All About Montessori

[buds]

toddles:

Nopes, it's in the east.

Heyya toddles, you eventually went ahead with the centre issit?
The first choice you mentioned to me when we met up?

[buds]

autumnbronze:

Actually no. I am abt 5 mths behind due to 'certain circumstances.'

It's understandable... ya know... citing reasons of lethargy and all... then also
the reasons of lazy and all will also sink in as we let things slide more and more
every day? :lol:

autumnbronze:

Had set target for him to read by this Feb .... but now pushing it to Aug or EOY hopefully ....

Kudos. It's good to set targets as SAHP (stay-at-home-parents) for we can
then keep up with what we intended to do and somehow feel a little guilty
when we pass the target stage a bit and we start to gancheong a bit... :lol:

autumnbronze:

He's got a good grasp of the individual letter sounds now, 'cept the 'r', 'c' and 'q' (difficult for him to pronounce) - but he is improving.

Good grasp? I'm sure of it! :celebrate:

Good gawd girl! He already speaks in clear strings
of sentences or should i say short stories... :love:

For the /r/ sound, i prefer the vibrating sound of it
instead of the softer sound you can hear in the
LeapFrog ones. Roll the tongue when it comes
to the rrrrrrs i say. :celebrate:

As for the /c/, mine says /t/ instead... so when my
two DDs wanted milk they said, \"Milt pweease..\" :please:
Not exactly correct pronunciation to a T but hey awfully cute!
They'd pronounce that as \"teeeyooot\" of course! :idea:

As for the /q/, try saying that as \"q\" makes the sound \"kooo..\"
For it is easier to grasp kooo...wail... (quail) and koooo... eeeen... (queen)..
as compared to when you say koowerh-ick for quick... get what i mean...

When we received our LeapFrog toys as presents when the DDs were
younger, each time they placed that letter into the fridge magnet slot,
they'd correct the sound while singing the LeapFrog sang, \"Q says koo..
Q says koo... Every letter makes a sound and Q says koo.\" They adapt
well with reason. Try that out and see if you can smell success anytime
soon, sista. Easier for when you begin blending too. At least it was easier
for me lar.. :oops:

autumnbronze:

So I will go ahead with the 3 letter words blending.

Then, try not to cover the words that have those three letters in them.... yet.
To build up his confidence.

autumnbronze:

I will def require assistance somewhere along the way from the resident expert. Will surely ask when necessary.

Thanks sista :hugs:

:celebrate: :celebrate:

:whut: Resident Expert? :whut:

:siam: I don't give much of a doosh nor a hoot of Montessori authenticity for one.. :siam:

I have acquired knowledge from everywhere and it's all fun rojak i have in me, really.. :oops:

Children CAN have the best of bits of every little thing.
I'm not so staunch larr when it comes to learning methodologies.
I'm very flexible. Important thing is as long as it benefits the children. :celebrate:

You know what i mean, rite? :please:

[jul04]

buds:

jul04:

My boy already had his word explosion - ... I think 50 words already, but he doesn't wanna call me

Aaaaah... :idea: ... but you can trick him into saying it. :evil:

Show him... say... your watch... or if you wear glasses and you
casually ask aloud if someone can fetch it for you... after which
when he comes back to you with it you casually ask again, \"Wow
that was fast! Thanks dear! Now whose watch is this?\" You see...
The answer is either, his name or having to address you as mummy.
Go at it a few times and you'll see what i mean with this mean
trick. :lol: Btw, has he called \"daddy\" yet? It's easier for children
to say out those hard consonant sounds like the b-uhs /b/ and the
d-uhs /d/ as compared to the rrrrs /r/ and the k-uh /k/ sounds...

Er.. he's only 18 mths old lah How to do that?

But.. when Hubs asks him, \"Where is Mummy?\". Points finger at me. So he knows who I am what! He calls me Jiejie when he finally deigns to call me :stupid: Recently he seems to be calling me Papa too :clubmyself:

[buds]

toddles:

Just to share, my kid goes to a montessori school (i think it's quite authentic cos all their teachers are fully montessori trained, and I did sit in for parent-accompanied weekly class before this and got to witness their equipment, the trays for fine motor skills etc) and they really have buttoning in the syllabus. Actually that's my favourite part of the syllabus - the cultural lifeskills part.

Working with buttons, hooks and eyes, velcro belts and all that are indeed
great for little fingers to work on their fine motor skills. Apart from that, it
is also meant to inculcate independence in young children. After some time
working on those Dressing Frames, the children, some as young as 20mths
old can button like soooo daintily and perfectly it satisfies themselves! Yes.
One thing about the method is that the reward in itself is having success &
perfection in the activities they have started out on from when they didn't
even know how to in the beginning. Montessorian children are in a non-
threatening environment where learning can come naturally from the heart.
And... i always share with fellow parents that with the Montessori approach
learning is not only for the now... or to pursue only the academics but it is a
holistic learning approach that prepares a child for life. Dressing frames fall
into the area of Practical Life.

jul04:

1) What do Spore Montessoris do in their curriculum? I suppose most don't follow the full Montessori \"lifestyle\" but just use bits like Phonics, Math, some toys like the Ahem.. insert cylinder thing? They don't use the gym gear & other things?

