Luckily, our venture into the public school has been very rewarding so far: my older one has got a really wonderful teacher: kind, knowledgeable, understanding, creative, positive yet firm. We’ve encountered our first set of issues – Montessori-style script writing is not appreciated in our local public elementary schools, but after some pondering we decided it is not a battle worth fighting – as long as the teacher is courteous in her ways of insisting in writing in print, we can do it.

Yet lots of our friends weren’t so lucky with their teachers this year. I really like the advice by Melissa Taylor in Scholastic Parent & Child magazine, and since I couldn’t find these tips anywhere online to link to it, I just typed it here for anybody who needs help communicating with the teacher:

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Thanks to all kind comments! Your words are truly encouraging. So, here are some updates to the Russian presentations sections:

1. Introductory Words In Russian PPT (8 1/2 x 11, with pictures) file has been updated again with new words and illustrations,
2. and a new Introductory Russian Couplets 3 presentation is posted.

I’ll continue to add couplets files here: How to Teach Your Baby To Read: Materials (look for Step 2, Couplets and select Russian links).


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Happy New Year to everyone! My little one, Smiles, is more and more into homemade books. We read them a few times a day, and his most favorite ones – are our homemade poem-books. So, here is our latest one.

• Koshka Ona Umeet Prevrashat’sya, Novella Matveeva.

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Some more presentations from Isa: want cards – things that kids like to do, such as playing hockey, playing chess, flying kytes, etc. Randomizer is included and presentation can be viewed in English, Spanish, or German with or without the pictures.

• Learn to Read… in Spanish, English or German: Want Cards 1-3. Thanks to Isa!!(11/22/2009)

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I was able to find another file with paintings by El Greco among Isa’s fantastic collection. The file is updated with information about El Greco, some fascinating comparisons of his works with modern artists (scroll to the end), and even the randomizer template is updated for all three languages. Enjoy:

• Encyclopedic Knowledge – Art El Greco. This wonderful presentation is in English, German and Spanish. Thanks to Isa!!

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As I was reviewing the terrific presentations that were sent by Isa, I found a few that I just couldn’t wait to post. This is one of them:

• Encyclopedic Knowledge – Art El Greco. This wonderful presentation is in English, German and Spanish. Thanks to Isa!!

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More couplets for those who are teaching their kids to read in Russian! Introductory Russian Couplets 2.

I’ll continue to add couplets files here: How to Teach Your Baby To Read: Materials (look for Step 2, Couplets and select Russian links).

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There are many-many animals in Europe. I was surprised that hedgehogs don’t live on every continent! Using these directions, create one for yourself and you can put it on a map of Europe, as its place of origin! I came up with this craft for the Montessori Continent Box Swap. You can learn more about hedgehogs by playing the European Bingo Game that I’ll be posting very soon!

In European literary tradition Hedgehogs are kind and witty animals, that inhabit almost every fairy tale. Here is one that comes from Britain, that your kid might already know and love: Tiggy-winkle by Beatrix Potter (original comes from Public Domain Books – I created an easy to print version that you can download above).

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I created this presentation for the Montessori Continent Box Swap. At home, we created the Venetian masks (instructions and illustrations are inside the presentation), turned on some Vivaldi and jumped and had a fun mascaraed – with lots of jumping, dancing and dress ups. Half an hour of wild chase in the glittery masks… and my kids can’t stop about Venice, Italy and the things they’ve learned! Who would think?…

• Enclopedic Knowledge Presentation In English: Italy

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