"Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Pre-school Years"  

by Elizabeth G. Hainstock

This is a really interesting little book, full of things to do with pre-school age children (even if they are not going to go to school). The Montessori approach to learning is made very clear and practical – as for example in instructions on how to make Montessori material yourself, or with your child, for example alphabet letters and numbers  with a sandpaper finish for tactile emphasis. There are suggestions on how to design a room that is friendly to your child, how to encourage various practical activities, and a great deal more. 

There is a follow up to the book of special interest to home-educators perhaps, called " Teaching Montessori in the Home: The School Years" by the same author. 

From Lee Havis's introduction to the book: 

Claim quality togetherness with your child and fully enjoy the sensitive and formative years from two to five by adopting proven teaching techniques in your own home. This acclaimed guide puts the entire range of the Montessori system within your reach, so you can make the most of your child's vital years. Teaching Montessori in the Home has already helped thousands of parents with the techniques, exercises, and easy-to-make Montessori materials that are essential for success. It demonstrates how you can develop your child's sensory awareness and practical life skills, as well as lay the foundation of preliminary reading, writing, and math. The author is recognized as one of the most influential proponents of the Montessori method in the United States and throughout the world due to her concise, accessible writing style. This bestselling book grants you the opportunity to teach your child at home and gain a truly rewarding experience. Hainstock takes great pains here to offer the reader a very thoughtful yet concise introduction to the Montessori philosophy.

Here are some --Amazon.com customer reviews 

"I have two small children and I also want them to be exposed to the Montessori method, however, I want to homeschool them as well. This seemed a formidable task until I found this book... which gives me the guidelines and instruction I need to successfully utilize the Montessori method in my own home. I highly recommend this book to all parents, whether homeschooling or not."  

"Hainstock's easy to understand format will be helpful to the parent who knows little or nothing about how to use the Montessori method. The instructions and presentation of each of the learning activities mentioned in this book, in my humble opinion, are excellent. Parents today are busy and they don't have time to wade through books with complicated, confusing information. Their time is valuable, and Hainstock is sensitive to this fact. She is also sensitive to the child and his or her needs. Her lessons truly represent Montessori in every way" 

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Let's Discover Science

Introduction

The purpose of the Let's Discover Science books is to give the children sufficient basic skills to learn for themselves what they want to learn. The child should, as far as possible, be given those ideas which form the basis of scientific thought. Competition and grading can well be dispensed with in a course of this nature: the children should be encouraged to co-operate with each other in experimenting and in enjoying the beauties of scientific discovery, and learning from their peers should be a normal part of everyday classroom activity.

Before the child can be led to any important concepts of science, it is important to break down certain concepts which already, perhaps, are making their way into his mind through other aspects of his education.

The first is the idea that the textbook is some kind of divine writ, to be accepted without question, swallowed without digestion, and regurgitated in the examination.

The next: that to every question there is one correct answer and only one correct answer, and that this correct answer must always be given in the words of the book.

The next: that every effect is due to only one cause and not, as so often happens, to a multiplicity of causes.

How can the teacher break down some of these fallacious concepts? By encouraging the child to ask questions, to conduct experiments for himself, and to make guesses. By giving children plenty of practice at suspending their judgement and being prepared to wait and observe rather than to jump to quick conclusions; and even by the teacher and pupils' occasionally saying together, 'We don't know', followed by, 'Let's find out'.

The five books in the series are designed to give children a number of skills and concepts. While the text deals, of course, with scientific matters, the emphasis must always be on learning the skills and concepts and not on learning the information contained in the text.

Observing, recording, the analysis of such recordings, and the practical applications of such analyses, are all introduced from the earliest stages. In addition a number of practical skills have been taught: learning to draw, to copy and trace: learning to use language accurately, learning to guess with reasonable accuracy; learning to work from printed instructions.

The pages of the book shou1d form only the beginning of the chi1d's quest for scientific knowledge. Children should be encouraged to apply the skills and concepts they acquire from the book to every aspect of their environment and life.

