Yay, it’s Friday and two of my brothers are in town from Utah!  It doesn’t get much better than that.  Before we head off to Rosa’s Cafe for some yummy Mexican food and family bonding, I thought I’d stop by and share my most effective teaching tool to date.  It’s definitely not Montessori-Inspired…it’s just plain fun.  JR loved running around my grandma’s house, beating everyone in Reading Tic Tac Toe.

I love how flexible this idea is.  It could be used for number & letter recognition, sight words, word blends, sound digraphs, reading…the list goes on and on.  Plus, it’s pretty much free to make.  One sheet of paper, a writing instrument and coins to use as place markers and you’re set!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  I have my sister‘s baby shower to attend and a graduation party for one of Robert’s cousins.  I’m also sewing a couple of crib sheets for the nursery.  I might even be able to talk Robert into painting the nursery.  Keep your fingers crossed!  Have a great one and I’ll see you back here on Monday.  :)

For those of you who have never lived in Texas, we’re kind of known for our weird weather.  One day it’ll be 95 degrees and the next it will be 54.  There’s really no rhyme or reason to it.  Some Texans say, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes and it will change.”  Well, today was no exception!

We had 2 freak hail storms today; one at 3 am and the other at 2 pm.  It was funny to see the boys outside in shorts and t-shirts, playing with the little balls of ice that covered the ground.  We were in the middle of school work when the second round of hail came down.  The boys’ faces instantly lit up and I knew our school work was over.  We stood on the front, covered porch and watched it come down.  The boys thought it was the coolest thing ever.

It made me think of how precious experiences like these are for them.  It’s such a blessing to see the world through their eyes, full of wonder.  After it stopped coming down they ran through the grass, picking up the small balls of hail.  They pretended they were “cannon balls” and threw them through the air.

It brought about a lot of questions we’ll answer tomorrow with the use of the internet.  “Why does it hail?” and “Where does it come from?”  It’s like Heavenly Father is reminding me of the many beauties of homeschooling and the blessing we have in our family to follow our interests.  Learning seems to be so much more effective when it is relative to their lives.  That being said, I still have a lot to think about…

We spent last week at my grandma’s house in Midland, Texas.  One of the many things I love about homeschooling is the flexibility to take our education on the road.  I usually pack a bag of materials from our school room, but there are always other educational experiences that we find when we are in a new place.  For instance, last week JR really took to the turtles in my grandma’s backyard.  It was wonderful hands-on experience with reptiles.  He saw all different sizes of them and we talked about how the shell grows with the turtle, rather than moving to a new shell like a hermit crab does.

We also visited a Paleteria for the first time, which is a Mexican ice cream and popsicle shop.  It was a great extension to the Mexico Unit we did a couple of weeks ago.  As if that wasn’t sweet enough, we had to hit up our favorite donut shop, T&T Donuts while we were there.  The boys absolutely love taking the short morning walk to pick up donuts before the west Texas heat sets in.

If anything, this week just further infused my love of homeschooling.  The freedom and the view of my two sons learning and growing side-by-side.  I still have a lot of thinking, praying and researching to do.  It’s not an easy decision and I bet it will take me the next couple of months to decide, but I’m on the right track.  For now, I have found peace in knowing that the answer will be revealed when both God and I are ready.

Materials brought with us on vacation (that all fit in one canvas reusable grocery bag):

1. S-M-A-T Object Box
2. Montessori Print Shop Free Material: 0-10 Numbers and Counters (Summer)
3. Beleduc Your Body & Four Seasons Puzzles
4. Montessori Movable Alphabet
5. Montessori Print Shop CVC cards
6. Montessori Print Shop Free Material:  Pink Ending Sound Cards
7. The Dressing-Up Box from the Usborne Very First Reading Set
8. Sh/Ch Sound Matching Cards (I added Th and Wh which I’ll blog about soon)

Visit & follow me {loriMOMents} on Instagram to see baby girl’s going home outfit and a red, white and blue Memorial Day baby bump.  HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

It’s 5:30 in the morning.  I’ve been lying in bed for over an hour, sleepless.  Finally giving up on the hope of slumber, I dragged myself to the computer to try to make sense of what worries me.  The only sounds at this time in the morning are my fingers on the keyboard and the cheerful chirping of birds outside.

