Montessori Journeys: Stephanie

Today's Montessori Journey is brought to us by:

Stephanie of Discovery Days and Montessori Moments

My Montessori Journey began only a short while ago. Actually it was in the fall of 2010! I was starting to think about Kindergarten for my daughter who was 4 at the time. I was leaning toward homeschooling because I didn’t like the public school option. Not that the schools were bad, but the thought that she couldn’t learn about thing things that were important to her bothered me. I wanted my kids to love learning, to know how to find the information that they wanted to know about, to enjoy their time as students while learning how to be responsible in the world around them. I was homeschooled though high school, and my husband was homeschooled as well, so the idea of homeschool wasn’t something that we were unfamiliar with. However, my husband thought that we should look at all the options that were available. I was a part of a homeschool group that had been talking a lot about the different types of homeschooling (Charlotte Mason, Classical, Unschooling, etc). Montessori had come up as one of the options and I thought I would look into that.

 I found that there were several schools around our area that were Montessori schools, so I called for information. The lady set us up with, not only paper work, but an appointment to come and see the school! So in September of 2010, I (with my husband and kids) stepped foot into the first Montessori school I had ever seen. As we headed into the classroom, I was shocked at how perfect it was! My heart just seemed to beg for my kids to be here. They were enthralled! My 4 year old was watching the kids and looking at the material with real interest, and my normally shy 18 month old, wanted to take off like she was at home! The teachers that we visited let the girls try some material, help feed the class pet, and wash their hands in the child sized sink. I loved it, they loved it, and I left knowing I had found what I was looking for in a school. But then came the sticker shock! It was nearly $10,000 a year. Ouch! Even with financial aid, we couldn't swing it, so now what? We could homeschool this way!

Well being a homeschooled child I turned to the resource that answered any question I ever had about something….the library! Within days, I had gotten out every book from library system I could get my hands on about Montessori education. Looking though the pile the book that attracted me the most was, “How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way” by Tim Seldin. I read it in about a day. I was hooked! This was it! Then I read Elizabeth Hainstock ,and another one. Next I hit the internet looking for a curriculum (I was still so new to this that I thought I would find one). The thing that I found was a program by New Child Montessori that had seasonal teaching guides. I bought them, placed my first substantial Montessori Material order, and started in October! Sure it was pricey, but I knew that I was going to have to buy stuff sooner or later, and my husband had gotten some extra money from a job (he’s a contractor) that he was able to give me! Yes in less then a month I found what I wanted and started off right away!

The day I discovered blogs, was probably one the most life changing part of my journey. It made me realize that there are tons of moms out there who were trying to do the same things I was. They also had ideas, resources, and support! They could help me answer questions, they could help me see that I didn’t need a curriculum once I knew how Montessori materials were presented, and they were fun to read! It was by reading blogs that I dug into my first book written by Maria Montessori ( The Secret of Childhood). So, in January of 2011 I started my own blog as a way to remember and record the work I did with my kids. It has turned into something so much more. I help people, they help me, it is a support system that has lifted me up when I didn’t think I could go forward! There were so many questions that I didn’t have the answer for. I felt that I needed so much training that I couldn’t get. But they were trained, had done this all before, and they had researched answers. They were a blessing!

There was one thing missing in the education of my children that I really felt I needed to figure out….faith formation. My husband and I were raised in very Catholic homes, and I wanted my kids to have that too. I wanted them to have a chance to have a deep relationship with God on their own. With all of my new Montessori training I couldn't reconcile getting work books for a subject that should be the most important, so I googled “Catholic Montessori” and that is when I found the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd! I was so excited! I couldn’t believe that I had found the way to lead my kids to God that would give them a relationship with Him that was all theirs! I hit the national website and found an atrium! On our first day there I was struck by the peace and the holiness that poured out. It was a place of prayer and God. I had never seen my kids like they were in the Atrium. They were quiet, calm, and busy. They were reflective there, on the way home, and at Sunday Mass. I could see how much it was helping them know God, and I loved it!

