Ask your Guide!

People, it's a go!  I asked our Philomath Montessori families if they would enjoy an opportunity during our coronavirus closure to make inquiries of their Philomath Montessori guides, Jessica and myself, regarding activities they would like to do at home, setting up their environments, sibling issues, routines, etc.  Even philosophical questions are welcome.  It got a resounding response.  I will respond to one of these responses before I am away from my computer (in a safe and sanitary location, I assure you) until Monday.

Additionally, I encourage all of you with kids at home, regardless of age, to do your best to provide them with a clean, vacant table or desk top at a comfortable height for them to sit at.  At school, we discourage kids from sitting on their knees for safety reasons; if you start to tip over, your feet are not free to jump out and save yourself!  But every family has their own resources and ways of doing things, no?

  I also recommend a place on the floor for activities that lend themselves to this.  Parents may consider limiting the amount of space you allow your child to claim on the floor.  This prevents the whole house from becoming a "work in progress" and keeps a limit on the area that your child has to clean up from time to time, preventing it from becoming an overwhelming mess.  Having to put away some of the items in the work area to make room for others gives the child practice in making important choices and incorporating the concept of limits into their very being.  How will your child claim their space?  Will it be an area rug?  an area that is taped off to show the limits? a general idea (all the space between the coffee table and the TV)?   What will you come up with?  Now onto our first parent query?!  How exciting!!

Dear Guide,
What activities would you recommend for my young child who is interested in numbers? 

Gentle Parent,

What a great question!  Thank you!  Numeracy, Literacy's numerical counterpart, is so important.  Since every wee one is on a different level with their numeracy, let's start at the beginning.  The most important part of literacy and numeracy for young ones is "language in the air," remembering that mathematics is a language.  So talk about numbers when you are following a recipe or traveling a distance, for example.  Count things!  When a child is saying numbers aloud, we do not call that counting.  That is chanting or reciting and that is important, too.   I'll bet you  do that all the time in the car or when you are waiting your turn in line somewhere.  Counting, though, is assigning a number to something.  "Let's count all the dining room chairs.  Now let's count all the chairs in the house.  Let's count all your stuffed animals."  So we are counting, really counting, and learning about categories.  Now let's play a Bring Me Game.  "Bring me 6 pencils."  When she brings them in her hand or basket or bucket or deep tray, count them one by one.  "one, two, three, four, five.  You brought me 5 pencils.  Can you go back and bring me 6?"  See how the mistake was a fun way to extend the learning?  "One, two, three, four, five, six.  You brought me 6 pencils.  Can you take them back?  No?  Let's go together!  Now, can you bring me 4 puzzle pieces?"   And on it goes as long as it is fun for Junior. 

Is your child interested in those squiggly marks that mean certain amounts?  Those are actually called numerals, but I call them numbers, too.  We can learn these much as we were learning/playing with letters in the first coronavirus post.  Choose 3 numerals to focus on that look and sound different from each other.  I like to keep 6 and 9 in separate lessons, maybe 4 and 5 because they both start with "f." No biggie, though.  Have fun writing them in chalk, in sand, on a white board - preferably something that is easily erased, because the fun part is your child working, when they want to, on perfecting how they make the numeral.  They can begin by writing right over the top of the numeral that you made, over and over, layer and layer of chalk approximately over the numeral you wrote.  Each time you write or show the numeral, say it's name.  Encourage your child to speak it's name aloud each time they write or trace it. 

Some kids will not be ready for this.  They would do better to trace shapes with their pointer finger and their middle finger, straight out and touching each other with the thumb holding the other two fingers down on the palm (rather like a peace sign, but with the fingers touching).  They can trace around geometric shapes or puzzle pieces , large letters in a book or, when interested, right over a large numeral you have written on a 3x5 notecard for them.  There is a right way to trace and write numerals and it is from the top down.  That makes it pretty self explanatory except for 4.  We start on the top left line, go down, turning it to the right.  We lift our fingers and place them at the top on the right to make the final downstroke.  9 starts on the upper right, go left to make the circle, then without lifting your fingers, do the stem in a downstroke.  Does that make sense? 

Please remember, Gentle Parent, that these activities are only for kids who want to do them joyfully.  When they become interested, most kids can learn these lickety-split by using their Will.  That Will develops at a later age, though, so until it does, we have to rely on LOVE of the subject matter. 

I will sign off for now, not wishing to overstay my welcome.  Until next time, Gentle Parent, I remain,

Your Guide,
Doni