HappyMama

What follows are pics of materials for a presentation on the first creation story in Genesis.  It begins with a piece of black felt on which I drew a triquetra - which has been presented previously - with Elmer’s school glue.  (In the beginning was the Word.)

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4: (stars, sun, moon)

Day 5: (sea animals & birds)

Day 6: (land animals and humans)

The child is also given the Scripture verses written out. 

To emphasise the importance of “reading” this particular story as a 2-part creation, I wrote days 1-3 on one card, days 4-6 on the second, and day 7 on the third.  It is theologically essential, in my mind, to read this story as God laying down 3 spheres on the first 3 days (light, water & sky, land) followed by 3 days where God provides “rulers” of those 3 spheres.

In the previous post, I mentioned the manual I’m using for the Good Shepherd Catechesis.  I wanted to list the presentations in the book and note which ones we’ve done.  CGS follows the liturgical schedule, so I’ll begin with Advent activities.  Each listing is a separate presentation.  I’ll bold the ones we’ve completed.  Right now I’m working on the rest of the ordinary time presentations.

• Beginning advent
• Isaiah’s Prophecy
• Micah’s Prophecy
• The Annunciation
• The Visitation

Presentations for the Christmas season:

• The Birth of Jesus
• The Gesture of Epiclesis
• Epiphany

Presentations for Ordinary Time:

• Altar work 1-4
• Geography 1-3
• Gesture of Offertory
• The Presentation
• The Mustard Seed
• The Leaven
• The Pearl
• The Hidden Treasure
• Creation

Presentations for Lent:

• The Grain of Wheat
• The Good Shepherd
• Psalm 23
• The Cenacle

Presentations for Easter:

• Baptism 1-4
• The Trinity
• The Sign of the Cross

I have several friends using or getting ready to use the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in their homes or parishes, beginning with children in the 3-6 age group, but continuing on from there.  In brief, it’s religious education the Montessori way.  This program is designed by Catholics, but is easily adapted for Anglicans, and other Protestant denominations can simply omit the altar work.  The presentations involve a lot of preparation, unfortunately - I think in the future there will be “kits” of some of the materials for you - but it’s something I’ve enjoyed immensely so far. 

There is extensive training to learn how to be a CGS catechist, and the only resource I’ve found so far for “the rest of us” who can’t do the training right now is Moira Farrell’s book sold by Our Father’s House.  I have her 3-6 manual plus a few of the books sold here, which I highly recommend.

A sample presentation shown below is for one of the parables of the kingdom from Matthew 13, the Pearl Merchant.  At left is our little Merchant in his home with his prized pearl collection.  At right is a seller of pearls, and on his display stand is the Pearl of Great Price, which the Merchant falls in love with.  At bottom is the Merchant full of joy, after he has sold his home, his other pearls, and even his cloak, to purchase The Pearl. 

One thing that I really appreciate with this method of catechesis is that nothing is watered down for the children; it is only made tangible.  During the presentation I read the actual verses out of an adult Bible to my son, I didn’t dumb down the words or simplify them.  The Bible is the Word of God, and can be appropriately given to even young children in it’s true form.  Children have a pure openness to God’s Word that can actually instruct and witness to the adults in the room. 

As with all Montessori materials, the learning is in the using.  After initial presentations, the materials are put in a specific place, and the child is free to reenact the story as he pleases.  He is also given the Scripture verses written out.  It is during the quiet moments that the child uses these materials that he is reflecting and meditating; there is room for the Holy Spirit to converse with him and inspire him.  “What is worth selling everything for?”  The catechist is only there to prepare the meeting between God & His child, not to get in the way or be disruptive. 

There are many purposes to what Maria Montessori called Practical Life activities.  Gross/fine motor skills, ability to concentrate, self esteem, and so on. 

Of course children love things like pretend stoves and food, (I don’t condemn having them!) but if given the choice, they prefer helping you make real food and doing real housework.  By giving them tools that they can use - child-size if necessary - and by giving them small tasks that they can accomplish, then they will discover self-worth in a way that a plastic toy can’t provide. 

One practical life activity my kids enjoy is washing dirty clothing.  (It also elicits good conversation about how most people around the world wash their clothing.)  Last April we did this work in the bathtub, and when hubby came home from work, one of the boys ran to him and proudly said, “dad, we washed your stinky socks for you!” 

