Posted by abohemianeducation | Filed under Language, Uncategorized
Learning About Homophones
03 Friday May 2013
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Frog Life Cycle and Classes of Vertebrates
03 Thursday Jan 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
We read Fish is Fish. This is a really cute book. I ended up preparing a frog life-cycle activity because of this book. When you read the book, you’ll see why I did.
I found these cards to match the life cycle replicas.
Then we explored the vertebrates in closer detail. I printed the classes of vertebrates cards (pictured below) from here. I also printed the booklet to match.
They had a great time making the booklets.
Cutting and coloring:
Stapling:
And Reading:
Then they took turns working with this great Ipad Montessori App.
New Schoolroom and New Activities
01 Tuesday Jan 2013
Posted in Culture, Environment, Language, Math, Uncategorized, Zoology
Tags
montessori compound word activity, montessori homeschool room, montessori vertebrates/invertebrates activity, waldorf math gnome activity
(Pictured Above) Our new schoolroom. Yay! Getting closer and closer to organization. This will be our schoolroom for the next four months, then it will be time for us to move again. 
(Pictured Above) We’ve had this Ikea easel for a very long time. I store the color pencils in glass jars.
(Pictured Above) Our reading corner. I struggled with the calendar situation a great deal until I found this great pocket calendar at Office Depot. I like that you can switch the colors of the numbers so that the odd vs. even numbers are highlighted. 
We have lots of children’s books in our family room. It’s nice to be able to isolate a few books to be read during the work period.
(Pictured Above) I isolated these works for my youngest son, but they are equally accessible for my older son, if he’d like to revisit some of his old work.
(Pictured Above) I set up two shelves for my oldest son’s work. 
(Pictured Above) Compound Word Activity. 
This activity includes three baskets: 1) One basket of objects representing 5 sets of root word combinations 2) A basket of picture cards showing the compound word resulting from the combinations 3) A small basket for word strips (blank) and complete. When the lesson is presented, the words can be written on the blank strips in front of the child and then saved so that the child can work with the strips alone. I also created a sort of equation- Root Word+Root Word=Compound Word.
These cool little math gnomes are kept on the math shelf. I found lots of ideas for making these math gnomes on Pinterest. Also on Pinterest are ideas for Waldorf drawings. Whenever I place a new drawing on the easel board, my son copies it into his work journal. I like how each math gnome has a poem that can be memorized to remember the function of the mathematical signs. There are stories which can be told to accompany the gnomes. The gnomes spend lots of time trying to figure out how to disperse the magical gems! These math gnomes have been a fun supplement to our Montessori math work.
(Pictured Above) Our botany and zoology shelf. 
(Pictured Above) Invertebrate and Vertebrate Work. I found some beautiful cards here at The Helpful Garden. I dug through my collection of miniature objects and found enough object that can be matched with most of the cards.
The cards can be sorted with or without objects.
I put red and yellow colored stars on the back of the cards for self-checking.
2012 in review
01 Tuesday Jan 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 26,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals
Ammonites
30 Sunday Dec 2012
Tags
The boys found some ammonites in the backyard today. Such educational paleo -nastiness!
Posted by abohemianeducation | Filed under Uncategorized
Working on language
08 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted in Language, Uncategorized
(above) Classification Board
I love these books by Brian Cleary.
These books cover the various parts of speech in a very fun way!
We also use these Bob Books and Sight Word Cards. Each book and the cards for that particular book go into numbered pink envelopes.
These books are also by Brian Cleary. We love these too! 
Free Plural Cards from Montessori Printshop
Pictured above Object Box 1 & 2. We keep blank strips inside of the small basket for labeling.
Object sound jars for b, d, and t
We’re Back…
28 Sunday Oct 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
So, after a not so successful stint with taking Montessori to the public at large, we are back at home and we’re going full steam ahead with homeschooling! Yay! And we’re gonna have some friends along. Pictured above is one of our new non-human friends…Betty Boop. She’s dressed in an outfit designed and made by my oldest son.
Stay tuned!
P.S. I missed my homeschooling friends!
Keeping Busy
07 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted in Environment, Uncategorized
So, we’ve been keeping very busy with work each day. This week, we’ve implemented a new schedule for our day…
Here’s Our Schedule:
7:00-8:00:Morning Chores and Grooming
8:00-8:30:Breakfast
8:30-12:00: Work
12:00-1:00: Lunch and Afternoon Chores
1:00-3:00: Quiet Time
3:00-4:00: Television and Electronic Games
4:00-5:00: Free Play
5:00-6:00: Dinner and Evening Chores
6:00-7:30: Free Play
7:30-8:00: Story Time
8:00: Bedtime
We’ll see how well we keep to this schedule…:).
From House Shoes to Moon Boots Part One: A Field Trip to Rome
04 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Culture, Geography, Immersion, Uncategorized
Off we went to Italy for the New Year and guess what…Mom (that being me) forgot to pack my oldest a pair of “real” shoes. Thus, he was subjected to the harsh reality of prancing through both Rome and Pisa in Spiderman house shoes. I know, what a web of terrible parenting I weave!
