Top 12 in Montessori of 2012 - My Personal Picks

I'm approaching this list of the Montessori Top 12 of 2012 in a slightly different manner from the some of the other bloggers in this blog hop. I have already listed my top three TTB blog posts in participation with The Very Best Kids Activities from 2012 blog hop. Besides, if I listed my top 12 blogs for 2012, that would be half my blogs? So I am opting for my favorite all-around picks for Montessori 2012. Since I was new to blogging last year, in fact new to all forms of social media, it's all so wonderful to me and really hard to hand pick a list of favorites when there is so much out there. But here goes...

from Teaching from a Tackle Box

The Top 12 Montessori in 2012 Blog Hop is co-hosted by Lisa Nolan’s Confessions of a Montessori Mom, Smiling Like Sunshine, JDaniel4′s Mom, Vibrant Wanderings, Living Montessori Now

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1. Favorite Montessori Pinterest Board

Livable Learning - Infant Mobiles
After studying Montessori methods for over 10 years, I'm not sure quite how I lost it or never absorbed the fact that there are specific Montessori mobiles for babies. But when someone posted a question about the mobiles earlier this year on montessorimakers I had go online and search it out. This was the very first board I started with to feed my Pinterest passion. Yay!

        

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2. Favorite Montessori Photo Stream

Montessoritoni at PhotoBucket
This photo stream is incredibly detailed. A wonderful source for Elementary Montessori. Thanks to Montessoritoni I finally got the visuals I needed to understand the Decanomial, Who Knew? Be warned though -- you could spend the next month or two perusing her massive collection of photos!

         

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3. Favorite Montessori Media

I absolutely LOVE Montessori Madmen and their awesome videos. These men are precious asset to Montessori education! Montessori fathers who are all dedicated to advocating for Montessori. Be sure to click through to their web page and see what they are up to!

 

Be sure to watch all three videos:          

• Superwoman Was Already Here
• Montessori Madness
• How Do You Hug a Child Like This

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4. Favorite Montessori Observation and Favorite Find

Button Sorting from Teaching from a Tackle Box. This is from my blog and still one of my favorite posts. It was so incredible to set up this material and then observe how children of different ages responded to it.

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5. Favorite NEW Montessori Book

Magellan Montessori's Homeschooling Early Elementary.
Watch for my book review coming soon on this blog...

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6. Favorite Montessori Online Album

Montessori Album I'm not really sure who started this but we all owe the site owner a debt of Montessori gratutude! I will let the site's description speak for itself:

This wiki was created to give Montessori teachers a way to look up lessons online without having to lug out their albums in those giant binders, and a place to share extensions, variation, and original lessons that they have come up with. This site is also for those who are not Montessori trained to learn more about the lessons that are taught in a Montessori classroom, such as parents who wish to use Montessori elements in a home-school environment.

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7. Favorite Montessori Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Blog

Seeking the Plan of God  by Jessica. This is an amazing woman. She has developed an online training program for Elementary Montessori called Keys of the Universe, and she is a regular contributor and mentor at playschool6. Plus she blogs at Montessori Nuggets and Montessori Trails and according to her Blogger profile about a dozen blogs in all. This CGS blog is my favorite of all that Jessica publishes. With Seeking the Plan of God she is pioneering an effort to bring awareness to the value of this method of teaching the faith using Montessori principles, which Maria Montessori started and Sofia Cavalletti developed.

 

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8. Favorite Montessori Infant Blog

Well, the following two blogs are my favorites for 2012 and since I could not choose my favorite between the two I am going to pick both of them! At Home with Montessori and How We Montessori get my vote for best infant blogs of 2012

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9. Favorite Montessori Toddler Blog

Aquiring a Life-Long PhD in Cross-Cultural Homemaking - This is a blog I discovered just as the year was ending! What a great addition to my favorites list! Great photos, observations and album pages with each entry. How can it get any sweeter?

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10. Favorite Montessori Elementary Blog

What DID We Do All Day? by My Boys' Teacher - This is one blog on my blog roll that I read every single day! The greatest compliment I ever received from a local Montessori teacher was "she gets it." She was talking to her mom, also a Montessori teacher after they browsed through my printables at Hope4ME. And I will say the same for My Boys' Teacher - "she gets it!" She says that she spent more time researching Montessori for her children than she spent on her Phd dissertation. I love to follow the daily progress of her boys in action. This is one Montessori blogger who maintains the integrity of the authentic Montessori method and materials. Her blog is also home to the Ultimate Montessori Blog List and the Ultimate Montessori Homemade Materials Collaboration.

 

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11. Favorite Montessori Montessori-Friendly Manufacturer

 

 I first became interested in Melissa and Doug online when I heard about a Melissa and Doug Twitter party through We Teach. It was absolutely the craziest, most confusing, yet thrilling thing that I have experienced all year online! Through the party I felt like I got to know Melissa, her family and her company, and I was drawn to how family friendly and down to earth they were. After the party I became a distributor for Melissa and Doug and my favorite story from my sales rep was when he first came to Melissa and Doug he was told how diligently the company tests their products for safety and durability. The sales rep shared that he personally saw Doug product testing a toy by running over it with his Hummer. Now that's dedication, LOL! Watch for a post coming soon on my favorite Montessori-friendly products from Melissa and Doug. Meanwhile, you can check out their blog HERE.

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12. Favorite Online Montessori Resource

The World's 1st Comprehensive Online Video Library by Livable Learning - This collection was my personal brain child. Thanks to my son, I discovered You Tube this year and I couldn't get enough of it! I started accumulating links to some great Montessori videos and needed a better way to keep track of them. In the process I noticed one of the most popular questions on the Yahoo egroups was "How do I get Started?" So I developed an outline of the steps that I feel are necessary for a successful Montessori experience. It's still a work in progress but you can learn more about "How to Get Started" with Montessori education HERE.

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Shared at Montessori Monday

The Top 12 Montessori in 2012 Blog Hop is co-hosted by Lisa Nolan’s Confessions of a Montessori Mom, Smiling Like Sunshine, JDaniel4′s Mom, Vibrant Wanderings, Living Montessori Now