A Beginning Of A Play Space

After spending the past nine years working many hours a day in my basement it recently begin to take a negative toll on me. I decided for the good of the order to switch up our enviroment to add more of a positive vibe to the overall concept. The truth is I operate a daycare and preschool. My hours of operation are from Monday to Friday from 5:00 A.M until 11:30 P.M. On every other Saturday I work from 9:30 A.M until 4:00 P.M. So I came up with the idea to begin creating a separate play space that will be used when we are not in the classroom doing montessori activities, when weather prevents us from going outside, and when preschool hours are over. My last set up didn't allow any commonly used play items which led to burn out for the children who parents actually work from 8:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night. I can eat, sleep, drink the montessori method all day everyday, children cannot in the settting that I have avaliable to them.  The first day the children came and saw the new play space they were very excited! This is just the begining of our new play space. I thrifted everything, and worked hard on putting new tile on the floor. I have great visions of  what our new play space will evolve into. Right now it is very simple, but serves it intended purpose.

 Right now I call this area the Block Room. It has two recliner chairs, different blocks to manipulate, Wii Game System all games played on the Wii are for young children and age appropiate. This activity the kids and I really enjoy together, they love seeing me break a sweat :)

                                                  Blocks,cars, and puzzles.

The T.V and the shelve where the Wii games and remotes reside. The Yoga book is also used a lot and some chose to do yoga with the Wii.

                             Now entering the Housekeeping area.

                                                         Writing Center.

                                                         Reading Corner

I am pleased with the begining of our play space and looking forward to developing this space in sync with the childrens' interest, art, and creative minds. I can't wait to compare this post to the postings in the future about our play space.                                                      

Getting Back To Blogging

Well things have settled down so I will be able to get back to blogging regularly again. Tomorrow I want to share with you all our new play space. If you are interested in seeing pics of our new classroom set up pop over to my other blog We Don't Need No Education.

Montessori Print Shop Teaching Manuals

I am so appreciative right now!!  Friday I decided to take a look at some of the teaching manuals that Montessori Print Shop has at their store. I was really impressed when I glanced over the samples. I jumped for joy after I purchased them and got to read through them all. Let me just share this, these manuals say Primary but I still can use them for homeschooling DJ(7) and Ken (10). If you are a visual learner like myself you will appreciate the pictures that accomodate the steps when presenting a lesson. Save yourself the drama of worrying about if you are doing everything right. All you have to do is practice the presentations, prepare the materials. By the way each lesson has a direct link to the Montessori materials avaliable at Montessori Print Shop.  I purchased the Language, Sensorial, and Math manuals and I am very pleased with the quality. It just took me an half an hour to print the Sensorial manual it has 100 pages of lessons and background information in regards to the subject at hand. I feel good!! I now have a set of manuals that I can use with my preschoolers as well as my elementary children.

 Here is the Sensorial Manual ready for me to just bind together.

    

Well I am off to go finish printing my new manuals. Have a great week!!

Disclaimer: This is entirely my opinion. I was not asked by Montessori Print Shop to do a review, I was not compensated in any way. I just wanted to share one of the coolest resources that has made my life as a preschool teacher and homeschooling mom a lot easier. 

                                                          

More Sharing

I started another blog that will document our homeschool journey, and a lot of other happenings that occur in my family life. I didn't want this blog to lose its' focus. I am looking forward to a wonderful new school year with the preschoolers! Our Fall semester begins September 6th. Hopefully next week I will have something to share here. It has been a busy month so far. If you have a moment pop over to We Don't Need No Education.

What Have We Been Up To?

I wanted to pop in and show some photos to give you an idea of how we been spending most of our days.

                                    Outside The Classroom

                                                      Swinging and singing.

                                               

                                                                   

                                                      Enjoying Potatoe Sack races.

                                              Sliding and screaming.

      Hanging out at the park with friends we haven't seen in a while (check out the poses).

                             Earning their yellow belts in TaeKwonDo.

In The Classroom

Working with the moveable alphabet, spelling cvc words.                                             

                                         Knobbed Cylinder Block.

                                      Dry pouring with beans.

                                 Sensorially working with Color Box #2.

                                

                            Tracing Sandpaper Numbers with fingers.

                                                                               

 Finally things have slowed down around here:) In a good way. I have families that are now taking their summer vacations which is allowing me to have more time for planning and preparations as we start our fall semester on September 6th. I hope everyone is enjoying what is left of this summer. Now back to planning I go!!                                                                                                                                                           

                                                         

The Decision Has Been Made!

If you are to use grades to measure how successful a school year was then my children had a fantastic school year. If you were to measure by how happy they are to go back to school then the school year was a complete failure for everyone but Michelle. It all started when they had to switch schools due to DJ having a knife pointed at his stomach by a classmate. The new school had great academic standards which appears at first to have been the best place for my children, but it turned out to be a place where I can honestly say where they took the joy out of learning for my little boy. DJ would come home from school very tired and quite different. The more we talked the more he shared about how his classmates were referring to him as the black boy and how the teacher didn't do anything about it. Yes I am that parent who talks directly to the principal about serious matters, the racist comments didn't stop and to be honest I begin to feel the teacher was racist. The more I write about this the more upset I become so lets' just save this subject for another post. I formally homeschooled  Ken in her kindergarten and first grade years. When she went to public school for second grade she tested on third grade level on all subjects. Now entering the fifth grade year she is according to her report card a "C" student. What a shame! Ken's first semester of fourth grade was spent with a teacher who well in my opinon didn't want to teach and it didn't help that Ken didn't show any sign of effort, afterschooling begin to dominant home life. Again this subject is a post on its' own. When I mention the mere thought of going to school DJ shuts down it dosent matter if  he is playing outside, playing his playstation or doing montessori activities. Ken really wants to understand concepts because really she was staring out the classroom window last year and needs one on one before the middle school years come. So I made a decision to homeschool DJ and Ken for the school year 2011-2012.  I am really praying to instill the joy of learning back into my kids heart. The foundation of our curriculum will be to get my kids their flames back, learning is a process, to be able to understand the importance of  getting  an education, ( too many people died for this right ) and to be able to walk in a public/private classroom setting again and feel good about themselves. (preferrably a montessori classrom :)

   Because I can't do a post without pictures here are two books that have been helpful in making a decision about what our academic curriculum will consist of. I love how it comes with different poetry selections and information related to core subjects that can lead to some fun enrichment. Next week sometime I plan to share with you our curriculum choices, and how we will use the Montessori Method in the elementary years.

                                                                         

                                                                               

A Child Makes An Observation Outside The Classroom

On the way to TaeKwonDo Mumble made an observation. Mumble said look Ms. T the Constructive Triangles as he was pointing to a sign.

  Very close comparison!  Below are some pictures of Mumble working with the Constructive Triangles.

 I use the templates avaliable on Montessori Print Shop for the children to use as a guide to construct different shapes with this material. Here is an example of one, it is Mumbles' favorite shape to create with the Constructive Triangles.