Montessori Home Classroom on a Budget

Copyright MontessoriCandy.blogspot.com

Many of you are on a budget and looking to set up a Montessori home classroom inexpensively. Here are a few tips that have helped my family in setting up our home classroom.

Start with Practical Life

The practical life area of the classroom is the foundation in Montessori. This is also the easiest area to start your home classroom with. You may not even be planning to home school your child/children through their school years, yet the Montessori practical life exercises will benefit your children regardless. It can begin with a little table and shelf on the side of the kitchen where your child practices slicing a banana, or spooning cheerios in to a bowl. Just look around the kitchen cupboards or craft cupboards. You may find that you already have a lot of the items needed to get started with practical life. Do a search for Montessori blogs to get free ideas on activities you can set up using easy to find items.

Shop Around

You can find inexpensive book shelves at stores like Target, yard/garage sales, craigslist, public school auctions or surplus sales, and thrift stores. The same goes for child size tables and chairs. A couple of years ago I found a very nice small wooden table with two chairs at a Savers thrift store for $25! I thought it was a great deal, but you may even find something similar for less at one of the places mentioned above. Thrift stores also usually have sections for wooden items and baskets. I've found some lovely wooden bowls, natural baskets, and wooden trays at thrift stores and you can find a lot of practical life items here, as well as at craft and dollar stores. You can also check with used bookstores for books on Montessori theory and practice if your local library does not carry them.

Ask Around

I wanted my children to have a Montessori education so, so, so bad. Bad enough, that I literally called around to several local Montessori schools and asked if I could buy their "left overs". I know that some Montessori schools will get rid of items that are missing 1 piece of something, or if the wood is starting to look worn out. I figured that if it was something like a knobless cylinder that was missing, I could just make and paint the missing one's, etc. Another thing I did was post a wanted ad on craigslist. I figured I had nothing to lose by asking if there was anyone out there who had Montessori materials or manuals they would like to sell me. You can also place a WTB (Want To Buy) post on the Montessori Swap Yahoo group, which always has used Montessori items for sale. Ebay can be another good place to find used items, however be prepared to have to bid for the items for the most part.

The Printer is your Friend

The digital age we live in today can help you acquire Montessori materials easier than before. Places like Montessori Print Shop offer a ton of Montessori and educational printables at a fraction of the cost! Choose instant download items a la cart, or order entire cd packages. Moveable alphabet for $1.99 and Moveable alphabet cards for just $2.69? Yes please! Check out Montessori for Everyone for a wonderful selection as well. If you'd like to do some Catholic Montessori lessons at home, you can also download Elizabeth Papandrea's pdf manual for $30.

Go Digital
Have an iPad? There are some absolutely wonderful Montessori apps for the iPad (Sorry, I'm not familiar with android). Check out app previews before purchasing an app claiming to be "Montessori"! Some of them can be nothing more than the equivalent to loud, visually obnoxious electronic toys. Here are a few of the Montessori style app companies that we've purchased from and have been pleased with: Preschool University, Mobile Montessori, and Montessorium. We certainly use other apps in our homeschool as well (I can go over those another time), but these are most similar to the traditional Montessori materials. Think an Ipad is too expensive? We were able to purchase an iPad 1 and an iPad 2 on Craigslist for about $100-$150 each. Is it worth it? Yes! As an educational tool, the iPad has been wonderful, but I would suggest that you definitely choose wisely and subject the apps to a Montessori "test" regardless if they claim to be Montessori or not.

Ask yourself, the following questions:
1. Is it visually cluttered or are they nice and simple, focusing on the main purpose of the activity?
2. Does it make a lot of noises, or perhaps distract children with "rewards"? If you find a good app that is noisy, you could always use the mute button and turn off rewards if possible.

Don't fall into the trap of letting your iPad "babysit" your children. Be sure to set time limits and goals for Montessori iPad activities.

Happy Birthday, We got you a Binomial Cube!

Birthday's and Holiday's are the perfect time to ask for Montessori items for your children. If you have the type of relatives and friends that ask you what your child needs, ask them for gift certificates from places like Montessori Print Shop, Montessori Services, Montessori for Everyone and Montessori Outlet. If they prefer to purchase the item themselves, start a wish list for these places and let them know the items you would like for your child.

Have you tried any of the ideas above? How did it go for you?

Where Have I Been?

Hello dear readers! It's been so long since I've written! I'd like to share what has been going on since I last wrote a post this summer.

Our biggest news is that we found out we are expecting our 7th child this winter! It was quite a surprise as I was having problems with endometriosis, but it turns out surgery this spring really did a great job of taking care of it! The children are extremely excited about their new brother or sister joining the family, and if they had it their way, we would be having triplets every time! They love the Duggar family and wish we could catch up to them :)

This spring and part of summer, I became quite an active freelancer doing writing, consulting, and social media work for two wonderful companies that I feel are doing a great job at providing parents and others with well thought out products for our children. Catholic Child and Wee Believers have been a joy to work for, and it has been a blessing to get to know the real, dedicated and hard working people behind both companies.

