Writing Practice, Little Boo Style

My Little Boo has been scribbling through notebook after notebook, obsessively writing the words that she knows how to spell, over and over and over and over again.

Maria Montessori calls this phase "explosion into writing":

Children of this age are urged by the laws of their nature to find active experiences in the world about them. For this they use their hands, and not only for practical purposes, but also for acquiring knowledge. If we leave children free in this new kind of environment that we have provided, they give us quite an unexpected impression of their nature and abilities. They seem to be happier, and they have such deep interests that they can work for long periods of time without fatigue. As a result, their minds seem to open out and they become eager for knowledge. It was this that lay behind the "explosion into writing"....

Maria Montessori: The Absorbent mind

And this is exactly what has precipitated Little Boo's explosion. Quite frankly, she has been a bit neglected during our school day. And when she sees the three older children, busily scribbling in their notebooks, she feels left out. Granted, that has not always been the case. It used to be that she would reluctantly come to me and work with some wooden shapes, fashioning letters and learning sounds. Or she would drag her feet through some block manipulations, adding towers and cubes. And then she would happily skip away, eager to play with Little Love in the safe haven of their upstairs room... away from Mama and her schooling demands.

Not anymore. Now she marches downstairs, pen and notebook in hand, demanding that I spell out her favorite words (which she has memorized by now) as she writes them in her special book. We type out her stories on the computer (all in capitals) so she can copy them down for safe keeping. She is zipping through her Math workbook, convincing me that she may indeed finish it by the end of the year.

Her determination is astonishing, her enthusiasm is infectious, and she has breathed new life into her tired Mama, who now is starting to believe again in the merits of homeschooling.

Thank you, Lord!

:)