Category: Home Learning

Puzzle Words

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There are two main Montessori “styles” – one was developed by Maria Montessori, is described in her books (not entirely in detail), maintained by AMI for all languages, and summarized in a booklet by Muriel Dwyer.

The other is the pink/blue/green.

Based on my educational background (I started college with the intention of being a special ed teacher, but this was years ago so I am probably fuzzy on some of the details) —- the pink/blue/green is VERY phonetic-based.

The “AMI- Montessori – Dwyer-summarized” style is neither phonics nor whole word. It is its own style, but has similar components of both (we give 40-44 key sounds so children can start writing without worrying about spelling or without worrying about needing guidelines within the parameters of what they have already learned (as in pink/blue/green or any of the phonics-based leveled readers available) —- we also give a SHORT list of“puzzlewords” which are akin to sight words, but also have a different intent than just being sight words – I can discuss those separately for anyone who wants those details). With this style, when the sound games have been done (in the AMI style), then all the 40 sandpaper letters (individuals and double-letters), then the child has had lots of writing practice with the movable alphabet (while slowly adding in the remaining spelling variations), we find the child can immediately (when the child is ready!) jump into 2nd grade reading level or higher with ease.

(we are also giving rich vocabulary, lots of real life experiences to expand the child’s mind and to provide writing fodder and also leads to reading comprehension —- among other preparations —- and we have the full reading classification card sets (3-part cards are just one stage of them!) that allow children to read whole wordsthey have already heard many many times over)

So no need for leveled readers, phonics or whole-language approaches. We are ‘child-approach’ we could say.

The puzzle words are a list of less than 100words that are taught via a 3-period lesson so that children can read/write more fluently before those particular “rules” are learned (most of the time, these rules are ones that are based on etymological origins – thus more elementary-level suited)

 

 

Golden Beads Dynamic Addition

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Dynamic Addition = perlu bawa ke unit seterusnya.

Aktiviti ni Serve hanya untuk pengenalan sahaja untuk faham konsep tambah dan dynamic addition. Tapi sekarang Hana macam boring nak buat, mungkin sebab leceh banyak sangat nak kena buatnya. Tapi aktiviti dengan golden beads ni sangat disarankan untuk buat dengan semua operasi untuk kenalkan anak-anak dengan cara operasi ni sebelum ke langkah seterusnya.

Dan juga direkemen untuk Change Game (10 unit tukar kepada 1 ten) untuk anak-anak grasp konsep tukar tu. Disebabkan Hana taknak buat, jadi rasanya boleh exercise Change Game tu dengan aktiviti ni. Dengan harapan sedar dengan sendiri. Yang mana masa pertama kenalkan Hana ni (memula reluctant sangat nak buat) oklah, tapi masih blur. Perlu buat beberapa kali sebelum ke operasi subtraction dan dynamic subtraction.

Tujuan:

Campur kuantiti yang besar.

Perlukan:

  1. Golden Beads, kami ada satu je yang real beads untuk thousands. Lain print sendiri buat kotak thousands. Boleh tengok sini macamana. Our version is slightly different.
  2. 1 set Large Numeral Cards
  3. 2 set Small Numeral Cards (rujuk sini kami buat ambil macamana)
  4. 2 Tray dengan bekas kecil untuk letak unit beads.
  5. Obviously rugs. (1 rug untuk susun kad-kad tu semua, 1 rug untuk susun beads, 1 rug ‘work rug’)

Presentation:

(Aktiviti ni banyak menyusun jadi kalau buat sorang memang Hana tak suka. Kalau sorang, kita kena join sama, atau ajak yang lain untuk join.)

  1. Ajak dan minta anak-anak ambil dan hamparkan rugs.
  2. Susun Large Numeral Cards di sebelah kanan rug.
  3. Susun 1 set Small Numeral Cards di sebelah kiri Large Numeral Cards.
  4. Susun 1 set lagi Small Numeral Cards di sebelah kiri set pertama Small Numeral Cards.
  5. Beri tray pada anak-anak.
  6. Minta seorang ambil small numeral cards di set pertama contoh (3964).
  7. Kemudian minta pula ambil beads ikut jumlah tu = 3964.
  8. Minta seorang lagi (atau kita sendiri yang ambil lakonkan macam anak-anak) ambil contohnya 1268 di set Small Numeral Cards yang satu lagi dan ambil beads ikut jumlah sama.
  9. Pergi ke ‘work rugs’. Minta anak pertama susun kad di sebelah kiri sambil sebut setiap nilai. Kemudian, letakkan semua beads di sebelah kanan kad.
  10. Ulang dengan anak kedua. (Susun di bawah set tadi.)
  11. “Jom, campurkan semua beads ni.” Beads atas di tarik kebawah untuk dicampurkan ikut urutan unit, tens, hundreds, thousands.
  12. Kira semua unit, bila dah cukup 10, tukar dengan 1 ten bar di ‘bank’ (kami panggil tempat untuk the rest of beads atas shelf). Letak 1 ten bar tu di kumpulan tens.
  13. Ambil Large Numeral Cards untuk kuantiti unit tu.
  14. Ulang proses untuk tens (cukup 10 tukar ke hundreds, hundreds & thousands.)
  15. Letak Large Numeral Cards ni di bawah Small Numeral Cards tadi.

