Do you have any suggestions for materials you think have lasted a long time? Any suggested starting place for learning to apply the method? Just picking brains as soon as I find them.
As for the materials, I'm probably not the best person to ask because we've only been using the materials for a year. The one thing that I have noticed with my DD is that the areas where she is ahead she has very little interest in the materials. I'm not sure if that is just our experience or if this is typical. My DD doesn't like math and using the math materials have been invaluable because we can create so many games based on the activities that are completely engaging. I would post this question to the group. It would be interesting to see what everyone has to say. I would also go through the scope and sequence, and albums to try and figure out where to place your child. You could then look ahead and see how much use you will get out of a particular material. With that said, some of the materials that my DD has not used all that much were still key to understanding a larger concept. So, even with my limited experience, I don't really regret buying some of the lesser used materials because they got her from point A to point B.
As for applying the method, I'm probably not the best person to ask because we've only been seriously attempting this for a year
. For us it has been extremely hard to put this all into practice. I didn't realize how absolutely controlling I was until I started Montessori. When I was reading and reading and reading it all seemed so amazing and beautiful and peaceful. I didn't realize how hard it would be to truly let my DD to choose her own work. I still struggle, even though I know what I should do, I slip up... a lot. For the first 3 months we dropped everything 'academic' and just focused on behaviour, mostly my behaviour! I also spent serious amounts of time watching her while 'unschooling'. It really helped me to understand how she learns. At the same time we started with the practical life stuff. I think because DD was always so interested in academics we neglected to teach her how to do anything for herself. With my DS2 I am not making that same mistake. Preparing the environment was also key. I had to reorganize our entire house so that everything was accessible to DD6 and DS2.
I decided to go with Montessori because I don't think that anything else would work with my DD. She is strong and tough as nails. When we started homeschooling I quickly realized that she wasn't going to do ANYTHING that I asked of her or that any particular curriculum or gov't body expected of her. This is still really hard for me but I think that we've made progress. She now says things like, 'Maria wouldn't do that' and, she's always right. This helps me, mostly it makes me laugh, but on more than one occasion it has made me cry. Montessori is not for the faint of heart!