Unfortunately this summer, when I was about 11 weeks pregnant, I had a slip and fall accident in the bathroom of a restaurant and the injuries from that were quite a challenge for me and my family. I injured my back from the neck down, as well as hitting my left shoulder when I fell which also caused me to not even be able to type with my left hand. I was taken to the emergency room and had an ultrasound, where we were happily able to see that it looked as though the baby was alright! I was so worried because I began cramping terribly after I hit the floor and I was so scared that I might have a miscarriage. After the accident, I was in a lot of pain, and because I was pregnant, I was not able to have x-rays or any real pain relief from medication. What a challenge! I was having terrible headaches, could not sleep from the pain, and as much as I wanted, I just could not resume my normal activities. We had to hire some help so because the only position I would feel a bit of relief in was laying in bed with plenty of pillows supporting me. This also happens to be the busiest time of the year for my husband, and this year business really increased for him during this time, so it was quite stressful all around. I was going to therapy a few times a week, and now I'm happy to say that it looks like I'm finally almost done with therapy! It makes me want to cry to think of everything I went through, especially all the pain and not being able to perform my daily tasks and not being available for work and many of activities with the children, however I really am so deeply grateful to God and His mercy for relieving me from the strongest of pain I was having, and to let me slowly return to what is almost feeling back to normal.

This baby has really motivated us to re-evaluate life, our routines, our goals, and how we spend our time. With God's grace and help, we've simplified life even further where possible in areas such as clothes, toys, books, and how we spend our time. The children now rarely watch any movies and don't even remember to ask for them because they are having so much fun playing games together and using their imagination! Media was pretty limited before, but now, the children are at a point where they are not even missing it.One thing we have enjoyed more of as part of simplifying life is spending more time together because our time is being spent more cautiously. As far as media goes, we do still enjoy movies or shows, and definitely plenty of audio books and stories, one of our favorite sites being SparkleStories.com

I've decided to cut out extra curricular activities and try and find a weekly rhythm that works for our family.  This weekly rhythm is not something that is strictly adhered to, however it helps us have something to shoot for and look forward to on a day to day basis. Here's a sneak peek into our weekly rhythm if you are curious:

Mondays: Music (formal practice)
Tuesdays: Nature Exploration
Wednesdays: Art Exploration
Thursdays: Outdoor play with friends
Fridays: Library
Saturdays: Baking
Sundays: Mass, Rest, Making Homemade Pizza & Sundaes Together

The weekday activities are done if there is time after all school work and chores have been completed. Some days we get to do these activities, other times we might veer off and go to one of my husbands performances, or go on a field trip.

On a daily basis, we eat all meals together mostly at home to save money and eat healthy. We also have family prayer time together throughout the day, we of course do school together, and then there is also nightly story time. Lately, we've been reading some vintage Raggedy Anne & Andy stories on one of the iPads via Childrens Books Online. I highly recommend this website and can't wait to explore it further. Just the fact that we have been giving the children something to look forward to together has had an amazing impact on them. I notice the peace and happiness that fills them as life becomes simpler and at times more predictable. I also can't help but love to see the joy that exudes from them when it comes time to our nightly story together.

If you'd like, and I can make some time, I'll go ahead and fill you in on some more of the details of how we run our days (including what we eat!), as well as how we've changed things up for school this year.

This year we've decided to mostly use Catholic Heritage Curriculum as part of our plan to simplify life. I can go into more detail about that in another post, however I can definitely say that I love the order it has helped us create for school as our little family grows and the kids really love it too! I still believe in the great benefits of a Montessori education, and see how it Montessori activities are a natural fit for children. If anything, I still recommend at least having some homemade and inexpensive Montessori practical life activities for toddlers through about 6 years old if possible in the home. It has been my experience that the practical life activities provide children with the opportunity to feel a sense of fulfillment and purpose, along with helping them to learn order and independence.

I hope to keep you updated more often, and hope that you are all doing great and having a wonderful Autumn!

God Bless!
-Susana

Peace Begins at Home

From the Archives:
In our family, we believe peace education begins at home, and for us, Jesus is the supreme example for Peace education. Sometimes the children forget to treat each other with kindness, but a simple recalling of a parable, or from Jesus own life, brings a gentle reminder of how we can better treat one another. It isn't always easy. Remember, I have six children! However what does make things easier is that since the oldest was very little, my husband and I have both taken the time out to talk to the children. The little seeds planted then, make it easier for when situations arise now. They are able to stop, listen and think, and that really helps a lot. Sometimes I tell the children that our problems are so small compared to what is going on in the world. Just last night I was talking with the children about how we are so blessed and need to take the time to appreciate each other and use the gifts God has given us to do good. When we start practicing peace, kindness, and respect in the home, we can then take what we've learned and put it in practice to share with the rest of the world. Teaching the children that we are all connected and affect one another really strikes a chord with them.