I’ve been dealing with a personal dilemma which has left me discouraged and sick with worry: what path to choose for my child’s education.  When I look at my life, the most important responsibility and commitment is to my children.  I worry about if they are happy, if they are eating healthy, if their souls and spirituality are being nurtured and most definitely if they are receiving a great education.  Not just an education that they memorize and forget later, but a meaningful one that resonates with their lives and desires.  One that will nurture a love for learning and life.

Homeschooling my children following the Montessori Method has brought me irreplaceable joy.  There isn’t a single other form of pedagogy that fits my educational philosophies and children’s needs more than Montessori.  I love that it follows the child’s developmental phases and interests because every child is unique and should be treated thus.  Despite my strong desire to provide a Montessori education for my children, homeschooling while pregnant (among everything else) has left our family out of balance.

It’s no secret that this pregnancy has been difficult for me.  I often find myself fatigued and low on patience.  Not a good combination in a classroom setting.  I worry that it’s only going to be more difficult once I’m caring for a needy infant on top of my Interior Design work, household commitments, being a mother and providing a meaningful education to JR and Asher.  Robert and I have started to consider sending John Robert for education outside the home, which JR has been excited about.  He’s ready to be around other kids his age and benefit from the social environment.  Since a private Montessori tuition is out of our budget, we finally decided that enrolling him in the local public school is our only option.

So yesterday morning, John Robert and I headed out full of optimism for his enrollment, academic assessment and tour of the neighborhood public elementary school.  We skipped into the building, handed in our paperwork and sat on the large leather sofa in the administration office.  The office staff was friendly, but the mood changed significantly when an unapproachable and distant woman walked out and introduced herself as the school counselor.  She quickly introduced herself and asked JR if he was ready.  He nodded and we all rose to follow her.  She looked at me oddly so I asked if I was allowed to go with him to observe the assessment.  She bluntly stated, “No, it’s just testing.”

At that very moment, it hit me like a ton of bricks that this was the norm here.  Test after test, measuring their students’ worth.  She had become so desensitized that it never even crossed her mind that this might be a foreign and uncomfortable experience for the tiny Montessori raised 5 year-old walking beside her.  When JR returned, it was obvious that he was a little sad.  Rather than ask him how he did or what they asked him, I simply told him that I heard he did really good.  My optimism and encouraging words perked him up just in time before they whisked him back with yet another teacher for the reading portion.

As I sat in that large leather sofa, waiting and waiting, I had plenty of time to observe how the staff and faculty acted and related to each other.  Most of them looked unhappy and rushed from one place to another.  I watched the large groups of children herded from one area to another by a teacher with a frown.  During the tour, I witnessed agitated expressions as we peeked in on classrooms and the mass chaos of way too many children crowded on one playground during recess.  I wondered if this was the atmosphere I wanted my child to spend the majority of his life for the next 12 years.

The result of their evaluation was that they didn’t care if John Robert knew the names of the continents and where they are located on the map.  It was of no importance that he could spell, complete addition and subtraction equations, or explain in length about insects, reptiles, dinosaurs and animals.  The units we did on the Arctic, Antarctic and Mexico were insignificant. Any understanding of the world my children live in was unimportant. Science, Geography, Cultural Studies and History didn’t matter.

What they did care about is if he knew what activities take longer than taking a drink of water (yes, actually a question on the test), if he could group objects in sets of ten and complete math word problems.  They were concerned that he didn’t have a fully developed sense of time.  They cared that he couldn’t read relatively advanced sentences with mainly only sight words.  I was so dismayed by the end of our conversation that I didn’t care for them to answer any questions.  All I knew is that I would do everything in my power for my child not to go to school there.

So here I am, crying and praying off and on about it; searching for Private School Scholarships and Montessori Charter/Magnet Schools in my area without success.  I’m remaining positive when talking to JR about the new school in case it really is our only option but honestly, I’m feeling a little trapped.  Trapped by the fact that we’re middle class and can’t afford a private school tuition and thinking that if I didn’t have to pay taxes to support an education program that I don’t believe in, may be I could afford sending my children to a school I would be proud of.

It was so fun to be back in our school room today.  We definitely miss the beach, but there’s something really relaxing about Montessori work that we missed while we were gone.  JR worked on Pink CVC words using a free printable from Montessori Print Shop and the Movable Alphabet.  JR also learned subtraction for the first time and did great.  Asher worked on placing tiny toys on the contours of the letters a, s and c.  He also worked on his 2 and 3 dimensional shapes and worked with the geometric solids.

To take advantage of Montessori Print Shop’s free materials, click here.  The worksheets we used today are the Pink Ending Sound Cards.

