Montessori at our home - 3 Homemade Checkerboard

Homemade Multiplication Checkerboard

We did use the Checkerboard online. However, I could sense that my son had difficulty in dragging and dropping the bead bars using the mouse. It was quite disappointing for me. But then, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had scouted for beads in Pune, but here in Chennai, everything needed for the board just fell in place.

Thankfully, we got some beads and golden wires at the local Lucky Stores and made the golden beads ourselves. There was a cute box with 12 compartments just about right to put the different sized beads.



For the board, we took empty cardboard laptop boxes and stuck green, blue and red shiny paper(Each square is 5cm X 5cm). With some cardstock stuck on the remaining cardboard, we got the number stamps. I haven't yet completed the board, but, he has started working. The entire effort has taken about 2 1/2 days (of course with other activities thrown in). Cost - Rs. 300 ($6). Had it not been for my son himself helping me out and pushing me to complete it, I might not have finished this so soon.

Some more pics -





Our thanks to all the people who have put up the Montessori videos and all those useful posts. I do feel far more satisfied at taking some effort for this. Hmm....may be there is an invisible hand at making some small dreams come true! :)

Montessori at our home - 2 Hunting for Checkerboard

I am glad to have finally purchased the following from Flipkart.com

The Secret of Childhood

And, Montessori Today

The second book was primarily for what to introduce to the elementary years.

To be honest, I am unable to keep my eyes wide open - am hardly reading 2-3 pages and then it is zzzzz.....

Meanwhile -

We have moved on from division on unit division board that have zero remainder to equations that do contain remainders.
And, a lot of mental math activity has been going on. Our friend's son who is a chess pro has been doing some minor coaching for our son on how to do different types of checkmates.

Thanks to our friends visiting over this summer we have also learnt about Vedic Mathematics. It is quite appealing and I have gone through some of the tips. But, for now, I feel, the child needs to learn concrete concepts - in a visual sense. And, seeing a square as a square rather than a number has tremendous benefits of later integration.

Finally, the surprise and the biggest discovery today -

The Checkerboard

OMG! OMG! I am pinching myself - unable to believe this. Yippeee Yahoo! And, thanks a trillion, zillion times to Free Montessori

I had just posted to another person asking advice on what next to invest on, for frankly Checker board for Large Numbers as well as Decimal numbers was on the expensive end to buy. Yes, yes, I myself am a person who likes kids to work hands on - sensorial and no laptops or TV etc. But, then, I either wish I could afford all of the material or make them myself at the speed with which I could outpace my kids' interest or learning pace.

I could of course try to make the complete bead material or just buy the bead material and make a laminated checkerboard myself....but, this one serves the purpose for now! Amen!

Montessori at our home - 1

This is just to record my activities with my son.

Ever since we moved back from Phoenix, I have been on the lookout for Montessori schools in Pune. Unfortunately though, I do not have the luxury here. Hence, I have put him in a regular school. I have been introducing things to him so that he can continue from where he left. His Montessori schooling has been a huge learning process for me and reading through Montessori has and is transforming me far far more than my son. I feel deeply connected and thankful to Maria Montessori.

At 5 1/2 years, our son was already familiar with multiplication. He could even recite the tables from 1-12. Hence, the next logical extension was to keep him going along that path.

To my great relief, I found Montessori supply India very much here in Pune. The materials are authentic.

I purchased the
a) Multiplication board
b) Division board

I have introduced the basic division and he quite likes the division board much much more than the multiplication one! (Obviously it is the later lesson)

With the blank pages of his Mathematics notebook, we are currently making Decanomial set ourselves. Ananth found it way too interesting to cut the squares himself.

And, well, what a great great way to explain the concept of squaring a number! Now, he has the visual sense of 1 square, 2 square etc. We wrote down

1^2 = 1
2^2 = 4
etc all the way up to 100.

Since it is all in paper, I plan to stick it to some card stock so that while he has the squares on one side, he would have the "colours" on the other.

Other than that, he himself picked up Hindi reading and writing. Today, he moved ahead to chandrabindu, visarga and ru matra. He was quite excited to pronounce Krshna the correct way and not as Kreeshna!!! :)

And, I sensed that his musical sense improved with a simple chinese toy that I had purchased over 2 years ago. He himself tapped and said - "Amma, this is sounding like Do re mi...". Then, he went over and over again a 10 times and discovered that Do re mi and Sa ri ga are sounding the same! And, wonder of wonders today he could actually sing it fully using the toy. He said, I feel so happy to have sung it perfectly. It is such a joy to see a child discover for himself - being allowed to figure out and discover. What greater joy than to let the child's innerself unfold itself.
For the first time, I could actually feel what Maria Montessori has been talking about the "moment of discovery".

My next plans
1) Complete the decanomial
2) He seems to ask lots of questions on geography and history - figure out some different way of presenting it
3) See how we can get to talk abt the animals/plants of the geographies....
4) Make the bead bars myself from some wonderful sites
5) How to better explain the anomalies in English - like why do we have w in write that is silent, k in knife that is silent!

More as and when I have something to pen down and to keep track of myself. My humble thanks to all those who have painstakingly recorded their journeys.

Living Montessori Now
Montessori at home
Youtube - Montessori Presentation Videos
Teaching from a tacklebox
Montessori Elementary material
And his school
Heritage Montessori School Phoenix

And, many many more that I have not been keeping track of.

Thank you.