So this journey has been fast paced and such a blessing to me and to my family. It was lead by God (I never would have found it myself), and I have found, not just a system of education, but a calling. I have discovered that this is what I was meant to do. I am now taking a Montessori class through Worldwide Montessori, and someday I hope to be able to have a small Montessori child care. I have also been blessed with the opportunity to start an atrium at my church, and my training for that is starting soon. There have been a ton of challenges, like letting go of where I thought my kids should be academically, and trying not to make them child super stars (Bunny, even at age 5 1/2 still isn’t reading like I think she should). Of course there have also been blessings, like the unfailing support of my husband, and the ever listening ear of my mom. I am learning to love better, respect more, and see my kids differently. I have grown from my journey and I wouldn't change it for the world!



Would you like to share your Montessori Journey? Email me at montessoricandy@gmail.com
Want to share this Montessori Journey or read others? Check out my Montessori Journeys page. Feel free to copy any of my Montessori Journeys logo's, but please make sure to include a link to: http://www.montessoricandy.com/p/montessori-journeys.html

Creating an Art Studio for Young Children

My daughter creating enjoying some art time.

Euphoria's old blog has a 5 part series of posts on Creating an Art Studio for a Young Child. She's since created a new blog that you can read at Euphoria for Green Mama's.

I love reading about how to set up creative and learning spaces. If you have a covered patio, you might even want to set up a little outdoor art studio with Euphoria's tips and things like colored water spray bottles!

Do you have an art area for your children at home? If you are a teacher, what is your art section like at school?

Kids, Creativity & Careers

Designed by Mr. D

This is a picture designed by my 8, soon to be 9 year old son in Photo Shop. Aside from designing webpages literally on pages of paper, he is facsinated with cooking, building, as well as being positively obssesed with reading anything and everything. I kid you not. He inspects things like cereal to let us know how many grams of sugar, etc.. are in them, and loves reading manuals for putting things together and to see how they work. He's a great kid with a busy mind and definitely keeps me on my toes.

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste"

So true! Yet it seems the norm in today's society is to let our children watch hours of television daily, not to mention playing video games instead of playing outside or exploring their creativity. I'm not saying that I don't let my children have any screen time, I do, but the hours exploring art mediums, reading and playing outside heavily outweigh time in front of the "b-oob tube". Call it a hunch, but I definitely think that allowing children to explore their inner creativity leaves them feeling more fulfilled and helps to prepare them for their future career. What do you think?

If your child is into design, there is a great new website by the creators of the Design Dossiers series called Kids Think Design, which helps children explore various careers in the field of design. From architect to fashion design, you'll find a lot of fun and information at that site. Check it out!

Share Your Montessori Journey!

We are all on this journey together. Interconnected, whether inspiring one another, sharing advice, or providing encouragement.

Some of us are school teachers, some of us parents, some of us are a combination of both. Some of us are seasoned in all things Montessori, some of us are scared of homeschooling and don't know where to begin. Some of us are learning day by day and trying our best to implement Montessori in the classroom or at home.

We all have a story to tell. A story to share and possibly inspire and encourage others. Advice to give so that others may learn from our mistakes. A story in it's beginning chapters, full of excitement for what lies ahead...

Share your story with us. What has been your Montessori Journey so far? How did it all begin? What hopes do you have for the future? What lessons have you learned along the way?

I would love to feature your story on my blog. Please contact me at montessoricandy@gmail.com
Both bloggers and non bloggers are invited to share their story with us. Thank you!

To read my Montessori journey and others as I add them, check out my new

Montessori Journeys Page

Intentional Living

Have you been to SimpleMom.net? It is a wonderful network of blogs headed up by Tsh Oxenrider, which includes Simple Mom, Simple Kids, Simple Bites, Simple Organic, and Simple Homeschool. This past winter I purchased Tsh's book, Organized Simplicity, and it has made such a difference in my life!

