question for elementary teachers (and those in the know)

[Rose-Roget]

Ds is 6, in first grade at a public Montessori.  For a variety of reasons (some discussed in previous threads), I'm strongly considering hs'ing him for a while.  I'd like to try to stick to a Montessori framework - within my and my budget's ability.  Math and language areas I'm pretty confident about.  I am also gaining an understanding of what the Great Lessons or Cosmic Education entails and how the each carry over and inspire all the other studies.  Lessons 4 and 5 would refer to the Language and Math that I can do.

What I'm having a harder time grasping is the spiraling of the other areas (Great Lessons 1-3)  - science, history, geography, etc.  As I understand it, each of the Great Lessons are introduced during the first few weeks of school.  Then the studies of those areas which they inspire carry throughout the year.  Right?  Do we refer back to the Great Lessons when we introduce something in that area?

1. So, the first Great Lesson talks about the creation of the universe/Earth, inspiring subjects such as astronomy, physics, landforms/geography.  Okay, manageable during a year.

2.  The coming of life (I'd do evolutionary) would inspire ideas of biology, plants, animals, adaptations, prehistoric life.  I can do that, I think.

3.  And then comes the Coming of Humans, where we would talk about needs of man, cultures, comparisons among eras and cultures, etc.  This is my biggest stumbling block at the moment.  So we talk about the Coming of Humans.  Then, do we start at the beginning of humankind and progress through history (and prehistory?), or do we focus on certain time periods during a year?  Since it's an upward spiral, I imagine talking about it all each year and becoming more in-depth in the comparisons, studies, traditions, cultures, historical events, etc. as ds gets older.  Or am I thinking incorrectly? 

So then, since it's an integrated framework, it would be important to keep the science, life, and social studies areas in sync which is also a little daunting.  And

I have a basic curriculum from online (Lisa Nolan) that I am using to guide me, but some of it seems very overwhelming.  When I have looked on other sites about the Great Lessons, I find long lists of experiments in science/physics to teach about myriad concepts in these areas.  I have to think that those would be considered for demonstrations throughout elementary - not necessarily in one year, or even three.

I'm not sure whether I've been clear or not.  If anyone has any guidance for me, it would be greatly appreciated.  Otherwise, I'll just keep up my non-professional research to develop a program to best educate ds.

[rumsmyname]

My childrens' school space the Great Lessons throughout the school year.  At this point, the third lesson - the coming of humans takes place.  Each year they tell the story and branch out, offer additional supporting lessons specfic to the year.  So with the creation story, they start with the big bang, do stellar nuclear synthesis and then get to the formation of the stars, planets and earth.  One year might have focus on chemistry, the next physics, more in depth geology.  Each of mine have been able to branch out and do special independent studies that follow their interests but I guess the key is providing additional lessons within a subset of the very many one could do.  The goal is the big picture at this point.  The level of real specialization becomes considerably more pronounced with each successive year. 

Similar story for the other lessons.  I don't know how much online searching you have done but there are some great ones with suggested lesson plans for the five lessons.  Just a quick search and I foundthis which seems very consistent with the progression, types of hands on activities seen the last several years....

  http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/The-Five-Great-Lessons_ep_66-1.html 

I am sorry it hasn't worked for you.  We ended up pulling our children this year to homeschool; the reasons being it was too costly given our dissatisfaction with the individual teachers.  It all comes down to the teachers.

If you are looking for math, my children 5th and 3rd have really liked Singapore.  It is straightforward, lends itself to being used with some of the Montessori materials for division, multiplication, fractions.  Supplementing with some decent manipulatives to continue the fundamental numeracy the Montessori method incorporates looks good to me.  I am lucky in that my children are older and have seen the materials through fractions and my years observing has me familiar with some of the materials.  But we like Singapore, the workbooks and textbook are inexpensive.

There are also some decent science books/activity books at the Singaporemath site that are a lot of fun....well my kids enjoy doing them without my help unless specifically asked for.  I let them have the control. 

[Rose-Roget]

Thank you for that information.  I would initially have thought to space out the lessons, but then I read that it is ideal to do them all within the first few weeks.  I kind of like the spacing idea, though.  Then we could focus on more sciency or more history/cultural areas at different times and then figure out how it all fits together.

I haven't looked at Singapore Math - I'll do that.  Affordable is good!  I've been looking at Shiller, since they claim to be Montessori based, and I could probably supply many of the manipulatives.  Thanks for the tips, though!

