Studying Insects! Enter: Praying Mantises

I almost don't want to post, lamenting how long it's been and promising to post more regularly, but blogging more is a goal of mine in 2013. Granted, I have entered this new year very ambitiously with goals of achieving all sorts of things. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

As we prepare to study zoology I took some photos of our praying mantis area in the classroom. This will soon be joined by the ladybug study area. As all things Montessori are hands on and child led, I am preparing the environment to achieve our goals of learning insect anatomy and life cycle.

Our study of zoology begins with basic classification, moves through anatomy of invertebrates and then vertebrates and then covers physiology like organ systems and then reproduction. As this is our first pass through this information it will be a basic exploration this year.

An exercise in labeling parts of the praying mantis. A control is provided for checking work.

Praying mantis egg sack that will hopefully hatch in 3-7 weeks

Display of life cycle figures, anatomy exercise, three part carts and info booklet about the insect and another matching exercise with three part cards of lots of different insects.

Life cycle figures from InsectLore.com. This tray allows for matching or handling. 

I added some other work, books and blank journals for the kids to draw in as they observe our new classroom..... pets?

This next semester will be heavy in math and grammar and we will move through zoology, botany then physical and cultural geography. I'm taking several days to plan the next semester currently and I am very happy looking back on the last semester with the progress we have made.

Check in again soon and pester me to post! Thanks!

Practical Life- Sewing a Button

 Admittedly I love the idea of unschooling, that the child determines what she is interested in learning and the parent-teacher picks up that ball and runs with it, but I have never investigated that idea further or read a book that delves deeper into the logistics and philosophy behind unschooling. Truthfully I need way more control and organization than what I imagine the free spirited unschooling parent-teacher has. That said, when these little learners in my care take an interest in something I try to let them go with it as far as they choose.  Maria Montessori recognized periods of rapid learning in particular topics and called them sensitive periods. This is the thought that a child who has interest and motivation to learn something specific during this period will learn it most easily and thoroughly and that the teacher should take advantage of this time to help the child learn as much as she wants about it. This cannot be planned for or postponed until the rest of the class is ready. We cannot put it off until the syllabus says it is time. Yet we must be prepared for it.

T found a jar of buttons up in our craft cabinet that I bought months ago and forgotten about. It cost me $5 at a thrift store and was truly a gem of a find. This jar has a delightful mix of buttons in it. Big buttons, fancy buttons, wood and leather buttons, buttons with shanks- yes, we now know the word shank and what it means to a button. We also know how to sew a shank button or a four hole button, in a cross pattern or strait and we will be learning soon how to give that four hole button a shank. Yes!! This jar of buttons is priceless. When the jar made its appearance T and R spent over an hour with these buttons looking at them, pairing the matches, choosing combinations that were pleasing to their little button palettes. And when I offered to teach them how to sew a button onto fabric? Pure excitement.

I had purchased This set of sewing activities for Christmas. They were a bit too young for it at the time save for the lacing activity and I was a bit busy with a toddler but in the months since we have covered the lacing and running stitch activities. Rather than rush into the next activity, the button activity, I am glad I waited until they chose this themselves, as this enthusiasm can't be forced. When the opportunity came for this lesson I was ready and being ready to teach when the opportunity arises, that sensitive period as Dr. Montessori would call it, that must be the spirit of unschooling, yes?

So far we have practiced with shank buttons, two hole buttons and four hole buttons. We sewed new eyes on a black crocheted kitty Grammy made (sorry Grammy- I'll tell you that black kitty looks evil with red eyes but I guarantee he'll get more playtime now. You know how R feels about bad guys). We have plans for clothing for all the animals and baby dolls in our care decorated with buttons of course. And this all came in perfect time, I'm stuck in bed recovering from surgery but there is one way I can help out The Dark One while he cares for all of us. Sewing buttons with the kids in bed! 

Thoughts On Vocabulary

Anyone who knows my kids will be able to say they have great vocabularies. At 6, 4 and almost 2, they have all been read to nearly everyday their whole lives. The Dark One and I don't actually make much time to read ourselves though and in fact I feel quite stupid at times as my friends ask me, "have you read... " hoping for an intellectual conversation. Truth is I've gotten out of the habit and become lazy about reading. Resolutions aside, we enjoy reading to our kids a lot, maybe as much as they enjoy being read to and we both hold fond memories of this nightly ritual as children. We hope of course to pass this to our own. Anyways, it's absolutely clear that the benefits from this simple act are what you might expect- children hear words and use them thereby not just memorizing but learning in the purest sense, ABSORBING as Maria Montessori would say, integrating.

So I know, have read, have observed how important vocabulary is to learning and increasing knowledge and ability to learn. Btw- I'm self conscious about my own vocabulary- see above (not a reader so don't judge!) I do understand the idea of choosing "age appropriate" vocabulary lists but let's stop again for a second and think about that- age appropriate. Having had the opportunity to observe children before they entered school and I don't mean pre- school aged children, I mean children who are school aged but have not entered school. I find nearly every one of these children, especially those who are read quality literature, to be quite interested in words. "Mommy, what is recover mean?" R asked most recently. She is four. Quite interested in words. And the best words are the big complicated words she doesn't hear everyday, right? I can tell you one way to suck that interest right out of this child! Yes, make a list. A boring list, ask the child to memorize these words, context or not and then test her on it. Now it's a task. Now it is something her teacher and her parents are going to make her do every week whether she really wants to or not and perhaps some children do just fine this way. Most do I suppose. I know my daughter and know the struggle this would become so I am really loving the Montessori approach to vocabulary. As everything in the method is integrated, vocabulary is learned as the natural course of things. As we learned the systems of the body this week T and R heard and saw brand new interesting sounding words- pelvis, epiglottis, sternum, digestion, phalanges, spinal cord, and many, many more. We talked about many of these words, we took turns saying them and listening to them, we looked at the curious spelling of many of them, we noticed a new compound word!- ribcage! (that was exciting) and they then generated their own work. By working with blank and labeled control diagrams T labeled each of the systems. This is rote I'll admit but while doing so he is thinking about the words that struck his fancy. He is generating connections with some of these words in the quiet of his own mind which I am not privy to but that I trust immensely more than a vocabulary test. Is he learning ALL of these words? Is he committing each word to memory equally? Absolutely not. But the words that he connected with the most have been absorbed. They are there for life. He also now has this diagram that he generated himself that will have more meaning to him and only him each time he looks at it. Because the curriculum is cyclical he will do the same work next year. And maybe next year is the year he will learn to spell phalanges. It is not a new word anymore after all and it will be as age appropriate as ribcage is this year. It was age appropriate because it interested him enough to absorb it.