This week Ms. Maria continued Zoom sessions for all The Montessori House students learning at home. She introduced several new formats for at home learning (see Zoom Primer for Parents), including a Science Demonstration, Show & Do Cooking at Home, and Follow the Leader (movement and songs).
Each week, we’ll post links to video recordings of select sessions. For this week: Read the rest of this entry »
We wanted to provide our Montessori House families information on our Zoom sessions, to help make them fun and productive for students who attend. We have multiple formats for Zoom sessions — some require preparation for children to participate (for example if we do food preparation together, you’ll need to gather ingredients ahead of time), others are intended to teach students how to do a project on their own after the session (with parents’ help of course, for example a science experiment), and many have little or no preparation or follow up. If a session is aimed at older students (e.g. Kindergarten) or younger students (under age 4), we’ll let parents know. Below you’ll find a chart of our different session formats (note, certain formats may have no limit on participants, while others are intended for a limited, small group of students). Following the chart is further information and a few pointers for parents to make our Zoom session with your children fun and successful.
This week Ms. Maria started Zoom sessions for all The Montessori House students learning at home. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (Apr 22-24), she read storybooks for younger and older students, and held three show & tell sessions (My Favorite Stuffed Animal). We had over 50 children participate in one or more sessions, with enthusiastic feedback from our Montessori House families.
Next week, Ms. Maria will introduce new material and read a few more books. Parents receive an email invitation to register for the session Ms. Maria offers (some have a limit on attendees).
Each week, we’ll post links to video recordings of select sessions. For this week:
Look for future posts about Ms. Maria on Zoom.
P.S. This was our schedule for Apr 22- 24:
| 9:00 am Story for Younger |
10:15 am Story for Older |
1:00 pm Show & Tell (S&T) |
|
| Wed Apr 22 | “Are You My Mother?” | “METEOR” | Favorite Stuffed Animal |
| Thu Apr 23 | “Are You My Mother?” | “METEOR” | Favorite Stuffed Animal |
| Fri Apr 24 | “Froggy Gets Dressed” | “Some Birthday!” | Favorite Stuffed Animal |
At The Montessori House, we use the classic, phonetic Montessori Method to have children form a sound basis for reading. Those who already read well (that is, parents), may no longer be aware of the complexities involved in learning to read. Without that awareness, it’s easy to confuse a child just starting to learn her/his phonetic sounds.
To help parents at home work with their pre-readers and early readers, here are some key Don’ts and Do’s: Read the rest of this entry »
Ms. Maria does NOT recommend swimming in the Hudson to her students. Her black greyhound, Ivy, can’t walk by this beach cove along the Hudson without taking a dip — spring, summer, fall, and even winter! If you see her there, stand back after she leaves the water — when she shakes herself dry, even 6 feet of social distance may not keep you dry!
Many Montessori House students have met Ivy and Madeline — Ms. Maria’s two dogs. Ivy’s the black greyhound and Madeline’s the shaggy, black and white mixed breed (poodle and Havanese, perhaps?). All three (Ms. Maria, Ivy and Madeline) love to hike the trails along the Hudson in the Palisades Interstate Park. This adventure took them about 3 miles south from the Alpine Boat Basin along the Shore Trail to the best waterfall in the NJ section of the park — Greenbrook Falls.
We couldn’t resist taking more pictures of our rabbit doe Cindy (doe is the technical name for a mama bunny) and her seven rabbit kits (short for kittens, the technical name for baby bunnies).
This year we had a mama bunny in the classroom and she had baby bunnies! Since Montessori House children weren’t at school (due to Covid-19), we let the baby bunnies play in the classroom.
To help parents make this home-bound time tolerable for all members of the family, and to keep their young children productively engaged and active, our Director — Ms. Maria Morningstar — has started a series called “At Home“. The series is published in our website NEWS section. Since they’re published using a blog, chapters appear in reverse order, with the most recent At Home the top entry. Each chapter starts out with a short introduction and you then click on “Read the rest of this entry>>” to see the entire post,
Here’s what we’ve published so far (with links to each full chapter):
P.S. If you’d like to take a video break with your children, Ms. Maria has a few recent posts with bunnies and dogs.
Montessori House students of all ages love Practical Life (PL). For our youngest students, a large part of their time is spent on PL. Practical Life lessons are all demonstration and imitation. By doing PL, children learn the concept of a “work”: having a lesson, getting it from the shelf, working (only as instructed), mastery, and clean-up. An important aspect of Montessori education is engaging the whole child (physical and mental) to reinforce learning, as occurs with PL works. Starting with PL, children establish a set of habits and a framework for further learning, as they become capable of lessons in other areas like math (numbers), and reading (sounds, letters, etc.), and more.
Why Practical Life? Read the rest of this entry »