I have been projecting. That is to say, I have been busy working on a project. The past few months I have been building Montessori albums (like teachers’ guides) and a master chart (like a detailed table of contents) for C&D’s 3-6 curriculum.

Each item on the chart is planned to address the areas to which C&D are sensitive at this point of their development.  This week my albums and chart were organized enough for us to enjoy longer regular work periods than previously.  We dug more deeply into math, especially the decimal system, and practiced writing with our sandpaper letters, a small tray of sand, and our fingers or a pointed stick.  We used the spatula to smooth the sand over to begin again.

We worked with a new material, three-part cards of the various types of nuts available in the winter.  These nomenclature cards were a hit because buying, sorting, cracking, and eating nuts are one of C&D’s favorite activities. 

We practiced finding opposites

and in the evenings took extra time for Shiller’s Cuisenaire rods, since math has been so much fun.

While there are prepackaged curricula sold all over town and the Internet, C&D deserve better.  We all do.

Not like this is going to be easy, though.  It’s hard to prepare as much as I should and want, stealing stretches of time here and there.  Especially after a busy day full of good work, it’s easy to neglect to journal C&D’s development and progress for want of  energy and concentration.  Montessori materials can be expensive or time-intensive to create, and not always easily replaced by other materials.  Some of my homemade materials have already not stood the test of time–cutting the sandpaper letters gave me a hand cramp for days in the fall, yet the letters are already ungluing.  Recognizing I was short on time and maybe just a little (or a lot) over my head, last month my mom took home and cut most of my first stack of cards and moveable alphabet letters.  Two weeks later, I have a second stack of cards to laminate and cut.

Despite the challenges, it’s all been good already.  We are excited about where this road will take us, and what we’ll see on the way.