All About Montessori

[jul04]

jul04:

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

buds:

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

Wah say! So expensive! Can go bankrupt buying everything :!:

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.

buds:

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????

buds:

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:

Ok, someone knows 'A', 'O', 'E' & sometimes B (he sometimes says that 'B' is 'O') :stupid: But then.. anything that is a circle shape us also 'O'.. :? 4 down, 22 more alphabest to go :roll:

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:

buds:

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

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

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

Where's my homework?

[jul04]

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??

No lah, just that there seems to be some raves abt a certain Montessori starting with \"T\" in Bishan, so I thought maybe that's the one you were talking abt.

[buds]

Sorlie arh jul04, this teacher now sick.. pass u

the homework when i am better okay. :salute:
Fever, flu and the body aches that comes with it..

[jul04]

buds:

Sorlie arh jul04, this teacher now sick.. pass u

the homework when i am better okay. :salute:
Fever, flu and the body aches that comes with it..

Oh.. too much CNY goodies eh?

Poor thing :hugs:

[NataTL]

URL: http://montessoriprogram.com/mathematics


Hi, has anyone signed up for this course? Held on 23 Feb.
or ever signed for this program? Any comments?

I feel that montessoriprogram in CC is rather slow. By N2 they only complete the phonics/english pink series (3 years if start from PG). we paid rather high fees for monte CC. I have decided enrol in normal CC which is about $400 cheaper per month and send him to enrichment monte class which as stated Pink series (20 sessions) conducted in small groups and can complete within 1/2 year. After will be Blue series (15 sessions)

And Hello Buds if you still reading this thread. Where to sign up Monte and Parents program? Also is ok to have just Pink & Blue to built up their foundations? Green scheme leave it for P1?

My caculations: Blue + Green total 45 sessions = S$7200/can acheive in one year time i.e to faster built up his strong foundation for english.

If in Monte CC =S$9600 for two years (learn during K1 & K2)

[smurf]

Anyone keen to sign up for this:


Montessori grammar workshop

It's $147, early bird is $97, if bring another friend, it's $180 for 2 seats.

http://montessoriprogram.com/montessori-grammar-workshop-2

[buds]

jul04:

buds:

Sorlie arh jul04, this teacher now sick.. pass u

the homework when i am better okay. :salute:
Fever, flu and the body aches that comes with it..

Oh.. too much CNY goodies eh?

Poor thing :hugs:

Heyya jul04, CNY goodies is one thing..
Had a guest who came over but her child was having fever..
And you know the rest larr.. i cudn possibly tell my children
to avoid playing with the poor dearie right. Oh well..

[buds]

NataTL:

I feel that montessoriprogram in CC is rather slow. By N2 they only complete the phonics/english pink series (3 years if start from PG). we paid rather high fees for monte CC. I have decided enrol in normal CC which is about $400 cheaper per month and send him to enrichment monte class which as stated Pink series (20 sessions) conducted in small groups and can complete within 1/2 year. After will be Blue series (15 sessions)...

Heyya NataTL... it's not slow. It's progressive. :love:

Haiyaah..

I just went in to another thread to clarify abt the Montessori Method of
teaching children and you another one rushing the programme..

Darl, NataTL... as a parent considering to send or already sent their child
or children to a Montessori centre, it SHOULD NOT be for the sole purpose
of learning Phonics and Math. The purpose of sending children to a
Montessori centre is for a holistic programme that centres around the
complete growth & development of the child. The curriculum is not meant
to show parents how fast the children learn, but how well they learn and
how deeply embedded all the concepts are in their minds that help prepare
them for formal primary education and life itself. If you find that actually
what you wanted was a faster way for your child to learn the Phonics &
Math in the Montessori curriculum out of the 5 areas, then it was a right
decision for you to pull your child out to be in another cc and do the
Phonics and Math as external enrichment.

In a Montessori cc, the children will be exposed to Cultural subjects that
waaaayyy prepares them for Science in P3... learning animal categories
mammals, amphibians and the likes and learning why they are categorized
where they are... what are the characteristics within a group of animals...
Learning how different plants grow.. names of the different flowers.. gg to
the gardens to see the plants in real life.. experimenting making fragrant tea
using plants.. making potpourri from dried flowers.. i can go on and on.

