Closing Sale!!!

Items are in good, used condition unless noted in the description. Full description on the CAHSA Google page. Payment is Cash ONLY.  Prices are non-negotiable.  Items will not be sold separately from lots.  I am selling a total of 6 lots and 5 pocket charts.  Items will need to be picked up at a mutualy agreed upon location.  I am located in Normal. 

Lot 1 - Montessori Manual ($10)

Lot 2 - Practical Life Books ($20)

Lot 3- General Non-fiction books A ($10)

Lot 4- General Language ($20)

Lot 5- General Display ($20)

Lot 6 - Flashcards & Misc. ($5)

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All charts are Learning Resources brand and were originally purchased new at my local teacher's store. 

Pocket Chart 1 - Six pocket chart (with lined paper) ($10)

Pocket Chart 2 - Sixteen pocket chart ($10)

Pocket Chart 3 - Ten pocket file folder holder ($10)

Pocket Chart 4 - Nine pocket Job chart ($10)

Pocket Chart 5 - Alphabet Center ($20)

Last Pictures of February

Little Boy

Smiley getting ready to give Little Boy a kiss. She loves to give him kisses.

She wasn't, however, as thrilled about getting one in return.

Cutie Pie #2 playing with a silk

Cutie #1 acting out Itsy Bitsy Spider

Cutie Pie #2 and #1 doing a puzzle together Smiley and Little Boy playing with the Antartica animals (there are more penguins on the table too) Little Boy and Belle doing pegs together

I love how the children play well together. Most of the time anyway. I mean, they are children. :)

What We Were Up To In February

Well, we were up to more than what was in these pictures! We started the month of February being closed for two days because of the huge blizzard that came through Illinois. We live in a subdivision with detached garages & alleys and we couldn't get any vehicles in or out! We also celebrated Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. The first few pictures are of Jelly Bean (age 9) and some of the preschoolers. They love her and she loves them. It works out well!

Little Boy (age 2) and Jelly Bean

Smiley (age 3) Jelly Bean

Belle (1) and Jelly Bean

Jelly Bean and All Boy (2)

Smiley, Little Boy, and Cutie Pie #1 (age 1) and Cutie Pie #2 (age 3) wearing the dressing vests.

Jelly Bean's creation out of white Sculpey clay.

What we were up to in January . . .

Here are some pictures taken in late January. Most of the pictures were taken before we made the switch to a little bit more of a Waldorf feel. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the kids "in action." Just FYI - Montgomery Academy currently has three part-time students and 3 full-time students. There are three 3 year olds, two 2 year olds (one is almost 3, the other just barely turned two) and one 1 year old.

Eating lunch

Playing with Pegs in a non-traditional way (yes, those are pegs on their fingers!)

Being a moose

Doing dot paint

Playdoh - we usually do play-doh daily. These two cuties are part-timers. And sisters!

Wearing the Snap dressing vest

Our littlest student is getting big! She is almost 18 months now!

Making a change around Preschool here . . .

I've actually been changing things for awhile but I just haven't got around to posting about it. I just don't post here often. I think it is because things are working, yet things don't often change that much.

And the other reason is that I'm doing less with Montessori.

I still love it. I've used the method for YEARS with preschoolers. But I've found that lately, with this latest group, partly because they are mostly younger, mostly under 3s, that it just wasn't working for us.

So I have gone to more of a Waldorf feel for the younger kids here. We still do circle time and we still talk about numbers and shapes and colors during circle time, but much of the time is spent with free play using natural products. And I've put many of the Montessori-specific materials in storage.

I also do less with monthly themes, at least in terms of specific materials out on the shelves. I still do themes with the books I read each week and we do things like make watercolor hearts for Valentine's day. Oh and I still make the play-doh a different color every month. But most of the shelf work is more open-ended, natural materials.

We do more "natural" practical life too. I still have some practical life activities on the shelf, but not much. I have a transfer work, a polish work, a folding work, and the dressing vests right now. But they help me prepare meals and wash and dry and sweep too.

So I think the blog will change a little. It will mostly be pictures of the preschool kids doing whatever they are doing that week, and some specific posts about what the school-aged kids are working on.

I hope you come along for the new journey!

US Geography: The 2nd and 3rd grade Version

We study the 50 states around here in 2nd and 3rd grade. We usually get through 25 the first year, and 25 the second. Works out well :)

So Jelly Bean did the first 25 last year and is working on the second half this year. We are in the "New" states right now.

