Letter explosion!

I don't know what 2013 has in store for us, but I do know that it has started in force!
New understanding of X's learning style (which by itself is so big!  More on that later), many changes in our home environment, jobs... I sure hope that 13 will keep on being good to us.

I have noticed many changes in E too lately.  He is generating a lot more questions then he used to, he is starting to be interested in things he wasn't before, one of them being letters.

A few weeks ago, he started to sing the ABC song.  Honestly, I am not yet sure where he got it from, but I didn't think much of it until he associated a letter he saw to it's name: A.  This made me realize he knew more then I thought.

And with M that suddenly is reading, and spontaneously writing, and X that is now reading regularly cartoon type books (Asterix and Tintin of course), I can say that we are in a time of letter explosion right now.  I do not know how long we'll ride this wave, but I will surely enjoy it will it passes.

So E is currently crusing along the line of learning the sounds of the alphabet.  I never thought I would be teaching this at 2 1/2, but I have learned the importance of following the child.

I took advantage of the Christmas season to buy this beautiful letter puzzle (picture above)  that I have had my eyes on for a while.  I really wanted it for M, but I didn't get it on time for her.  It is right on time for E.

It is a puzzle by TAG toys.  I have said it before, and I will say it again, I love this company.  Their products are really high quality, and they, undoubtedly, will last forever.  E's peg's tumbler is still a hit, 6 months later.  And while the price of the puzzle did seem high at first, I totally understood why then it came home.

Let me show you the actual size of this:

We are not talking about the standard size wooden puzzle.  This is big and heavy and sturdy too!  And I think this is what makes it so satisfying for E to work with it.  He LOVES to travel this around, he does it many times a day.
The letters are easily the same size as the letters of the large movable alphabet.  They are thicker (and not as smelly...).
I hesitated between this and the typical Melissa and Doug; I have no regrets whatsoever about my choice.  I wish I had bought it for the other 2.


So what do E do with this?

Right now, he picks a letter, and I say its sound.  He usually repeats it after me.  This is basically the 1st part of the 3 parts lesson.  The difference is that I let him choose which letter.  I am not pushing anything, he has his own agenda.

In Montessori education, we rather teach the sound before the name, but obviously, he got it the other way round.  Does this worry me in any way? No.  He'll get it soon enough.  Do I think he will be confused? No, he is currently learning his letters both in french and english at the same time, and he manages not to be confused by that... I don't know how he manage.

I am a little surprised by the interest E has in letters right now.  I hadn't planned anything else then playing around with this puzzle, but it seems clearer to me that I might have to go to another step with him.  This next step will probably be the letter pouches that I made before for M.  We'll see how this go.

Overall, I am completely happy with this puzzle.  I have seen M using it to write words (using it like a movable alphabet).  Of course, since there is only one letter of each, it makes it very limitating for that, but I see the delight of being able to handle such big and thick letters in her hand (and in E's hands too!)

Cards!

I've been trying to keep E busy all during this chaotic time we are going through.  One thing he is very interested in right now are cards!  All types of cards, playing cards, flash cards, wishing cards.  He loves to go around the house, cards in hand, and just name what he sees, and have us name with him too.
I think he also just enjoy having them in his hands, and piling them up, keeping them close.  Just having them in his hand is thrilling, just like holding a treasure.

His language is exploding right now, both in french and english.  So I have been trying to find cards and material that will fulfill all his language needs: french cards, wordless cards and english cards as well.

Sometimes he goes around the house, walking with his set of playing card, and keeps them for hours without using them.  He even falls asleep with his cards in his hands!

One sets he adore is this one:

as you can see, naming is a big thing!

They have hole, and so they can be hooked on a hook for easy storage.

He also like having standard flash cards

I change the set on display regularly to keep them fresh.  I find cards that are in relation with what we are currently experiencing as a family.  These were out before and after we went camping during summer time.
I have the same set in french.

Speaking of cards, have you seen this new set of cards designed by a former Montessori child?

These are made by Lisa Camp a former Montessori child and  mother along with her mom, a  Montessori teacher for 25 years.

 They designed this set to help children learn the letter and the sound they make.

I love how they also have a hole to hook them together, and I really love the images they have used!

These are still into production.  Here are the latest news from Marie-Claire:

We have finalized our A to Z list (but the full list is only available for Backers to see)
• We have revised the fronts and backs of each card, a preview is attached
• I am personally working on small illustrations on the back of each card, an updated preview of B is available (vowels are color-coded blue, consonants are color-coded orange)
• We are now an official LLC, with a lawyer, an accountant and business name
• Marc is on schedule to complete the large front illustrations


I am sure E will love those as well!

If you are interested, they are here

language/Langue Grammaire et tout le reste....

I have had a very busy summer.  WAYYY busier then I thought.
I knew implementing Montessori at home was going to be work, but I didn't think it would be *that* much.  Granted, it took me a while to really figure out HOW I was going to go about this.  I read a lot, and thought a lot about it.  but I feel happy with how things are turning out.  And it seems to be worthwhile, things are starting to take shape.