A few notes for the teacher with regard to certain pages of the text have been printed at the back of the book.

David Horsburgh

CD's:  A series of talks and dialogues on education by J Krishnamurti

1  "Awakening Intelligence in Students"   (14 minutes)

This was a discussion with teachers at one of the Krishnamurti Schools in India, Rishi Valley, in 1970.

"Is it possible to awaken, or bring about, a quality if Intelligence which will act adequately when any problem arises in the life if the student?"

2  "What is the intention of parents and educators?"      

Talk 1 at the Rishi Valley educational conference, India, 1979 

 "What is the purpose of this so-called education? Is it to condition the children so that they have a career? Is it possible to cultivate the whole of the mind? ...... "

3  "Will you be like the rest of the world?"

A discussion with students at Rishi Valley Krishnamurti School, India, in 1970.

"You are going out from this place, so called educated, pass some exams, and go out into the world.

 

The world . . . is like a jungle, where everybody is against another. Each human being is fighting the other human beings, and society is built like that.

 

You're going to be thrown out into that world, where you will go to University, get a degree, get married, get a job, and all the rest of it; children and so on and on. But around you, in your office, everywhere, there is this endless battle going on. It's really like a jungle.

How does one prepare oneself to live in that jungle? That is really a very important educational question . . . . "

4  "What is the function of a school?"

Talk 2 at the Rishi Valley educational conference, India, 1979.

Krishnamurti points out that the word "school" means "leisure", and says:

"When you have leisure, when you are not busy with something or other, then you discovers a great deal. No book has it. And we . . . are living on books. . . somebody sells us ideas. But we have never looked into the book of ourselves, which is a very, very complex book. Endless chapters. And we haven't time, or inclination, to read that book. And at a school of this kind where there is a sense of beauty – this valley is a very beautiful, if you have notices it - to have all this, and not have leisure to look! [at it].

 

To learn from looking. I think that is much more important than learning from books.

 

One has to learn certain things from books. But to learn through what you see, what you hear, it brings about a great sense of sensitivity, which few people have, because they don’t look. They don't look at somebody's face, what sort of dress they are wearing, how they behave . . .  they don't observe all these things. And I'm sure one learns far more through observation and hearing."

5  "What is the point of education?"             

A dialogue between Krishnamurti and Professor Allan Anderson, of San Diego State University, in 1972.

"What is the function, the quality of the educator? He must establish a relationship with the student which is not authoritarian; a relationship of mutual inquiry, study . . . . .

 

The love of what I'm doing explodes everything else; that very love is the highest form of excellence. The more I learn the more I love. Relationship in which all sense of making me conform to your ideal disappears, therefore it is a relationship of real affection and that is enough."

6  "You must question everything"                            

A talk at Rajghat Krishnamurti School, in 1969.

 "[The students] are questioning everything! And you must! Your habits, your traditions, your values, - moral values, ethical values, - your society, your culture, everything must be questioned! Otherwise, if you don't question, you'll never find out.

 

And because [the scientists] have questioned, they have gone to the moon! Technologically they have questioned – but they don't question inwardly. They don't say "what am I living for?" "What is all this about?"

 

. . . so that you find out for yourself. So that you create a new human being in the world, not a human being that repeats, repeats, repeats; goes to college, passes exams, gets a job, family and then dies . . ."

7  "Inward Flowering"                                                   

A discussion, mostly with students, at Brockwood Park School, in 1976.

Krishnamurti begins: 

"I think it would be good if we could talk over this morning the question of whether here, in this community, each one is flowering, and growing inwardly. Or are we each following a certain narrow groove, so that at the end of our life we will realise that we have never taken the opportunity to flower completely, and regret it the rest of our life?" Could we go into that?

 

We should ask, I think, not only now as students at Brockwood, but also as educators, whether we are inwardly and perhaps also outwardly – they are really related – whether we are growing, not physically taller or stronger, but inwardly, psychologically, flowering".

 

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