Think i forgot to address the thingy here... it's called a Knobbed Cylinder.
They have four of those in a set. Each is different from the other... it helps
children to distinguish height... dimension... size... etc... and with constant
work on it, children as young as 18mths can fit in the knobs into the exact
hole without even blinking a sec.... for their senses and their perception of
size has perfected itself over time. The immense satisfaction they get from
successfully being able to accomplish the activities with the Knobbed Cylinders
is priceless.

toddles:

Agree with buds that there is a wide spectrum of montessori centres in Singapore. Personally, I feel the fees can provide a good gauge. Most times, for preschools, you pay peanuts really get monkeys.

I'm not a monkey but seriously, i have acceeded to getting peanuts. :roll:
Throw in a cudn-care-less-management-ppl.... one can just go NUTz. :siao:
But i give my best. By that i mean, each and every time. The consolation
i DO get is that i truly learn A LOT through the different experiences.... just
filter them and take the good out of everything and make the bad ones a
reflection to do better the next time. The journey of learning experiences
were priceless for me. I'm still learning....

toddles:

I was very surprised with how much they could cover. cos of the low teacher-student ratio (about 1:5 in my case) and they teach phonics one-on-one so the teacher could tell me exactly how far my kid has progressed. they will teach them more once they show that they can remember the old ones! love this own-pace thing.

Yeah... love how personal it gets when it comes to this. The personal touch
is gratifying... especially after having to pay so much isn't it? :lol: As educators
the developmental progress offers more motivation to work each individual child.
We literally watch the children grow in knowledge every single time we get to
work with them. The satisfaction is immeasureable. :celebrate:

jul04:

2) I think they do Phonics. But my boy doesn't know his ABCs,.. wouldn't learning Phonics now confuse him?

toddles:

Most kids learn alphabet before phonics. my kid only started learning phonics in this montessori school and so far there is no confusion... I was also surprised. some leapfrog dvds differentiate it as \"A says Air\" so it's like what sound the letter makes... so can differentiate.

Ideally, kiddies SHOULD learn alphabets first prior to learning Phonics.
If the school does cover Phonics then the parents can perfect the alphabets
at home. There shouldn't be any confusion if done correctly. No worries.

I agree with toddles on the LeapFrog thingy...

Some China-made phonics resources are worse...
Just go right to the /r/ and the /l/... now that's confusing. :roll:

[buds]

jul04:

Er.. he's only 18 mths old lah How to do that?


But.. when Hubs asks him, \"Where is Mummy?\". Points finger at me. So he knows who I am what! He calls me Jiejie when he finally deigns to call me :stupid: Recently he seems to be calling me Papa too :clubmyself:

Hokay... it shows that he does know his mother at least right?
Waah, aren't you flattered he calls you jie jie? You must be 1
hawt momma! Phewwiit! :lol:

[toddles]

buds:

toddles:

Nopes, it's in the east.

Heyya toddles, you eventually went ahead with the centre issit?
The first choice you mentioned to me when we met up?

Yup! It was first choice then cos it's so near my place and convenience-wise, just unbeatable.

Since she's started I've been so pleasantly surprised by how the centre is run, the teachers, everything. Really exceeded my expectations. these are early days still, but kinda glad I made this choice!

[buds]

buds:

They start with reasons of pure passion (for the quality teaching method and environment) and somehow wherever i went... they would eventually end with reasons of commercial passion. Bwaah.

jul04:

Sigh.. this is true everywhere

Sigh. :roll:

jul04:

However, I notice that the \"pure\" montessori method is very difficult, very tedious, & almost impossible to follow in our lives unless we intend to establish some Montessori commune! I mean, how do you make sure they have small furniture to work on, all the tools at hand, all the proper equipment like real plates & crockery & gym equipment. I'll bet what Spore Montessoris do is just adopt the \"academic\" things like the alphabets, some toys to insert the cylinders stuff (dunno the name lah :oops: ), & the counting beads for Maths right? I doubt they have the frame to practice clothes buttoning, or the gym equipment. As in.. the \"lifestyle\" bits? Right?

buds:

Ekkh.. *buzzer sound* :lol: Wrong! :politebleah:

One question.. have you visited any Montessori centres yet? :idea:

jul04:

Er.. no :oops: I told you I'm a beginner. I'm trying to find out a bit more abt Montessori before I go recce the centres. I must know what to look out for (aka checklist :evil: ) right?

