Saturday, July 30, 2011

Montessori and Motivation (Article)

I mentioned a few days ago that I've been seriously reassessing how our homeschool runs.  I'm pretty excited about some of the changes I'd like to make--
creating more structure yet giving them more independence,  
or another way of putting that... creating academic work time yet giving them freedom within that,
working with them on goal-setting, 
creating the environment that gives them that autonomy.
I read the book The Montessori Controversy and have taken lots of great ideas from that.  Today I came across this article.  It made for some really interesting reading since it addresses some of the questions I've been asking myself and wrestling with...
How do I help prepare the environment so that the kids take more control of their learning?
How do I help them become independent learners?  
How do I bring in new materials and raise new topics and yet take the "teaching" out of their learning?
What is my role in 'motivating' them to tackle difficult subjects (for them)?

This article talks about the much discussed topics of late -- rewards and praise. It goes in depth about autonomy, interest/meaning, competence, and relatedness.

More articles from Montessori Life, spring 2011. I placed a few links to other issues of Montessori Life (2010, 2009) in the yellow section of my Blogs I Enjoy page.

Anyway, hope to share more as I get some things ironed out and get our homeschool room ready for the new semester. My brain's working overtime, the ideas are flowing, but can I make this work? 
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ADDING TO THIS:  I came across another AMI (Montessori) paper that talks about the Montessori's View of Cosmic Education.  It's another good overview if you want to learn more about the Montessori Great Lessons or the discussion of Fundamental Needs. As I wrote a few days ago, it's time to re-share the first two great lessons with my kids so I've been reading up about things again.


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