Letters From the Homefront

Well, I don't have a picture-packed post of the kiddos this time. In fact, I don't know that I have more than a small handful of pictures of what they have done. We have been very busy, though. It has been almost 2 months since I wrote my first post about using work journals in our home . In the last few weeks, we have seen the results of sticking with it and consistently keeping up with our new system. My little class of five - well, the three of them who are using the journals - are really blossoming under this system of accountability combined with work journals. So, although I didn't get to capture all the work we've been doing (because I have been so busy with them!), we have our journals as proof! I thought I would share a few progression pictures with you, to show the journey so far and where we have come from where we started. When we began, I gave them a few days just to write down what they were doing, and left them open-ended opportunities to choose wh...

I didn't think I would be considering even going to any kind of work plans for either of my youngest two. They are both too young, and a plan is not necessary. What I did decide to do, however, is prepare for a work plan. I know that when I gave the older three a work journal and they began to use it, Bug would waste no time in asking for one. That's how it generally goes with a younger child- "Oh, the big kids get one? Where's mine???" When she did ask, I just explained to her that she didn't need one just yet, and surprisingly, she hasn't made an issue out of it. Jessica from  Montessori Trails  shared  in this post  about her son's first work plan - that he started at 5 1/2 years. While I was working on the accountability part of our new work journals (explained next post), I was thinking about the work plan that Jessica's son used. She offers a great printable, by the way, for any one who wants to use the same card style for their little o...

*This is being posted a little later than expected! There has been so much going on here, and I have a handful of posts just floating around in my head and in draft, and will be spending some time catching up on what we have been doing!                           Accountability and Work Journals I knew that when we began to use work journals, there would come a day when more accountability with the older three would need to be put in place. *In my opinion* it isn't enough to just expect them to get everything done you want them to do every day, when sometimes, that just won't happen. There needs to be some underlying direction to make sure that the necessary basics get completed each day/week.  After about a week of getting good practice recording their work in the journals, I brought BACK the small pocket chart I had planned on using, but am using it in a different way.  Not to continually repeat mys...