I have labels on all the spice jars in my pantry. I might not use half of those spices, but they look really nice on the shelf, and when I find out someday how to actually use marjoram, I’ll know just where to find it.
We just had our first Parent Education Night of the school year...and we all wore our labels.
My dogs have labels, in case they get lost.
We are a society that labels. We label for identification, for clarity, for advertisement purposes, for bragging rights (“I’m a big sister!” tee shirts).
In a classroom, labeling makes the difference between finding your child’s jacket (that he left on the playground) hanging neatly on his hook rather than having to dig through the lost and found basket. Labeling means that your child will not be frustrated by trying to put her classmate’s size 4 boots on her size 6 feet because they are both the exact same shade of hot pink. Labeling means that everyone who brings in black snow pants from LL Bean will be able to put on the right ones even in the mass confusion that is “getting ready for recess” in the winter time. Labeling means the right Knuffle Bunny goes home with the right child.
So please label everything that you can—coats, hats, sweatshirts, boots, shoes, slippers, maybe even socks, and underwear. But not your kids; we really do know who they are!
The start of the summer tends to line up with the end of another school year. And you know what that means: summer vacations, planning childcare, scheduled activities and more. Making sure your children have fun in the sun doesn’t mean they can’t learn while they’re doing it! Instead of babysitters and streaming cartoons, here are some fun activities or opportunities to keep your child’s mind geared towards learning year-round.
Gardening
Whether it’s the “I can do it myself!” phase for 0-6 year olds, or the “I can think it myself!” for the 6-12 year olds, gardening is a great opportunity for learning. Not only can they learn how plants grow with a proper mixture of sun, nutrients, and water, but they can also practice personal responsibility and being in charge of watering the garden or houseplants. You can build off of the garden for different crafts or learning: learning about butterflies and drawing or coloring new ones, teach them about vegetables and healthy eating, and more! Fruits & vegetables by the end of the summer is a tasty way to show the results of hard work.
Libraries
Summers are the busy time of year for libraries, as most offer summer programs for children and teens when schools get out. Visiting the Weaver or Riverside libraries can encourage that self-directed learning as they pick out books, help them practice reading, and help with that tricky bridge of abstraction—switching from concrete to abstract thinking. There’s always story times that can be fun for the little ones as well!
Exploration
What child doesn’t want to spend time running around outside when the weather is warm and the skies are clear. Finding nearby parks and trails to explore is that balance for both. Give them the opportunity to feel the breeze and bring a native plants & animals book to see if they can spot them. Parks like the Rose Larisa Memorial Park also offer fun history about Rhode Island.
Summer Camps
Just because the school year is over, doesn’t mean the learning has to be. Ocean State Montessori School has our Summer Camp program , and is offered in eight one-week sessions with a new theme introduced every two weeks. Themes like “Hooray for the USA!” where campers learn about US history and crafts, and “Movin’ and Groovin’” which gets campers up, active, and learning! The OSMS Summer Camp is a wonderful opportunity for children three-to-six years old to have their first camp experience, filled with indoor & outdoor activities such as science experiments, storytelling, swimming lessons, field trips and more! Though this year’s summer camp is currently full, we do offer vacation camps in February and April and hope to open more spaces for our summer camps in 2019. Please email office@oceanstatemontessori.org for more information. Visit our site to learn how Ocean State Montessori School can be an excellent fit for you child.
Looking
for activities that will keep your kids busy on the weekends or during spring breaks? Give their energy some focus by
taking your family on these educational day trips in Southern New England.
There are plenty of great museums bringing history to life, entertaining outings with hands-on learning opportunities, and dazzling artwork displays. Here are just a few educational kids activities your whole family will enjoy.
Museums
Museum of Natural History and Cormack Planetarium
The Museum of Natural History is Rhode Island's only natural history museum and is home to the state's only public planetarium! The museum has served as a unique educational, scientific and cultural resource by offering exciting exhibits and programming that provide ways for children and families to learn about our world and its people.
