Montessori Monday: Making Chicken Soup for Daddy

Concentrated, Content and Capable Practical Life Work

Sometimes, I chide myself for not being “more Montessori”.  Other times, I reflect and realize that it is not the materials or even the exact work presented that make a home Montessori-inspired, but rather the philosophy.  Then, I stop lambasting myself.

Even if our home is not as prepared an environment as it could be, it is one that fosters key elements of character that more traditional Montessori environments aid children in developing: 

• freedom
• independence
• industry
• a sense of reality
• an atmosphere of cooperation
• and, to a growing degree, concentration and self-discipline in our children.

For all its faults, our home is a place of opportunity where our children can be (and often are) joyful.

We model learning for our children and guide them as needed on an individual basis, allowing them to work at their own paces and encouraging them to fulfill their own potential.  We try to instill habits and skills in them that will remain for a lifetime, and, although we value academic prowess, we value self-discipline, self-mastery and love of learning even more.  That, and love of God and others!

As I look back at the past few weeks, I recall many moments that may not have looked traditionally Montessori, but were routed in our experience with incorporating Montessori principles into our home and home education.  The one pictured at the beginning of this post was one of those.

Daddy went to work feeling cruddy and congested.  I told the children he could use some soup to make him feel better when he got home.  Before I knew it, three skilled helpers were chopping mushrooms, broccoli, celery and more to make a produce-packed get well soup for Daddy.  And, since Daddy likes his meat, we even added some previously cooked and frozen chicken breast on top of the crock pot to defrost and then chop and mix in.  

Yum!

It was practical life at its best...  And, the soup worked!  Not only Daddy felt better the next day after having healthy servings of the soup, but even our pickiest eater willingly swallowed some of his handiwork.

How do Practical Life and Real Life come together in your home?

 

Want to be inspired with others' Montessori ideas an work?  Click on over to Montessori Monday and enjoy.

Living the Liturgical Year On the Fly: Our Nativity of Mary Celebrating

Holy Kiss by Nancy Bradley

Sometimes, we plan ahead for Saint Day teas, spend time crafting things to decorate our Liturgical Table, enjoy play with Faith Story Baskets, plan a variety of learning and play activities around a Feast Day or otherwise invest time and energy towards involving our young children in living the Liturgical Year.  At other times, we just go with the flow of life and trust “liturgical year moments” to happen more organically.

Friday was a case in point.

I was a day ahead of life as far as the date goes.  I thought Friday was the 8^th.  However, I was behind as far as everything else goes.  The house was disheveled, we were moving slowly with our Core Four lesson plans for the day and I had nothing in particular prepared for our Nativity of Mary feast day observances.  So, we just let the day unfold and welcomed moments when we could honor the feast day:

• During out Morning Circle Time, I let the kids know it was Mary’s Birthday and we played a spontaneous round of Mary trivia.   We also, of course, prayed a Hail Mary.
• Later in the day, I found Nina kneeling in prayer in front of our Liturgical Table, which the children had previously transformed from an Assumption theme into a  Queen of Heaven one.
• We read a story about Mary in one of our Catholic Children's Treasure Box .
• Nina made cards for Mary.
• The kids modeled after Mary during the day making extra efforts to say “yes”, be kind and be loving.
• We placed a blue table cloth on the table for dinner in honor of the traditional  color of Mary’s mantle.
• Before eating, we prayed the Hail Mary and, then, said a special prayer for a friend named Mary who passed away last week and for the husband and son she left behind.  (Please join us in prayer for them!)

• Over dinner, we played a quick Mary trivia Q&A game again, this time with Daddy, too.
• Since it was too hot an humid in the house during the day to bake a cake, I asked Daddy to stop on his way home to get ice cream and blueberries.  After dinner, we took the ice cream out of its container and popped a blue candle in it cake-style.  Then, we surrounded our "cake" with blueberries and lit the candle before we singing “Happy Birthday” to Mary.  (Symbolically, I guess we should have gone for vanilla ice cream and blueberries, but we are all chocolate fans here!)

So it was that the celebration of Mary’s birth was woven throughout our day one day before the actual Nativity of Mary feast day.  (It wasn't until the next day that I realized I realized that Friday was not the 8th!) 

As for Mary's real Nativity feast day, it closed with my oldest asking me to hold him before he slept.  As I cradled him with his arm woven through me, I prayed with gratitude for all of my children -- all so precious and all such gifts.  I can imagine how thrilled St. Anne and St. Joachim were with the arrival of Mary.  I marvel at how our Father must burst with joy every day as He holds all of us in His love.

Happy (belated) Nativity of Mary, everyone!  (I celebrate early and offer wishes late, it seems.  Perhaps we should just celebrate for an entire week!)

How do you live the Liturgical Year with the young children in your life?