Language was the first topic I wanted to tackle.  This is not my favourite topic, it is not X's favourite either.  I knew it would take me a while to go through this and make sense of it all.  I was right.  It did take time.

But I am convinced that this is the very best way to learn grammar.  I love how hands on it is.  I love how it makes grammar fun, and not just very abstract.  I am absolutely sure that it will work with X.

I know he has worked with some of it at his school.  But not knowing exactly where he is at, I decided to go back to the beginning and review it with him.  I'll follow his lead, and stop when he needs it.

So I created grammar boxes, as I have seen in many 3-6 yo albums. I'll start out with this, and see where he picks up.

I have a box for the material seen in 3-6: noun, article, adjective, verb, conjunction and preposition. The rest will be seen with the grammar and grammar filling boxes.

Noun will be the first to go.  I know he knows this already, but I'll tackle it with something fun that he is used to.

I tried to put stuff he loves, guys stuff.

But the rest are also all ready to go, loaded with the first presentation.

I used dollar store boxes, and mostly objects that I found in the house.
I printed the label on label paper, so I just had to stick it to the box.

They are all in the grammar drawer, neatly tucked until we start officially:

Here are a few inspiration that helped me created these boxes:

Meg's albums
Info Montessori
Montessori for everyone
Making Montessori ours'post
A fantastic video about Montessori grammar
Libellule's post about early grammar
Cissou's many posts
Nice video here for explanation of grammar solids (I am a visual!)

Since this might go quickly, I am already ready for the next part of this which is the 6-9 presentation of grammar.  I'll talk about this in another post, as it will take one on it's own...

You can find the link to the labels at the bottom of the post, but they are in french :)



Lorsque j'ai pris la décision de suivre la pédagogie Montessori pour l'école, je savais que ça demanderai du travail.  Mais pas autant que ça.  Bien entendu, j'ai cogité longtemps sur la façon que je voudrais qu'on fonctionne, et je crois que mes idées sont maintenant claires à ce sujet.  Mais malgré cette réflexion, la production de matériel est prenante...

J'avais décidé de commencer avec le matériel de langue: ce n'est pas mon sujet préféré, ce n'est certainement pas le sujet préféré de X...Et donc, oui, ça m'a pris du temps à lire, comprendre et intégrer tout ça.
Mais je crois que ça en vaut largement la chandelle.  Je crois que la grammaire Montessori est LA façon d'apprendre ce matériel d'une façon intéressante, et qui va permettre une rétention à long terme.

Je sais que X a déjà vu certaines de ces choses.  Mais ne sachant pas exactement où il en est, j'ai décidé de repartir du début.  Au pire, ça ira plus vite au début, et ça lui fera une révision.

J'ai donc monté ces boites de grammaire, qui sont inspirée du matériel 3-6 ans.  Allez voir les différents liens que j,ai mis en haut.  Certains sont en français, d'autres en anglais.

Je commencerai par la boîte de nom.  Je sais que X est familier avec ça.  Mais ça permettra qu'il se familiarise avec notre méthode de travail.  On verra la vitesse auquel on passera au travers les autres boîtes.
Une fois celles-ci terminées, j'enclencherai avec les boites de grammaires version 6-9 ans.  Elles sont prêtes, mais elle mérite un billet à elles seules...


Les boites viennent du magasin à 1$ du coin.  J'y ai collé des étiquettes faite dans Word, et imprimée sur des étiquettes 81/2" x 11" et coupée à la bonne dimension.

Les étiquettes sont trouvables ici


La dernière image est celle des boîtes dans leur rangement, prête à être explorées!

Boîtes de phonèmes pour M

English at the bottom...

M va bientôt commencer à travailler avec les phonèmes.  Pour ajouter à l'expérience des lettres rugueuses, j'ai fait des boîtes de son pour les phonèmes rugueux que nous avons.
(pour les autres lettre, je lui ai fait des pochettes de son ici)

Je ne voulais pas acheter une boîte à vis pour mettre les objets dedans, j'ai donc trouvé ces boîtes au magasin à 1 dollars.  Elle sont parfaites.  Je les ai identifié au phonème correspondant à l'aide des étiquettes que vous pouvez voir dans l'image.

Elle rentrent parfaitement dans le tiroir du meuble de français, je ne pouvais demander mieux.

Voilà, toutes prêtes pour travailler.

Si vous êtes intéressé au ficher des étiquettes, il est ici

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I've been working on phonemes lately for M, and have prepared the sound boxes for her.  They contain objects that contain the phonemes we are studying somewhere in their name - not only the beginning sound.  M is now able to identify all sounds of a word now that she is reading so it is not a problem for her.

The boxes are from the dollar store.
The labels were made with word, and I printed them on sticky label paper.  I used primer print.


They all fit beautifully in our language area, and they are all ready to go.  It compliments well the sound pouches that I made a while ago.