In the her book, Tsh encourages you to think and write about what your family's personal life purpose is. Tsh then has you go through and account for every minute of a typical day. She has you write down what you do and how much time you spend doing it, even including going to the restroom! Then she has you write down what you would like to do more of. Finally she has you compare the list of how you spend your time to the list of things you'd wish you could do more, against your family's own "life's purpose" statement. This little gem of guidance from Tsh has really changed our perspective and helped to make life more enjoyable and feel more fulfilled for us. I'll explain more!

I think for some people, life becomes so busy and hectic and then you throw homeschooling in the mix and it can just feel downright chaotic! We start building up these long to do lists weather on paper, in our mind, or in the form of bookmarks on our computer. These are lists of things that we never have a chance to do, to read, or explore. People we'd like to visit with, places we'd like to take the children to, but never seem to have the time. After reading Organized Simplicity, my husband and I really started scrutinizing our life. We realized that we wanted to spend as much time possible guiding our children and spending time as a family. We found out that we could use our time to better accomplish the things we wanted to do, and cut out the things that we found ourselves doing unintentionally, which also tended to drain our time away.

Here's an example: We like to watch movies as a family occasionally. We purposely don't have tv, but we did have a Netflix subscription. While looking for something appropriate to watch that fit our criteria, (good message, kids being respectful towards parents, modest dress, etc.), we would browse the online catalog for what seemed like minutes when in actuality, a whole half hour had unintentionally gone by! We found this happening a lot, and decided that we could better use our time as a family together. My husband ended up cancelling our subscription to Netflix to help us avoid falling in to that rut of always defaulting to movies for family time. We still watch movies together, but not as often. Instead, we've replaced most of our movie watching with bike riding, working on a project together, or just some singing and playing along to music. In turn, we feel much more fulfilled because we are getting up and doing something and actually interacting with the children. It's really a lot more fun for us and it feels good to not feel that nagging feeling in the back of our mind. You know, the one that says's stuff like,  "You should really take the kids for a bike ride" or "I've got to get around to trying that new cookie recipe the kids and I have been wanting to make".

This idea of living intentionally according to your life's purpose comes in to play for homeschooling as well. Are inanimate objects getting in the way of the "animate objects" (people) in your life? I found myself being affected by too much clutter in the form of too many kitchen utensils, toys, books and more. When the kids had a science project to try out, I would sometimes feel a cringe because of the mess it would make or because I had to make time to get the ingredients. I found that I had to put things into perspective, and make way for the people and things that really do mean a lot to me. I've gotten rid of things to make room in the kitchen for the children's items. It feels so good when they can easily find something they need for a school project. It brings about a peace and certainly less frustration. Anything I can do to simplify life as the mother and wife in a family of eight, is fine by me! My husband and I have made the commitment to home schooling, it is part of our family's purpose  in this stage of our life. Because of this, we have had to make necessary adjustments to make everything run more smoothly. It is definitely an ongoing process for us, and it will be different for everyone, depending on your personal life's purpose. I love when the children and I can sit together and just make art. I love to explore different mediums with them, but I need the time and space to do so. Again, for me, keeping clutter (things we don't absolutely need or want) and unintentional living to a minimum, is the key to making things like art time jump from the "To Do" list to the "We Did It!" list.

Being a busy mother, I also definitely need time for myself and for spending time with my husband. We've recently started going on dates more frequently, and I've even started tackling the stack of decorating magazines I've been wanting to get to, but had never made the time for. I still have a way to go and everyday presents new challenges and distractions, but I can definitely say that I feel like I am enjoying the journey to the fullest more than I've ever let myself before.

So what do you think? Are there certain things and activities keeping you from leading a more intentional and fulfilled life? How does that come in to play regarding homeschooling for you?

How We Montessori Blog

Thanks to Montessori Print Shop for introducing me to How We Montessori. Looks like a great blog, go check it out! :)