For the local history buff in your family, the Museum of Work and Culture shares the stories of those living in Rhode Island’s mill towns in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Your kids can experience what life was like through nine immersive exhibits, audio and video presentations, hands-on activities, and more.
Fresh on the heels of reconstruction, The Warwick Center for the Arts aims to unite the community through a variety of arts activities. Exhibits, art camp for kids, and workshops will help bring out your child’s inner Rembrandt.
Outdoor Educational Activities
Looking to get your kids outside? These outdoor educational destinations will have your family learning and having fun under the sun.
Get up close and personal with the animals in one of the oldest zoos in the country at Roger Williams Park Zoo . What started as a small animal collection in 1872 has now grown to the home of more than 160 animals in natural looking surroundings. Other activities include rides and an ever-expanding list of special events.
With a hands-on experiential learning approach, Save The Bay environmental educators introduce families to everything Narragansett Bay has to offer. Your child can discover local marine life through Seal Watch Cruises, Bay Adventure Boat Trips, BayCamp, and the Exploration Center and Aquarium.
Delight your kids with a trip through the Green Animals Topiary Gardens . Featuring over 80 pieces of topiary, your kids can explore living plants sculpted into birds, animals, geometric shapes, and ornamental designs.
To feed
your child’s hunger to learn even more, Ocean State Montessori School fosters
independence, self-esteem, and a lifelong love of learning for children in
preschool through sixth grade. Learn more about providing a strong education
for your child by visiting the Ocean State Montessori School
website
or calling 401-434-6913
.
Our goal is to make homework practices meaningful and effective. As with the work in our classrooms, our desire is that homework is child initiated. However, we also encourage that homework become a collaborative practice among the family based on the interests of the child. One purpose of completing homework that is separate from the task itself is to create productive work habits outside of the classroom. Inside the classroom, the students’ work expectations are rigorous and therefore, homework should not derail the stamina they are building up each day. Children should want to learn from their work, rather than feel burdened by it. Montessori has never advocated for giving an assignment and expecting it back by a certain date. Instead, Montessorians like to see that homework is incorporated into the child’s day at home, rather than be a specific task, squeezed into everyone’s already busy schedule because it “has to get done.”
As a true extension of the work done in the classroom, homework should support the areas of reading, language, math and practical life skills. Please consider the following suggestions and ideas to incorporate into your child’s daily routine as their “homework.” Find the things that excite and motivate your child to learn.
Reading and Language:
- Read together. Take turns being the reader and the listener. Read books, magazines, comics, newspapers, menus, signs….there are unlimited options all around you!
- Visit the library.
- Keep journals or diaries.
- Write letters, postcards, or even just notes to each other or to friends and family.
- Play games with their spelling words. Search for them while you are reading or out in the community. Try playing the Popcorn game with them (ask your OSMS elementary student, they know what the Popcorn game is, and if not, here's a brief explanation: http://alonganderson.blogspot.com/2012/04/popcorn-spelling-game.html
)
- Practice fast facts in all operations, especially addition (up to 20) and multiplication (up to the 10s table). Make up stories about the numbers that are meaningful and interesting to your child. While we encourage them to memorize these facts, try to avoid teaching tricks and short-cuts. Those abstract methods will be addressed later on. Please note that in Montessori classrooms, we teach addition and multiplication before subtraction and division.
- Encourage your child to help out in the kitchen. Reading (or even creating) recipes is a great way to connect language and math as well!
- Practice shoe tying! There are lots of neat tricks and methods that can make this daunting task easier.
- Have your children participate in caring for living things at home, whether it’s your pets, your plants or your outside environment.
- Visit museums and community events.
- Explore volunteer options as a family.
- Participate in sports, or a music or art class.
- Encourage independence whenever at all possible. Tasks may take longer, or need to be done more than once, but in the end, your child is becoming a problem solver and an active learner, which makes them more prepared for the challenges they will face as they grow older.