That's not all yet... there's also Geography too. Children learn the names
of continents... they learn the different ways people all over the world greet
each other hello, say please and thank you... what are the traditional
costumes around the world.. They learn about calamities.. natural disasters,
they learn abt space... they learn about the earth's core & what causes
volcano eruption... and there is truly a whole lot more! That's only the
academic part of it...

Now how abt the part where children learn to be independent and learn the
life skills that even parents forget to instill in the children?

The curriculum even covers social grace and courtesy. Music? Learn to
appreciate classical music of Bach & Mozart.. art .. and wow... there's
just too many to share here in one posting... really..

Some parents and some centres who have this rush for children to learn as
many things as possible, has seriously & slowly made the Montessori Method
a commercial one & also slowly making it more academic than it really is.
There is more to the Montessori Education than just the tested and proven
ways of the Montessori Phonics and Montessori Math..

I cannot comment much on the price of individual Montessori ccs for they
have their own constraints to look at; plus the quality that they are giving
to parents who are enrolled in their centres. The cost for a teacher to be
a full-fledged Montessori directress is also considerable. Ideally, a directress
in a Montessori cc is also an Early Childhood trained one. While the needs of
child caring is also covered in the Montessori it still has not gotten its due
recognition hence it is almost necessary for one to do both diplomas/degrees;
though even Primary schools are also implementing the method in their classes.
Some time back, I have been invited by a primary school to run Montessori
enrichment classes to help children establish foundation in P1 and 2's.

A directress in a Montessori centre meets requirements of MCYS and the
children also get the best of both what Montessori & Early Childhood has to
offer... when a directress is attains double Dip/Deg. In the absence of such
a directress, then there will usually be two teachers in the class. One early
childhood trained and another is Montessori trained. Either ways, both will
cost more $ than the average cc.

As for the course mentioned, the trainer... Naf... has been in Montessori line
for almost as long as i have. She started out with her online materials'
store & later (now) branched out with her parent education pgrm and also
for children. She is also the author of a couple of English assessment books.
Very nice lady & definitely a knowledgable one too! Your child would be in
good hands should you decide to enrol for the enrichment pgrm with her.

As a full-fledged Montessorian, she too would share with you that Montessori
is a holistic pgrm... In my opinion, it is more for the purpose of the
nature of her business that she is delving into now, she is focusing more on
the Phonics & Math area of Montessori on top of running her online store.

As for her materials which i have bought myself.. :celebrate:.. while some may
not be of exact dimension as the real thing... (well... some true Montessorians
prefer their materials authentic) used in classrooms, it serves the purpose of
using them to teach our own children at home if we are exploring to teach or
homeschool using the Montessori Method, for prices less than the real ones in
the market like say... Bambini or Nienhaus. In my opinion, her materials are gd
enuff for self-teaching purposes.

NataTL:

And Hello Buds if you still reading this thread.

Yes! Yes! I'm always around and reading everywhere.. :evil:

:lol:

NataTL:

Where to sign up Monte and Parents program?

Parent & child programme you mean? Uhmmm... :idea: Not many seem to be
doing it these days as the trend is to focus more on drop-off programmes,
which is a pity really... cause Parent & Child Montessori pgrms definitely
help parents look into the Montessori Method of teaching children prior
to signing up for the drop-off pgrms. By then, parent and child have
further understood and adapted to the programme and the child
can benefit from not having to deal with that much separation
anxiety, as the initial bonding with teacher + parent in the
class has already been established.

NataTL:

Also is ok to have just Pink & Blue to built up their foundations? Green scheme leave it for P1?

Trying to calculate the $ again issit? :lol:

Well, ideally is to finish the entire course. But well... let me share what Pink
& Blue really means. It means that the child would be able to fluently read
sentences containing 3 letter phonetic words at Pink scheme & the blends
(4 to 5 letter words) at Blue scheme. ie.

Pink Scheme : The fat cat sat on a mat for a nap.

Blue Scheme : The milk on the sink is for the cat.

