Montessori Method

We often heard the term “Learn Through Play” , I have read many books on early childhood education, prior to my workshop I have also read my course manuals and text book, but never really fully comprehend how exactly can a kids benefit through play.

It was really a humble learning experience the past 13 days. Not only I have learned so much but also realize that simple activities a kids do can have so much impact on them. Maria Montessori is really a genius with her philosphopy and the way she invented a education system in a very orderly way which will fully benefit a child.

Montessori stressed on freedom of choice, freedom of speech for the kids. Many people will not understand how can freedom displine a child, but it’s really possible.

There are 5 areas in Montessori Curriculum : Pratical Life (care of self, care of environment, development of motor skills, social grace & courtesy) , Sensorial (tactile, gustatory, olfactory, visual, auditory), Culture Studies (zoology, history, geology and geography),  Mathematics ( 6 groups) , languages (4 groups)

Each groups has a set of activities with it different aims and variation and extension and it’s all done in sequence. A creative teacher can even add on more activities to it.

It was really insteresting to learn all the activities in all these areas. There’s proper ways of handling each material and using the material where the kids will learn to have a love of orders and be discplined.  And there’s sequencing of the material where the kids learn from concrete to abstract. Alot of activities in practical lifes are things that we take for granted, but it’s so vital for the kids development.

Take for example a spooning activity for a 2 1/2 years old will train his pincer grips, wrist movement, eye hands coordination, concentration, learning about volumn and capacity in a indirect way and more.

All the activities in the 5 areas are directly or indirectly link with one another. After going through all the materials, I can see how a kid can benefit through it and learn in a fun and interesting way and also so stress free instead of the boring spoon feeding session our school system is currently doing.

But sadly, in M’sia it’s hard to apply full montessori teaching in school where the school hour is just a mere 3 hours a days and so much for the kids to learn and to cramp into this 3 hours.  Conventional method still needed to be apply when the kids is 5 and 6 to prepare them to enter our conventional primary school.

I also realize that it’s so vital for a kid to start schooling at the age of 2 1/2. Schooling as in attending a Montessori playschool which will really fully benefit the kids due to the sensitive periods of the kids. Of course again, it’s hard to find a Montessori playschool for a 2 1/2 yro in M’sia, it’s even harder so to find one this town I’m staying. I’m just glad that I’ve taken up this course and I can start my own play and learn session with WH though my materials will be limited.

I had a tiring time during the workshop which I had to remember the names, aims, age group, variation and the presentation of each and every single materials and activities and their sequence. Also to remember each single steps of the presentation of the activities. It was really tough to cramp a 30 hours lesson into 2 days lesson but at the end I still learn a lot.

By the way, during my practical exam, I have to redo the sensorial part. I was really confident in my exam, but after sensorial, I saw both lecturers in deep discussion and I knew I must have done something wrong, and I think I did quite badly after that on pratical life and language session.

At sensorial part, I had randomly picked a question on working on with the long rods and I fumbled a bit on the presentation. The redo part, I picked a topic on the binomial cubes, I was very confident on using it but again affected by the earlier bad performance, I had a mental block for a moment. But lucky I passed but with a lot of dissapointment in me.  I had high expectation on myself on this as I really want to excel to be a good teacher…. anyhow…. i guess I need more practise on the material.

About Workshop

The workshop I’ve attended lasted 13 days with 8 nights that I have to do 2 LAN subjects (Pengajian Malaysia & Moral studies) I have to sit for exam for the 2 LAN subjects and a practical exam for Montessori at the end of the workshop in which I have done and passed.

The workshop is attended by 30 of us. Only 8  (including me)are distant studies student from all over M’sia who are taking up the diploma exam. The rest are just attending the workshop to gain knowledge about Montessori Method. The 8 of us , 3 are full time housewife like me, trying to get a diploma for the sake of educating our own kids. 3 teachers , 1 as young as 18 year old, a principle who is taking charge of one of her dad’s kindy (she’s not really keen on doing the course but upon her mum insistent) and one air stewardess.