Luckily, once we arrived in Venice we were able to find a decent pair of shoes, or shall I say the best shoes ever. I’ll come back to the shoes later. First, let me go into some detail about our trip to one of most interesting countries in the world, Italy! Yes Italy, with its forums and the Colosseum or as it’s called in Rome the “Colosseo”.
One lesson I learned on the trip to Rome, besides realizing the fact that I ought to double check the bags for shoes before departure, is that the kids love places such as these. 
They are so enamored and amazed by the physicality of the ancient structures. The Colosseo did not disappoint in this regard. They loved it just as they loved the Eiffel Tower and of course they had all sorts of questions.
The arches and forums were a real treat too. I took an Ancient Roman History class in college. Never did I imagine that I’d see some of the artifacts from that era up close and personal. What a journey!
We spent a day and a half and Rome. Then it was on to Pisa where our goal was to view the Leaning Tower.
Stay tuned for parts two and three. Part Two will cover our trip to Pisa and Part Three will cover our trip onward to Venice. In Part Three expect more on the best shoes in the whole world!
A Field Trip To Paris, France: Part One
28 Wednesday Dec 2011
Posted in Culture, Geography, Immersion, Uncategorized
On a whim, we decided to drive to Paris for Christmas. It took us about 5.5 hours to get there. Upon arriving, the children were intrigued by everything they saw.We checked into a small boutique hotel and slept peacefully and in the morning, our first stop was a French bakery.
Then a French Cafe.
As we sat down at the cafe, I noticed that, oh my, the Eiffel Tower was just across the street. We drank our coffees and hot chocolates and people watched. The kids were quite intrigued with the sugar cubes.
We practiced our Merci and threw in a Ciao (a word we use frequently here in Germany and will certainly use when we get travel to Italy.
We realized once we crossed the street, that in order to reach the Eiffel Tower, I mean to actually stand under it, we’d need to walk through a park and cross streets and so on. What a pleasant surprise as we came upon the Aquarium of Paris on our way. We popped in and decided to spend a couple of hours there. The sharks and petting tank were especially great.My oldest practiced his shark identification skills .
We stopped for a carousel ride in the park
Then we arrived at the Eiffel Tower. We want to take a ride up, but the lines were way too long.
Next, we took a stroll down the Champs Elysee….… and on to the Arc de Triumph. 
Along the way, we had wonderful views of the Sienne.
Then for lunch, we stopped in a bistro.
Then we explored further…
Things for the Littlest Guy…
03 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in Uncategorized
I haven’t been after my youngest much. I’ve been letting him ease into the school things, but I’m noticing that he is becoming more interested in the sandpaper letters. He adores the sand tray especially.
Having a big brother helps…
He enjoys hanging the colored bead stair on the hanger.
We love these matching activities from Montessori Print Shop. There are tons of them with many different themes. 
We keep activities (lots of Melissa and Doug stuff) around for him to engage in. He calls everything he does his work. He’s right!
Thanksgiving Week
23 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in Uncategorized
A new larger play kitchen was on the kids Christmas list this year, but since we couldn’t afford it, I was looking for alternatives. So yesterday, I got inspired to make a kitchen out of cardboard. It’s not as fancy as I hoped it would be. There are a lot of awesome play cardboard kitchens out there, but it was pretty fun to make and it was absolutely free.
I found a box in our storage room upstairs and painted it white with some leftover eggshell wall paint we had. The knobs for the cabinets were from an old home improvement project. The sink is a mixing bowl I pulled from our kitchen drawer. The knobs for the oven and stove are caps from seasonings in our cabinet. There are some seasoning in our cabinets who remain cap-less…
It works well as a pair with the refrigerator we purchased for my oldest like three Christmases ago. I can’t wait until we move and then I’m going to make an even snazzier kitchen, using one box for the sink, one for the stove and cook top, and one for counter space. I may even make a washer and dryer out of a box. Cheers to making free toys out of boxes!
We made these head bands out of cardstock and feathers in celebration of Thanksgiving.
My youngest studied animals…
And the pink tower…
And the brown stairs.
My oldest made a leaf booklet by tracing from the leaf cabinet.
The boys painted pictures with feathers instead of a paintbrush.
And with a paintbrush on a different day.
The oldest traced capital cursive letters in the sand tray.
The oldest is doing more pink series work on his own.
Something about a blindfold makes the materials a bit more intriguing. 
Revisited the spindle box. To make it more exciting for the oldest, I gave him string to tie the contents of each slot together at the end.
Capped things off with some farm noun labeling.
We’ve had a great week so far and it’s only Wednesday. My word count is doing well. I have almost 40,000 words under my belt for NaNoWriMo. There’s only seven days left. I want to make some felt play food tonight and bake a cake and maybe a pie. Should be a fun, long weekend. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!
