Still enrolling for 2023-2024 school year. Next start date is January 2. Dismiss
I was sent a great question on Instagram: Why do you use the Moveable Alphabet during “sound games?” In my training, I was told not to introduce the Moveable Alphabet until the child had mastered several of the Sandpaper Letters. This question is referring to the phonemic awareness, “sound games,” lessons I have in my…
One of the things I do as a materials creator is consider storage options as part of my initial design. I think about how the materials will be used my students and how much space I’m going to need. I designed these to work in hardware storage drawers, but there are other options! Before we…
This Montessori reading program is much more than a set of card materials. In my opinion, the program IS the book and the materials support the book. The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 is theory and science, its what justifies my subtitle “Evidence-Based Reading Instruction for the Montessori Classroom.” I show the…
After my review of Reading Programs last month, I received several requests to compare my program to the others mentioned. That’s fair. My intention for the previous article was merely to explain why I didn’t use those programs, but I understand how an article like this one might help folks make their own assessments. Dwyer…
By the age of six, children know around 15,000 words; that’s the same number of words Shakespeare used in all of his collected works. Let’s take a moment to really appreciate this achievement. Each of these words is just a different combination of 44 individual sounds with such subtle differences as ‘pen’ and ‘pin’. The…
She cried a lot. Reading was a major struggle for this second grader. She would do just about anything to avoid reading. Whenever she was confronted with the written word, she would get upset, cry, and sometimes even throw a tantrum. At the beginning of each year, I give all of my students a DIBELS…
Maria Montessori developed a revolutionary way to teach very young children to read, it is this aspect of her method that initially brought her to fame. Her method aligned with the now-studied science of reading so well, that modern research cites her as a pioneer in the field. An impressive legacy. Her reading program used…
Building the School The county inspector was on board with the school above the garage! We treat it the same as a living space over a garage, which just means we need extra fire prevention materials. The space will need to be ADA compatible, which means we need a wheelchair stairlift and a large bathroom….
On June 10, 2019, I wrote in my planner, “I am going to open a Montessori School.” I had no idea how to do that, but that wasn’t a good reason to not try.
The Second Great Lesson is meant to show, in broad strokes, how life on Earth has changed throughout time.
