Today we had the somewhat dreaded task of cleaning the bedrooms. After we had finished, we felt much better!! When my older children were young I read a lot of Montessori's writings. I wanted to implement some of her discoveries in my own my own home. I was disappointed, however, to find that all the "Montessori" teaching materials are very expensive!!!Then I stumbled upon Michael Olaf's website-not sure of the URL, but basically it's a website for Montessori-style homeschooling. Olaf stresses having the chidren help around the house as much as possible, doing useful work with real tools! Actually, the Montessori schools try to implement a homestyle setting with household tasks. Why buy "fake" tools, when they can use the real thing? Even though it is more trouble some times to have the little ones "help," when they are older they will be very proficient at household skills from baking to cleaning! Having the children help when they are young is a long term investment that pays high dividends!!
