My Cosmic Task

Maria Montessori believed that each of us has a mission, a purpose in life. As part of my Montessori training I was asked to come up with a creative representation of mine.  During my comute home last night I made up this song.


Video of my cosmic task

Lyrics:

(AS A CHILD)

I am here and I experience

I can see and I can touch

I can smell and I can listen

and I wonder is there more?

(AS AN ADULT)

Come with me and I will show you

pearls of knowledge

love and light

come with me let's find together

something bright

(INDEPENDENCE)

go ahead and take your journey

take a challenge

make a choice

all you need is inner peace

take flight

(CONNECTED IN LOVE)

when you're gone

let's stay together

even if we are apart

through our love defy the distance

find the light

September 2015

Here's a summary of work from two weeks ago.

Math: Practiced three dimensional shapes cone, cube, cylinder. Identified that a sea lion has a cylindrical body from a book she read.  Computed numbers to the thousands using the Montessori bead material, for example, the number 4306. The exercise included getting six units, cero ten bars, three hundred boards, and four thousand cubes. This exercise helped the child get a concrete, tangible idea of the conceptual depiction of the number that says 4306. Then she found the wooden cards with the corresponding label.

English / Language Arts: She typed her answer to introduce herself on the Homeroom assignment. She asked me the finger position and I showed her the markers on the letters F and J. She spent a good 10 minutes figuring out the right fingers. It was great. This month we are learning about birds and Mexico. Haley learned that the flag of Mexico is green, white, and green, with a golden eagle devouring a serpent in the middle. She read the following books: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Bird that didn’t want to Brush the Crocodile's Teeth, listened to three chapters of the Burgess book of children, The Chicken that Could Swim, Usborne first nature Birds, The Magic Porridge Pot, a few pages of the DK Picturepedia Birds, Frog’s Lunch, Moose are not Meese, Monster’s Among us, Anansi and the Seven Yam Hills, Anansi and the Talking Melon, a few pages of Why Why Can’t Penguins fly, and a couple chapters of the Book of Mormon.

Science or Social Studies: One of the activities Haley enjoyed the most was identifying and matching the sounds of Blue Jays, Robins, Goldren Finches, Cardinals and Owls. She would have to listen to the sounds blindfolded, say the name of the bird, and then check if she was right. She started paying attention to the birds outside our home and spotted, and correctly identified blue-jays and a barn sparrow.

Tech or Entrepreneurship: Haley received and was very excited to open her kit for this class. She found a three drawer container and organized the parts by size, as well as the book, and designated a workspace area on a shelf for that. I think the material is advanced for her, but she’s really into it, so I will help her along.

Tae Kwon Do: Practiced side kicks and front kicks. She also helped her younger sister with her technicque. She has practiced and learned the numbers 1 to 10 in Korean.

Tricks and Flips (will change to Piano):  She has been learning the correct posture and feet position to perform a cartwheel. She practices every day and tries to perform the cartwheel, and is currently working on her landing.

Establishing a Daily Montessori Home Routine 

"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great."  D&C 64:33

Lately I have been working on creating a good routine that works for me and my needs as an ambitious woman with many projects, and for my children, ages 6, 4, 2, 1. It must be simple, and effective. A few weeks ago I set as my goal create this simple and beautiful rhythm for each of us in my family to thrive, feel loved, and be successful in growth. I am pulling from my minor degree in psychology and masters in Public Administration, the Montessori method, the TJEd philosophy, LDS scriptures, and Charlotte Mason. I have created this simple rhythm that is being very effective in turning my somewhat chaotic day to a safe day that is flexible, yet stable. Ready? (drum roll please....) Ta-dah:

Wake up: 

- work

- eat

- learn

- play

Repeat 4 times and go to bed.

Isn't that lovely and simple?  That's it! Here's a visual:

(I'm heading out, so I'll try to give you a better pic later :)

Each row starts with the little work visual on the corner at 8 am. In the booklet there are visual of what work means at 8 am: wake up, brush teeth, o to bathroom, get dressed, pick up room.  The next little booklet say  on the cover eat ("comer" because we're learning Spanish), and inside there's a little thing that says breakfast, cereal etc.  And so on with the rest. I printed my illustrations for my booklets from here.

The kids colored the picture cards with the activities. This helps them pay attention to them, and own them.

  

Here's the application, what we do.

