Water Transfer

I picked up these cute Halloween pails in the dollar section at target for sponging water from one pail to another. Cute idea, but the cheapy, tin pails leaked! So I switched to little cups instead. A did this one time and then wanted to play in the water.

Jars and Lids

I have been meaning to do this activity with A for a long time. Its really easy, just get several jars of varying sizes (I used some plastic and some glass) with lids and place in a basket. This kept A occupied for atleast 20 minutes! She would fit smaller jars, in bigger jars and try to stuff all the lids in 1 jar. Then she ended up stacking several jars on top of each other.

For older kids you could put a rock or small animal in each jar, have them pull the lid off, and even turn it into some sort of matching game (like each jar have a different habitat/food/etc on the lid.) Just some ideas. As is, it was fun for A, but adding more interest as she gets older would be a lot of fun too.

Ask Mr. Bear

Today we started week 2 of school and we read "Ask Mr. Bear" by Marjorie Flack. We also read a few books about bears as well. This is such a simple and sweet book about a boy looking for a perfect gift for his mother for her birthday. I thought it would be perfect since Isabel's birthday is in 2 weeks. I really like how the book focuses on gifts that one can give that don't have to be bought.

We first played a homemade version of "Blue's Clues" to find what Mommy wanted to drink (milk) which I will hopefully touch more on later this week. Then A colored the animal and product cards from this page at Homeschool Share. I really had to help her with the matching and explain how a sheep could give a blanket, etc. We also practiced some of the animal gaits in the book and made cupcake birthday cards for Isabel:

It really turned out cute, and I just punched holes for the sprinkles. A is on a HUGE cupcake kick these days. And now for our new trays this week...

Animal Mommy and Babies Puzzle:

This was the only activity she completed more than once! She loved it. I think it was 25 cents at the thrift store.

Marble Spooning:
The spooning part was easy enough, but placing it in the holes of the anti-slip butterfly was more difficult. I let her do it by hand instead to complete the task. I will set up a better marble spooning activity in the future I think.

Tonging Pom-Poms:

I finally found some tiny tongs at a kitchen store! Pom-poms are really easy to tong too. She sorted the pom-poms with the tongs into the proper colored bowls. It wasn't too easy but not difficult either.

Stringing Beads Snake:

I picked this Ryan's Room snake up at the thrift store for $1. The needle is broken so I had to duct tape it... a little ghetto but really fun! She spent a long time making this snake "just so".

Tan Gram Puzzle:

This is a little Melissa and Doug shape puzzle that has been sitting on her toy and puzzle shelf since Christmas and she has never played with it more than a couple times. I decided to break it down into one puzzle and all the pieces for that one puzzle. She concentrated really hard, and actually did it.

So that was our day. We usually do our Montessori trays during I's nap because otherwise I is in the middle of everything, and frustrates A, ruining any hope of concentration. I also purchased the little basket-trays at Walmart for $1 for 2 I think. I like the high sides because they contain things well for small hands and I also like that they are so uniform. Happy Monday!

Activity Mat

In preperations for school, I made a little activity mat and tutorial for it. I was inspired by the rugs used for floorwork in a traditional Montessori Classroom. It seemed like a novel idea for keeping activities involving small pieces (like knobbed puzzles that hurt to step on) in one place. I started thinking she should use it for ALL her toys for easy clean up, but I think that infringes slightly on the aspect of imagination.

That is my only problem with the Montessori method of education. I often feel that in some of its rigidity it looses an aspect of whimsy essential to the development of imagination. I know that Maria Montessori believed that a clean, organized and functional space gave children a stronger sense of self which would then give them a better foundation for building their imagination and creative spirit. I personally feel that they need a certain level of freedom in order to let their creativity guide them. I especially believe this at a young age when the lines between real and make-believe are less defined and the possibilities have much fewer boundaries. That is why I think putting even small boundaries on play are really not helpful. I believe we must take advantage of this age for giving them the freedom to believe in the things that we no longer remember exist.

"I do believe in fairies, I do! I do!"