Boleh baca di Montessori Primary Guide untuk lebih lanjut dan visual.

 

 

 

Human Tendencies 2

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Ianya berkait rapat dengan Human Needs & Tendencies. Bila dapat kenalpasti keperluan dan kecenderungan ni dapat bantu perkembangan anak-anak.

  • Movement
    • Ruang untuk pergerakan yang cukup. Macam sekarang dalam rumah ada ruang yang cukup untuk mereka berlari, berbasikal. Tak banyak barang. Kurang barang kaca.
  • Exploration
    • Exploration is an inclination to investigate, inquire, find out and look around.
    • Yang ni mungkin lack. Mungkin boleh bila buat monthly theme ke buat satu sudut untuk mereka boleh explore. Tetapi kadang-kadang mereka request untuk apa-apa I gladly gave them too.
    • Human beings are naturally curious. Through exploration and investigation they learn from their discoveries.
    • Exploration is how Montessori children are taught to view the world.  To experience the world through the five senses is much more powerful than just to read a book or listen to a lecture. Teachers must be very aware of providing ways for the real world to be explored both inside and outside the classroom.
  • Curiosity
  • Orientation
    • This is the ability to find one’s way and to situate oneself physically, emotionally, intellectually, socially.
    • People want to know their place in the world. They want to know how the people and things in it compare to themselves, to understand where they fit in.
    • To thrive children must orient themselves in their environment. Children must know where they are and how to negotiate that space physical and socially. Consistency and explanation are key ways for children to orient themselves in the six to nine classroom. A child must be orientated before he may fully explore.
  • Order
    • Chaos and confusion are unsettling. Therefore humans try to find patterns and classification systems so that they can make sense of the world.
    • The human mind strives for a logical processing of information.  This clarity is found in order. In the six to nine classroom, this order is no longer expressed by outward precision as often as it was in younger stages of development. At this plane of development, order has moved inward, and the child is developing a sense of internal order. Although the child may begin to seem not to care about rugs, shelves, and an ordered classroom, he has internalized the order and has moved it into a more intellectual process whereby he classifies, logically observes, and reviews information much more in his mind. Order is essential to proper orientation.
  • Observation
  • Communication
    • There is a natural desire to communicate. Regardless of the culture or time period, human beings have shared experiences and exchanged information.
    • Communication makes it possible for us to live in a society. Expression of needs and reactions to others is made possible through communication.  Instruction and explanation are received through communication. Proper communication allows for the mind to more fully explore the world, intellectually and socially.
  • Work
    • Throughout history humans have shown the ability and willingness to work and strive for not only survival, but improvement in life.
    • Having a purpose in an activity encourages children to work. Work brings great joy when it is voluntary and allows for mastery.
  • Activity
    • Active involvement with the surrounding environment allows people to learn and further their self-development.
  • Exactness
    •  Humans perceive when things don’t fit together. When this happens, they adjust, refine, and improve.
    • Exactitude allows children to know how to know when perfection is achieved. Through the tendency of exactness, the logical processing of information has allowed man to reach many scientific planes. Children use the tendency of exactitude at a young age to know through physical exploration whether or not they have reached perfection. As children reach the six to nine classroom, the lessons of deep physical exploration have encouraged the children to have an innate awareness of perfection.
  • Perfection
    • The drive to repeat tasks until mastery reflects the human tendency to reach for perfection. Children who are allowed to repeat until mastery is achieved are joyful people. Internal satisfaction through completing internally set goals is much more satisfying than completing a task assigned to you. This is not a perfectionism that crushes creativity and joy, but the deep satisfaction of a job well done.
  • Repetition
    • All humans learn through practice. This repetition allows them to reach closer to perfection.
    • Mastery of tasks requires repetition. Humanity has a drive to do something over and over until we gain control over the task. Dr. Montessori encouraged children to repeat items as often as desired. The child’s repetition was complete when she decided that she was finished. This produces within the child the ability for powerful concentration.
  • Manipulation
    •  There is a connection between learning and doing. Humans work with their hands to establish the connection between their mind and their hands.
  • Abstraction & Creativity
    • Humans have an ability to draw conclusions, conceptualize, synthesize & imagine from experiences in the real world. They can imagine that which does not exist, and can think beyond the concrete and real.Self-perfection: Healthy human beings have a natural desire to improve. They find satisfaction in their own personal growth and want to perfect themselves.
    • The power to abstract ideas into other situations is beginning to bloom in the six to nine classroom. This ability is developed by concrete experiences that provide a framework to build the ability of abstraction. This ability is often forced in traditional classrooms at a young age. Dr. Montessori observed that provided enough concrete experiences children will naturally abstract very complex ideas with deep and thorough understanding.
  • Self Discipline
    • Self-discipline is the ability to anticipate the future and sacrifice to achieve a goal beyond the moment. This act of the will allows the child to order his world. Choices and consequences aid in the creation of self-control.

