Preparing to Teach Montessori 3-6 at Home

Round up post! All the things you need to get started teaching your 3-6 year old at home this school year.

As I begin planning for the 2020/2021 school year I am full of excitement. I’ve been planning to homeschool–even before the pandemic yet I know so many Mama’s hearts are hurting right now. Not everyone planned this route. They planned on a traditional classroom (Montessori or not) and now face a hard decision. Whether you were already planning to homeschool or are now considering it, I hope this post is helpful to you in gearing up and getting excited for teaching at home (at least for a while!)

Everything I am listing here is a training, book, or resource that I have used or am currently using. I will be adding more to this post as I come across things in my planning over the next couple of weeks as well.

Training

• Montessori Homeschool by Design | Ages 3-6 – This is a course by Trillium Montessori and I am VERY excited about it. I am absolutely signing up for this one this month.
• P2P Summit | Principles in Practice – Trillium Montessori Summit.
• Montessori in a New World | How to Reopen Schools (Free Webinar!) – If you do a co-op or work with children in any setting I am sure this will be beneficial! I am watching this one soon.
• Jump Start Normalization | Practicing Grace and Courtesy, Character Education, and Community Building – I am planning on this one this fall. Just not sure when yet. I need to grow in this area.
• Classroom Setup Bootcamp – I am considering this one. I need some more organization in my life!
• Homeschool of the Redwoods – 8 week program to learn from a Montessori instructor gone homeschooler how to implement Montessori from home. I have not personally done this training but I have done others with her and have loved the content. Her blog and podcast are great as well!

Books

• “The Montessori Method” by Maria Montessori – If you haven’t read this yet, it is a MUST read. Montessori’s works can be dense at times (especially if you are not an avid reader or have been out of academia for a minute) but it is totally accessible and easily done. Just break it up if you need to. Montessori’s works are free on Project Gutenberg to download or you can grab a copy on Amazon really cheap.
• “The Absorbent Mind” by Maria Montessori
• “The Montessori Toddler” by Simone Davies – This book is 0-3 and heavy on practical life. It is an easy read and it has a great list of activities and is very helpful with early activities for the 3-6 classroom (practical life, art, science, fine and gross motor movement, open ended toy ideas and more!)
• “Montessori Read and Write” by Lynne Lawrence – this is an absolute must read. It makes teaching everything from sound games to writing and reading so easy! It is out of print but I highly recommend grabbing a used copy. Don’t do Amazon… it’s inflated right now. Instead, hop on a Montessori group and buy from another parent. That’s what I did! Groups I love listed below.
• “Math Works: Montessori Math and the Developing Brain” by Michael Duffy – This is a great overview and explanation of the why behind the method.

Blogs/Websites

These are blogs or websites that I have found to be in alignment with Montessori and a great for inspiration and planning.

• Info Montessori – Montessori Primary Guide (3-6). This is one of my most visited sites. They have everything – videos, descriptions, examples of how to present materials and scope and sequence.
• Trillium Montessori – I’ve loved the articles, training, and their resource packets/printables
• The Kavanaugh Report – This is one I have frequently visited over the last couple of years!
• The Teacher and the Tots – I have grabbed some really great ideas from this source last year for our tot school and for the 3-6 classroom.
• Living Montessori Now – she has great round up posts and some how-to’s. I’ve read her book on teaching Grace and Courtesy and it is a good primer for getting ready to teach these lesson although I do wish it were a bit more detailed on scope.
• Carrots are Orange – This site gets into the why behind the method and has some great articles on scope and sequence plus presentation ideas.

Favorite Places to Grab Materials

• Kid Advance – We’ve gotten the bulk of our materials from here and have been very happy with them!
• Pink Montessori – We’ve grabbed all our Montessori puzzles from here.
• Montessori by Mom – We have gotten some practical life, language objects, and our mortar and pestle here. Great experience!

Other than this I’ve grabbed some things off of Etsy from a couple different shops.

What are you doing to prepare to teach Montessori 3-6 at home? Do you have favorite resources you’d like to share?

Hope this is helpful!

XOXO,

Amanda