OLE

We had an event at school this evening to celebrate the opening of the new Outdoor Learning Environment.  This is the large courtyard area inside our school grounds where the children play (and learn) outside.  

It’s not a playground insofar as it lacks most of the things you’d see on a typical playground.   There are no swings and there aren’t play structures like you’d find in a typical playground.   There is a large sand area, stepping logs, a performance platform, lots and lots of large boulders and stones and even a swail.   There while environment is almost completely devoid of plastic or metal but instead incorporates natural materials into the play elements situated by ground cover and plants.

My children were told we’d be having the opening ceremony today.    We (as well as their teachers) had told them the OLE or Outdoor Learning Environment was going to be available to play on now.   My children wanted to remember the letters, but they didn’t have any frame of reference for why it was O, L and E.  

This is easy, right?  ‘Outdoor’ starts with ‘O’ but ‘outdoor’ starts with an “awh” sound.   How am I going to make that connection?  No matter, ‘Learning’ starts with ‘L’ but again, the first sound is ‘lerr’ and not anything like “el”.   Bother.  “Environment” is no better with ‘E’ and “en” not matching at all either.  

The reason for my difficulty here is in how letters are taught in a Montessori school.   The name for the letters doesn’t match much at all to the actual sounds the letters make when used in words.   Quick, say the alphabet in your head and see how many, if any, of the names match the sounds.

My children do know their letters though.   They know the entire alphabet, easy, snap.    They also know letters have both sounds and names.    Putting everything together with letters, sounds, words, sentences and eventually term papers takes time though, so for now we’re not so worried about technicalities.   It’s far easier to know the ‘l’ sound, the ‘e’ sound and the ‘g’ sound because if you do, you can figure out the letters in the word ‘leg’.

Oh dear, it seems I’ve gotten off track from my original point.   Let me sum up.    I gave up trying to associate the letters O, L and E with the phrase, “Outdoor Learning Environment” and told the kids they could just pronounce it “Ole!” (as in Spanish.)   They liked that option a lot.

The Big Boy Update:  My son, who is typically present-focused, said on the way to Mimi and Gramps house tonight, “I don’t care if I get a present, I just want to give Mimi a big hug.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  In the car my daughter asked us, “do my brother and I eat much?”   My husband told her that for their size, they ate a lot of food.   She said, “I want to stay small…no, wait I want to grow up.”   She’s decided to continue eating all the time and growing quickly, it would seem.