EXACTLY what I am doing. I certainly dont want you to think that I am properly representing any one schooling style as I go along. My guess is, however, that I am not alone in this 'style.' So, if you have any tips, I would LOVE to hear them!

Our Homeschool Classroom Tour!

Over the last year or so, I have been pouring over websites and blogs that show how others have organized their homeschool classroom. I'd like to invite you on a tour of ours...

A couple weeks ago, I finally decided I HAD to have a separate room for school, so the kids are now sharing a bedroom and that is working well. Mustang's room is now the school room. I chose it because it has lots of sunlight, can be closed off when school is not in session, and already had a great map of the world left behind from our awesome Uncle!



This is the view from the door. In the middle, I have re purposed an old coffee table as our school table. I like how it is round, I do wish it were slightly taller. The bed is Mustang's old bed. I didnt take it out because I often get hairs and I wanted to be sure that I liked this school room arrangement before I tore down her bed. I also need an extra place for her to sleep if we do have guests. As it turns out, it has been a great addition to the room. The best part is that I have a comfortable place to nurse Mini Cooper and still be right there with Mustang and Charger.



To the left of the door is our first set of shelves. On the first set, the top two shelves are sensorial and practical life. The bottom two are Mini Coopers' 'Tot School' items. A small bin on the floor holds a few board books.

The cabinet to the right holds our books. The top shelf has our manipulatives and a few art supplies. The top of the cabinet has all the things I dont want little hands getting into. I use an old sash to tie the cabinet shut if I dont want the kids in there. The cabinet needs an L bracket on the back, but doesnt yet have one. So, I dont want the kids in the cabinet unless I am standing there.



Our large world map is above the white shelves. It's not completely accurate, but its so neat to look at. Plus, it is fixed to the wall and not moving anytime soon. So, its better if I love it.



Continuing around the room there are 2 more sets of shelves. On the left shelf I plan to put mostly Culture and Math, and on the right, Language. Right now there is a bit of a mixture until I have more of these type of works on the shelves. Art is on the top right shelf.



On the other wall we have a hideous old console TV that was lovingly left behind by family. It works, but we are not currently in need of another TV. It ended up here and as it weighs a TON, it's not moving. So we are using the top as a table. This is our flag and calendar {in case you didnt already figure that out lol}. The little blue bins hold Mustang and Charger's sound books, number books, and completed work. The baskets hold the things I am working on and the things I need for our group table time.

We hope you have enjoyed looking around our school room & seeing how we chose to organize it! If you would like to see more great learning spaces, check out the Tot Zone post at 1+1+1=1. {I will be adding more links as I find good ones}. God bless!

El Cheapo Letter Tiles

I have seen a number of mommies in the blog world using these letter tiles with their children. Many have said they picked them up at Walmart years ago and that Walmart no longer carries them. I have been trying to get my hands on some and DID come across a box at Staples for about 10.00 and put it on my list of things to buy when I had a little extra cash. Or, to figure out how to make them.




Then I came across this game at a yard sale. Upwards. 50 cents! It even comes with little Scrabble type trays for arranging the letters in. To be fair, Upwards only comes with 64 letter tiles instead of 176, and they are all uppercase. But, for a fraction of the price, they will be a nice test product to see if we really like them and use them in our classroom.

If you arent a big yardsaler, check your thrift. I saw the same game at ours for 2.00 the other day. God Bless!

Our Country School: Davy Crockett Hands On

Davy Crockett has been the theme of our learning the last few weeks, thanks to the DownloadNGo that we have been reviewing. Here are some of the fun, hands on, activities we did along with our study.



Grandma was nice enough to let us borrow her Lincoln Logs. First we sorted them by size.



Then we built a log cabin. I found out I'm not too good at this, and they kids apparently learned from me! We also went and looked at a log cabin, but it was raining so we just looked from the car. Sorry no pictures.




Mustang and Charger preferred to make Flinstone cars:



I pulled out our 'Cowboys and Indians.' Charger sorted them by color:



And I used them to introduce Mustang to skip counting by twos:



The highlight was when Grandpa called to say that he had a raccoon in the trap!! We went and looked. Great timing for our Davy Crockett lesson :).


We also got to know Grandpa's new hunting dog, Tank. Isnt he cute??? He's great with the kids.



We finished Mustang's lapbook, too, so I'll have that up this next week. God Bless!