This is the title of a COMPLETE course that teaches the Montessori reading method available for free online. It's an amazing series of videos featuring Margaret Homfray, a Montessori teacher who studied with Maria Montessori for 20 years. I have not watched all the videos, considering Ryann is a few years away from reading, but the ones I have are certainly interesting. She has a very blunt style that I both like and abhor, but once you get the whole picture of what she's talking about it's really quite cool. Anyone who is looking to do a traditional Montessori reading curriculum, this course is the place to get your info!
Some general things I liked about her introduction: She stresses always showing the proper way to do things, don't let the child figure it out on their own if they aren't doing it right. It is much harder to correct something that has been done wrong for a long time.
Children pick up reading the best between the ages of four and six. She says any earlier and they are bored with it before they have a chance to really use it and any later they are likely to not catch on as fast.
Don't read small children fantasy books, only present them with facts. This I thought the most interesting tip of all. Homfray likened it to being exposed to a country you had never been in and when you asked about the culture people just told you made up stories. It would be so confusing. Let young children get a grasp on reality and then introduce fantasy when they understand that it is fantasy. I'm not sure that I'm going to go pitch three quarters of Ryann's book collection, but this gave me much to think about!
I will probably reference this course in the future as it's got a lot of gems in it. I just have to find time to watch the whole thing!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
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