All About Montessori

[chatelaine]

Nice to hear all the positive feedback from sunset_dae on Amazing Star Montessori. It's just what I need now. Still deciding which CC to go once they have vacancy for me

[Joeyz18]

chatelaine,


me too, but i am viewing the premises first b4 deciding on cck or jelepang. have u view the ctrs?

[chatelaine]

Hi Joeyz18


I have only viewed the one at Jelapang, will visit CCK CC this Sat.

Where you stay?

[phankao]

Anyone have experience with First Bridge Montessori at Bishan?

[buds]

soomum:

I didn't know this....

Now... now... we'll troubleshoot this together okies? http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php

buds:

In phonics enrichment classes, focus is given
to learning letter sounds and not the alphabets/letter names. The idea
is to introduce and enhance the reading process using phonics, not letter
recognition.

soomum:

there was no warning signs..as in her teacher didn't bring up to me that not knowing the letter names is critical, knowing that my gal only knows the letter sounds.. wat's your view?

I wouldn't use the term critical. Advantage... YES.

Teachers wud usually (i guess) assume that children are exposed to
the ABCs / letter names prior to going to school. If your child IS in a
Montessori school, chances are language lessons are done via
Phonics only & not much or no emphasis may be given to letter
names in order to not confuse the children with the letter
sounds we teach... that we practice in our Montessori
Phonics.

I do get children who come in knowing ABCs and say...

Eg.

Directress : What sound does this letter make? Anyone knows?

Child : Yes, i know! It's \"c\". (cee)

Directress : Yes, it is the letter \"c\" and this letter makes the sound....?

Child : /c/! (c-uh)

Directress : (Reinforces) Yes, good. This letter makes the sound /c/.

We will NOT say that the child is wrong, cos the letter is \"c\".
So, we use positive reinforcement instead to gear them towards the
letter sounds from the letter names they have grown to know & love.

buds:

For younger children, do expose them to the alphabets and the shape of the letters... do tracing activities... craft activities... matching activities & singing alphabet songs and many other stuff together when they are home with you.

soomum:

by younger children, how old is this range you are referring to?

Errr... from birth?

What i mean is... during the duration the child is not yet enrolled into a
school, doesn't matter Montessori or not... ideally (at least for me) that
children are introduced to the ABCs first.

buds:

May i know how old is your child again, soomum?

soomum:

she is 3 yrs old.

Roger that. Thanks for clarifying again..

soomum:

How can i help her to learn the letter names now??? I am now at a lost as to how to proceed or maybe should i even proceed on with her. i.e. has taught her letter sounds - introducing letter names *now made her confused *

buds:

I will need to know the age of your child before i make some suggestions. One way will be, YOU teach the letter names ie. the alphabets. Let the teacher teach the sounds..... for now. Until your child is more comfortable handling both simultaneously from you. In the meantime, what you can do is not to say she is wrong but instead, reiterate that for example... 'b' makes the sound /b/ : b-uh.

soomum:

So you mean i (being the first to teach her the letter sounds) can now teach her the letter names? without confusing her further? I just stop doing the letter sounds with her right? But she is so used to doing the letter sounds with me, what if she requests to do the sounds?

Yes. If you're concerned that she IS indeed confused over letter names
and sounds. You were the 1st to introduce to her letter sounds... not
the teacher?

If she insists, just go back to the example scenario i quoted above.
Provide lots of positive affirmation. :hugs: Don't worry unduly. I figure
from your sharings that you are still in the early stages, so the issue is
not as worrying as it might seem..

soomum:

- next step is building words is it?

buds:

Yes, it is. Wordbuilding is helping children to listen to sounds in words...
beginning with 3-letter phonetic words. During this stage, i usually
encourage parents to read rhymes with children llike these ones...

Diddle Diddle dumpling, my son John..
Went to bed with his trousers on..

soomum:

i should wait till she knows her letter names and sounds well before proceeding to wordbuilding right?

For 3-letter word building... Yes. You are right.

Unless of course she is confident enough... & have learnt enough sounds
to be able to form simple 3-letter phonetic words. No rush for a 3yr old.