The other 22, one is a gentleman. Most are teachers, childcare owner, working mum of other profession, mum that work as teachers that came to get knowledge of Montessori Method for their kids sake and a handful teachers from Terengganu (sent by the gov I think) Their command of english is really bad and during the first day I was group with them to have a group discussion and I’m the only one who done the writing and talking and giving ideas…. reall sucks…. There were also 4 teachers from Kajang that supposingly to be a Montessori directeress… but gosh!! they dont even have the basic diploma in Montessori and yet they can be Montessori teachers. (that’s why they attended the workshop to get a cert of attendence) Their attitude in the workshop is not wholeheartely like us who is taking up exam. We who are taking exam is eager to jot down notes and tips but for them sometimes they even chit chat behind classroom…which is so sad. That’s why I realize finding a Montessori Play School in Malaysia is hard. Some school just put the name Montessori but dont fully and dont even apply montessori, some has montessori apparatus but dont have qualified teachers. These days want to find teachers that is so passionate in teaching is so hard to find, finding a good qualified montessori teacher is even harder.

There were 2 very well knowledgable ladies in our class. Their are in their 50s. One a very strong business minded woman who’s planning to venture into childcare and another a secondary school teachers who is attending the workshop to know about Montessori to teach her grandchildren. They are very knowledgable and during Q&A and sharing sessions they gave quite alot of enlightening views and info. Especially the secondary school teacher, she’s so passionate for her job and so caring for her students… this is the teachers that we are so lack of nowadays.

There’s also this one particulary lady… who has such a bad dress sense and selfish. She would basically snap pictures of every single material/apparatus and didn’t arrange it back properly on the shelf. She would pester us (diploma students) to lend her our book and get books from library from photocopying (their notes and ours different, and our lecturers said not to give out our notes to them, coz we actually paid for the notes for the course and exam and theirs is a simpler version), once we borrowed her, she would not lend it to other students saying that she doesnt like people to mess with her things and ask the other students to borrow the books from us. She was also trying to sell tumble tots CD to us (what she did was to burn the original into CDs and sell to us at RM10 each..claiming it to cheap.blah blah blah) and she even recorded videos on each presentation during the workshop and we are wondering on her intention. She claims to be a engineer and earning XXXXX amount of money for each tender and at the same time owns a childcare and she can even proudly claim that she rubs chillis padis on the students mouth if they ill-behaved. She didn’t had the shame and guilt in her when she mentioned that and in fact she was so proud on boasting it. I have kept a mental note that her center is in Damansara Jaya and I shall avoid it at all cost!!! Really kick butt!!

And the only gentleman is actually my lost long friend. We were from the same hometown, I knew him when I was in Form 2 but lost touch after I left school. I’m really surprise he’s in this line. Asked him why he’s in this teaching profession, he said he enjoys his job.  He used to be a kindy subject teacher and now a principle for a very well established Montessori kindy. And dont underestimate him….he’s a master degree holder from UM and he’s real good with children and he has the passion in this job… finding a male teacher these days is hard even in primary and secondary school… in a kindy is even very rare and for one who is really good at it is even harder to get.

We had 2 very good lecturers throughout the workshop. Especially for Mdm, she’s just so experienced and really good at her job. We certainly has learned alot from her.

The reason why our workshop is done together with the outsiders is simply to make up the headcount. I guess it would be tough and costly to run a workshop for just 8 students. There are pro and con…. pro being that with more people , during the Q&A and chatting, we get to know more on what’s going out especially in the education line…. the con is that we who are taking for exam hardly get to have full hands-on on the material and it’s hard for the lecturers to just focus on the 8 of us.

I also managed to mingle with the part time students during the LAN classes at night. (part time students are those taking diploma course and attended class twice a week)  and get to know that some day care in Klang valley really bad. One teacher mentioned that the child care where she’s working had the same menu for 3 years and is dry and not delicious. She cant do much because it’s the principle that buy the ingredient for the cooking lady to cook for the kids. I just pity the kids who are in this childcare and feel lucky that I dont have the headache of worrying if my kids are well taken care of in a childcare centers.

In my opinion, the teachers who painstakingly take up a diploma course in early childhood education are those who is passionate about their job. If not they wont be spending time and money to attend class and go through exam when what they can do is just attend workshop to get a cert of attendance. As parents, we will always want to look for good qualified teachers, seeing these part time students teacher… i know there are still hope to get a good qualified kindy teacher.