 

(If you receive this post via email and cannot see the linky, be sure to actually click over to the blog to read browse the rich catalog of ideas there.)

 
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Welcome New Readers and, Regular Readers, Click on Over to...

Catholic Mothers Online, if you like, to learn a little more about me. 

I am featured there today in Angie's new series of Featured Moms.  That series is a wonderful initiative to help Catholic moms from all over blogosphere get to know each other (and each other's blogs) a bit better.  If you'd like to be considered for the series, check out the interview form here, and, of course, when you are over at CMO, spend some time clicking through inspirational and informative posts there and consider subscribing.  I always enjoy reading pieces from other writers there, and am happy to share occasionally at the site as a writer myself.

Welcome, Visitors from CMO!

If you are visiting Training Happy Hearts for the first time, please relax and stay a while:

As a mom with three young children who homeschools and works outside the home, too, I know that this blog isn't the most beautifully organized, but what it lacks in style, we hope it makes up for in substance: 

• Join our weekly sharing and link-up on Training Happy hearts:  A Call to Faith Formation for Young Children.
• Find our whole history of faith-related posts under the label Faith Formation.
• Or, focus in on some pictures and explanations of some of our Liturgical Table displays.
• Be inspired by our child-centered Saint Teas.
• Read about how we enjoy Feast Days.
• Reflect with us on the beginning of our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd explorations (which we really must get back to!)
• Find ideas for celebrating the Liturgical Year.

And, be sure to leave a comment with a link to your own blog if you have one.  I always delight in discovering new-to-me Catholic, homeschooling, education, parenting and special needs blogs as well as in visiting those I have not had a chance to stop by in a while.

Thanks, again, Angie, for helping us all build community near and far.  And, thank you, Readers, for sharing some of your time today here.  Have a blessed day!

Printable Reading and Listening Log

Even "the baby" is "reading" now.

Like many families—especially homeschooling families – ours loves books.  I dare say we read (and listen) to books for several hours or more a day. 

Until now, I simply savored our time with print and audiobooks.  I saw no reason to track any of the titles, beyond highlighting some of our favorites here on Training Happy Hearts. 

Now, as we enter into Luke’s first grade year and Nina’s kindergarten one, I feel compelled to log the children’s explorations with books.  Of course, doing so will help me assess the children all year long, as I note their growing skills with listening, narrating (re-telling) and self-decoding books.  It will also come in handy at the end of the year when it comes time to report the children’s progress to our local school department.  More importantly, however, it will help me to track, recognize and reflect upon the children’s strongest areas of interest.

I feel strongly that one of my jobs as Mom is being attuned to where my children’s passions and skills lie now, so that if they consult me about discerning their personal life calls later, I will have sound insights to offer them.

Admittedly, I have not been as good as I would have hoped to be over the past several years at noting the kids’ skills, passions and interests.  Sure, I have done so sometimes here on Training Happy Hearts as well as in my own personal notes, but not with consistency.  One of my goals this year is to do so with greater care.  A step towards doing so is tracking our family reading choices.  For, in our family at least, what we read reflects who we are and how we wan to grow and learn.

 

In case you’d like to do similarly, I am sharing the simple Family Reading Log I made as a printable.  It can be found here and is rather self-explanatory.  Should you want details about how I use it though, just ask and I will share them.  And, please, don’t worry about writing down every read aloud, audiobook and read-to-self book that the family picks up.  Simply log a significant portion of them.

Do you log your reading?  How do you find new titles to enjoy?  What are your favorite reading list links or books?  Do share!

Constructing Faith Fun

Since we have been quite focused this week on extended family and homeschooling, I have not had time to put together my usual Sunday piece in order to share a tip, tale, reflection or activity about training young children up to know and love God. 

However, since you were kind enough to stop in today, I don't want you to go away uninspired.  So, I encourage you to pop on over to some of the links listed below for ideas on integrating faith-based fun into your daily life at home or school.  (Of course, I also encourage you to add your own links to list!)

In addition, for homeschoolers and faith formation instructors who are in the midst of planning activities and curriculum for the new year, might I direct you to a piece I shared over at Catholic Mothers Online entitled Catholic Kids Construct: A How-To for Making Picture Books into Faith-Based Pre-Engineering Experiences?  In it, I share the Six Steps to Planning Faith-Based, Picture Book Pre-Engineering Challenges that I used to develop a a co-op course that overflowed into delightful learning and discovery at home as well.

Have a blessed week!

 

(If you receive this post via email and cannot see the linky, be sure to actually click over to the blog to read browse the rich catalog of ideas there.)

 

Core Four in a Bag Success!

About a week ago, I had the opportunity to test out our Core Four in a Bag somewhere besides our front lawn.  I am happy to report:  It is a success!

After Jack's E.I. appointment that morning, we piled into the van for a doctor appointment for Luke.  Before we did, I grabbed our Core Four Bag and a quick picnic lunch. With these in the van, I felt free to go wherever the day took us without worrying about breaking the habit of lesson time we have been slowly building again as summer draws to a close.

