I knew I wanted to home school Ava this year but I wasn’t exactly sure what that was going to look like. She has a strong personality and doesn’t particularly like taking direction from Mommy. She’s a free spirit, strong willed, and passionate. All of which I love about her and will take her far. But pose a challenge when trying to teach her. I knew that home school was going to have to be on Ava’s terms.

I knew the Montessori method’s philosophy is “follow the child”. But honestly I didn’t know anything else about Montessori or what that truly looked like. We touched on it briefly in Early Childhood Education. I remember thinking it was a great concept, but Montessori got a bad rap in general education among elementary teachers. Kindergarten teachers would comment that there was no structure in Montessori, resulting in children unable to sit during circle time and spending their time wandering the room. After hearing more than one teacher speak negatively about Montessori, I made the assumption (which makes me an a**, i know.) that the Montessori method wasn’t so great.

My sister in law has worked in Montessori for many years and I really liked the methods she was using with my nephew. This prompted me to do more research about Montessori. I read How To Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way, by Tim Seldin. and Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Preschool Years, by Elizabeth G. Hainstock. I thoroughly enjoyed these books and I knew Montessori was for us.

The problem was I still didn’t quite understand my role in the classroom with Ava. We started our “school” which is our office. The first day was a little (okay, a lot) rocky. I made available a variety of activities for Ava. Instead of just letting her go at it to see what would evolve, I began telling her just how to do each activity. She got mad and began to cry. I wanted to cry too. I had ruined the most important day of our homeschooling journey. I backed off.. and I mean way off and the next few weeks were far better. Here’s what Ava did.

Can you fix it? This one was a big hit with Ava!

Nuts and Bolts matching. Another big hit!

lower case letters went with 3 and 4 letter word pictures such as pig, car, duck. she worked on this once.

stamping. she did stamping everyday! What exactly is she learning here? Well, I had her count how many of each animal/object she stamped and encouraged her to make patterns. but really, it was just fun and made school fun. None of these activities are available outside of school time.

shoe tying and button practice. didn’t do this once!

number rods. she laid these out on her rug a couple of times. putting the 2 rod next to the 3 rod and saying 2+3=5. She also counted out marbles and placed them below the corresponding number rod. but overall, not a favorite activity.

This is our snack table. Ava sets it every school day. She LOVES this.

Montessori is all about the senses. These are sand paper letters. the child is supposed to trace the letter with their finger and say its sound. Red letters are consonants, blue vowels. Ava knows all of her capital letters so I am trying to focus on lower case. She already knew these sounds and didn’t care to trace them. I stopped making sand paper letters because she wasn’t drawn to these at all (and they’re a lot of work!).

and this is what everything looked like on our shelves.

So, you can tell I didn’t really know what I was doing. But then an AMAZING thing happened! I found the most incredible blog! It’s Counting Coconuts and it is exactly what I needed! This gal homeschools her son (who happens to be the same age as Ava) using the Montessori method AND she’s a certified Montessori teacher! She’s very crafty and WAY more organized than I am. But now I don’t have to come up with all the ideas myself! I heart this site so much. Finding this website was a gift from God (really, it’s a long story so I’m not going to bore you) but He led me to it.

Child-led learning is awesome! I mean that in the true sense of the word. I am awed by Ava every day. I love homeschooling so much I really could do it forever. Ava and I have a much better relationship because of it and we look forward to every day.

Here is what Ava is working on now:

purl bead pumpkin.

placing “bones” in a jar.

matching word with picture.

placing numbers 10-20 in order. Ava can count forever. once in the car she counted to the 300’s. but she has no idea what a 13 or a 12 LOOK like.

Once everything was cut apart, Ava really had to look at her own body to figure out how to glue this together!

patterning. printed from Counting Coconuts.

first sound letter/object sorting. I only include 8-12 letters each time.

bone name cards. Not even in the plans but Ava was really interested in the bones on this skeleton in her sensory bin (which you’ll soon see) so I found these cards here and now we’re learning about bones!

sewing North America. Ava loves this and she’s so good at it!

everything on the shelf. except the pumpkin purler beads.. ava was working on it.

Halloween sensory bin. Another Counting Coconuts idea! This, however, is not offered during school time. We only have a limited time (about 2 1/2 hours broken into 2 chunks, Lisey’s morning and afternoon nap). Ava can play with this a long time so she plays with it on non-school days while Annalise sleeps.

circle time.
-calendar
-weather
-courtesy of the week
-question of the day
-prayer of the day
-pledge of allegiance
-story
-song

As you can see, Couting Coconuts has given me a lot more direction and better montessori ideas for my little learner. and a BIG thank you to Scott for buying me a color printer!! having worked in printer support some years ago, he has a legitimate dislike for color printers. thanks for setting that aside in the name of love Scott. You’re the best!