Adventures in Montessori

Gearing up

2011-03-20T20:13:00.003-04:00

So I am gearing up for summer training. There are still so many loose ends to tie up before I leave my family for 7 weeks to start my AMI training. I am really going on faith right now that all of this will come together and that I will be able to tie up all the loose ends before training starts...like, Who will watch my kids? Where will I live for seven weeks?? How in the world are we really going to afford to maintain two households along with all of the other extra expenses on one little income all summer??? Oh my! So much up in the air right now! Any and all advice is welcome!!!!!

AMI Conference

2011-02-05T08:48:00.002-05:00

My first ever AMI conference is in a couple of weeks. I am so excited to have the opportunity to go. I am sure that I will have lots to post about here soon :).

It has been too long

2011-01-21T09:26:00.004-05:00

This is Goldie on the right and Bella on the left with our little cousin in the middle. They have grown a lot since the last photo of them I posted...

Oh my, it has been so long since I last posted, and I have missed it. This past year has been a big transition for me and this year will prove to be the same. The most important and exciting change is that I have accepted a position at my children's school as the primary teacher for the following school year. The school is an AMI school so I will be discontinuing the training I have been doing in order to switch to the AMI training. I am super excited and only slightly scared, lol. My position will actually begin this April as the current teacher and the directress of our school is expecting a new addition. SO I will work April and May, and then I will begin my training in June. I still have no idea how I am going to work out the logistics, but I am going on faith that it will all come together in the end. I will have three summers of seven week training courses along with observations and refresher weekends in the winter months. My children are excited that Mom will be at their school :).
I feel that I owe a bit of an explanation as to my long absence. Basically I got burnt out. I spent so much time on here and planning activities and doing activities for the girls that I seemed to have forgotten that I am a real person outside of Mom and Montessori, lol. When the girls started going to school I slowly began to realize that I had this free time on my hands, time to rediscover me. They also started having regular monthly overnights with my father, and I learned that Mommy and Daddy have a lot of fun when we get to be just us. So anyway a good deal of time this past year has been spent in self discovery and in renewing the bond with my husband. I now feel stronger as an individual and in my marriage and I am ready to embark on this next chapter of my life, hopefully with a bit more balance than before. I plan to take back up with my blog here as I truly have missed it, and what a wonderful springboard for ideas and thoughts as I pursue my training and career with Montessori. I also plan to spend more time with each of my girls in activities and outings which will be fun to post updates here as well. I plan to continue on my path of self discovery, which includes my renewed interest in art and craft projects. I may share some of that too. Finally I plan to continue to build up my relationship with my true love as I am having a blast rediscovering him ;)...I think I might keep that to myself though, lol! It is good to be back! I will post again soon.

Hello world!

2010-06-15T16:22:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone, no I have not fallen off the face of the earth! I have just been a bit crazy. It seems that all sorts of things got turned upside down at the same time and I have not caught up yet, mostly good changes though. We have bought a house and are settling in slowly, but it will probably be a couple of months before I really get back on track enough to keep up with this blog and all of the many many blogs I like to follow. I miss you all though so I just thought that while I had a spare moment I might just check in. I am also working this month at Goldie's school's summer camp which has been loads of fun, though a bit exhausting as well. Here is a fun link for a father's day project we are doing with our kids. Instead of wild flowers we will be adding herb seeds and attaching an easy recipe. It should be a big soggy messy fun project. We started today by ripping up the paper to soak over night, tomorrow the real fun begins!

Life is crazy

2010-04-28T09:25:00.002-04:00

So I have been absent from the blogging world for a few weeks now. Life has been crazy here! Nothing bad, but still it has left me drained and uninspired. I will hopefully get back into the swing of things soon and start posting again, I do miss it. I also have so many blogs that I want to catch up on reading. I hope that things will be calming down in a month or so, but for now I just need to take some time off from it all and get all of this other stuff done!

Regarding my previous post

2010-04-06T20:56:00.003-04:00

So it seems that some of you might have been offended by my last post, which believe me was unintentional. I was only expressing my outrage at what I see as an idiotic solution to the ever expanding problem of child hood obesity. If your child is large for their age and they eat well and there are no health concerns then it is not you or your child that I am referring to. Healthy children come in all different shapes and sizes. What I am referring to is the growing problem of childhood obesity, children who are overweight and unhealthy. It is an epidemic in this country and it is being overlooked and hidden behind band aids such as the changing of sizing standards to suit the larger size child instead of simply expanding the sizes offered or measuring the clothing by something actually useful such as a waist measurement. The shorts I bought for my daughter in size 18mo when she typically wears a 2t were still huge on her. When I measured their waist they were 21 inches. That is not 18mo I am sorry. Older pairs of size 2t pants in our wardrobes measured 19" at the waist. That is a drastic difference. I don't see how changing the size 2t to a larger waist band s doing anything other than trying to hide the fact that the child wearing the pants is larger than the original size.
In women's wear this is a common practice that has been going on for a long time, and to compensate for the larger sizes being marked as smaller numbers they have started to label some of the smaller sized clothing a a "00" So how offensive is that? If you are small you are no longer a nothing but a double nothing! There has even been talk of making negative sizes. How ridiculous is that? So now you are less than a double nothing. It is crazy, but the thing that does not change is the actual measurement. You are the waist size you measure regardless of the arbitrary # attached to the tag. So we should all stop putting so much on a stupid size and either accept our measurements or work to b healthier and possibly chance the if the # is not to our liking.
I just think that we should not take our children down the same ludicrous path that we have been on for so long as far as clothing size goes. I also think that childhood obesity is a real problem and needs to be addressed asap, with real solutions and not with cover ups. The statistics are talking here, not just me. This is the first generation of kids expected to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents generation in a long time! Something to think about!

