More Montessori

That's right people, I finally put up a spiffy new Spring blog banner a month after Spring started.  Let's all pretend that it's centered, shall we?  I firmly believe that its cuteness makes up for my lack of computer skills.

So, are you sick of hearing about our Montessori stuff yet?  Sorry, but there's more of it coming your way.  There's been very little crafting going on here lately as it's been all about making lesson plans and materials.  (though, I did get to embroider a bit tonight while watching some TV with Bean)  We are knee-deep in Montessori land.  The Mister told me last night that every time he asks Short Pants about his lessons that his little face just lights up.  Yay!  As soon as I take Pita Pocket upstairs in the afternoons for naptime Short Pants is already over at the counter choosing a lesson.

Though I've been trying to keep the emphasis on practical life and sensorial activities, Short Pants is a Letter Lover.  It's been such a treat to watch a whole new world open up for him.  He's constantly recognizing letters now on everything from stop signs to grocery boxes!  I started a sound book for him - just a simple affair of gluing each new letter he learns to some cardstock.  He can then "read" his sound book to me.  Surprisingly, each time it's laid out this is the first lesson he chooses:

 

The other night Bean helped me gather objects to hide in the rice bin.  Short Pants had a pretty good time digging them out and matching them up to the correct letter sound.  He still has some trouble "hearing" the sounds, but can correctly identify all of the letters we've done so far when he sees them:

 

We've also been working on buttoning.  I found this great idea for felt snakes over at What DID We Do All Day?:

  

We've also been doing a lot of matching and sorting:

 

And tonging.  Loads and loads of tonging in every form I read about or can think of:

 

And don't forget checking out a matryoshka from my collection.  Working with a nesting doll is a good exercise in opening/closing and size perception:

 

2 of Short Pant's favorite lessons lately have been washing cars and the sound game.  I set him up a mini carwash station out on the balcony.  There's a spot for dirty cars, soapy water and a toothbrush to scrub them with, clean rinse water, a towel to dry them, and a spot to place them in when clean.  He's asked to do this lesson several times:

 

 

For the sound game I took a dozen plastic easter eggs and filled them in pairs with different items such as rice, coins, buttons, etc:

 

Short Pants them carefully shook them and tried to match them up:

 

Hooray - a match!!

 

We also made another simple activity for Pita Pocket.  He loves slipping the wooden disks through the slit on the top of an old cocoa can.  The other morning he sat and did it four time in a row:

 

We had beautiful weather today and are expecting more tomorrow.  I'll be out finishing up a big landscaping project and readying squares for summer veggies.  As is par for the course, you'll soon be seeing more gardening than crafting pictures soon!

Comments

[Jonah Lisa]

That button snake will be the first thing i make once i get back home to my craft room!

[Marina]

I love all these activities! Thank you so much for posting this, I want to try all of them tomorrow!

PS- love the new header :)

[One hook wonder]

Thanks Jonah Lisa and Marina! We are definately having fun with the Montessori activities here.

[Christy]

We've enjoyed our dry bean tray and Haley has recently been discovering shapes in hers. She loves to find the hearts and stars!

That's an awesome matryoshka. We have smaller (4 piece) ones and both kids love to find the "baby"

The kids both played with the Easter eggs until just recently, but I love the idea of sound matching. I bet they would like that activity, too. Sophie also really loves matching animals to their homes. Looks like you've really been having fun!

I hear you about planning eating up all your time, though. I haven't had time to properly plan activities for several months now and we've all suffered a bit. Hopefully we'll get back on track again soon!