Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

$50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway and MontessoriBuddy Sponsor Spotlight

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The giveaway is now closed, but MontessoriBuddy is offering an extended free trial for my readers! 60 days is the standard free trial for MontessoriBuddy, but when you use the promo code LivingMontessoriNow, you will get an extra free month, bringing it up to 90 days!

For the announcement of the giveaway winner, see the end of the post right after the Rafflecopter form!

Last May, I took a web demo of the new MontessoriBuddy site. I couldn’t help but wish I’d had MontessoriBuddy when I was a Montessori teacher and school administrator. And there have been improvements with MontessoriBuddy since May!

MontessoriBuddy is a software application to help Montessori teachers and schools (preschool-grade 5) keep records and communicate with parents easily and efficiently.

Just a few of the things you can do with MontessoriBuddy:

  • record attendance
  • create student work plans
  • record individual lessons, group lessons, and notes for each child
  • generate activity reports for each child daily or weekly
  • place lesson plans on calendars
  •  automatically send reports to each child’s parents.

But the program isn’t just great for teachers and schools – it’s wonderful if you’re a parent of a Montessori student (or a parent of any preschool student if your child’s school uses PreschoolBuddy with similar capabilities). MontessoriBuddy gives you a better understanding of Montessori education and a way to know what your child is doing at school so you can support your child’s school experiences at home. You can always recommend that your child’s school purchase MontessoriBuddy!

From Montessori Buddy:

MontessoriBuddy includes the following key features to help bridge the gap between home and school:

  • Classroom Management – Spend your day focused on what you love to do – educating children!!
  • School Administration – Helping you save time, money, and trees!!
  • Parent Communication – This just in…parents LOVE hearing stuff about their kids!!

Here are the new MontessoriBuddy features this fall!

1)  Form Tracker Module

Now keeping track of all those important forms is even easier! Simply upload a pdf file and assign it to 1, 2, or all classrooms. Parents have instant access to the forms from their parent portal. The system makes it simple to send a reminder message, so you won’t have to worry about late forms.

2)  Montessori Works Directory

Pre-Internet, I made a scrapbook of photos of Montessori materials just so I could explain at parent-teacher conferences what each child was working on at school. The Montessori Works Directory takes care of that for you. Parents can easily understand the works their child is completing. With the click of a button, they can see a photo and description of the most common Montessori works.

3)  Project Tracker Module

When your students are completing projects at different times on different days, it can be challenging to keep up with who completed the project and who didn’t. With the new Project Tracker Module, keeping track of completed projects is easy!

4) Updated Record Keeping Module

MontessoriBuddy keeps record-keeping as simple as possible. With the updated record keeping module, you type in just 4 keystrokes and all lessons within the system containing those letters pop up. Just choose the one you were looking for, select a student and skill level, and type a quick note if you wish. Records are saved to individual student profiles where they are easily accessible for review anytime and available for generating progress reports instantly!

5)  Daily Observations Module

This easy-to-use module serves two very important functions. First, it’s the perfect place to keep daily notes on your classroom and individual students. These notes are visible only to the classroom guides. Second, click on the external tab for an incredibly convenient way to communicate with parents. You can send a note about the classroom’s activities, or post notes for individual children. You can also choose if you would like to share an individual student’s record-keeping for the day with parents. Amazing!

Note: MontessoriBuddy is offering an extended free trial for my readers! 60 days is the standard free trial for MontessoriBuddy, but when you use the promo code LivingMontessoriNow, you will get an extra free month, bringing it up to 90 days!

Now for the Giveaway:

I normally don’t have more than one giveaway per month on my blog, but this was too good to pass up!

$50 Amazon E-Mail Gift Card Giveaway (sponsored by MontessoriBuddy.com)!

Who Is Eligible

This giveaway of a $50 gift card to be used toward anything at Amazon.com is open to anyone 18 and older worldwide. The first entry is mandatory. There are lots of optional entries. You have many chances to win! (Note: For the extra entries, if you already are following me or already are following MontessoriBuddy, you can still count that for an entry!)

It’s easy to enter giveaways with Rafflecopter! Just follow the directions to enter. You must complete the Mandatory Entry to qualify for any additional entries. The giveaway closes 10:01pm MST on Tuesday, September 27. Best of luck! 🙂

Here’s a 45-second video with quick directions for entering through Rafflecopter:

How to Enter Rafflecopter Giveaways from Rafflecopter on Vimeo.


UPDATE:

It’s early morning, Wednesday, September 28. I read all your comments and really appreciated all the 1,432 entries! A winner has been selected using Random.org through Rafflecopter! 

The winner of the $50 Amazon Gift Certificate from MontessoriBuddy is Julia Reffner from Dark Glass Ponderings!!!

I’m so happy for Julia, who had multiple entries! For her winning entry, she followed @MontessoriBuddy on Twitter. (Note: Julia, you have 48 hours to respond to my email, or a new winner will be chosen.)

The comment for Julia’s mandatory entry said:

This looks like a great program for Montessori users. We would like to use a different social studies curriculum so I would use the $50 for that.

CONGRATULATIONS, Julia!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH to MontessoriBuddy.com for sponsoring the giveaway – and thank you to everyone who entered!

Remember: MontessoriBuddy continues to offer an extended free trial for my readers! 60 days is the standard free trial for MontessoriBuddy, but when you use the promo code LivingMontessoriNow, you will get an extra free month, bringing it up to 90 days!

And, always, thanks so much to all my blog sponsors!

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MontessoriBuddy

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  7. Mary Beth Elderton says

    The Record Keeping Module would have solved a ton of problems for me. I would have loved something like the Daily Observations Module for my Middle School classroom. I used a time-consuming combination of email, being available for chat, and individual folders for most of these functions.

  8. Mary Beth Elderton says

    Who couldn’t use a little extra to spend on Amazon? We are huge movie buffs with a big collection of DVD’s, so we’d likely use this to expand the collection.
    Wow! I could have used the Montessori Buddy when I taught Montessori, too! I taught on both the Primary and Middle School levels and could have used something like this on each level.

  11. PsychMamma says

    We’re just venturing into the world of Montessori homeschooling, and I’d love to use the giftcard to build up my supplies and resources!

    Thanks so much for the chance to enter!

  12. Dawn says

    I like the Daily Observations Module feature. I have organization issues and this feature would make things much easier for me.

  18. Karla says

    I have so many things on my Amazon wish list – household items like a teapot (ours got ruined), books for the kiddos, homeschooling supplies. This would be great!