It is quite simple: work, eat, learn, pay. Repeat at 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm. So at 9 WORK consists of getting ready for the day (clean clothes, washing face, etc), at noon it means chore, at three it means cleanup of the toys and materials used, at six clean cooking stuff. Work is done before food because food is the motivator ("let's get ready so we can go get breakfast.... let's do it chores so we can have lunch, let's clean the house so we're ready for dinner). Eat is pretty self explanatory, but I'll just add that I teach scriptures to the kids at breakfast, we chat about what we're learning at lunch, and we talk about our day with dad for dinner (kids and adults all share, and ask). My kids go to our Montessori area after eating. I sometimes do a little circle time when I demonstrate new materials, it present a concept. Them they do their work, which an hour later had morphed into play (and I'm ok with that, because kids learn when they talk and interact). I have them read me and the baby a book whenever I nurse. We then repeat. It works for us, but I must confess that when I get distracted and of track (I.e. surfing the web), they naturally do too. I'm putting a visual on my wall around the clock to remind us what we're supposed to be doing! (We don't follow a tight schedule, but this routine).

Now, don't let the simplicity of it fool you, it is simple yet deep in its foundations. We get to learn about science, create projects, sing, dance, cook, and do all kinds of fun.

Brace yourself for a roller-coaster drive taking your from heaven's doctrine, to earthly applications, the hows and the whys. Here's the nitty-gritty. Ready,set, go:

LONG TERM GOAL: I want my children and myself to be confident and independent. I want to nurture their bodies, emotions, and intellects. And I also want them to learn to nurture them themselves, to give them fish and to learn how to fish, if you know what I mean.  

DOCTRINE (why we do it): We are children of the Great Creator. Our Heavenly Father arranges space, time, and resources to create an environment where we, His children can grow and become.  He is my partner in raising my children because these dear little humans are also Heavenly Father' spirit children. He sent them to me for a reason. We're on a mission. These children, and my self also through mothering them, are to become brighter, nicer, better, kinder, more humble, more loving, more intelligent, more capable, more self-governed, more like our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  I want to create a nurturing home environment where my children can become like them. It is important to keep the why, the doctrine, in our mind, to help give us perspective as we are in the trenches.

PRINCIPLE (how we do it): "Out of small things proceed that which is great." “Change comes by substituting good habits for less desirable ones. You mold your character and future by good thoughts and acts” (Spencer W. Kimball). For an excellent lesson on how we do it read "Good habits develop good Character." 

SCIENTIFIC THEORY: Maslow provided the famous "Hierarchy of needs." He put it on a pyramid, an easy-to-understand insight in a great little visual aid  that shows a foundation principle,well established in psychology, medicine, and other sciences that study human development. The principle is that that the basic physiological needs of life such as nutrition (eating), safety (feeling secure), the basic brain stem, and belonging (interaction, eye contact, a role, a responsibility), must be met before a person is ready to learn and develop higher thinking (gray matter). 

through daily experiences in home life, uncomplicated by the secondary goals of academic achievement



METHOD:  Family work and home education. I love how Montessori places a great emphasis on the child developing the practical life skills and confidence to take care of themselves and participate in society. All my children are also what Thomas Jefferson Education (TJEd) calls core phase, a time period when a child is setting the foundation for the rest of their lives, where "the lessons of Core Phase are taught through work and play as a family. They are:

• right and wrong
• good and bad
• true and false
• relationships
• family values
• family routines and responsibilities
• learning accountability
• the value and love of work.

APPLICATION (what it is we actually do):  work. Nurturing their bodies means feeding them good food in a timely manner. It means a balanced breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. Nurturing their emotions, hears and brains means interacting with them in a focused, directed, meaningful way. It means responding to them when they cry, talking things out and figuring it out with them to avoid toxic stress (not just letting them cry it out). To value your interaction with your children and the direct foundation role of your eye contact in their brain structure Watch Harvard's Developing Child awesome video.  Nurturing their curiosity, their problem solving, and their ability to create, means letting them play and love life.

TV can be used to teach, but it also can be harmful to children. Research shows that over 9 hours of media(TV, screens, radio) a week is detrimental to their intellectual, physical, emotional development. I love this training

Benefits of Media Literacy and The Learning Triangle by KBYU TV Ready To Learn

For this reason, I have created Unit Study playlists on YouTube that are readily available for me to play for screen time. The great thing is that these are educational and I can use them as part of the Learning Triangle. For that reason we only watch educational media up to 30 mins a day in the afternoon, or up to an hour of an appropriate program of their choice on Fri. and Sat.

CONFESSION:  I am the first to confess that following a routine is work. It is hard for me, because I love doing my thing, writing my book, researching stuff, taking a bath on my own. The reality is that these are great pursuits, but when I chose to become a mother, I also chose for myself the responsibilities that come with it, such as feeding these souls, feeding their bodies, their hearts, and their minds.  I am lucky to have a great mother who is a wonderful example of cooking yummy meals, of caring for the hearts of those around her, and of loving learning. I am from a generation of people where honestly, we are a bit more selfish. I need to grow up and fill my mother's shoes. I need to be to my children what my mother was for me: a nurturer.