 

Rujukan:
Montessori Print Shop
Somewhat in the Air
The Montessori Nanny
Montessori Nuggets
Park Road Montessori
JonteBoucher
MMI Article
COL Montessori
Mead Montessori School
Montessori Commons

Keperluan anak-anak

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Pernah dengar tak Teori Hierarki Keperluan Manusia Maslow?

Well, recent read at howwemontessori, What is it that my children need? got me thinking about mine as well.

Jadi buat bacaan tentang ni dan memang ada pakar dan pengkaji early childhood kaitkan teori ni dengan perkembangan awal kanak-kanak.

Untuk refresh semula, Teori Hierarki Keperluan Maslow cartanya macam ni.

Quoted here:

Bila satu keperluan dicapai, keperluan yang seterusnya akan menjadi satu keperluan atau keutamaan seterusnya. Setiap individu akan memastikan tahap keperluan terendah dipenuhi terlebih dahulu sebelum berusaha untuk memenuhi keperluan tahap yang lebih tinggi.

Jadi, apa yang diperlukan oleh anak-anak baytzuhr?

Keperluan Fisiologi

  • Makanan bernutrisi
    • Yang ni perlu sangat banyak improve
  • Rehat yang cukup.
    • Haris especially
  • Exercise
    • Perlu mula semula, regularly make it as part of routine
  • Tidur yang cukup
    • Sleep early!!!!

Keperluan Keselamatan

  • Routine
    • Establish routine. Kurangkan changes.
  • Order
    • Environment dalam rumah most of it rasanya dah tercapai.
  • Security
    • Still need to go through dan bincang apa perlu buat kalau jadi apa-apa. Cari beberapa situasi dan bincangkan. Contoh, jika ada orang pegang, ingat nombor telefon dan rumah, terpisah di luar, emergency di rumah dsb. Cyber safety.
  • Predicatability
    • Beritahu what we and they’ll be expecting if something out of routine or order.
  • Trust
  • Free space to move

*predictable barulah kana-kanak rasa selamat dan secure

Belonging

  • My time/My attention/ My energy
  • Family
  • Friends
  • Neighbourhood

Esteem Needs

  • Real life experiences
  • Purposeful activity
  • Respect
  • Self Esteem, Confidence – they can be successful, they can make choices, they can achieve. (Aktiviti-aktiviti Montessori semuanya purposeful, control of error. She encourage buat aktiviti yang dia boleh buat.

Self-Actualisation

  • Support whatever their interests are

 

 

 

References:

PHD In Parenting 
The Chiildhood 
How Young Children Learn
The Creative Curriculum for Preschool
Sunny Brook Montessori
Montessori Training
Simply Psychology

Sensitive Period for Order

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“A very important and mysterious period is the one which makes a child extremely sensitive to order. This sensitiveness appears in a child’s first year and continues on through the second. It may seem to us slightly fantastic that children should have a sensitive period with respect to external order, since it is a common opinion that children are disorderly by their nature.”

Dalam pemerhatian Dr Montessori, pada zamannya tu, kanak-kanak dibesarkan dalam persekitaran dewasa (dan sekarang pun, tapi kesedaran terhadap early childhood ni makin meningkat). Bila baca tu, sangat boleh relate, sebab masa kecil biasa kita dengar dari mak ayah, penjaga atau orang dewasa di sekeliling kita cakap “Jangan sentuh tu nanti pecah! (hiasan-hiasan kaca dalam rumah). “Jangan panjat tu nanti jatuh!” (nak naik kerusi meja makan.) Even diri sendiri pun when I was teenager pun I had to care for nephew and niece pun cenggitulah. Jadi seperti yang dikatakan oleh Dr Montessori di atas, memang kita fikir kanak-kanak ni “disorderly by nature”. Tapi Dr. Montessori fikir sebaliknya. Yang mana, dalam pemerhatian beliau, kanak-kanak ni mula sensitive period pada order sejak dari lahir lagi! Bila sensitive period for order ni tidak dipenuhi, mereka akan respon dengan tantrums, nangis berterusan dll.

