Read on to see what I’ve been teaching my children for the Easter season and a sacred music playlist full of goodies for you and your family!
After working SO hard to put the finishing touches, I finished creating my Traditional Catholic Montessori Mom Preschool Easter Bundle is out (that’s a lot of words, but I couldn’t find anything else that would aptly describe it).
And it’s already several weeks into Easter, haha.
Find the bundle on my Etsy shop HERE.
Why Montessori?
In all my efforts to try and find a proper curriculum for giving my young children a headstart on schooling, nothing seemed as methodical, structured, or comprehensive as the Montessori curriculum.
Charlotte Mason seemed to have a nice philosophy, but not really a curriculum per se.
The Montessori method literally begins from birth, preparing an environment for the child in which they can free to explore, and targeted activities for each stage of development – what she calls the “absorbent mind” (birth-6 years old), the “reasoning mind” (6-12 years old), and “social consciousness” (12-18 years old).
You see, Montessori was an anthropologist by training, and so by the time she began work in her “Casa dei Bambini” she had observed the various stages of development, as well as “sensitive periods” that each child has within each stage, periods in which a child subconsciously and intensely focuses on a particular task to build mastery of that skill (for example, a child learning to climb will inevitably take every opportunity to hoist themselves onto tables, couches, bunk beds, and anything else in their vicinity).
Her method utilizes these sensitive periods and gives children an outlet for practicing these skills (another example – when the child is a young toddler they LOVE putting things into containers, and so she developed transferring activities to help them isolate and master that skill).
Isn’t Montessori anti-Catholic?
Short answer: I don’t think so, no.
Montessori was Catholic during a time when there was only “traditional” Catholicism. This is what I believe is the best part about the Montessori method – her Catholic background.
I learned that Pope Leo XIII had something to do with her being the first woman in Italy to enter into a medical program in university. It has also been said that the pope [maybe a different one, Benedict XV?] at the time wanted all the schools in Italy to adopt her curriculum. I still have not been able to find that last source, though.
The center of the controversy is with her involvement with theosophy, since many of her beliefs on child development (specifically that a child has innate skills that must be “released”) were also shared by theosophists, who erroneously believed that divinity was latent in each individual. This, she even stated, was a mere coincidence, an interesting fact that her ideas were being voiced in other places and by different people at the same time. It seems that although the ideas are similar, her beliefs can be seen as children being given particular graces and talents which each child must discover throughout the course of their life. I don’t think there’s anything anti-Catholic there!
I have read many of her catechetical works and they all seem solid in terms of tradition, the most notable being “The Mass Explained to Children” (traditional LATIN Mass, by the way), available for free download here.
Yes, she did have a child out of wedlock. Yes, she unfortunately got involved in the heresy of theosophy by the end of her life as she was exiled to India from fascist Italy. She was even seen with a Hindu “third eye”, which I found might . I hope she repented of these errors, but that still doesn’t mean her curriculum is no good! Many composers similarly led terrible lives – and yet people don’t even bat an eye when it comes to hearing their music!
Her curriculum basically isolates activities for children to work on that can scaffold onto each other, and are presented in an appealing manner that is easily accessible for them.
What is a Montessori bundle?
In the Montessori educational space online, “bundles” are all the rage.
Bundles are themed activities that hit different areas of the Montessori curriculum – language, math, art, practical life, life science, etc. they are meant to stimulate the interest of students by creating a cohesive, fun theme around the everyday skills needed for young learners. It helps them learn about a specific topic.
There’s bundles for every theme – bugs, oceans, flowers, you name it…and they also call these “unit themes”.
There’s unit themes for even “holidays” like Christmas and Easter, but exactly what you’d expect from secular sources…Easter bunnies and Santa Clauses and penguins galore, not exactly what I want to teach my children with!
What is covered in these Montessori bundles?
Almost ALL the areas in the Montessori curriculum – language, math, sensorial, art, practical life, music and religion. Basically except science, history and geography.
Since my activities revolve around the liturgical year, I didn’t want to include a secular activity because there’s already so many awesome secular resources out there.