So, where did it take us?

After the doctor's appointment, since it was beautiful out, we stopped at one of the kids' favorite local playgrounds for a bite to eat and some nourishment for the soul.  I read aloud from one of our Catholic Children's Treasure Box books as we enjoyed eating al fresco in the warmth and sunshine.  Then, it was time free play time for phys. ed. and socialization.

Physical education halted when Luke spied a family launching air rockets.  Before long, he called Nina over and the two of them sat entranced for quite some time while I played with Jack on a nearby roundabout.

When the family stopped shooting off their rockets, Luke and Nina joined Jack and me for some roundabout fun and, then, Luke and I found our way to the shade under a tree for a lesson from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Jack asked for "my turn" when Luke was done reading, so we did some speech work using pictures in our Catholic Children's Treasure Box book.  Then, Nina came over for her brief reading lesson while Luke went off on a Math Challenge around the playground, counting up different types of playground equipment and writing notes in his notebook about it.

After Luke reported back to me with his math notebook, we all enjoyed a bit more outdoor play before walking over to a nearby library to play in the children's room, color an pick out audiobooks and CD's, which we listened to on our way home.

"Formal" Faith, Reading and Math lessons.  Informal P.E., social skills, library skills and music lessons.  Not bad for a day when a relatively last-minute appointment took us away from the house.

Our Core Four in a Bag is a keeper!

What tools help you offer flexibility yet key lessons and routines to your children?

Pool Noodles for DIY Science, P.E., Faith and Sensory Fun

Pool Noodles + Butter Knives + Kiddoes = P.E

I recently wrote a piece over at Special-ism about using pool noodles as a sensory diet tool all year round.  When I wrote the piece, my camera, my computer and I were in the midst of a battle, so I could not offer personal photos to go along with the post.  Well, thankfully, technology is cooperating a bit better for me now, so please enjoy some photos and ideas below, before clicking over to Special-ism for more pool noodle fun here and here. (While at Special-ism, if you are a teacher, a parent or a professional who works with folks with special needs, I encourage you to linger.  Special-ism is such a rich resource for information on many special needs topics.  I stop there almost every day to share in the insights the professionals writing there offer.  Great stuff!)

Now, onto a photo recap of our morning of D.I.Y. pool noodle science, P.E. Faith and sensory diet fun.

Pool Noodle Marble Runs

First, we sliced one of our pool noodles in half.  (Sorry, no pictures of that because three young children, one mama, one pool noodle and a pair sharp scissors do not make for a safe photo opp!)

Then, we fetched Nina's marbles and a "catch" bin and headed over to the outside stairs for some visual-tracking and science fun.

Ready? Set...

Let 'em roll!

Curious about how they marble run would work in other settings, the kids worked muscles and cooperation skills by moving the set up to the driveway.

How will they roll if the ramps lay on a slight decline?

And how about if we change the angle by standing?

And, because they are who they are, Luke, Nina and Jack decided to make marble run machines, building and testing a variety of structures throughout the morning.  Ah, my young engineers working minds and bodies to make their creative visions realities!

"Oh no!" says Luke.  "Our long run isn't working.  How can we redesign it so the marble does not fall off where the two noodles connect?"

A tweak and... YES!  It worked.

But, perhaps adding more chairs to the machine would be fun...

Or more shoots?  Some open and some closed.

With many tests and tweaks, the kids sure got a healthy serving of proprioceptive, visual, tactile and even some vestibular input with this science-based activity!

Wicket Fun Obstacle Course

(Okay, only locals will get the subtitle I just wrote "Wicket fun" = "wicked fun", which I know equals local slang that will make Hubby cringe, but I could not resist.)

We did not have any chop sticks or dowels available so we got creative in making our pool noodle wickets.  Yep, grabbed some butter knives, which hammered into the ground with ease, and then, we were good to go for popping on the pool noodles for some P.E. with a healthy dose of tactile (the grass!) and vestibular (all the different ways for going over, under and around) input.

Low crawl under, jump over...

Jump off the trampoline, stomp between, then jump over and around...

Faith

And, just because Nina is Nina, pool noodles even bring faith talk opps:

"Jesus Christ, lay down his life, for us...for us..."

 

Has any other child ever laid noodles down, laid atop them and begun to sing?  Probably.  But, it still took me by surprise, then, made me smile.  Children are hands-on learners who often synthesize knowledge by play-acting.  Pool noodle crosses?  Why not?

I encourage you to keep your pool noodles handy even as summer comes to a close.  You never know what learning and sensory fun they could bring!  (And, if you haven't got any pool noodles and don't see any on sale, do not panic. Foam pipe insulators can work, too.)

What are your favorite pool noodle games and activities?