The Rainbow Connection

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES:

• Matching Two-Dimensional Shapes
• Color Tablets
• Graduated Rainbow
• Fun with Magnets
• Sorting

One downside to homeschooling? Having "real life" intrude on your child's school time. Our new-to-us Jeep Cherokee (the one that's been continually in and out of the shop since we bought it back in November) started overheating this morning, so I had to deal with that mess before my son and I could start our homeschool session. If he'd been in a traditional, outside-the-home school, our car's cooling system troubles wouldn't necessarily have interfered with his education. The hour or so we spent tracking down our mechanic and then transporting our vehicle to the big gravel lot where he works wasn't a complete waste, though: Parker now knows the word "thermostat," and has a rudimentary grasp on what an auto thermostat is supposed to do. This, in addition to the other words he's learned since we bought our lovely lemon: solenoid, (car) computer, radiator. Once we'd been dropped back home by our mechanic (Parker directed him to our house--a skill I hadn't realized my son had already acquired), we did have a good (if foreshortened) homeschool session. We're still working on sensorial activities, but I've also put some basic math (sorting) and science (magnets) materials out on Parker's school shelves, just to mix things up a bit.

There's a more traditional "matching two-dimensional shapes" Montessori activity, which I will prepare and introduce to my son soon. In the meantime, the mini-puzzles out of the Lauri Toys Primer Pack I bought Parker prior to our last big trip make for pretty good practice working with geometric shapes. He disassembles all four puzzles at once, then puts them back together, piece by piece. There are various-sized circles, ovals, triangles and quadrilaterals, so he has to identify size as well as shape to complete the puzzles.

Color tablets are insanely easy to make: you just cut up paint sample strips! In this activity, the child is supposed to grade the shades of one color, i.e. line them up from darkest to lightest. I saved half of each paint sample strip to serve as the control of error; after my son does his best to line up the color tablets in the correct order, he can compare his work to the still intact paint sample strip to see if they match.

Working with shades of purple.

Checking his work.

My mother-in-law sent me a box of Montessori goodies a while back, which we've been enjoying. Parker particularly likes an activity called the "graduated rainbow" (I made that name up--I don't know its technical title). It consists of pieces of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple felt cut into half-circles, graduated in size. The red half-circle is the largest and the purple half-circle is the smallest, so you end up with a rainbow when you do the activity correctly.

Another treasure from Grandma Betty: farm sorting cards. These are twelve square cards with pictures of horses, roosters and pigs glued on. There's one pink, one red, one yellow and one black horse; one pink, one red, one yellow and one black rooster; and one pink, one red, one yellow and one black pig. Parker can sort the cards either by animal or by color. Today, he lined up the pigs, pink, black, red, yellow. Then he copied that color sequence with the horse cards, placing them above the pigs, and then again with the rooster cards. Then he sat back and realized that he had rows of the same animal and columns of the same color. Cool stuff.

Magnet fun.

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have Lift-Off

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES

• Pouring
• Clothespins
• Folding

Today is the first day of hurricane season here in the Caribbean, and the first day of school here at the Prout residence. Coincidence? (OK, yes. But amusing, nonetheless.) I prepared the materials for today's activities last night, fairly brimming with excitement about starting homeschooling my son today. I lay awake in bed for hours, unable to fall asleep until almost midnight (don't laugh--that's really late for me). Upon waking this morning, I discovered a slight snag: we had run out of drinking water and Parker and I would need to go fill up our twelve gallon jugs before we could get down to business. (There's no city water here on island; people have cisterns, and rely on rain water or water delivery services to keep them full. Though cistern water is OK for showering, flushing toilets, doing dishes, etc., it's pretty sketchy to drink.) Undaunted, I built Parker a train track, made a smoothie for him and my husband, went for my morning walk, showered and dressed my son and myself, drove my husband to work, drove to St. John Water and Ice, filled up the jugs (thankfully, there was no line today), drove home, hauled the twelve gallons up the stairs to our apartment, washed the inevitable film of sweat off my face, drank a glass of said water and FINALLY! The moment had arrived.

It should have been so easy. The Montessori method is based upon the belief that children learn best when uninterrupted. As stated yesterday, instilling in a child a sense of independence is of primary importance; this applies to the child's learning process as well as to his ability to take care of himself and his surroundings. Every Montessori activity by design includes something called a "control of error" which enables the child to see and correct mistakes on his own. (For example, he sees for himself the rice that he spilled while he was practicing pouring.) In other words, a Montessori student doesn't need a teacher hovering over him, telling him how he did this or that wrong. Constant criticism is discouraging for a small child to hear, and only diminishes his sense of independence. My job, as teacher, should be to first demonstrate, then observe. The authors of the books I've studied stress over and over again, "Do not interrupt when your child is working." So, in theory, our school session today should have been a cinch for me. The hard part was preparing the materials; today all I had to do was sit back and watch Parker "work." That's not so much what happened. It appears that I'll be needing to practice patience at the same time that my son is practicing pouring (and folding and sweeping and cutting and what-have-you).

Now, you would think that, after living in the Caribbean for well-nigh four years, I would have the patience of a saint. Ditzy tourists, horrible drivers, high-maintenance living (did I mention the water situation?) and islanders confoundingly determined to "live slow" all conspire--sometimes on a seemingly minute-to-minute basis--to try my patience. And I must say that I have adapted (maybe evolved?) to the point that not even a two-hour long trip to the bank to deposit just one rent check can frustrate me. But all my strenuously acquired patience skills disappeared when I watched my child spill rice, struggle with clothespins and fail to fold a washcloth just so. I kept jumping in, saying, "Maybe if you hold the pitcher like this you won't spill so much..." and, "Wait, wait! You need to clean up the rice you spilled!" and, "No, you're not squeezing the right end of the clothespin!" and, "You should try again because you didn't fold it nice and neat like me..." and finally, "No, you may not take a picture of me. I'm taking pictures of you!" The enthusiasm with which Parker approached today's school activities quickly dwindled in response

to his mother's hyperactive and impatient helicopter-parenting. He had fun at first, and seemed unperturbed by his several "unsuccessful" attempts, but he was discouraged by the end, stating, "Oh no, I just can't do it! I can't fold the yellow washcloth!" Poor kid. The pathetic part is that I even made a note to myself that I should blog about how importance patience is. Well, folks, I'm here to tell you: patience is important. We will try again tomorrow. Perseverance is also important.