All About Montessori

[tankee]

I am not familiar with any of the phonics teaching techniques to judge which is better.


My boy is studying in a Montessori now. His ability to pronounce and spell words is really good. Something we adults were amazed by it.

[foreverj]

hi tankee, how old is your child now? i would love to have my dd in a montessori environment except that she’s now happily settled in a cc (non-mont). therefore am considering montessori weekend enrichment for her.

[tankee]

he is in K2 now.


while montessori is strong in phonics, i personally prefered Eton House where they stressed more on soft skills like verbal communication, independence, creativity, etc. He spent a few months at Eton House during playground years but had to switch to montessori due to other factors not related to the schools or him.

[buds]

sunny:

thanks buds!


one of the montessori childcare centres i visited, i saw how they taught phonics. They learn through playing songs which emphasize the phonetic sounds of the alphabets. and the teacher sings together. is that the usual way of how the phonics are taught in montessori schools?

I'm setting up a new thread on this, sunny! Stay tuned, aye!
Just started one on Letterland Phonics. Next up, Montessori Phonics.

Excited or not? Hehee.. :lol:

[sunny]

buds:

sunny:

thanks buds!


one of the montessori childcare centres i visited, i saw how they taught phonics. They learn through playing songs which emphasize the phonetic sounds of the alphabets. and the teacher sings together. is that the usual way of how the phonics are taught in montessori schools?

I'm setting up a new thread on this, sunny! Stay tuned, aye!
Just started one on Letterland Phonics. Next up, Montessori Phonics.

Excited or not? Hehee.. :lol:

haha... of course!
thanks buds, really appreciate that.

[2blurcats]

hey buds,

HELP!!!!
Recently teacher in dd's 1.5h daily \"thematic Montessori\" playgroup has been telling me that dd is not very focused, and has very short attention span. She says that when other kids are playing with their stuff, dd will play with something, but then will start wandering around.

Today I peeped into the class after their lesson time, and yes, I see dd wandering around looking aimless and bored. The teacher was \"assisting\" some other tods (about 20mths old only) in some play atuff at the desk, but my dd just wandered around the room looking at the shelves, not wanting to pick up anything to play. And then she finally picked up a microphone, started singing Bah Bah Black Sheep and then retreated into a corner next to the photostating machine

Some facts/info for you:
- dd is currently 27mths old, and she is the oldest in the class; most of her classmates are ard 18-24mths old
- this class is actually meant for \"Babes\" starting from 18mths old
- older kids normally graduate to the older \"Tods\" class, but teacher says that there is no more vacancy in the Tods class right now and anyway, the \"curriculum\" is the same.... my question is, would activities/environment be different even if curriculum is the same?
- some of her classmates (during previous term) has gone to the tods class because of the \"loyalty system\" that the school practises i.e. kids who have been with them longer will get prriority to move to Tods class even if they are younger than dd
- at the beginning of this new term, dd somehow knows this and tells me \"K or so-and-so takes schoolbus to school now\".... I think she meant that they go to a \"big girl school\", cos she's always asking me to let her take schoolbus to big girl school... of course she doesn't know her friends do not take the schoolbus, but just goes to the tods class at another timing

Today, we had an informal playsession at a neighbour's place, and all the kids are around the same age or just slightly older. She was playing the playdough alongside these tods for a good 20-30mins by herself, without coming to disturb me or ask me to do this and that for her.

From what I described above, do you think dd really has an attention span/focus problem?
Or could it be that she is not adjusting well to the younger babes who joined her class and missing her older friends?

I am already researching for other Montessori schools around, but am not sure if I should switch her or just let her stay in this Babes class till she gets a transfer to Tods class. As far as teacher knows, there will not be any vacancies in Tods class for the next 2 mths.... as for after that, we'll have to see if any parents pull out of the Tods class.

This kiasu mommy is also feeding her fish oil in a desperate attempt to improve her concentration skills!

[buds]

sunny:

buds:

[quote=\"sunny\"]hi, can anyone advise how the montessori pre-schools teach english and chinese?

Montessori Phonics advances up till Grammar, sunny.
For Chinese strokes, we have sandpaper characters
just like the sandpaper alphabets for Phonics.

sunny:

... and for phonics, what's the diff between montessori, letterland, etc?

Wah, sunny.. this is like comparing 2 of our own kiddies!
Errmmm... cannot compare the two cause both have their
own strengths. Phonetic sounds will relatively be similar but
only the approach of the methodology has its individual specialty.

Montessori is uses multi-sensory approach and Letterland is the character
and story based approach.

thanks buds!

one of the montessori childcare centres i visited, i saw how they taught phonics. They learn through playing songs which emphasize the phonetic sounds of the alphabets. and the teacher sings together. is that the usual way of how the phonics are taught in montessori schools?[/quote]Montessori method has a unique way of introducing Phonics. The
Montessori Methodology is taught in line with the specially designed
apparatus as well. On top of that, the method is systematic with many
opportunities for repetition with different activities under the same
topic/module & also not forgetting, a gradation of learning skills up from
single letter sounds, to word building, to 3-letter formation, to blends, to
phonograms, etc...

