Blob and Geomamma -
Hands down the most useful online resource for me has been joining the Montessori Homeschool Group on Yahoo.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/playschool6/Many of the Montessori homeschoolers with blogs post in this group regularly. It is a very supportive and generous group. Some are homeschooling at the elementary level and have years under their belt. I think that it's really important to hear about Montessori from a homeschool perspective because it can't work the same way as the classroom.
I also have the problem of the kids going through the material faster than I can present/create it. Any ideas for that?
My response is, don't buy tons of materials (this is easier said than done). It's really expensive and painful when your child is not interested in a particular material or is beyond it to begin with. I console myself with the fact that my DS2 will use it all eventually, still this is wishful thinking. I found it really overwhelming in the beginning and I thought that I needed all the materials to homeschool using the 'Montessori Method'. I was really really wrong. For us it's the philosophy that works, not necessarily the materials. When started I did spend a lot of time in prep, but now I don't because DD6 'gets it' and is then ready to move on or even worse, is not interested. For example, I can't spend tons of money or time on nomenclature cards for a one time use. We just read books instead. Now I try to include my kids in the prep part and we all learn together. This is best for us because my DD is prone to perfectionism. She sees that I don't have all the answers and watches me figure things out. I do very little prep now and my 'presentations' are extremely casual. I try to keep with the philosophy as much as humanly possible and use concrete materials whenever possible. I hope this is helpful.
Annaliisa