The beauty of Charlotte Mason is that she teaches that when everything has a time, there is time for everything. And so I now wake up well before my children to work on my personal scripture study, my book, my blog, and those things that are mine alone. Then I have time to nurture the bodies, hearts, and minds of my children. 

CONCLUSION: Creating a good routine, interacting with my children, and nurturing their bodies, hearts and minds is totally worth it! I love who I am becoming, and who they are becoming, when we go through our day with a vision, and work. I find great satisfaction in snapping pictures of our adventures and identifying the experiences that are becoming the foundation of their lives. Because out of small things, such as waking up, combing our hear, washing our dishes, learning a skill, reading a book, mopping the floor, playing together, kissing a boo-boo....great things come to pass: we grow in goodness, knowledge, ability, and  there is more light and substance to our person--we become more Christlike.

The Wise Man and the Foolish Man - Build your life on Christ

Sundays and the command to keep the Sabbath Day holy are such a great opportunity to be creative and have fun. I say a "great opportunity to be creative" because too often we focus only on the things we cannot do, that we forget about all the things we can do on Sunday.

Here's what we did for last week's Sunday activity: the reenactment of the wise man and the foolish man!  Mami Chula is the Sunday School teacher of the adults. We are studying the New Testament, and just reviewed the beatitudes. The new BibleVideos.org videos are just fabulous! I love that they follow the words of scripture word by word, and the production is just excellent. 

So for our Sunday family activity after dinner, I pulled out an empty fish tank that I just had sitting around, hauled a rock from the backyard, and pulled a couple houses I had bought at the craft store when they were on sale for ten cents.  The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water. I gave each of my three kids a house, and asked them where they would build. Last month when we talked about the weather, I had showed them on my phone, in our car commutes, a video about the wise man and the foolish man from YouTube. So they were familiar with the story. So when I asked them were to build, they remembered. Puma Tiger  said: "mine is going to be on the top of the rock!" and quickly took possession of the limited real estate on top.. Seeing this, Blueberries said in an even more excited voice "mine is going to be on the bottoooom!! because I want it to flooooood!!!" Hahaha, I had to laugh. She knew what would happen, and she wanted that fun of seeing her house inundated and floating around.  Aren't we like that sometimes? Crazy people!

"The wise man built his house upon the rock,

And the rains came tumbling down.

The rains came down, and the floods came up,

And the house on the rock stood still."

At the end, when because of the water the house would not stand, Blueberries did say she wanted her house to go on the rock. Just for a change I guess :)  But before putting it on, I told her there was only one way to go from the flood to the rock.... "what is it?" I asked. Sometimes I ask questions even thought I know they don't know the answear so that they pay lots of attention. They love knowing the answear, so when they don't and I ask, they will often give me a good guess, or they'll just listen for about three seconds in anticipation. That is when the answear has to be something I want to stick in their brain.

Something, easy, simple, clear. So I just said "a-rre-pen-ti-mien-to!"  That is "repentance"  I had her say it one or two times, which she did delighted with an extra triple rolling of the arrrrrrrepentimiento   (it took her a while to be able to roll her rrrs, so she will take every chance to show off!).  Then I simply explained "repentance is when we come to Christ. HE is the Rock. HE always wants us to come to him, to move our house over and live His way, the best way."

Papi Chulo and I have decided that besides going to Church and having family dinner, on Sundays we want to be proactive in giving ourselves opportunities to bond together as a family, learn the doctrine of Christ, and come closer to our Heavenly Father, through family activities. We prepare a bit, but most of the time, we just look for connections to gospel principles on activities. We have been doing this for about a year now, and we LOVE IT! The memories, and the learning, are just so worth it!

What do you do to come closer to God on Sundays?

My Heavenly Father Loves Me - the Human Body

This month we are studying anatomy. This past week the kids loved all our activities to learn about the human body. This post compiles about five days of last week's learning.



We started our circle times by singing "My Heavenly Father Loves Me."It was me singing, really, while they tried to keep up. We acted out each of the references to touching the rouses, looking at the butterflies, smelling the lilac tree.



