(And All My) Work Be Praise

Even though I put this on my list from Teaching Montessori at Home: The Preschool Years , I thought it was sort of silly until I caught Levi dragging a chair behind him through the kitchen today. Hello, teaching moment! To pick up a chair: one hand on the back, one hand on the seat. Carry it at your waist. Put it down gently, without making a sound. Pause for the briefest of moments so Mom can snap a picture for her blog. This is hardly blog-worthy, but hey, it was in the book. And now the next time Levi starts dragging the little chairs around (which does happen fairly regularly), I can remind him that he knows how to carry a chair correctly -- and perhaps, save my floors from a few more scratches!

While I've read several things about Montessori education, I must confess that I still don't know a ton about how it really works. With apologies for actually linking to Wikipedia, this isn't a bad explanation of the various tenets. In layman's terms, here's what I do know: My husband went to a Montessori preschool, and my mother-in-law says it was fantastic. Children are expected to focus quietly on a task for a looooooong time. (Like, 2-3 hours.) There is a focus on being neat and orderly. It is largely child-driven work, in that the child chooses an activity from a set of options (all within reach).  It requires "trays" or "bins" or something to organize the materials and have them within reach. Montessori children practice a lot of real-life skills. It's that last point that really caught my attention while reading through a book recommended by a few different sources (at least two homeschool blogs, one of a friend and anot...