Contoh pemerhatian beliau yang beliau ceritakan dalam buku “The Secret of Childhood“:

Seorang bayi yang berumur lebih kurang 6 bulan, berada dalam biliknya. Dia dah biasa melihat aturan sekitar biliknya. Satu hari seorang wanita masuk ke dalam bilik tu dan letakkan parasol atas meja. Bayi tu mula gelisah dan mula menangis bila melihat beberapa ketika pada parasol tu (dan bukan menangis bila melihat pada wanita tu). Wanita tu ingat bayi tu nakkan parasol tu jadi dia pun ambil dan cuba beri pada bayi tu, tapi bayu tu tolak dan menjerit. Wanita tu memujuk-mujuk bayi tu tapi raungan masih kuat. Apa yang perlu dia buat? Tiba-tiba ibu kepada bayi tu dapat rasa apa yang bayi nak, bangun, dan ambil payung tu dan bawa keluar ke bilik lain. Dengan serta merta bayi tu tenang semula. Penyebab bayi bertindak begitu adalah kerana payung yang ada di atas meja tu; objek yang tetiba datang terjah dan kacau memori patternnya terhadap susun atur bilik tu.

 

Masa Depan di Tangan Kita

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The future is in our hands. 

Ayat ni bermain-main di kepala. Rasanya selagi tak tulis selagi tu duk main-main dalam kepala. Sejak tengok video Montessori Classrooms beberapa bulan lalu, terlintas di fikiran, Subhanallah, we are educating the future. Tak ingat yang mana satu. Rasanya randomly searched Google atau Youtube dan terlihatlah suasana satu Montessori Classroom, Casa makna umur 3-6 tahun, a normalised one, sorang kanak-kanak cuci tingkap, sorang cuci tangan, sorang buat language, sensorial, di hujung sana kanak-kanak mengelilingi rug dan guide bacakan buku. Ada older children yang tunjukkan cara dressin frames, dan lain-lain! It was peaceful and yet they’re very absorbed in their own world. Ekpresi mereka nampak puas, tanpa dipaksa, and imagine how they’re going to be when they grow up? Imagine! Macamana mereka boleh jadi macam tu? Besarnya tanggungawab kita Allah bagi kan?

 

 

Checklists untuk Newborn

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Masa Aqeel dulu newborn ikut checklists ni.

  • Letak somewhere near him gambar hitam putih (masa Aqeel tu sandarkan di cot atau dinding berdekatan tempat dia baring). Kenapa gambar hitam putih? Boleh baca sini.
  • Responds to loud sounds. Ingat lagi masa ni masa dia tengah jaga, kadang-kadang tepuk atau jatuhkan barang untuk tengok respon dia. Hehe.
  • Mata dia mula follow moving object jadi gantungkan mobile. Boleh baca dengan lebih lanjut di sini. Untuk mobile ni, terngiang-ngiang perenggan dari michaelolaf :

“This baby was visiting a home where there were no visual mobiles and he needed to carry out this important daily “work”. So the mother hung a scarf over a lampshade in front of an open window, creating a moving object for the baby to focus on. Suddenly she realized that it seemed he was ready to move beyond watching, to touch! He tried with his whole body to reach the fringe of the scarf, but is not yet at the stage of controlling his hands to this extent. (2.5 months)”

  • Tummy time dan tengok boleh angkat kepala.
  • Buka dan tutup tangan
  • Mula bawa tangan ke mulut

Perlu atau tidak Practical Life Shelf di rumah?

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Ada satu perbincangan yangg menarik dalam group. Tentang Practical Life Shelf dalam rumah. Perlu atau tidak?

The trays for EPL are intended to focus on developing a particular skill; if the child has an appropriate “real life” location to practice that skill, then there is certainly no need for a “tray” on the shelf. Many people think of trays when they think of Montessori, but Montessori is about real life. Real life experiences. And isolation of skills/qualities (keys of the world as Montessori described them). So if a skill can be learned in its natural context, there is no need for a specifically practical life area. But we do need areas for cleaning supplies, and other ongoing practical purposes.