Montessori Monday

Last week was a bit short on Montessori time as Bean and Boba arrived on Wednesday (yay!!) to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with us.  Short Pants spent a lot of our time going back to old favorites like sifting animals out of sand:

 
Examining the animals from various continent boxes:

And working with his first set of landforms:

 
I do have to admit that a small part of me  sometimes says, "Dude!  Come on!  You've spent 20 minutes swimming walnut shells around in that fake lake - let's get on to something "real" like working on numbers, etc."  Then I have to take a deep breath and remind myself that Short Pants is still learning, even when it looks like he's doing nothing but having fun (and who DOESN'T want their kiddo to have fun while learning?!).  It is so easy with little ones to get caught up in what is measurable and easily defined - how many letters to they know, can they write their name, etc.  What I absolutely love about Montessori is that it is without a doubt 100 percent a well-rounded education.  Do I *really* want Short Pants to be able to rattle off his ABCs but not have time to do just as important things like learn hands-on what a shoreline is?  Or that this wide world is full of amazingly different places with unique, beautiful animals?  No, not at all.    I'm so grateful to have found this wonderful method that allows Short Pants to experience so fully the joy of learning.  :)

We took advantage of the fact that our entire home has been covered in ladybugs (both living and deceased) for several weeks now and did a lesson on ladybugs.  I made my own lifecycle cards in a 3-part-format (so excited that I did this!) and Short Pants put them in order while we talked:

He then worked on matching the 3-part-cards together and demanded that his foot be in this picture.  No, I still don't know why:

 
We also studied the anatomy of a ladybug and used the magnifying glass to examine one of our recent roomates:

 
 
While I was still basking in the afterglow of my successful ladybug cards, I brought out a letter game that I put together.  I cut a circle out of posterboard, divided it into 26 parts and wrote each lowercase letter on a wedge.  Then I took 26 clothespins and wrote the uppercase letters on them.  The idea was that Short Pants would not only be able to practice matching the upper and lowercase letters, but also improve his fine motor skills when he clipped the clothespins on the circle.  

As you can see, it was a big fat flop.  Maybe another week!

 
  He did enjoy putting together some new puzzles at least:

 
Short Pants also worked a few mazes:

And did a tonging/sorting lesson with some nuts left over from the other week:

 
Lastly, Short Pants worked on a hammering lesson I put together.  He hammered golf tees into a piece of styrofoam(ish?) stuff that came when The Mister ordered something.  Then he set marbles on top of the tees.  I've seen this on *many* Montessori blogs, so I won't credit anyone in particular:

 

As always, thanks for reading!
 

Comments

[Leptir]

Wow! Beautiful, interesting activities!

[One hook wonder]

Thanks so much! I took a look at your blog and can't wait till I have the time to read more - I love the squirrel and hazelnuts game. :)

[Mari-Ann]

GREAT job on the ladybug cards!!

[Leptir]

I'm glad you like my activities! Welcome to my blog :-)

[One hook wonder]

heehee I never thought I'd be so proud of ladybug larva. ;)

[Julie]

Would you be willing ot share your ladybug lifecycle and your three part cards? They are just awesome!

[One hook wonder]

Sure! Send me an e-mail and I'll shoot them over to you. :)

[[email protected]]

Wow it looks like you and your kids have so much fun! I love the tube on the wall thats great. I would suggest you invest in some " graphers ' tape . Graphers tape is awsome ! Its strong and it don't leave any icky residue. I promis once you get a roll you'll find lots of uses for it.

[One hook wonder]

Thanks! I will definately put some on my list. :)