There’s also different between part time students and external students like me. Mdm (our very experienced lecturer) is very strict with her part time students (this is how good teachers are being trained) , the part timer really learn more than us external students through projects and assignemtns. They spent 30 hours on each subject while we external students only 2 days crash course for each subjets. If only I have no constraint, I will certainly go for part time course, because I really want to be trained to be one good teacher.  

After attending this workshop, I really have no regrets in taking up this course. In fact I secretly dream on going further (maybe get a degree in early childhood edu) and after the workshop I have the urge to work with children and I cant wait for the chance to really work in a montessori school. It wont be a high paying job, but working with children will certainly be fun. That’s something I have to do and am waiting for the right time and right choice.

I also strongly believes that parents should spent time to attend workshop like this. Parents should try to gain knowledge in early childhood education and on child development so that they dont really give so much stress on the kids and have too high expectation on them. 

While I Was Away…

The reason of my absent for 2 weeks was because I need to go back to Subang to attend a 13 days compulsory workshop for my course.

For the past 2 weeks, it’s again back to a 9 – 5 lifestyle for me.. in fact I leave home around 8.30 am everyday and came back only at about 10pm. I have mixed feeling for this kind of lifestyle. After staying home full time for 2 years, it’s a very refreshing change. But I do hate the jam at LDP each morning and certain nights. It has been years since I experienced this kind of rush hour jam. At one point I feel lucky that I dont have to go through that daily (except for that 2 weeks)

Being outside the house without the kids and with only adult interaction is refreshing. A few occation when my class ended early, I even went shopping alone. It’s also an eye opener experience when I mingle with the people (mostly teachers) during the workshop and get to know about our education system especially in the field of early childhood education.  I’ve gained knowledge and information on what’s going on in that field and I know what and how to set my expectation when looking for school for my kids.

While I enjoyed this freedom and Me-time, at the same time I’m also full of guilt when my kids asked for me. The first day I came home from class, WH was so angry with me that he doesn’t even want to come near me. JS was constanly crying. For 13 days, she cried each morning when I left home and also at night before she goes to bed. She kept counting the days and also kept saying “tomorrow you cannot go school” “tomorrow, no need to go anymore, I will hold you tight tight and dont let you go out” “i’m so angry, you never spent time with me, you never bring me out” ”I miss daddy and mummy, I’m so sad, I want to go home. daddy alone at home very sad….” ”I miss home, I miss lavender, I miss uncle sidek and abang…” I had such a hard time with her, good thing is that WH just angry with me for a day, other days he will happily see me off to class and happily welcome me back and straight away asked to be nursed.

I made a habit to call home everyday during lunch break…just like any working mum will do…. and most time JS is so long winded and refused to put down the phone… she kept saying “are you coming back now? on the way ah? what you doing now? where you have lunch? with who? what’s your friend’s name ? what’s your teacher’s name…… ” until I have to cut off the phone most time and my mum said that she will cried everytime I cut off the phone bluntly.

I have this contracting thoughts in me… i wish my course never end that I can keep going out, learn something and have me time but at the same time I can’t help to have it over soon so that my poor kids dont have to go through this ordeal.

My in-laws were also very worried and paranoid… kept asking me if the kids will be ok under my mum’s care and with me not around.

One of the evening I also brought my kids to visit a Montessori Kindy near my parent’s place. The reason is that I want to test on how much I’ve learned during the workshop if I will be able to distinguish a real Montessori school and those fake ones. I can say that the school is very impressive and the fees is cheap and they actually looking for teachers.  How I wish so much that i’m just staying near by and able to accept the job. I had a good chat with the principle who is a true Montessorian.. in fact she is trained in the same centered as me. How I wish there’s a place for me to pratice my studies and really work with children.

Kid’s Talk

This happened the other day at my parents place and what my mum told me.

JS was playing with my dad, as usual half way playing, this cunning girl pinched my dad. Therefore my dad gave her a nickname “Tay Yam Tut” (Tay as in her surname, Yam Tut 阴毒 in cantonese mean cunning) and my silly girl happily going with the name without knowing that my parents are teasing her.