PS - I saw on the ADHD post that your son sounds like he was a lot like mine when he was ds's age.  We are working with an OT (although it would be nice if insurance would help out!), and trying to get his sensory system in place.  The school's resistance to recognizing/accepting SPD and providing those supports is the primary reason we're looking to hs for a while.  I'm hoping that by 3rd or 4th grade he'd be as successful in recognizing and managing his sensory needs as your ds sounds.

[MattBronsil]

Remember the point of the Great Lessons is not to teach, but to inspire questions.

[Rose-Roget]

Originally Posted by MattBronsil 

Remember the point of the Great Lessons is not to teach, but to inspire questions.

Right.  Doesn't it make the most sense to inspire questions in the different areas as we're ready to learn about those areas?  Or inspire them all at the beginning and then hope they come up through the year. 

So, would it be a matter of following the child's lead in terms of what direction the ensuing lessons follow? 

[MattBronsil]

Originally Posted by Rose-Roget 

Originally Posted by MattBronsil 

Remember the point of the Great Lessons is not to teach, but to inspire questions.

Right.  Doesn't it make the most sense to inspire questions in the different areas as we're ready to learn about those areas?  Or inspire them all at the beginning and then hope they come up through the year. 

So, would it be a matter of following the child's lead in terms of what direction the ensuing lessons follow? 

I think they are usually spread out somehow. Not an Elementary teacher, so not 100% sure.

[EAVice]

I have my 6 to 12 AMS certification and have worked primarily in AMI schools. There seem to be two distinct and equally valid schools of thought regarding the Great Lessons.  

The first school of thought views them as an inspiration with which to begin the year.  The second school of thought paces these lessons throughout the three year cycle so that not all children are invited to the lesson each year.  All children come each year to the God With No Hands Lesson and usually The Coming of Life (although the thirds sometimes opt out of this one).  The History of Writing and Math are focuses of the second year with interest shown by the first and thirds.  The Coming of Man is the focus of the third years. I actually throw in Stella-necleosynthesis in with first years.  It seems to provide a sense of awe of which the Discovery Channel can't underwhelm.

The Elementary Years are all about building the framework (cubby holes) so that the child is able to make connections between new information and previous knowledge.  The child has a lifetime to learn nuances.  Building an adequate framework to hold the universe is the purpose of the Great Lessons.  I love the quote by Matt about inspiring questions.

You have so many good questions about the practical nature of the presentations.

The process of many of the demonstrations is based around a Socratic discussion.  "Remember the other day when we were talking about ..... Do you have time to think about it some more.  I was wondering......."  The child may swoop through the demonstrations rather quickly.  In the classroom setting, the third years work with the firsts and some seconds. These are meant to be OBSERVED not just done.  Observations need to be recorded.  Tell me How you did this demonstration, draw a before and after illustration and give me three things you discovered about __________.  (All must be in complete sentences.)

The first and second years are more focused on the Fundamental Needs of Man and find the Coming of Man only mildly interesting.  In my experience, they have not moved fully into their imagination enough to imagine the Coming of Man. They try to put him in their world.  When looking at dinosaurs, the cleaning of the seas, and the coming of plants, the first years don't seem to have nearly the difficulty they have with people.  The Coming of Man seems to get muddy for them.  They often enjoy doing research and drawing the fundamental needs and can manage to relate this to their world.  

The Upper Elementary child spends a great deal of time looking at the Coming of Man and the Great Migrations and the Rise of Civilizations and Cultures.  It is their primary focus as the basic understanding the sciences and geography allow them to grasp the changes in the Earth, weather patterns, and specific landforms as they relate to migration patterns and farming techniques.  

The basics of geology, geography (both political and physical), botany and zoology (through nomenclature, classification, and biomes) and the understanding of the general past ways various cultures have met their needs is the focus of the Lower El child.  On another note, the history of Writing is often worked out in Lower by discovering different languages as written forms and through typing and penmanship.  It is not from a linguistic perspective - this is more third year Upper or Erdkinder.  The same with math - How to do math in Roman Numerals or using Mayan counting systems or Arabic Numerals.

[Rose-Roget]

Thank you so much for all of that information!  It helps me to formulate my thoughts and ideas for curriculum, seeming a little more cohesive and less daunting. :)

[EAVice]

Glad it was helpful. 

We shifted to homeschooling last year and have retained the integrity of Montessori except for the group ethos.  The boys are happy and are thriving.  I've been able to patch holes educationally and emotionally and provide encouragement that was not available to them due to their directress's world view.

Being able to follow through the demonstrations and the Great Lessons has been exciting for me.  They had never done any of the Lower El demonstrations.  They enjoyed them and we examined them from a more intellectual side.