You can however start to sound her out on the first sounds she can
hear in words. Like if you are on a bus... and she has learnt the sound
/b/ (b-uh).... you may casually ask like playing a game... \"Hey, we're in
a bus... the word b-us begins with the sound.... hmmm...? Do you know?
Do you know the first sound in the word bus?\"

buds:

soomum:

... this to teach in conjunction with learning to write the letters or need to already be able to write?

This can be done for both learning writers and confident writers. This is
where the initial alphabet activities comes in extremely handy and timely,
especially if they were to start Phonics lessons around 4yrs old... earliest
would be 3.5yrs old. Children who are confident writers from what i have
observed can even do independent spelling with simple 3-letter words the
centre has covered with them. They can easily associate writing down...
c-a-t when the directress says please spell for me c-uh... aaaahhh... t.
They usually have no issues co-relating alphabets and letter sounds.

soomum:

how do one assess a child is ready for learning to write? my gal likes to trace dotted lines/letters with markers. is it the right time now to teach her to hold a pencil and trace the dotted letters? when do we 'wean' off the dotted lines?

If she seems to enjoy such activities, yes.. by all means, go ahead.
You can also reinforce the pincer grip (essential for writing) by asking
her to do transferring activities like transferring marbles with a soup
spoon... or it can be beans or nuts as well... transferring using
chopsticks... and also tongs... cutting & pasting activities... painting &
printing activities... or even helping you peg the laundry too.

Wean off dotted lines when she can scribble lines more clearly as in you
can define what she is drawing or writing... like stick people... simple fish
shapes.. (etc) Stencils do help too. Feel free to catch up on my All About
Handwriting sharings to get some ideas, if you are keen to find out more.

soomum:

sorry for my many questions. this is my first time teaching a pre-schooler and realises that it is not as easy as others portray it to be.

It is not easy cos every child is different. They have different personalities.
Different learning styles and preferences. For parents who are doing it for
the 1st time, they may need some trial and errors before they find a style
that fits. So for you, since you're keen on this style... you can also read up
more on the methodology to gain more insight.

And never apologize for asking.. :hugs: I will try my best to help you when
i can... and when i am not distracted chatting with other friends here. :oops:
You're my biggest fan! How can i ever forget ya? :love:

Fondest Regards, buds.

[Joeyz18]

chatelaine:

Hi Joeyz18


I have only viewed the one at Jelapang, will visit CCK CC this Sat.

Where you stay?

chatelaine,

i staying at bt panjang. i prefer jelepang is nearer to me but was told no slots available for nursery so i visited cck branch today. But i don't really like the area.. how's your visit? your kid is in nursery next yr too?

[drumstick]

Hi


What’s the environment like at cck? Me gog down on tuesday to take a look. Heard no aircon.

[Joeyz18]

drumstick,

i actually still prefer landed property based CC for my son, more spacious for them to move ard. my visit was to survey the area today.

[sunshine05]

My son is 5.5 years old. He is quiet and shy in a class setting. To encourage him to speak up more, is it better to try mix-aged montessori class or the conventional class (all same age group but 10 ~ 15 students) setting? He’ll be in K2 next year.


Thanks!

[soomum]

Dear Buds!


Thank you for the replies. :thankyou: Now i have a better idea on how to guide my gal along.

The thread post seems too long hence i'm replying in a fresh post in case you wonder why...

Yup! I am the one who taught my gal the letter sounds.:oops:
My gal is in a montessori school and yes the teacher only teaches phonics to them. She assures me that they reinforces letter names to the child by saying: 'c-uh' is the sound of c as in 'cee'. Guess i'm too ks and kan cheong right :oops:

Yup! i'm reading up on the book Basic Montessori which gave me lotsa heads up on activities which i can do but did not. so these are going to keep us busy for quite some time.

Update on my gal, she is now starting to accept the letter names after i tried a few methods and found that singing the simplest abc song catches her interest most. so now she know letter c, b, g.

One thing i observed lately is that she would occasionally sound the letters she sees around her like the vehicles on the road, books in her hands, on paper carriers etc. This led me into thinking if i should introduce more sounds like 'ee', 'oo', 'ue' etc to her? Can you offer some viewpoints? kam siah