Poor L has been totally neglected on this blog since Little J came along. I felt it was high time for an update! Now that she is home for the summer we are making up for lost time and doing tons of activities together.
I really miss her while she is at school and am so thankful for the summers.
L has finished her primary Montessori programme and in September is going to be starting the Montessori elementary programme. This took some serious soul searching for my husband and I as the school is a 45 minute drive away as well as a continued expense. In the end we had no choice she is a Montessori child through and through. She has such a joy and thirst for learning and knowledge that we want to encourage and foster. The Montessori elementary programme is the obvious choice and we are so lucky that there is a programme available for her to attend.
I can really see an obvious transition from the 3-6 plane of development to the 6-9. L is becoming so much more aware of her environment and the world in general. She is full of questions such as " How did the first person get here?" Yup she is so ready for elementary.
I am constantly amazed at what she has learned at school. She knows all of her triangles and angles and is always pointing them out in every day life. The other day she was naming the types of triangles and their angles of the pieces of cantaloupe she was eating for dessert.
Another thing she has accomplished that has blown my mind has been learning every single country on the map!!! That's right. At her school they learn the continents and countries by using puzzle maps. Once they can identify all of the countries of a continent they get to paint it and then label them. She managed to complete all of them. I have taken pictures of all of the maps and am going to make a photo book atlas for her as a keepsake.
Her school has a set of bells which she has worked with since day one. She has progressed passed matching and grading them onto to composition and her ear is amazing. She can pick out songs on different instruments and play them by ear.
L has always loved words and began speaking and reading at an early age. She is now confidently reading chapter books on her own.
Something that always seems to take me aback for some reason is her total support and genuine joy of her classmates accomplishments. She is not competitive and all of the children in her school are so supportive of each other. The teachers have really done a wonderful job of creating a peaceful, loving and genuine environment.
In many ways L is a pretty average 5 year old who is excitable, full of energy, challenging, sometimes whiny and can be supremely messy and unorganised. However it is unmistakable when you meet her that she has a spark and something special about her. Part of this spark has been fostered by Montessori and I can't say enough about how much of an amazing influence the Montessori method has had on L and on our family.
A couple examples of things that make her stand out as a Montessori child are:
When her Granny came back from Hawaii and gave her a bag of shells with a shell book the first thing she did was take them all out and classify them.
She loves to demonstrate works to her brother, rolls out a mat for him and when he tries to reach for them she says "hands in your lap"
Here she has turned Little J's dressing activity into a folding work.
While making cupcakes for Little J's birthday she says hey this one looks like Djibouti! Of course I said Ja what? Her response: You know mommy the country in Africa.
She seems so much older than she really is and sometimes I realise because of this we expect a lot of her. I am constantly reminded when I see other non Montessori children just how much we expect of her and how much she does around the house and for herself.
At the beginning of the summer we made a list of things we would both like to do together. We have already accomplished many of them which I am excited to share.
Of course this description is just the tip of the iceberg of our special girl. As I look back on those first posts I realise how far she has come. It has taken a bit for me to get over the fact that she is changing from a little girl into a big girl and I am excited to see what her next phase of development holds!
Another thing she has accomplished that has blown my mind has been learning every single country on the map!!! That's right. At her school they learn the continents and countries by using puzzle maps. Once they can identify all of the countries of a continent they get to paint it and then label them. She managed to complete all of them. I have taken pictures of all of the maps and am going to make a photo book atlas for her as a keepsake.
Her school has a set of bells which she has worked with since day one. She has progressed passed matching and grading them onto to composition and her ear is amazing. She can pick out songs on different instruments and play them by ear.
L has always loved words and began speaking and reading at an early age. She is now confidently reading chapter books on her own.
Something that always seems to take me aback for some reason is her total support and genuine joy of her classmates accomplishments. She is not competitive and all of the children in her school are so supportive of each other. The teachers have really done a wonderful job of creating a peaceful, loving and genuine environment.
In many ways L is a pretty average 5 year old who is excitable, full of energy, challenging, sometimes whiny and can be supremely messy and unorganised. However it is unmistakable when you meet her that she has a spark and something special about her. Part of this spark has been fostered by Montessori and I can't say enough about how much of an amazing influence the Montessori method has had on L and on our family.
A couple examples of things that make her stand out as a Montessori child are:
When her Granny came back from Hawaii and gave her a bag of shells with a shell book the first thing she did was take them all out and classify them.
She loves to demonstrate works to her brother, rolls out a mat for him and when he tries to reach for them she says "hands in your lap"
While making cupcakes for Little J's birthday she says hey this one looks like Djibouti! Of course I said Ja what? Her response: You know mommy the country in Africa.
She seems so much older than she really is and sometimes I realise because of this we expect a lot of her. I am constantly reminded when I see other non Montessori children just how much we expect of her and how much she does around the house and for herself.
At the beginning of the summer we made a list of things we would both like to do together. We have already accomplished many of them which I am excited to share.
Of course this description is just the tip of the iceberg of our special girl. As I look back on those first posts I realise how far she has come. It has taken a bit for me to get over the fact that she is changing from a little girl into a big girl and I am excited to see what her next phase of development holds!
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