since i started thinking about homeschooling
one of my dreams
was to have an actual room
instead of a closet, table and a shelf.
where we’re living now
we have the blessing of a whole room
with lots of light from a couple south-facing windows.
alHamdulillah!
if i could do it over again,
instead of getting a masters in
information and telecommunications systems for business
i would have gone just down the road from
the johns hopkins campus in columbia
to loyola college
and gotten me a masters in education in montessori primary.
but alas,
i am where i am.
i did it the old school way:
reading and trying it out on my kids.
i’ve read a good majority of the montessori books out there,
especially the ones by maria montessori herself:
below are the few books
that i keep on tap
and reference often:
The Absorbent Mind
by maria montessori
Montessori Play And Learn: A Parent’s Guide to Purposeful Play from Two to Six
by lesley britton
Montessori Read & Write: A Parents’ Guide to Literacy for Children
by lynne lawrence
Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three
by paula polk lillard and lyn lillard jessen
Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Pre-School Years (Teaching Montessori in the Home)
by elizabeth g. hainstock
Basic Montessori: Learning Activities For Under-Fives
by david gettman
and to boot,
here is one of which i’ve only read the first chapter
because it was a free download from the author’s web site:
Montessori: The Science behind the Genius
by dr. angeline lillard
can’t wait to find it in the library,
’cause as a homeschooler,
i like to try before i buy.
enjoy and success!
for all those new homeschoolers
or homeschoolers who have recently moved to georgia,
here’s a link to the
georgia department of education‘s
homeschool guidelines
including the declaration of intent
— required for ages 6-16 —
and monthly attendance report.
by lauraMaery gold and joan m. zielinski
playfully written
like your best friend is telling you what’s up,
this books is a great reference
to keep on hand.
chapter 8: the balancing act
especially appealed to me.
it talked about balancing the obligations of
home,
education,
finances,
and more
without losing patience
or burning out.
it was from this chapter that i decided to go ahead with my initial impulse
of naming our homeschool
— good tree montessori homeschool
or shajara tayyiba, in arabic —
and of course, it follows, that i’d just have to create this blog along with it.
now it’s official.
other tips included
— duh —
cleaning as a team,
and including toddlers in the work,
doing an 8-minute clean up a couple times a day,
and their laundry rules:
also, particularly poignant to me,
was the section in chapter 9 about
keeping younger children occupied while
working with older children.
they recommend:
a sling, crafts, snacks
— e.g. a muffin tin with a different snack in each cup –,
water play (in the bathroom, even),
a rice (instead of sand-)box,
books,
videos,
or trading off to an older child.
one downside
is that the web site
http://homeschoolsteps.com/
seems to be defunct.
i checked the book out from the library
and would like to have access to the information in the book
without adding to my personal library.
bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim:
rooted
and firmly fixed
in islam
with the intention
of bearing good fruit
in this world
while looking for the reward
in the hereafter.
ameen.
أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ ضَرَبَ اللّهُ مَثَلاً كَلِمَةً طَيِّبَةً كَشَجَرةٍ طَيِّبَةٍ أَصْلُهَا ثَابِتٌ وَفَرْعُهَا فِي السَّمَاء
تُؤْتِي أُكُلَهَا كُلَّ حِينٍ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهَا وَيَضْرِبُ اللّهُ الأَمْثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَذَكَّرُون
Art thou not aware how God sets forth the parable of a good word? [It is] like a good tree, firmly rooted, [reaching out] with its branches towards the sky, yielding its fruit at all times by its Sustainer’s leave. And [thus it is that] God propounds parables unto men,’ so that they might bethink themselves [of the truth].
holy quran, surah 14 [ibrahim]: ayat 24-25
good tree montessori homeschool 