We took this picture a few weeks ago when we were studying weather and rain, and made the connection to plants needing minerals and water to grow. These are the roses my sister got for getting her second degree blackbelt, or maybe they are the roses my sister gifted my mom. In any degree, they were an impromptu connection to weather. They were so tempting, just sitting there on the table, so beautiful and fragrant, while we studied weather, so we had to talk about mud, and plant nutrition. Puma tiger told me after enjoying so greatly the sweet smell of the roses: "oh they are so sweeet! Did you put oil in it?"  They are so used to the smells of Young Living Essential Oils! they love them! So I went and got my almost empty rose oil bottle, and had her compare. We were all basking in the beautiful smell!  Blueberries said "it smells like love!"  And the scent of the roses gave my little Sweet Boy the biggest satisfaction! you could just see it on his radiant smile. I love Young Living! And so I explained to them how YL essential oils are distilled from the plants.  I love nature, and the oils, the roses, the scents, help me feel connected to the love of my Creator.



I played this video from YouTube "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" in the car on my phone as we go places. This is a beautiful rendition by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, with great pictures.







"Whenever I hear the song of a bird, or look at the blue blue sky."  We have been paying attention to the sounds that come from outside. I also got a little chirping bird at the local good will store, and they just love their little "pet."  The recorded voice of the chirping bird just makes them smile!



"He gave me my eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings,"  This gradient color activity, where the child is to observe ever so closely the different shades and put them in order, is meant to challenge their vision and help them develop great attention to detail.  I didn't take pictures, but they had so much fun playing with a giant plastic monarch butterfly that I got at a yardsale for like $.25 cents.







Oh and it was sunny one day, and snowy the next. Sweet boy enjoys these changes a lot!

"Whenever I touch a velvet rose" ... this is an activity designed to help sharpen the sense of touch. There is a matching pair of balloons that feel the same because they are filled by the same thing.  So the challenge is to find the matches by the sense of touch. A pair has rise, another sand, yet another flour, and the last has beans.







This is a "sensory bin" with the only purpose of giving the child a sensory experience. Here we have red beans representing red blood cells, and garbanzo beans, representing white blood cells. We also have brains, guts, eyes, liver and other organs floating around, to represent how the blood carries nutrients and carries away toxins from these places. Blueberries and I played a game, after I explained to her that white blood cells are the fighters that keep our bodies healthy and fight off infections and other pathogens. She got another activity, the colored pompoms, and told me I was the germs, and she was going to fight me off as i tried to get into her "blood stream," meaning, as I tried to get the pompoms into her container.  It was fun! And Puma Tiger and Sweet Boy joined in the fun.







"He gave me my life."  We traced their own bodies on paper, cutting it and pasting it for room decoration.  Blueberries drew the lungs with the bonchiles as little dots, while Puma Tiger, being the fasionista she is, drew in fun styles of clothes.

 

That whole day Blueberries would use the name of the organs of bones to communicate what was happening to her.  She would say things like: "I bumped my spine on the couch" or "Sweet Boy hit my lungs!"



Sweet boy had fun just posing for it. After I hung his silhouette on the wall he came and said: "oh! una rana!" (look, a frog!), then he laughed and corrected: "no es una rana, es yo!"  ("It's not a frog, it is I").



During our Chinese lesson we colored, cut and practice saying each of the parts of the body, complete with signing the song Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.



"He gave me coordination, focus, and ability to create"....well that's not part of the song, but it's true :)  Each of them  cut their won shapes. It took Puma Tiger about three sessions to finish cutting hers, but it was a great exercise on focus, perseverance, fine motor skills and cutting, all which are important skills for learning preparedness! She was so proud to finish it off and post it on the wall!

We have also been creating our own Montessori addition board. I wish I had so many Montessori materials, but instead of just wishing, we will make them!

 "He gave me my ears that i might hear thr magical sound of things."  Sweet boy here performing a number.



"He gave me my heart"  Here's a heart we made. We started with this organ.  This was made with a hand sanitizer pump, left over oxygen plastic line , tape and a hot gun  (I simply created a circuit with the  oxygen line, hooked to the spout on one end, and perforated the container near the top to insert the other end of the line, then I sealed it with the hot gun, and added tape on top).

 We all enjoy listening to each other's hearts, and pumping to the rhythm on the heart pump. We went around and figured out who had the fastest beat, baby, and who had the slowest, me.







We also read from a beginner reader book on the heart.  For our reading we also worked on phonics and the parts of the body. Here we are making a game with a movable alphabet and phonics "ir, ee, ai, oy"

 "Of all His creations of which I'm a part, YES! I know Heavenly Father loves me!!! "   Here blueberries is ecstatic as she has finished weaving by herself her very own first bracelet, and is showcasing her setup for the second. The same day she made a necklace, paying special attention to making it symmetric, with a center and matching sides. This activity made her work on her fine motor skills, patterning, and focus. It is a "practical life" activity, because she is honing concentration and coordination skills needed for life.