To have a successful learning experience requires careful preparation.  We had laundry soap in a small dropper bottle, which they dropped into a tub of water.  We had a small washboard for scrubbing.  They learned “rinse”, “wring”, and how to use the clothespins.  This activity worked much better when we did it outside on the deck recently in the 90+ heat.  My little guy stood by the rinse bucket and splashed happily in the cold water the entire time.  Too bad for us our HOA frowns on clotheslines in the yard.  So ridiculous. 

Other ideas:  whisking eggs, measuring flour with measuring cups, using a non-electric carpet sweeper (ours was $22 from Michael Olaf - a great investment), pouring liquids, hammering nails into a tree trunk or hammering golf tees into clay, using a sandblock, putting nuts & bolts together, kneading dough and making pizza, dusting, polishing, tablesetting, sweeping, plant care, pet care, folding laundry.  Practical Life.  Good name.

I’ll put this post under the category ‘education’ - because spending time with K’Nex toys is quite educational. My 4 1/2 year old loves ‘em, even though he’s still too young to do anything complicated. Grandpa helps. He actually bought the first smaller kit at a gas station, and since we loved ‘em he found some on-line and got some more pieces. They’ll stay here at his house (we’re visiting), so our cousin & future cousins can all enjoy them as the years go by.

Here’s an example of a Yahoo group where you “donate” $30 for 4 months of downloads from the albums of an experienced Montessori teacher. Albums are books/binders full of descriptions of all the presentations a Montessori teacher would use in the school room. The language album I have is full of pre-reading & writing activities, learning to read, write, and spell activities, plus dozens of grammar lessons. I’ve been doing the pre-reading activities with our 2-year-old, and the grammar activites with my 4-year-old. We both really enjoy them.

I’ve added a new category to my sidebar - Montessori & Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Materials. Today I’ll add a few pics of a simple grammar presentation: introduction to singular vs. plural. In a traditional classroom, such a lesson would begin with a lecture by the teacher, while the kiddos sit in their desks trying to pay attention. A Montessori lesson would work like this:

1. Teacher chooses a time when child is peaceful & alert, and the environment is peaceful. [In our home, we do new presentations when at least one younger child is sleeping and the other younger child is preoccupied.] Teacher asks child if he would like to see something new. [Answer has never been No!]

2. Teacher leads child to a container/tray/drawer containing the new materials and wordlessly demonstrates how to carry them to a workspace. This could be a desk or a rug on the floor, wherever the child chooses. Teacher opens the container and takes out two large labels and reads them to the child while pointing to the words: “singular”, “plural”, and lays them out at the top of a workspace. [Working on a mat is a highly effective way of improving concentration by clearly defining where the child's materials, hands, and eyes should be.]

3. One object & label at a time, teacher sets out all of the materials, reading the labels as they are placed (or having the child read them if they want to), then carefully and gently puts everything away back on the shelf. The child is now free to do this work by himself, whenever he chooses. Without fail, he will want to do it immediately, and then will return to the work some other day. The teacher can present the material a second time after a few days or weeks if she thinks it would be of benefit to the child.

Notice that the teacher never explains anything to the child. The child discovers for himself what the two new words mean. He discovers for himself that by adding an “s” to a word it signifies more than one of the object. While at first this may not seem important, it is because when we discover something all on our own, there’s an Aha! moment that occurs in our brain, and the impression of the moment in our memory is more intense and lasting. It would be easy for me to sit down with a child, a piece of paper, and a pencil, and do this lesson with him in the “traditional” way of simply telling him the grammatical rules. And if he was in a good mood, he’d sit there obediently and nod his head yes, and he’d be able to rattle back to me what he had learned. But would it stick with him? The Montessori materials do.

Cheers to Shannon & Lynnette for sharing with me a very helpful Montessori blog - see my blogroll, click on Montessori Teacher Blog!

A young child’s mind absorbs so much information. We can help them by showing them ways to classify what they’re learning. I’ve wanted to do some classification materials for a while, but didn’t want to pay for them, or print out a bunch of color prints. Finally yesterday I stumbled upon an excellent sticker book at Target and was able to put together something my 4-year-old enjoyed very much today. I’ll try to show a couple pictures.

We began by talking about the difference between the “natural world” - everything that God has made - versus man-made things, and then looked at how we classify the natural world. In the end, he sorted dozens of flashcards showing vertebrate animals into the categories mammal, fish, bird, amphibian, & reptile. Afterwards he said, “mom, also make me some cards of the invertebrate animals. Okay?”

You betchya.

This pdf file was helpful.