Lucky you liddat say... :lol:

jul04:

But.. for reasons of commercial passion (& to satisfy KS S'porean parents), I just assumed that they just equip themselves with the tools most necessary for obvious \"academic\" learning & skip those peripherals that are not so tangible lor. Not true?

*eeekh* (buzzer sound) Wrong again! :lol:

Dahling arhh...
They say... \"Assumptions are the mother of all @#$%-ups..\"
Dis wan, got one army friend told me his sir always say wan..
Not my own words orh... :siam:

It is a lotta work being a Montessori educator but for true believers
we don't stinge on dishing out only the best for our children... they
are our future you know.

jul04:

No lah no lah, I BELIEVE What I meant was that I'm not familiar with the technical terms so it's hard for me to express myself without sounding like an idiot :oops:

Fully understood. Kudos to you for going that mile to ensure you know what
you want and what exactly you are looking for. :celebrate: Beats having
parents who came in to recce centres, spout stuff they thought meant
something.. :lol:

Heck. I've even gone round recce-ing and the supposedly Montessorian
supervisor didnt know what she was mumbling or rather... :idea: i found
her rambling off every single thing from the book! I was tickled pink by it
and the fact that she spoke soooo fast i couldn't stop her somewhere. She
hadn't even asked how old my child was or what her name was... yeah.. :roll:
that un-personal. :lol: She was bent on dishing out what she thought she knew.

When she finally paused to say my girl was chubby or something like that i
managed to cut in to tell her, \"You do not have to run thru the methodology
with me... i'm Montessori trained.\" I didn't want to embarrass her further
but i didn't get a chance to cut in much earlier. She eventually asked me how to
be more natural going about it without seeming like a downright noobie spitting
out every term from the book.

jul04:

Hmm.. got checklist on the \"full range of equipment\" or not?

Got! Naah! http://www.bambini-montessori.com/price_list.htm

jul04:

3)So can really do the wonderful Montessori transformation in a 3h class? Coz I dun wanna blur blur send my boy to a 3h kindy, thinking he'll undergo the great transformation but end up wasting my money & his time coz it's \"dragonfly touching the water\"

Transformation takes time...
Transformation takes thee person..
The method speaks for itself but in this human-reliant industry, this is
something i cannot promise you or vouch for you that die die this will
work for you and make you feel good or better about the choice you
make. The person delivering the method is the essence... of that
eventual transformation you are hoping for & whether this WILL
work for you and your boy.

The educator makes all the difference...

jul04:

So.. would a trial lesson allow me to make up my mind, or do I need to sign up for a term to know? :?

If the teacher at 1st impression belly solid, even
at the 1st trial lesson you WILL definitely know.

A trial lesson will allow u to gauge the teacher's capability
when it comes to handling her students, how she converses,
what kind of disciplinary measures she adopts when or if the
need arises, ie. observes how she handles a misbehaving kid..
(etc)... Many many things to look out for really. :lol: Just do
bear in mind that nobody's perfect, so try not to look for
perfection... rather... look for comfort level... how freely do U
think you can air your thoughts regarding your child with this
person... d'ya feel she cud accept your constructive feedback
if u eventually put your child there.. does the management
have open-door policy, issit value for money, will distance tire
your child & affect his time there.. (etc etc).. just some stuff
to getcha started.

If your child or even you may anticipate anxiety issues, a term
sign-up may help determine further if this is definitely for you..
this way you can assess if your child enjoys lessons with you
around and readily joins his other friends to work together or/
and is receptive enough to go to the teacher to work with her.

Either way, the choice is still yours to make. :politebleah:

jul04:

My boy's just 18 mths old. So.. he doesn't know any alphabets yet, & of course, me lazy mummy haven't been teaching him.

Great time to start then, isn't it?

jul04:

But I think he does know \"E', \"O\" & maybe \"A\"... I'm scared he's slow like his mummy & start telling me \"E\" is \"eh\", then how????

Note the word \"think\" and \"maybe\" in your quote above.. :idea:

:? Hmmm....

Eh, just mebbe the mommy's slow? :idea:

By the way, E is not exactly \"eh\"... but rather... E makes the sound \"eh\".. :celebrate:
So, in a way... your DS is right laa.. :lol:

buds:

I'll give you some more
homework soon and then.......

Of course....................

I WILL TEST YOU......................... :evil:

My turn to ask the questions. :rubhands:

QUACK! :lol:

jul04:

:!: :nailbite: :faint:

:!:??? ....... :evil:

:nailbite:??? ....... :lol:

:faint:??? ....... :rubhands:

[smurf]

jul04:

Care to share on your kid's school? Is it in Bishan? :lol:

Why did u say so leh? Do u know of any good ones??

[buds]

Got what? United Montessori House is in Bishan right?

[smurf]

Only one meh?