By fluent, of course also meaning to say that the child is also exposed to
phonetic and non-phonetic readers plus a variety of books of different
genres. Learning Phonics is not just abt learning to read and decode
words, hence learning to read just the word lists from any Phonics
pgrms will not be sufficient to raise a reader.

NataTL:

My caculations: Blue + Green total 45 sessions = S$7200/can acheive in one year time i.e to faster built up his strong foundation for english.

If in Monte CC =S$9600 for two years (learn during K1 & K2)

If you think that value for money means learning it faster then it is really your
decision to make in the end. I'm here only sharing my thoughts with you from
my end of it (perspective) and in no way having to make that eventual
decision for you, hor..

The Phonics alone is only the built up for the reading foundation and not entirely
for English per se.. there is still grammar... then vocab and so on...

As for doing Green or not, is again up to you.. the affordability and the needs
of parents & children alike, are subjective. Go for what you deem is neccessary
and comfortable to the pocket as well. :celebrate:

Just so you know, the Stellar Pgrm in P1 and P2 still covers the basics of the
single letter sounds, three letter words & blends; soooo yes.. the green scheme
is also covered in primary level. So for those who have done it earlier, they're
advanced and can consider it a revision. For those who haven't or do not have
the means to do it earlier, will also not entirely lose out as they will get to do it too.

Phew... long post, sorliee. :salute: But sure hope it clarifies everything.. *pant*

[jul04]

buds:

jul04:

[quote=\"buds\"]Sorlie arh jul04, this teacher now sick.. pass u

the homework when i am better okay. :salute:
Fever, flu and the body aches that comes with it..

Oh.. too much CNY goodies eh?

Poor thing :hugs:

Heyya jul04, CNY goodies is one thing..
Had a guest who came over but her child was having fever..
And you know the rest larr.. i cudn possibly tell my children
to avoid playing with the poor dearie right. Oh well.. :([/quote]Ahem.. PM inbox still empty :heartbroken: *hint hint*

[jul04]

buds:

as a parent considering to send or already sent their child

or children to a Montessori centre, it SHOULD NOT be for the sole purpose
of learning Phonics and Math. The purpose of sending children to a
Montessori centre is for a holistic programme that centres around the
complete growth & development of the child. The curriculum is not meant
to show parents how fast the children learn, but how well they learn and
how deeply embedded all the concepts are in their minds that help prepare
them for formal primary education and life itself. ....In a Montessori cc, the children will be exposed to Cultural subjects that
waaaayyy prepares them for Science in P3... learning animal categories
mammals, amphibians and the likes and learning why they are categorized
where they are... what are the characteristics within a group of animals...
....names
of continents... they learn the different ways people all over the world greet
...
Now how abt the part where children learn to be independent and learn the
life skills that even parents forget to instill in the children?

The curriculum even covers social grace and courtesy. Music? Learn to
appreciate classical music of Bach & Mozart.. art .. and wow... there's
just too many to share here in one posting... really..

Some parents and some centres who have this rush for children to learn as......There is more to the Montessori Education than just the tested and proven
ways of the Montessori Phonics and Montessori Math..

Me! Me! Me! I'm one of the rare breed. Am being seduced by Montessori not for the Math & Phonics but for all the other things you mentioned. :love:

As for the Math & Phonics part, I'm just relieved that it seems to be on track to make kids seem educated enough to read & count so that people don't treat my boy like an uneducated boor :x

NataTL:

Where to sign up Monte and Parents program?

Parent & child programme you mean? Uhmmm... :idea: Not many seem to be
doing it these days as the trend is to focus more on drop-off programmes,
which is a pity really... cause Parent & Child Montessori pgrms definitely
help parents look into the Montessori Method of teaching children prior
to signing up for the drop-off pgrms. By then, parent and child have
further understood and adapted to the programme and the child
can benefit from not having to deal with that much separation
anxiety, as the initial bonding with teacher + parent in the
class has already been established.quote]

Hmm.. as I said a looong time ago, I was thinking of parent-child Montessori at Tosville or YKidz. These are the 2 places that I know of. Totsville's 1.5h while Ykidz's is 1h only. But.. I'm waiting for some people to pass me some info so I can sound :nunchuk: at the school *HINT*