An exercise I have done once or twice in the past that I think would help now is to imagine what sort of education I would provide for Josiah and Tessa if there was no such thing as school, if there was no society norm in terms of the content and timing of education that I felt pulled to conform to, no legal requirements that I'm obliged to conform to. My answer to this question is different now than it was when Josiah and Tessa were younger. During the preschool years and the early primary school years, I think the ideal is to provide a Montessori environment at home, with the children free to choose their activities from one moment to the next, the adult working alongside, introducing new activities and re-introducing old in response to the needs and interests observed in the child.
For Josiah's and Tessa's age group, it seems to me that choosing work from moment to moment is no longer necessarily the best way. By now, a lot of the children's work is ongoing, e.g. learning a foreign language. Planning and working to a schedule have become, in my opinion, necessary elements of Josiah's and Tessa's work. I am happy for the children to direct the decision process on the content of what is studied, the methods used and the timing and format of study sessions. The problem I'm encountering is what to do when having made these decisions, the child then declines to carry them out.
I wonder what unschooling parents do if a child plans a programme of work and doesn't carry it out. I'm not talking about a child changing plans, like discovering through experience that they enjoy maths more if they do a big session once a week than if they do a little each day and changing their timetable accordingly. I mean when the child simply says, no, I don't feel like it after all.
My feeling is that my role of facilitator and helper in the kids' education includes being the stick-to-your-plans police. I am happy for plans to be renegotiated at any stage, but not on the spur of the moment in the middle of the work session.
I discussed some of this with the kids today and we have negotiated a revised schedule with a more definite finish time each day so the kids know they have some guaranteed free time after the study session. Tessa expressed concern that we hadn't included time for crafts in our plans, at which Josiah suggested that we add a time slot for "miscellaneous activity" to our weekly schedule. We have done that, and Tessa seems more cheerful about it all. I'm just hoping that Josiah's idea of a miscellaneous activity is not a game of chess with his mother
Site Feed
2 comments:
hi there.. i hope this isn't too long... i am a mom of two boys (aged 1.75 and newborn) and i plan on homeschooling for sure. i worked as an assistant in a montessori school and really fell in love w/ many of the philosophies and approaches to teaching. so many of the questions you raised in this post are some that i have had... i struggle w/ being a perfectionist and one who is typically married to a schedule/regularity, etc. i'm afraid my toddler is becoming like me (or is it, prayerfully, just the toddler stage?) in his need for same-ness and schedule. anyway, i am glad to see that montessori (specifically christian) at home is possible, and am thankful for your list of get started links. i'm feeling a bit overwhelmed ahead of time i think, but i also know that it's not too early to get started internally! anyway, thank you for sharing what you're going thru, so that i may hopefully follow in your footsteps!! how long, if you don't mind me asking, have you homeschooled, and how long of that montessori? (i got the impression that this is all your kids have known?)
one last question: several of my girlfriends w/ similar aged children and i have discussed at various times having a homeschool coop where i would teach, say, language arts since that is my gift, and S can teach french and math (for ex). is there a way for this to complement a montessori homeschool environment? your thoughts are greatly appreciated.. feel free to email me at mballew13@yahoo.com thank you!!
Hi Misty
No, not too long, thanks for the comment! I wonder if the need for sameness is the toddler stage - the sensitive period for order Maria Montessori wrote about. I remember Tessa at age 2 insisting everything be a certain way. She would tell us off if we didn't sit in our usual seats at the dinner table.
We have been homeschooling for six and a half years. Josiah and Tessa both attended Montessori preschools and Josiah had a year in a Montessori 6-9 classroom. We pulled Tessa out of the Montessori classroom she was in at age 4.5yrs because we were unhappy with the classroom atmosphere. Josiah carried on at school. Homeschooling with Tessa was just going to be temporary - 6-18mths till she was old enough to enter a Montessori 6-9 class or we found somewhere else. But we fell in love with homeschooling and decided that we would wait for Josiah to express interest in homeschooling then pull him out too, which we did when he was 7.
I have heard of Montessori homeschooling families being part of homeschooling coops, both Montessori based coops and other coops. If you ask at
Playschool 6
you might hear about the different coops people have been involved in.
Reading over my shoulder, Josiah is asking me, "Are you going to tell her abut Monday Kids?" I don't think of it as a coop but Josiah is quite right to mention it: for two years, Josiah and Tessa attended a one-day-a-week class in the home of a teacher, along with up to four other homeschooling kids. It gave me some time out and was much enjoyed by the kids.
Post a Comment