Recently I've been reading various books and articles on the internet, mainly about the Montessori method of education. One of the results of this is that I am trying to create a better learning environment for the kids. This basically means I'm gradually moving all the toys up to the kids bedrooms, as well as evicting some of my craft stuff, to make room for more educational stuff.
I'm hoping this will result in them choosing to do educational stuff, rather than me trying to instigate it. When I try to get Wiyot to do something it rarely goes smoothly, he becomes very resistant and usually doesn't do anywhere near as well as I know he can. This results in us both getting very frustrated and me occasionally loosing my temper, which is obviously very upsetting for us both.
I REALLY, TRUELY believe that learning should be something that you want to do and you enjoy.
I guess its natural, but I frequently find myself having a crisis of confidence, wondering if I'm doing the right thing by them... If I'd sent him to school in January, I wonder if he would be doing better with his reading and writing... But then I know I shouldn't compare him to schooled children, as I know he has knowledge in areas that wouldn't be pursued in school for some time... As you can probably see, my mind is going round in circles!
I guess its only natural, as a parent all you want is the best for your child...
Back onto the positive side of things!
As part of the improved environment, I decided to buy a double sided blackboard/whiteboard easel type thing from Ikea.
One of the biggest area's of resistance for Wiyot has always been with writing/drawing based activities. I don't know why... even when he was little he showed no interest in playing with crayons, other than pretending they were cars or aeroplanes or something. Recently when he says he wants to draw, he will get the crayons and paper out scribble over the paper, draw a few lines and a cross, roll it up and declare it a treasure map. Don't get me wrong, I value all his attempts and do think the whole idea is quite creative, but I know that when he puts his mind to it he can draw and write very nicely.
So anyway I have bought the easel, and as I said at the beginning of the post, so far it seems to be working wonders!!!! :D
I'm hoping it will last!!!
I'm trying to keep the montessori stuff in mind... I should state that I AM IN NO WAY CLAIMING TO BE USING OFFICIAL MONTESSORI METHODS, simply that the methods are inspirational and providing me with a new way of approaching things. I hope that makes sense?! So basically I am trying my absolute best to make everything really fun, like a new game, with no expectations and no feelings of failure.
Yesterday I began writing messages to him on the board using purely phonetic spellings, allowing him to easily read the words. For example:
"Wot shud wee hav too eet?" (what should we have to eat)Then I drew a circle for a plate and asked him if he could draw what we could have. He thought this was great fun and laughing drew a few lines in the circle.
Me, "Hmm, I wonder what that is? Can you write it on the board?"
Wiyot, "I guess I can try..." he writes on the board telling me each letter:
"pasd" (pasta)I responded drawing a :9 and asking him to write what sort of pasta he wanted.
"red"was the answer and I wrote:
"tomartoe" with a picture of a tomatoAgain lots of laughter and a very happy little boy!
Later, as I was washing the dishes he came into the kitchen and said he wanted to write me a message on the fridge.
Here's what he wrote:
 |
| MOMY DYOOW WOTOOW BATH US NAW! |
Has struggling for letters and had to improvise... Q's became o's and an upside-down f became a t. Also the i was turned to become an exclamation mark... apparently he was shouting to me :D
I was so pleased with him and even better, he was over the moon with himself! He declared he no longer needs to speak to me, he can just write me messages! lol
