Montessori Essentials: Grammar Boxes

When I began homeschooling my kids in a 1,000 sq. ft. condo, I spent a few days pondering which materials were truly essential and which we could live without.

I narrowed down our math essentials, but was stumped by the language materials.  How was I going to fit a huge set of wooden Grammar Boxes into our very limited shelf space?  It was during this moment of panic that I discovered Jennifer Kilgore and Branch to Bloom.  Jennifer had the ingenious idea of converting the cumbersome Grammar Boxes (and other large Montessori materials) to fabric versions!  Roll ’em, stack ’em, rack ’em… There are so many ways to store these flexible and beautiful materials!

And here’s my favorite part: These materials were designed specifically with the needs homeschoolers in mind (although they can be used perfectly well in a classroom setting).  The original cards for the classroom Grammar Boxes provide prompts that direct the children to use materials in certain ways. (e.g. “Build the Brown Stair behind the Pink Tower.”)  By following the prompts and interacting with materials in the classroom, the children experience the power of the different parts of speech. But those original cards are useless for homeschoolers, because we don’t have most of the classroom materials mentioned on the cards!

Jennifer, who’s also a homeschooling mom, solved this problem by adapting the prompts on the cards to be homeschool-friendly.  Her cards let children experience the power of the parts of speech, while interacting with objects found in most homeschools.  The cards are pre-printed on beautiful and sturdy paper (but I laminated mine anyway because old habits die hard).

The Branch to Bloom Grammar Boxes can be purchased as a complete set (fabric mats and pre-printed cards), just the fabric mats, or as a download so you can print paper mats at home.  You can also print your own cards.

We’ve had lots of fun playing and working with these Grammar Boxes.  I’m grateful to Jennifer for her creativity and hard work, which allows us to stay true to the Montessori method.

 

Three Steps to Academic Success

Thirty thousand. 30,000! That’s the number of words scientists say you should be speaking to your child daily to increase his chances of academic success. Most parents reach and exceed this magic number, but how do you know if your child is really benefiting from your efforts? Do you feel you might be choosing the wrong words or confusing your child by rambling?

I’m about to share with you a simple but powerful Montessori technique that will put your worries to rest.  To find out what it is, and to watch a short instructional video about it, click here!

The Moveable Alphabet

A trainer once asked my classmates and me the following: “If you were on a deserted island and could only take two Montessori materials with you to support a child’s intellectual development, what would they be?”  We pondered, debated, and finally concluded that for math it would have to be the Golden Beads that represent the decimal system and for language it would be the Moveable Alphabet.

The Moveable Alphabet was developed by Dr. Montessori when she realized that children had the mental capacity to analyze the sounds in words way before they could synthesize them.  The former is what we do when we write, while the latter is how we read.  During a child’s first year in a Primary environment, we spend a lot of time playing Sound Games, which help children understand that words are composed of sounds.  Around their third birthday, we start introducing the Sandpaper Letters – individual letters cut out of sandpaper and glued on wooden boards – which is how children learn what sound each letter makes and how the letter is written. 

In a genuine Montessori environment, we NEVER refer to a letter by its name, because we are preparing the child to write and read.  Think about it: when you write or read the word “cat”, you are saying [c]-[a]-[t]… You are NOT reading “cee-ay-tee”!!  So why teach the names of the letters?  It’s a testament to children’s intelligence that they can learn to read in traditional environments where they have to be taught that “cee says [c]”.  Why confuse the poor children?

When a child writes a word with the Moveable Alphabet, he does so phonetically by analyzing the sounds he hears as he says a word slowly out-loud.  Because English is not a phonetic language, many words will be misspelled.  We never correct a child, nor do we ask him to read the word back to us, because they can’t read yet!  (Sometimes a child will ask you to read to him what he wrote; all Montessori teachers have hilarious stories of decoding phonetically written words… My favorite is “wnsupnetaim”, or “once upon a time”.)

Eventually, after weeks and weeks (and sometimes months) of using the Moveable Alphabet, the child will start reading the words back spontaneously (and that’s when you leave the room, shed a tear of joy, send a quick thank you up to Dr. Montessori, and do a happy dance).  And later on, perhaps when the child is five or six years old, he will become curious about correct spelling, and you can guide him in his new awareness.  But only when he’s ready.

Check out The Very Montessori blog, where you can see several examples of pre-schoolers writing with the Moveable Alphabet.