 I like to tell the children to imagine us being like a big display of domino's, one touching another, and so on and so forth. In our day to day life, we may not see the bigger picture of the domino effect. We may only see the little, immediate things, and sometimes we may not even even see anything at all. I tell them that just because we can't always see the overall picture sometimes, doesn't mean that it's not there, or doesn't exist.

 As they sit there with intent little eyes, processing the information, thinking and digesting what I am telling them, I sometimes silently wonder, "Do they really understand?". Just the other day, as I wondered this, one of them looked up at me and said, "Yeah, I get it! If I'm nice to my brother and make a sacrifice to share my toy, then he'll be happy and maybe be nice to my sister and make her feel good, then she'll go out and smile at someone and make them feel good, and then they'll do something nice like open the door for someone, and then.. and then...". ..And then Mami feels good, and thinks to herself, "Yes, there is hope for this world, and it starts right here."

Montessori Liquid Soap Activity!

Copyright The Farmers Nest

I hope you had a wonderful Easter! We're a little tired from having gone to the Easter vigil Mass at midnight, but it was a wonderful Easter in the company of friends!

This easy tutorial from The Farmers Nest looks like it could make a great Montessori practical life activity! With a little help from an adult, your child or class can cross off "Making liquid soap" from their bucket list! I think the children would especially enjoy grating the soap. Check it out!

How to Make Liquid Hand Soap from a bar of soap {DIY}

Reasons to Homeschool Podcast

I thought this was an interesting podcast  to listen to by Tsh Oxenreider of Simple Mom and Jamie Martin of Simple Homeschool and Steady Mom. Check it out over HomeFries: Reasons to Homeschool

Our reasons? To help our children blossom into who God is calling them to be and to help ignite a lifetime love of learning!

What are your reasons?

Montessori Geography Boxes

From August 2009:
Montessori Geography Boxes

Montessori Enrichment Activities

My kids love choosing electives like the art puzzle above, after their core school learning is done for the day! It's important to give kids the opportunity to learn and explore on their own. It gives them the chance to try out many of the concepts they've learned in their school subjects. Some of our electives include: Exploring art through different mediums and techniques, typing, graphic design, building, researching topics of interest, playing the guitar or ukelele, and more. These are especially great for the older set of kids as too!

What elective options do your children enjoy?

Catholic Montessori Album Still Available!

Hello! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!
I just wanted to pop in to say that the Catholic Montessori album is still available for sale! You can read more about it here: Catholic Montessori Album or if you're ready to purchase, just click the Buy Now button.

Catholic Catechesis Montessori Album Level I

$48 USD

My Homeschool Style

Sarah over at My Homeschool Style has just featured me! Check out what I have to say regarding my homeschool style!: Introducing Susana at Montessori Candy

Montessori in the News: International Day of Peace

Photo by: Linda Hall-Stone Students gather around the Peace Pole at the Children's House Montessori School to celebrate the International Day of Peace.

Children's House Montessori School observes International Day of Peace

What do you do in your home or school to teach or promote peace education? I'll share some of what we do on Monday. Have a great weekend!

A Montessori Moment

Copyright Montessoricandy.com

Here's a cute pic of the kids just hanging out. I love it when they work together. Even the older children who've already mastered the colored tablets, were enjoying spending time with the little one's. The older children taking joy and practicing patience in teaching the younger one's, and the younger children excited to be working with the materials alongside the old kids. I think it's sweet, and I feel blessed to be able to be a part of it, even if just as an observer.

Melted Crayon Art

Source: tekyteach.blogspot.com via Donna on Pinterest

I found this beautiful idea on Pinterest! I just joined and look forward to finding some wonderful ideas in my spare time. It looks like you can do this using a heat gun or blow dryer. You could also probably do this using crayon shavings. Perhaps the child could draw a picture on watercolor paper, carstock, vellum, or make a design on wax paper, and fill it with crayon shavings and then melt away! This looks so fun, I want to try it too!

What do you think?

Homeschool Co-op Post

Lacy over at Catholic Icing, has a great post on starting a home school co-op.
Check it out here: How to Start a Homeschool Co-op and Make it Thrive

I also wrote a post back in November of 10 on my experience at starting a Montessori homeschool co-op. Take a look: Starting a Montessori Co-op

Practical Life: Making the Bed

Jen, over at Wildflowers and Marbles shares a great tutorial of how you can make it easier for your little one's to make their bed! It's a great idea, check it out!:
Simple and Useful-Boxed Corners Sewn on a Childs Quilt