A Montessori Home Tour: Elisabeth of McHomeschool

Classroom Shelves

This week we take a peek into the homeschooling environment of Elisabeth of McHomeschool. The overall impression I get from her is that she is realistic, honest, determined and doesn't get fazed by all the unneeded extras...and maybe that's what makes for a successful homeschool. I also enjoyed learning how she has created a space that works for her family now and will continue to grow as her youngest children join in. Her homeschooling space is clean, organized and inviting. I hope you enjoy her home tour as much as I did. Enjoy!

Tell me about yourself...

I am Elisabeth. I love Jesus, homeschooling my kids, running, and desserts (also why I run...). My wonderful husband and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage in October. He was homeschooled as a child so my children are second generation homeschoolers but not through me! Homeschooling was actually my idea and is my "thing" but my husband is incredibly patient and supportive. I blog and can also be found on Instagram.

I am not a trained guide nor am I a teacher by training. I've worked at the same life sciences consulting firm for more than 10 years (first full-time, now part-time). So my "day job" is in the healthcare business.

How old are your children?

C is my oldest and she is 7. She would be in first grade in a US elementary school and has been homeschooled for the last 2 years. D is 5 and will begin homeschooling with us in the fall which is when she'd be enrolled in traditional Kindergarten here in the US. R is almost 3 and he is our wild funny man. D and R attend a play-based preschool. Something that makes us a little unusual as homeschoolers is choosing to focus on elementary vs. beginning in preschool.

We had intended to homeschool from the beginning but I needed to continue to work full-time when C was preschool age. I've continued to work part time as we begun homeschooling elementary and it works really well for us. I also feel that focusing on elementary plays more to my strengths and patience level than having all of the children at home full-time. I only point this out to say that even if your original plan for homeschooling didn't work out, you can be successful starting a little later!

Reference and History Shelves

When did you first learn about Montessori?

I was a Montessori child almost 30 years ago! I attended a Montessori school from K-5th grade and it was a wonderful formative experience for me. Knowing that, I knew that I'd want to incorporate aspects of Montessori into our home.

How have you created a Prepared Environment in your home?

We've focused on three main areas of our home: kitchen, bathroom, and "school room" (really just a landing at the top of our floors to the second story). In the kitchen/bathroom, we've designed these for our children to participate in self-care. This means we have tools that fit their hands, things grouped and accessible to them (toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc), and stools for them to access things that are kept up high. We haven't taken the step of physically modifying any of our homes (building things in) because we've moved 3 times in the last 6 years and it just wasn't practical!

Our "school room"/homeschool space is a landing at the top of the stairs on the second floor of our home. It's an extremely personal choice for homeschoolers whether they want a separate "school only" area or for it to be integrated into their home. For our family, we like having the dedicated space because it helps us delineate school time as different from the rest of our time; we do have "school rules" that we wrote together and the expectations for behavior are different in our school space than in the rest of the house. An example of a different rule is that in our play space (really the rest of the house), anything is "fair game" to grab and play; in our school room, you must have a lesson on a material before you begin using it.