I'm walking a fine line right now. Any true Montessori practitioners will immediately fall off their chairs in horror. If this is you, please don't email me to tell me how wrong I am. I am a loving mama who is following her 3.5 year old's lead and introducing letters in the way that best works for her. About 2 years ago, I became fascinated with Montessori. I didn't really know what it was, but the websites and online stores that sold Montessori things really appealed to me. In fact, my dad made Hazel a learning tower before we knew how "Montessori" that is. I purchased a Montessori book (see sidebar) and LOVE the simple ideas and teaching strategies it shares. At the time, I actually followed their advice and began to cut out lower case letters on sand paper and glue them to red or blue paper. I was a tad early developmentally and, well I'm a tad {lazy}, so cutting out 26 sandpaper letters was enough to make me tuck the supplies in one of my deep dark drawers of "someday". Recently, Hazel has been showing interest in learning letters. She received a LeapPad for Christmas and she loves the alphabet programs and games on that. She knows that "H" is my favorite letter and shouts with excitement every time she sees an H :) It seems that many of her peers are already writing letters and I struggle with "keeping it real" and not pressuring her to STUDY/ PRACTICE/ BE THE TODDLER ALPHABET QUEEN. For now, she can write an H and we're working through the first set of Montessori-recommended letters: c m a t. The Montessori technique starts with lowercase letters, introducing one set at a time. The child is shown how to trace each letter with their middle and index fingers, saying the sound of the letter. Being too cheap to buy official Montessori alphabet cards and too {lazy} to make my own, I floundered for a bit until I stumbled on an old box of flannel board letters (check thrift stores, your church basement, retired teachers, or buy new)! Anyone 30 years old or older probably remembers their teacher sitting next to a flannel covered board and teaching words, weather and Bible stories. I LOVED those boards and sat in anticipation of getting a turn to peel a flannel figure off of the board and re-stick it to a different part. To make our letter board, I simply cut a flap off of a discarded cardboard box, stapled blue felt over it, and stuck on the first set of letters. The flannel letters are great because they do have a semi-coarse texture for tracing. Also, we'll be able to easily begin making words as we master our first set and rearrange them. Since Hazel is very familiar with the names of letters, I am doing the classic, but not Montessori endorsed, "this is the letter A which sounds like Ahh". I consulted with the Elementary teachers that I work with and they assured me that they teach the alphabet starting with capital letters. My next question for them (and the school librarian) was "where do I find story books written in all caps"? *crickets* I think I just stumbled upon a brilliant and obvious void in children's literature... perhaps it's time to work on my "write children's books" goal again... | *please purchase by clicking through the link/photo. I will receive a SMALL commission, or "LGM paycheck" as I like to call it :) Thank you! |
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