It’s a great time of the year to study astronomy with your family.
Here are some newsletters with free activities and printouts to help you enjoy your summer learning.
Skywatching
Black Holes
Astronomy Fun with free dot to dot printouts and matching cards
Planet Printout Cards
Dwarf Planet Free Cards
Free Moon Cards
I’ve been hearing some interesting chirping sounds as I walk in the Colorado forests this spring. It finally dawned on me that they were frogs croaking in the near by ponds. I found this site where you click on the frog photo to listen to the frog’s breeding call. It’s really cool.
Here is more information about frogs, a free printout of reading and science cards about a frog’s life cycle.
Cultivating Dharma is a wonderful resource for any teacher or parent. Check out her lovely, and free, Montessori Albums for your lesson plans.
Also, there is a great printable Timeline of Scripts that is perfect for the Great Lessons. Everything is beautifully done!
Every child can help you make something special to eat or drink for Mother’s Day.
Here are some simple cooking ideas you can do with your child.
Easy Mother’s Day Recipes
Food Recipes for Kids
Drink Recipes
Dessert Recipes
Take a nice walk on Mother’s Day and study the wildflowers that are starting to grow.
Here is a free printout newsletter about wildflowers. Happy Mom’s Day!
Earth Day is a wonderful time to celebrate life. Here are some newsletters with free reading cards about animals and insects that live on our beautiful planet.
Just click on these fun activities and printouts.
Frog Life Cycle
All About Snails
Beavers References, Ideas and Nomenclature
Studying Squirrels with free Anatomy Cards
Butterfly Life Cycle Cards
Sometimes just reading words can help a child decode phonetic words. Read more here.
As the weather gets warmer it is time to start thinking about your garden.
Here is an informative newsletter with free Montessori science reading cards about primary, secondary, tap and fibrous roots.
Happy botany!
The earth has been in constant movement. Sometimes this movement causes earthquakes. Learn more about the history of the earth and plate movement at this newsletter.
It includes reading science cards ( Montessori 3 part cards) and nomenclature cards of Pangea’s continental plates.
Here are some free reading cards about metamorphosis for younger readers. It’s a great way to learn about science while learning new words.
You can help Haiti after this devastating earthquake by donating to the Mennonite Central Committee. They serve the needs of people around the world with their peaceful ways.
They already have their workers in Haiti. Even during Hurricane Katrina they were some of the first people on the ground to help. You can’t find a better organization that uses their money and resources for those they serve. You won’t find high paid CEO’s with this organization.
Metamorphosis is a profound change in an organism’s life. A caterpillar turning into a butterfly or a tadpole turning into a frog captures your imagination.
You can learn more with these two newsletters about the life cycle of metamorphosis. Check out the free printouts and make 3 part cards for science and reading.
Frog Life Cycle Newsletter
Butterfly Life Cycle Newsletter
Counting is an important math skill. Montessori classrooms use the pink tower stacking blocks to teach the first concrete steps for counting. Here is a newsletter with free printouts and lesson ideas to use with your child. There is even a printout in Spanish.
If you don’t have a pink or natural tower you can use nesting blocks or other stacking blocks. You can find them at toy departments or stores.
Montessori classrooms don’t use lined paper for teaching early penmanship. In the beginning, it is more important to lean how to write the letter. Also, children are taught only cursive letters for writing. Teaching children how to write one way, and then another way is very confusing and frustrating for grade school children.
Here is a free printout of the Montessori sandpaper cursive letters we used for penmanship.
Miss Homfray has a great video lesson about teaching writing in the Montessori classroom.
The best time to introduce reading readiness is when your child is an infant and absorbing language. Just reading books and talking to your preschool children helps them understand vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure and the overall patterns of language.
We found that introducing the sounds of the alphabet and the moveable alphabet worked best at ages 3 1/2 to 4. Children who learn much earlier than this may get burned out before they have the maturity to read more advanced material. Young children, especially boys, who can read at a very young age, don’t always comprehend what they are reading. The worst thing we can do is force self-reading on children who are too young.
Miss Homfray shows in this video how to introduce the moveable alphabet activity to your child.
She also explains why Montessori schools don’t use lined paper for beginning writers. Students touch the sandpaper letters and write them unrestrained.
Miss Homfray has a wonderful lecture about the complexities of reading. It’s important for young children to have good sensorial and practical life skills in order to read later on. Pushing reading too early can actually turn your child off to reading.
She has great insight about when to introduce fantasy books to children.
Check out this Montessori lecture here.
Here is another book about Maria Montessori that is free read online. If you are interested in her life and influence, Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E.M. Standing is fascinating.
You can now read a free online copy of Spontaneous Activity in Education by Maria Montessori. I enjoyed reading Montessori’s insights, and it is much easier to read than some of her earlier works!
I’ve been busy studying wildflowers this year. The fields of flowers were amazing this year after a very wet summer. Here is a newsletter with free nomenclature or 3 part cards of wildflowers. Life is beautiful.