I have been using most of the following resources since Flower started homeschooling in 3rd grade in 2008, but I have picked up a couple things new this year. We generally study Geography every day, but it is only for 10-15 minutes a day.

We usually start out the week reading about the state from this book, Children's Illustrated Atlas of the United States. It is pretty good. It was advanced reading for her when she was in 2nd grade but doesn't have any problems reading it this year.

Then we will go to studying the State Quarter. I will usually get a coloring page from this site and information about the quarter from this site.

On another day, she will usually color the state and other state information from this book. (I actually picked up my book from a garage sale for FREE. Woo-hoo! Love little deals like that!)

On the same day that she colors in the Dover book, she also colors the state flag and other state information from this site.

On Thursday, she will usually spend a few minutes looking at the state on the Discovery Map (shown below.) The kids found this map at the thrift store for $1.00. The map has viewholes over each state and you can dial through and see one of six themes: Capital, Scenery, Landmark, Person, Fun Fact 1, and Fun Fact 2. You use the attached magnifier viewer to look at the viewholes. My kids really like it.

She will also usually do an activity or two from the US States Kit from Montessori For Everyone. We are BIG fans of Montessori For Everyone and have many items from them. (The image below is from the Montessori For Everyone website.)

On Fridays, she will take out all the states out of the Montessori US Map Puzzle except for the one that she is working on and then put the puzzle back together. Last year, she would put the pieces in the control map when she took them out. This year, she mixes the pieces up on the table and then puts the pieces back in. After that, she takes out the state that she is working on and traces the state that she is working on on a 5" x 5" (inset) paper. She is compiling a state book.


So that's it. That's how we study US States here at Montgomery Academy!

OK, so my camera was broken . . .

or I thought it was. It seems to miraculously come back to life recently, and I really don't like to do posts over here without pictures. You just don't get whole "picture" when I just write about it.

And then it has been a whole new thing for me to teach 2 year olds. Not necessarily in a bad way, and while we have a rhythm, it isn't the same at all as having a schedule, and so I just have been trying to adjust to things around here.

But I think that I'm ready to be back here on a more regular basis. I'm going to try and post once a week. I may post more than that, but I may not. But it will be at least once a week. I'll try to hit both age groups too - the school age children and the toddlers. So thank you for being patient with me and I promise to be a better poster in the future.

And I promise - before the new year, I'll get that long promised Geography post up too!

I still owe you all a post about geography but

until then, I do have to share this site with you (all of you probably know all about it, and I'm just stumbling on it. Oh well, I'm still excited.)

Jelly Bean, my 3rd grader is studying the 2nd half of the 50 states of America this year. We use lots of resources to study each state. One of the things that we do is learn what the state flags look like, and sometimes, I would have Jelly Bean look at the state flag and then try and draw it free hand. I still do that sometimes too, but sometimes I have her color the flag from this free resource:

States Coloring Page

On the Shelves: October 4-8th

Practical Life Shelf (mostly)

Open/Close, fabric matching, instruments

dressing vests

bead thing, soft fabric cube (both used by infant)

Sensorial Shelf (mostly, with Alphabet Center above) -

Orange cards from the Color Sorting Cards from Montessori for Everyone, Block Tower, Color Tablet 1 and 2,

Knobbed Cylinder A

Brown Stair

Language Center (with Schedule, Weather, Sign Language and Letter Card for the week on blue pocket folder)

Cc Matching cards, Cc book from KidSoup

magnetic lowercase letters

LeapFrog Fridge Letters (with C in it)

My bench (inside the bench are the line mats. Above the bench is the calendar.)

The reading bookshelf
(on the top of the bookshefl) - the basket holds all the preschool read aloud books, a US flag, and the Flower Fairy book
Jelly Bean's books
Preschool Books
Infant pull toys and Cloth books

The Geometry Shelf (mostly) -
The Geometric Shapes Sorting Cards from Montessori for Everyone, the nature box (needs some sprucing up for Fall) and The Pumpkin Life Cycle from Montessori for Everyone
Language Cards, Magnadoodle, Separate/Whole cards,
Shape Puzzles
Sorting Shapes and Geometric Solids

Geography Shelf
World Puzzle Map, World Globe, Land/Water Globe and land, water, air cards and World Cards from Montessori For Everyone
Puzzles
Puzzle Holder with Puzzles

Wood/Classic Toys
Pumpkin Number Card, Stacking Cups, Counting Bears, Bead Sequencing
Cutting Food
Pegboard and Toolbox
Wooden Barn and Wooden Animals

Practical Life - ironing, kitchen, and dolls.