I realized each liturgical season had secular companion themes that could go with them…like for example: Easter is perfect for any spring-related theme – gardens, flowers, bees, bugs, even the season of spring. Pentecost would be great to pair with a unit theme on birds, the wind or weather, fire, etc.
By simply doing a Google search with the terms “Montessori spring activities” for example, one can find a plethora of information and even bundles available for purchase on places like Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. I would caution you to be careful to make sure the seller is specifically Montessori as many people tout things as “Montessori” when it is simply a hands-on activity. Montessori activities will always have her methodology infused into the activity.
What is needed for these activities?
Honestly – you only need a printer, some paper, scissors, a work rug or bath mat and some trays for displaying the work (optional). If you have no trays, simple pencil boxes can work to store them. I recommend using a laminator, as well as a guillotine for easy cutting.
The paper I used:
The laminator I have:
A guillotine:
Do my children need to know how to read?
NO!
I specifically designed this bundle for children who are just starting out with beginning word sounds, but I recommend the Pink, Blue and Green series from Montessori as good to get an early start on reading.
What Easter hymns for children are you learning?
One of my favorite Easter hymns is “Salve Festa Dies”, found in the “Cantus Selectii” hymnal of “Select [Gregorian] chants”. It’s in mode 4, which makes for a hauntingly beautiful, mysterious sound. It’s short and sweet and I have found that my children have quickly gotten the hang of it! In fact, I realized most of the hymns they usually learn after the second week of me teaching them.
Here’s the translation: “Hail, festal day, venerable of all ages, by which God conquers hell and holds the stars.” Pretty awesome text!
See the music here below:
Another hymn I am teaching my children is “Jesus Christ is Risen Today”, probably the quintessential Easter hymn, usually with the hymn tune LYRA DAVIDICA. I’ve included a different hymn tune and harmonization by Dr. Theodore Marier which was in my Traditional Catholic Roman Hymnal. It appeared originally in the St. Pius X hymnal in 1953, which Dr. Marier was known for publishing. See the music here below, feel free to print.
I also choose to focus on a particular Mass for each liturgical season since they are actually specified to be used in certain times of the year – some are recommended for Advent, some for Easter, some for feasts of the Holy Angels, etc. Much like language, there is no formal teaching here, just absorbing the music in a natural environment, either through recordings or singing. It would be well to see if you can learn it yourself and then sing it to your children, their interest will be increased when you model for them.
For Easter we are learning Mass 1, titled “Lux et origo” for Paschaltide. I have included it in the Spotify playlist link below and have included the music as well. Note that Gregorian chant was a precursor to modern music notation and thus only uses 4 lines on the staff. Try to see if you can follow the shape of the line as the notes go up and down! If you’re interested, for further study on Gregorian chant I recommend Christopher Jasper’s awesome chant tutorials playlist on Youtube.
Print the music for Mass I here.
Easter Gregorian Chants to Learn Playlist
Here’s a playlist I put together of the chants I mentioned above.
Easter Sacred Music Playlist
Here’s another playlist I made of my favorite sacred music for the Easter season.
How do you teach your children?
My method is simple – I play or sing the music over…and over…and over. I make it a point to sing the hymn to my children after breakfast (during “morning time), to each child in bed right before their nap, and same thing right before bedtime. I also try to sing this hymn throughout the day on my own while I’m doing housework or busying myself with something while the children are playing. I even will break the hymn down to short phrases or words that I will practice by myself for intonation or stylistic things (crescendos, decrescendos).
I began singing and signing hymns to my twin girls when they were about 12 months old. They started signing between 12-14 months when their language just exploded and I think it developed their language greatly because they are my most articulate out of the 4 children. I have seen the incredible benefits of signing and singing hymns:
- It assists in word memorization
- It provides “words” for pre-speaking infants or nonverbal children to “sing”
- It bridges the gap between languages for multi-lingual children
- It gives meaning to the words
- It helps children teach hymns to their younger siblings
- It is perfect for special needs children
- It is also good for children on the move (aka “high gross motor needs”)