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5 Tips Incorporating Montessori into Your Homeschooling Day

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If you are homeschooling, you probably have a few children at all different age levels which make traditional teaching a little more challenging. Incorporating Montessori into your home and homeschooling can be a huge benefit to your family. Today I’m going to share a few ideas that hopefully help your homeschooling days run smoother and explain why we think incorporating Montessori into your home is smart.

5 Tips for Incorporating Montessori into Your Homeschooling Day, Practical life ideas and building self esteem, finding a homeschooling rhythm

5 Tips for Incorporating Montessori into Your Homeschooling Day

 

Offer Learning Choices: The Montessori approach believes that a person’s learning and well-being is best when they have a sense of control over their lives. Make a list of lessons for the week and let your child choose which activities they want to do and when. Allow your children freedom to explore their homeschooling space, choose which book they would like to read, or what game they want to play. Giving them choices over what they learn allows them to feel a sense of success. You don’t have to change your options or set-up daily. You can establish bi-weekly or monthly themes and go with it. You can find some of our monthly themes here and here.

Provide Natural Learning Opportunities: Children learn best when they have the freedom to explore and learn what interests them. Give opportunities for natural learning such as having your children cook, clean, or prepare for a party. These are practical life skills that incorporate natural learning (math-measuring, counting, fractions), reading (reading recipes), and taking care of ones self (getting dressed, brushing teeth). You can also provide them with lots of time outside to explore, learn, and play.

If you are interested in seeing what our days look like click on these links: Daily Homeschool Schedule and Establishing a Daily Rhythm.

 

Set up your Home to be Child Friendly:

“The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.” ~ Maria Montessori

5 Tips for Incorporating Montessori into Your Homeschooling Day, Practical life ideas and building self esteem, finding a homeschooling rhythm

At our house I believe in a lifestyle of learning. Which for us means we have great literature, hands on activities, child size tools (kitchen, science, building) and an array of materials that our children can use anytime they please.

For Small Hands

Schedule Blocks of Uninterrupted School Time: there needs to be quiet time without distractions. Set up a block of time each day where your children do math activities, reading, or writing on their own without being interrupted. Keep schooling sessions short and offer breaks after each session to promote fun learning experiences. We value a lot of hands on learning opportunities.

Allow Time for Older Kids to Teach Younger Kids: Montessori believes in multi-age classes, so clearly that fits in great with homeschooling. The concept is that younger children will learn from older children, and older children will reinforce their concepts by teaching what they have already mastered. This also prepares your children to be leaders and team players. Being able to work at their own pace and not worrying about mastering a concept in a certain grade is a wonderful feeling. You can let older children read stories, teach math concepts, or play games with younger children. This also builds self confidence and a sense of responsibility in your older children. It also means that you are not holding a child back that might be interested or capable. I have several examples throughout this blog where I share pics of my children homeschooling together. Here are just a few: Learning about the Presidents and  Life cycle of the Jellyfish .

Allowing your child’s natural curiosity to lead in learning not only promotes a positive learning experience but allows Montessori ideas to enhance your child’s life in more than one way.

 

If you have any questions or would like to share ways that you are incorporating Montessori into your home, please leave us a comment below. You can also visit us on Facebook .

12 Months of Montessori Learning

12 months of Montessori learning from www.naturalbeachliving.com
A Year of Montessori Education & Activities

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10 Must Read Books on Montessori Learning

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Montessori & Waldorf Inspired Homeschool Room

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Join us at Natural Living and Learning on Facebook

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