montessori homeschooling - bruna masalin
Hi there! My name is Bruna, I'm a mom to Levi (almost 4) and Lara (1). Today I'll be sharing about our Homeschool experience, hope you enjoy reading!
We've been doing our Bilingual Homeschool ever since Levi turned 3. I used to work in Admissions at a Bilingual School in China, and our Early Child Education program was Montessori inspired. So I knew even back then, if I had children I would build a Montessori learning environment for them at home. I never thought I would end up choosing to homeschool, but yet here I am, following a new passion that was born into my heart once I became a mom. I love being able to dedicate all of my time to my children, on the hard days and on the easy days, it's always a blessing to minister love to their hearts and to watch them become curious about the world around them.
We have a homeschool curriculum we've been following for almost a whole year, called The Peaceful Press, it's a great source for parents who want to include their kids in their daily life. We focus mostly on simples chores, literature and crafts. We took a break from our regular rhythm this summer, so our most used curriculum is kept away to be used again in the Fall. Levi is very young, so I don't really do activities everyday because I believe at his age the best way to learn is through playing and exploring his learning stations at home. Once or twice a week we make some time for crafts, we've been using a Summer curriculum from The Little Oak Learning. The material is nature and rhythm based, which works perfect for us!
Summer curriculums are all about nature walks, bees, birds and butterflies. We love to incorporate everything we do and see to the learning process. After we read a few stories about bees, we planted some bee friendly flowers in our garden and taught Levi about the importance of welcoming them into our environment. The best part about our Summer curriculum is that she gives you fun craft ideas to add to each lesson, and she also shares activities you can do when you go for your nature walk. It's always neat to have an inspiring material that can be used as a guide.
I'm from Brazil and my husband is American, so we speak Portuguese and English at home, therefore the kids are exposed to two languages everyday. To make the learning process smooth for them, I have bilingual books set in the shelves and we also play some Brazilian music that the kids love to listen to. That way they not only see us speak in two different languages, but they also get the chance to learn how to read in both English and Portuguese. And through music Levi gets to practice his Portuguese, it's the best way to practice for him, because we don't have any Brazilian friends in the area. So far our homeschool adventure has been really fun and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us for the years ahead.
Thanks so much for reading!
Xoxo,
Bruna Masalin
Links:
The Peaceful Press - www.thepeacefulpreeschool.
The Little Oak Learning - www.thelittleoaklearning.com