Another night , when I just got back from class, JS suddenly came crying and complaint to me “Poh Poh called me Lee Yam Tut” (apparently she was on her little trick again and my mum called her Lee Yam Tut out of quick tongue – Lee is our family name)

JS kept crying and said ” I’m Tay Yam Tut , I’m Tay Yam Tut …. I’m not Lee Yam Tut”  I really laugh till tears rolling down my eyes.

_________________________________________

Yesterday sent JS to mandarin class after 2 weeks absent. One of the friend ( a boy which is a few years older than her) gave her a sweet. On the way home she was saying this to me

“Mummy, my kor kor gave me a sweet” She kept on repeating the My Kor Kor many times.

Me: “Why you say your kor kor?”

“He’s my friend. He’s very Leng Jai. Leng Jai kor kor is my kor kor….”

JS’s 4!

JS turned 4 last Friday (8/12), since I still had a full day class, I didn’t get to spent the day to celebrate with her.

On my way to class, I dropped both JS and WH at MIL’s place. SIL has promised to bring them out to celebrate. (also it’s good to give my mum a break after 2 weeks of taking care of the monkeys)

They have gone to 1U. I understand from SIL that they have queued for hours to have a picture taken with Disney characters. (photo in SIL’s camera)

Picked the kids and maid back to my parents place late in the evening after my class. Waited for hubby to finish work from Sban to cake the birthday cake together and it was not until 10pm that we finally get to sing birthday song and cut the cake.

 Just an ordinary cake. Dont have time to go order what she asked for.

 On top of the angpows she got from her aunties and grannies, she has received these pressies too….  Leappad from daddy and mummy, a collector edition of barbie from SIL#1, another barbie bath set from SIL#2 (that makes up to 3 barbie dolls she owned thus far…..and she hardly play with it.)

 Another cake cutting ceremony with the paternal grannies…

Weekends Update

These were what we did for the past 3 weekends.

25/11 On our way back to my parent’s place, we stopped by at Sepang. A1 was going on. Initially we thought that we needed to buy the tickets, so we just drove around the outside of the circuit to let the kids watch. Later we found out that it’s training session and admission is free, so we went in.

 WH: “this is my dream car”

 Posting with sexy models. I’m surprise WH is not at all scared to be carried by strangers.

Model in the making!

We didn’t stay long as we were not prepare for it (didn’t bring ear plug for the kids) and it was very hot.

Dropped off the stuffs at my parents place and then went over to SIL house to put up the xmas tree.

Later that day, we had dinner at the chinese restaurant to celebrate MIL’s birthday.

Sunday – Gone over to my girlfriend’s house to attend her wedding ceremony.

2nd weekend. Hubby brought the kids out with SIL while I was attending classes during Saturday and Sunday.

3rd weekend. I had my practical exam. We came back home early on Sunday.

I’m Back!!

It’s good to be back home and back online after two weeks.

I like spending time with my parents, but staying at their home is so different from staying at own home. So glad to be back.

It has been 2  long weeks without the PC, 1000 over feeds to read and and so many mails to read. For once I thought I could really slow down on my blogging after this 2 weeks break, but after reading the comments that still comes in during my absent and also while reading the feeds, I have the urge to blog again.  Really envy MG for having her own domain now(congrats MG for having your own domain!!) .. how I wish I could be as good as her in blogging.

I thought I can train my kids to be more independent and wean WH off breast during the last 2 week while I was away, but seems like it didn’t really work. When we are back home, they seems to be even more ‘manja’ than ever sticky to me like a super glue. WH from day to night only crying for nen nen. (I even tried to apply minyak cap kapak angin yesterday, hoping that the smell and spicy taste will stop him from nursing, but it didn’t work, he will cried complaining ”lat lat” and will continue to nurse) and everything else (from feeding to carrying a chair for him) is “Mummy Do”. Even JS wanted more of my attention to make up for the days when I was not home. There’s certainly alot of crying at home fighting for my attention this past few days.  :( Sometimes I wonder why my kids are so sticky and manja to me.