I think I'm finally finding my groove

This is the first year that I did feel like I needed to do a slight revamp of our curriculum/schedule around this time of year. This year, I made our plan and we have stuck with it.

It certainly makes it easier on the wallet when you aren't having to re-buy things. I think it helps that I am using many of the same type of resources that I've used in years' past, so I already knew that it worked for me and my children. It also makes a difference that I'm used to homeschooling, the kids are used to homeschooling. It also makes a difference that we do all the schooling for everyone in basically one big space and I can come easily come over and help Jelly Bean during her morning seat work. And it makes a difference that the younger children nap in the afternoon and I can do more teacher-intensive subjects with Jelly Bean then (and Super.)

The only very slight tweak is that I had to re-do some of the preschool shelves, especially on the bottom shelves. The infant that I watch is getting increasingly mobile, as well as spending more time awake and out with us, so I had to move some of the things that I didn't want her to put in her mouth, etc.

Weekly Schedules: October 4-8, 2010

Preschool

Color of the Month: Orange
Number of the Month: 2
Shape of the Month: Square
Nursery Rhyme of the Month: Peter, Peter
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Letter of the Week: Cc
Stories for this Week: Bears (Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?, Corduroy, A Pocket for Corduroy, Bear Party, and We're Going On a Bear Hunt)

Kindergarten

Math: Math U See Primer Lesson 8, 9, 10
Language: Working on Pink Level with "e" in the middle
Science: Bears
Social Studies: Making a Timeline of his life

3rd Grade

Spelling: Spelling tests over lesson 2 and 3 from Spelling book
Writing: Working on a line a day from first poem in Poetry for Young People: William Blake
Language: Run-Together Sentences in Unit 1 of God's Gift of Language A
Math: Math U See Gamma, Lesson 4 and 5
Geography: Michigan
Art: Poster Paint projects from Usborne Complete Book of Art
Science: Lesson 3 in Apologia Land Animals (Bears)
History: Chapter 4 from Story of the World 2

More about how we do the Pink Level

Here is Super finding the words that match the picture. These labels and picture cards are from part of the Pink Phonetic Series from Montessori Print Shop.


Here he is using the word and picture cards with the moveable alphabet to write words. All the words that he is working on have the "a" in the middle. The word and picture cards are from the same Pink Phonetic Series from Montessori Print Shop.

I have three folder envelopes. Here is the KidSoup Reader folder. In addition to the Scholastic Readers, and Bob books, we also read a book that contains words that start with a certain letter. This week, obviously, is "C" week. The little book and word wall card are from KidSoup. The little book is geared from emergent readers.

There is also a Pink Level Reading folder. The activity on the left is the same activity that Super was using in the first photo. The 2nd activity involves matching up the word and card. The picture card and the words are separate. Both activities are from Montessori Print Shop. Also included in the folder (but are not in the picture) is the Pink Sentence Cards - Set 1 from Montessori Print Shop.

Here are the two writing activities. For the activity on the left, I take the letters needed to spell all the "a" words from the moveable alphabet and I put them and the picture/word cards in an unsealed business size envelope. This way, Super doesn't get frustrated with sorting through the moveable alphabet for a letter. (He does now the order of the letters, and he can find the letters if I ask him, but he does tend to get very frustrated when he has to search the moveable alphabet for letters for several words, and then doesn't want to do it, so I pick out the letters for this activity. The blue board with lines came from Learning Resources, although I got it at a garage sale. There is also a dry erase board with lines on it that is stored in this folder.

The activity on the right is from Pink Beginning Sound Cards from Montessori Print Shop. I laminated the sheet so he could write in dry erase marker on the card.

This is how the folder envelopes, the Scholastic readers and the Bob books are stored. (Holder bought at a thrift store.

Folder envelopes from Office Depot.)

In addition to the items shown here, I also substitute in pink level activities from Practical Homeschooling and Montessori for Everyone.

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Each day, we will do an activity out of each folder. I generally pick the activity, however, if he asks for something, we do that activity instead.