Caring for the body, this is our "weather" and "anatomy" connection, dressing for success!

This is our French Class picture. You can see more about that class in another post for another day.

YES I KNOW HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME!

Identifying cumulus, cirrus, stratus clouds. Clouds give us protection and guidance.

I never thought my preschool children could learn the scientific names of clouds, but the Montessori method has done it again! Annieli prepared for our weather month activities in her bin for our Montessori Bin Exchange. I set it all up, and my kids did not really care to pick it up.

They did like this fine motor activity. Holding a dropper helps practice the correct hold for a pencil.

This fun activity is done from left to right to prepare for reading, and top to bottom. I demonstrated a bit, and Blueberries really got into it.

But, one day I stood by the window and asked Puma Tigger "Hey, look what do you think is going on in the sky?"  We had the three part cards on the clouds right there, so I then said: "look which one of these pictures is a match to our sky today?" we then pulled out the laminated guide to the sky from national geographic, and read about stratus clouds.

Puma Tiger had some idea because she had watched "Rainy Weather" from Rachel and the TreeSchoolers. She loves it! And this is the best learning videos out there. You can find them at the website of Two Little Hand Productions.  I loved these videos so much, I lent them to the Weather bin for other kids to enjoy.

But as we started that day, I myself did not know a thing about clouds as we were going. But we had all the materials right there thanks to Anniele's work. So we learned and discovered together! And this is what we learned.

We ended up learning a lot about the clouds. There are basically three kinds: cirrus, stratus, and cumulus. The rest are combinations of these.

We looked out and saw this. What type of clouds are these? STReachty clouds, that is STRatus, the kind that are a huge stretchy stretch of low clouds, the kind that give us precipitation. Memory aid: stratus starts with STR just like stretchy.

When the clouds acCUMULate they are CUMULUS.

 If they aCUMUlate and also STReach out, they are STRatus CUMULus, like in the following picture.

'

Or this one. Stratus cumulus look like rows of puffy clouds that stretch out in the sky.  Puffy clouds give the "cumulus" and the strechy length give the "stratus" part of the name, hence stratus cumulus. This one is a more impressive example:

When it is puffy, but it seems to go up in a castle-like form, it's called Nimbus.

We remember "cirrus" clouds because it sounds like "zero," zero chances for rain, because the clouds are so high, so wispy and light, not heavy, like a zero that carries nothing.  They tell us we will have nice warm weather, perfect for flying a kyte. 

The Provo LDS temple architecture is inspired in the Biblical story of Jeahova guiding and providing protection for his people with a cloud. A pillar of fire by night, and a cloud for shade and guidance by day. I honestly believe that through the power of the Creator our family relationships can be good, bright and lovely for the duration of our lives, and also that they can last beyond this life.  I love looking at the sky, at clouds, at the starts, and contemplate in amazed wonder the beauties of nature and the miracle of life. Nature awakens awe in my soul, and it inspires me. I believe the Almighty Creator has the ability to guide me individually, and each of the members of my family individually, so that we can find Him and each other during, and after, this life. He can guide us, just like He guided the Israelites on the cloud.

We love the temple. Whenever we drive past it we sing "I love to see the temple." Sometimes I forget, but my kids remember! I started this tradition after my mother, who would do this when I was a little girl. I want my children to know that with God our family can be strong and it can last. Click on the image to listen to a Children's choir sing this beautiful song.  A picture of each child in front of the temple hangs in their room, as counseled by president Monson. I didn't think my kids noticed or cared for the picture, because they never mentioned it. But one day one picture frame fell off the wall and I took it away. That very night my Blueberries noticed and asked "mami, donde estoy?"  "Mom, where am I?" I didn't quite understand, so I asked her what she meant and she said: "mira, ya no esta mi foto!"  "Look, my picture is missing."  So they do notice!  I am glad they like to see themselves with the temple.  

 The base of the building looks like a nice puffy cumulus cloud, don't you think?  It was inspired on one after all. 

Click on this cloud to watch the video of the Israelites and how Jesus guided them with a cloud.

Wells, deserts, duck pond, water for life

We went out to "find water" outside. Any place, any form. Clouds, irrigation canal, water fountain. We observed that ducks loved to be near the water. Plants were being watered. The water was cold and nice on their feet.



 We wondered how the water got there. We talked about how the water falls and gathers in depositories in the mountains. Then it is transported through pipes to a damn, and cleaned, and then brought to the city. Sometimes it is collected in fountains ,or ponds.

If there is no mountains with rain, or ponds, people sometimes dig well to access the subterranean water depositories.Jesus Christ is the water of life.

Living Water