Posted in Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, JBug, pre-school on Jan 13th, 2008 15 Comments »
I wanted to expand upon something I mentioned in an earlier post. While Superboy is researching routes across the USA, the littles have been busy working on a project of their own: mapmaking!And they are doing such good work and having so much fun that even though they are not done yet, I just had [...]
Posted in art, Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, JBug, Superboy's projects on Oct 4th, 2007 4 Comments »
This week has been a week of starting, continuing, or finishing several different projects. And we LOVE it! JBug has been working on this hand puppet for her sister all week: She did all of the stitching and gluing herself! Superboy finally put the finishing touches on this Chinese Dragon watercolor today. It took 2 [...]
Posted in art, Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, montessori, science, Superboy's projects on Oct 1st, 2007 12 Comments »
I had posted this already on the 4real board, but I also wanted to share here in case anyone is interested. We have transitioned into a block-schedule, theme-day sort of schedule for now. I wrote up this poem to help the kiddos remember( my apologies to any real poets out there. I cranked it out [...]
Posted in Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, montessori on Sep 5th, 2007 8 Comments »
I wrote last time about our study of one of the fundamental needs of man (water). This time I want to tell you how I introduced the topic to the kids. To begin, I wanted them to understand the difference between “needs” versus wants, desires, luxuries, niceties, etc. In other words, what is it that [...]
Posted in Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, montessori on Sep 3rd, 2007 10 Comments »
Today I introduced, briefly, the concept of the “Fundamental Needs of Man” (water, food, shelter, protection, health care, faith, beauty, love) which is a Montessori-inspired way of looking at history and cultures. It’s basically the idea that the behaviors (culture) of mankind worldwide and throughout history can be understood as responses to meeting these fundamental [...]
Posted in Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, montessori on Aug 27th, 2007 21 Comments »
There is a new addition to the geography center, finally! This is a project I have been putting off working on for quite a while. But I made it my #1 priority this weekend and finally got it done. Here are our continent boxes: After much internal debate about what kind of box would be [...]
Posted in Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, montessori on Aug 23rd, 2007 4 Comments »
Our first week is almost at an end at things are still going very well. Our morning read aloud is Winnie the Pooh and we are enjoying that very much. The Montessori items are a big hit. I really like how we are able to work together in geography, covering the same material, but at [...]
Posted in Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, JBug, montessori, Superboy's projects on Aug 20th, 2007 15 Comments »
First day back to school today and it was… terrific! I had intended on having an ultra-light day, just easing into the school year, but JBug was raring to go. For every Montessori presentation I did, she wanted more, more, more! We ended up doing the following presentations: 1. folding/unfolding and use of mat 2. [...]
Posted in alaska, Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, history on Jul 7th, 2007 13 Comments »
Well…sort of! One of the things we love about Alaska is the wonderful cultural diversity of its people. Here in Kodiak, one afternoon’s activities brought us face to face with several cultures that are very new and fascinating to us. First stop today was a shop filled with wonderful Japanese imports. I drooled over the [...]
Posted in Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., geography, montessori on Jun 10th, 2007 15 Comments »
It has been decided (by popular opinion) that world geography and cultures will be one of our focus areas for school next year and the kids are so excited about our new geography center. Here is how I set it up: The new map cabinet is really cool, with all of the Montessori puzzle maps [...]