Have a great weekend!  I’ll see you on Monday.

We’ve been soaking up the sun in Panama City Beach, Florida over the past 4 days.  I have so much to tell you about, but to get it started…here is a 24 week bump photo of me at the beach.  I’m in love with my new swimsuit by Pez D’Or that I got for 40% off on Zulily.  To receive a notification when they have more on sale, click here.  I will warn you that Zulily is completely addicting and has tons of cute baby, kids, maternity and women’s clothing all at discounted rates.  The sales only last for a few days and then they move on to something new.

At 24 weeks this baby is rocking!  She is kicking, jabbing and doing somersaults in my belly pretty much non-stop all day (and night) and I love it.  I’m able to eat normally with a little bit of morning sickness here and there.  I’ve gained 3 pounds and my bump is pretty pronounced now.  I still love salads, but am also enjoying hamburgers a lot.  Can we say complete opposites?!  I’m still waiting for the 2nd trimester boost of energy {hello…where are you???} so I can get moving on her nursery and the million other things I need to do.

At 24 weeks, baby girl is the size of an ear of corn and she’s starting to plump up according to babycenter.com.  She’s a whopping pound and a half.  She can hear us now so the boys are talking to her a lot, which is adorable to witness.  She also gets lots of hugs and kisses from her big brothers.

So, you tell me…when did your “nesting” kick in?  I’m still waiting…

As you can see, it was the most fun ever.  The giggles and smiles completely changed my mood.  And…clean up was a breeze.  I simply turned on the shower and the fun continued.

The boys experimented with putting different combinations of beans in the eggs to see how it would change the sound when shook.  At first they put one of the same kind of bean in each, then two, then a combination and tried to get them to sound the same.  It reminded me of the Montessori Sound Cylinder work.

These kids were shaking and dancing so fast, I could hardly get a photo!

JR loved hearing how they sounded when shook.  He was very particular about his sounding the same.  You can see the concentration in his facial expression.

I hope you had a marvelous weekend.  Did you do anything to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

We had a major meltdown, followed by a snack for the boys (low blood sugar?) and chocolate and a coke for me.  Sometimes I feel like if you gave me enough Coke, I could rule the world.  Today was a 2 coke day just to rule my home, so I can’t even imagine how many cokes it would take to rule the world…but I like to believe I could do it.

Regardless of how many cokes I need to have or how much hair loss I experience…I luuuuuuv these boys.  I love them as high as the sky and as deep as the ocean.  I can’t get enough of them and it’s easy to see why…

*Photos by Mikki Platt Photography.

So, do your kids drive you crazy regardless of how much you love them?

p.s.  the days that go quiet here on the blog are directly related to the days I get a nap…so I hope instead of missing the posts, you’ll congratulate this prego for getting a nap!

With Cinco de Mayo this Saturday, we’re learning about Mexico’s rich cultural heritage.  This also doubles as teaching the boys’ about their own cultural heritage, because Robert’s parents were both born in Mexico.  They moved to the USA in their youth, met, married and Robert was born here.  Here are the trays that we are using to celebrate Mexico.

{Mortar & Pestle Tray: This was their favorite by far.  It includes a child-sized Mortar & Pestle, a bowl of egg shells that were sterilized in boiling water, a bowl of Chow Mein Noodles and an empty bowl to pour the crushed discards into after they’re done.}

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{Mexican Toys: brought back from Mexico by Robert’s parents.  I have seen similar toys for sale online and I’ve included links in the resources at the end of this post.}

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{Weaving Tray:  A cabinet organizer shelf from Walmart with cut ribbons and this photo.}

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{Top Left- Mexican Musical Instruments: brought back from Mexico by Robert’s parents.  Bottom Left- Flag of Mexico:  this fully colored flag, this line drawing of the flag and red, green and brown crayons.  Right- Mexican Pottery: brought back from Mexico by Robert’s parents plus this photo showing how the pots are used in cooking even in modern times.}

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{JR spelling Mexico with the sandpaper letters I provided in a tray.}

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Resources used to prepare our discussion of Mexico’s culture:

• I pulled historical data from the article Mexico: History and Culture.
• We reviewed this map of Mexico and its states.
• We saw where Mexico is in relation to the USA on this map.
• Toys that are similar to our Mexican toys are Jacob’s Ladder and Wooden Cup and Ball Catcher.
• Musical Instruments that are similar to our Mexican Instruments are maracas and flute.

Happy Cinco de Mayo Everyone!