DJ has officially completed his second year of Montessori preschool at home.  I can hardly believe that I just typed those words.  I know it is such a cliche to say that.  I continue to be amazed, impressed, frustrated and humbled by this little person who has stolen my heart and challenges me in ways I’ve never imagined.

MATH

Looking back at the posts of the last year, math obviously dominated the spotlight.  There are 71 mentions of math throughout the year.  DJ began the year unable to count to 10, but incredibly driven to learn it.  I was caught off guard and unprepared because I hadn’t expected to start math until he was at least 4.  But he pulled me along, not only mastering the numbers 1-10 but working diligently through the “linear counting” sequence of the Keys of the World guides I use.  He can now confidently count to 100, and could go much farther if he had the persistence to do so.  DJ will continue linear counting into next year as he practices more skip counting and someday conquers his nemesis, the Thousand Chain (which he tried 3 times and never made it much past 300).

Parallel to the linear counting sequence, DJ and I also worked through the Golden Bead Material, which introduces Formation of Numbers, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division in very concrete ways.  DJ loved working with the big materials and he enjoyed using his various trucks and vehicles to assist in transporting them around the work mat.  He also fell in love with the 45-Layout, as pictured.

After completing the very concrete Golden Bead activities, DJ finished off the year with a glimpse of a more abstract material, the Stamp Game.  He’ll continue this work well into next year, repeating the same activities as with the Golden Beads, working on Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division.  Completing that work will lead him into the next category of Memorization of his Math Facts.

SENSORIAL

The Sensorial category takes second place in popularity with 57 mentions in the last year of posts, which doesn’t even include all of Geography (which is included in the Sensorial album but counted as a separate category by me).  DJ ate up all the Sensorial work in his first year, and while it had to take a step back for math, it still calls to him.  At a time when I’d expect he would be “done with” the basic materials like the Pink Tower or Cylinder Blocks, he still surprises me by going back to them time and again.

One new set of Sensorial materials this year were the five Constructive Triangle boxes.  I think I enjoyed these as much (or maybe even more than) DJ did.  These fascinating little sets of triangles revealed surprising geometric patterns that I had never considered before.  DJ of course took the lessons in as much stride as learning his colors or how to count… just another thing to learn about this amazing world he lives in.

DJ and I also discovered what I thought would be a peripheral sensorial material, the Decanomial Square (or Square of Pythagoras).  I almost didn’t bother with this lesson because this material isn’t widely available on most Montessori discount supplier websites.  Finally, on a whim, I decided to make it by printing onto cardstock and laminating it.  And I’m so glad I did!  DJ has selected this over and over and seems to discover new things about it each time.  And I now have an understanding of multiplication tables that my 4th grade teacher was never able to get through to me!  (Hey, is this DJ’s preschool experience or mine?!)

LANGUAGELanguage, including letters, writing & reading, came in as the third category with a total of 49 mentions, only through my persistence trying to entice DJ with it.  I introduced the Movable Alphabet to DJ at the end of last year and he never really progressed with it.  He refuses to use it independently.  When I press him to work with it, he usually manages to write only one to three words, claiming exhaustion.  In this picture, he didn’t even write these words, I wrote them and asked him to match the objects to him.  He only indulged me because he could use his carrier truck to transport them items to their words.  I am not concerned though because he is SO young.  He has a good foundation of knowing the letter sounds and could very well develop an interest next year.  I’ve also heard it isn’t uncommon, particularly for boys, to hit their stride in reading closer to 7-8 years old.  And that is the beauty of homeschooling.  He’ll do it in his time.  I’ll continue to keep it on his radar, but he’ll decide when he’s ready.

While DJ is almost entirely uninterested in reading or even writing with the movable alphabet, he has made huge strides in his handwriting.  With all of the fine motor development he received from the Sensorial materials, DJ’s pencil grip and ability to write with a pencil or chalk is quite good.  He can write his name when prompted, is very good with writing numbers and can write several other letters easily as well.  In his art, he’s also drawing more specific items, especially faces and people.

GEOGRAPHY

As a category, the blog mentions geography 30 times as DJ has worked with the puzzle maps for the World, North America, South America, Asia and the United States.  He likes to play with them as puzzles but does NOT want me to teach him the names.  He’ll refuse to do any more work if I even whisper a country name.  Which goes right along with his personality of avoiding big, new things as long as possible.

For each of the continents, DJ has a Continent Box full of items representing the countries and cultures of that continent. His favorite part of each box has been using the flags as a pin map, by far.  I did not expect that, so I just provided little toothpick flags and plain maps printed on standard 8.5×11″ paper.  Those are not the best materials to use for that purpose.  The paper is too small, particularly for the tiny countries and the toothpicks are too fragile.  I’m debating with myself whether he’ll be old enough next year to justify an investment in Pin It Maps.

Finally, DJ surprised me late in the year by rekindling an interest in the Land & Water forms. He decided, on his own, to draw all of the forms and color them in with blue and brown pencil.  He also enjoyed tracing some of the puzzle maps and coloring in the countries.

PRACTICAL LIFEPractical Life activities takes its place as the last category with only 23 mentions.  This is mostly because exercises of practical life in a homeschool setting does not “blog well”.  We don’t usually do practical life activities during “school time” and I’m not usually thinking of taking pictures when we’re doing chores and such.  At the same time, I have to also admit this is his weakest category.  DJ is an only child and he takes full advantage my attention solely on him.  Although he’s capable of doing so much, he has pushed back at my attempts to “loosen the apron strings” so to speak.  He doesn’t like to dress himself (largely because he doesn’t like to wear clothes).  He doesn’t like to do tasks like put his own seatbelt on.  He’s fairly independent with his own food, but he doesn’t like to clean up after himself.

SUMMARY

So that brings us to the end of the year, the promise of a fun-filled summer and a chance to look into the coming year.  I started a little “early” with DJ two years ago when he was only 2.5.  I had planned for it to be a “practice” year and was completely surprised when my first review post was full of A LOT of progress.  Montessori preschool is meant to be a 3 year sequence, the third year being kindergarten, before moving into early elementary around the age of 6.  So although DJ will enter his third year of Montessori next year, with a November birthday, he isn’t meant to be in kindergarten.  So, I’m in a quandary with myself.  Do I only have one more year before needing to be ready for elementary (which is a whole different ballgame)?  Or will DJ likely have a 4th year of Montessori preschool?  It’s all up to him and I’ll just have to keep my eyes open and be prepared for the unexpected.

I hope everyone has as great a summer as we’re hoping to have!