The pronunciations used in teaching Montessori Phonics had been tried
and proven to be very effective with children's diction. Phonics is also
not just for reading or decoding mere words... but should flow smoothly
into sentence reading followed with reading of simple books.

Songs are external and subject to the resourcefulness of the individual
teacher. It may also be a case of the resourcefulness of the centre
operator or centre manager too, if all the teachers use songs/additional
materials apart from the Montessori apparatus already available in the
Montessori classroom.

Finally, it eventually boils down to individual teacher's quality...
If you get a good teacher, no matter what the method is... it will
definitely be executed beautifully. Meaning, the teacher had been
effective in teaching children to begin early reading and not only that...

The teacher had encouraged the reading process as well, to be enjoyable
and not a chore.

My classes are always interactive! We encourage children to work with
the materials, sing some songs, do fun activities like craft work or games
and sometimes even simple preparing of quick snacks in relevance to the
letter sounds introduced during the session... on top of written work. I
also ensure each session, I bring a new book to read to the children.
So even if the parents are not the \"i-read-to-my-children\" kind, at the
very least, the stories can be enjoyed with me! It's important to cultivate
joy in reading or else how to encourage the habit, right? So when we
make the stories pop-out and come alive... children will want to explore
reading on their own.

Young children especially, learn very well with hands-on work!
What goes through the hands, goes to the mind.

[2blurcats]

Hey buds,


I'm also looking foward to the new Montessori phonics thread

By Montessori's \"multi-sensory\" approach, do you mean tracing sandpaper letters with the fingers?
I tried doing that with dd recently, together with a Phonics song CD... she now sees \"B\" and calls it \"Berh\"

[buds]

Letter names or the alphabets must come first.

Then comes letter sounds to make connection
or to be of relation to the letter names.

ie. This letter b makes the sound /b/… (b-uh).

If you learn the sounds first, especially for young
children… they will get confused and WILL slow
down the progress of writing efficiently.

Cannot possibly say, /b/ makes this letter b, right?
ie. b-uh makes this letter b-(ee), tio-bo?

In Phonics enrichment classes especially, they don’t
do both. They only focus on the sounds. Not letters.
So ensure that your kids are equipped with knowledge
and recognition of the alphabets prior to attending a
Phonics enrichment class. This will ensure that your
child does not require to go back to basics when he
or she has difficulty making connection/relation with
the alphabets during the course of the programme.
Imagine a child who already can read well with the
Phonics decoding but yet doesn’t know the abc’s…
I have personally encountered this problem. And
i tell you, the child was very demoralized.

The parents? Confused and lost. They didn’t realize
it cud be THAT detrimental to his progress.

This is due to the fact that the process was not done
systematically/in order and also not age appropriate…
Children should be allowed to grow and learn at their
specific age range. For example, we cannot possibly
make a three month old crawl when they’re just
learning to turn their bodies, right…?

When children can make association between letters and
sounds, can they then be more efficient with their spelling
and can they then be able to write what they read. It is
really not an extra advantage being able to read so much
without understanding or internalizing the reading process,
and then totally unable to express it in print.

For example, one child i who was in my creative writing class…
Prior to entry, during casual talk with the mother… we asked,
"Can your son already read? And can he write simple sentences?"
In a creative writing class, we make emphasis on the "creative"
enrichment of the writing and not on reading or handwriting…
So she replied, "My son reads a lot. Cannot stop reading. Can
read encyclopedia liao…" So we thought okay then, no problem
right? When he was officially attending the lessons, he came up
with the most words when we asked for the different nouns ie.
people, places, animals and things. But when you asked him to
write down, he jammed. Other kids started to spell the words out
for him. Later on we realised he cudn’t write. As in K2 level, but
N2 standard of handwriting. Unable to write on a line. Unable to
spell simple 4 letter words. Words that he cud read effortlessly,
but couldn’t spell nor write. The boy cried and felt so out of place
with his other peers, that i had no choice but to give the boy and
the mum extra coaching… and provide other methods to escalate
the writing process while he still can come to enjoy the creative
writing lessons and boy… it was really a lotta work. Lotsa back-
dating activities to do with him. Some more that time left only
like 3 or 4 mths gg to Primary 1 leh!!! I so stress for him AND
the mum too!

So, i truly honestly encourage parents to please introduce the
alphabets first, just like how we did when we were little… Dun
need to advance teach reading when cognitively there are many
other things that the child has to learn in his time… at his age.

Unless of course, child is gifted. Okie?

[buds]

About the multi-sensory approach…


Sensory just means senses.
So, multi-sensory means using the
senses approach. ie. seeing, hearing,
touching… In a standard Montessori
classroom, it will usually have these
three > sight, hear, touch
>See/Look at the letters
>Hear the sound
>Touch the letter (sound)
Then, child says the sound…

In the sight category, there are also
pictures introduced corresponding to
the letter sounds learnt, books and
moveable alphabets.

In the hearing category, there are
also the optional songs, rhymes and
stories.

In the touching category, there are a
lot. All the Montessori Phonics materials
are meant for hands on learning ie. sandpaper
letters, moveable alphabets, objects in object
boxes and also word cards and picture cards
for reading and matching practice (etc).