A little tangent!

2010-04-06T09:56:00.005-04:00

So I am angry and disturbed to say the least...
I took my kids yesterday to buy them some summer clothes, my youngest is two years old and is in the 50th percentile on height and weight. Most of the clothes I have for her are hand me downs or purchased at a thrift store and in all of the she wears a size 2t. Every season I like to buy them a few new pieces that are all their own so yesterday I took them to do just that. I was looking for shorts in size 2t and when I found some they looked huge! I tried them on her and they literally fell off, had to go all the way down to a 12mo before they fit her waist! The shorts she came in were a 2t that fit her perfectly they were however a couple of years old. Pair after pair, brand after brand, same results. My analysis is that kids are getting fatter but no one wants to notice it so instead of saying wow these children are big and perhaps we should look at their eating habits to see why childhood obesity is such a problem, we simple ignore the problem and try to hide it by changing the number sizes of their clothes. "No my child is not fat, he does not have a weight problem he still wears a size 2t. Here honey have another big mac." I measured the waist of a pair of size 18mo pants and the waist would fit my 4 1/2 year old! How crazy is that!! I vote for allowing parents to see how big their children are getting then maybe when they see that their 18mo old child is wearing a size 4t, they will stop feeding them all of the processed food like product that made them so large in the first place! It is infuriating how people are just content to cover up this epidemic and pretend that it it does not exist! We are killing our children America!!! Wake up and do something about it! Stop hiding behind camouflage and band aids!!!!!!!
here is a link to an article I found on the subject, entitled Shops forced to make bigger children's clothes to cope with obesity epidemic. It is a British article but the same thing is gong on here.
I for one think that instead of changing the size to fit the expanding child, we should do away with sizes and use measurements to determine what to buy for our body. You are the measurement you are regardless of the artificial "size" slapped on the tag. So now I must go out and buy my perfectly healthy 2 year old child clothes in size 12mo so that they will stay on her waist, I don't know what we will do next winter as I am sure that the length of size 12mo pants will be much too short. I am so frustrated!
This practice of changing the sizing, scale "Vanity Sizing," has been done for a while in women's wear, it became prevalent during the 1980s but it is now filtering down to our children. Here is another article about it. This article is defending the practice, but It is acknowledging that it exists which is just as disturbing to me.

Week in Photos

2010-03-08T13:33:00.002-05:00

One or more of us have been sick since last weekend, so we have spent a good deal of time at home, and the girls have missed a lot of actual school, but we did do lots of work at home when we were feeling up to it.

Collage work.

Princess doing dropper work and Pooh Bear doing pouring work.

Bead lacing.

We also made some more muffins together and did various other lessons on our shelves, but I was not very good at taking pictures. Sunday everyone was better and we got to get out of the house and go to the zoo! So much fun, and much needed!!! This week it is back to normal. Goldie went back to school and Bella and I will join her for the afternoon. It is so nice to be back in the world again!

Color tiles

2010-02-24T10:40:00.003-05:00

Today I introduced the colors "red" and "blue" using the first two periods of the three period lesson. Bella was very interested, but I think it is going to be a few more lessons before we get to the third period of the lesson. She sat very still and listened as I presented. She repeated and pointed as directed. It was a beautiful lesson! It was one of those lessons that worked just the way it is supposed to according to my training...those are few and far between! After the lesson I thanked her and then she chose other lessons to do, some with me and some on her own.
These are my color tablets made using paint samples from Home Depot with masking tape edges, not the most durable but OK for home use.

Activities

2010-02-23T10:57:00.006-05:00

I finally felt inspired to do some activities with Bella. Since I started working I have had a really hard time getting motivated to do much. They still have access to the Montessori activities and they do them on their own pretty much everyday, but I noticed Bella especially, chose the same ones every time and did not really touch some others, so I reintroduced them to her. She seemed to have fun. We did mystery bag matching with small wooden objects. I chose one first and then asked her to find the match in her bag. I had to do the first couple to show her, but then she started to get the hang of it. She sometimes chose wrong in which case I would say "different" and have her put it back. If she chose correctly we would say "same" and place them side by side on the mat. We stressed the vocabulary because she is really exploding into language right now and craves new words. It is so much fun to see. Next we separated light beads from dark beads, saying, "light" and "dark." She got the words right away but did not separate the beads into their separate containers. She just held them up and said the word and then moved them all to the same container...perhaps a new lesson tomorrow. Next we separated colored pom poms, red, green, and tan using toast tongs. She loved saying the colors after me but did not seem to connect them with the actual pom pom. I moved all but the last three to the proper containers and then asked her to finish which she did correctly. I think it is time to dig out my paint chip color tiles and do a three part lesson on basic colors with her, perhaps tomorrow. (These photos were taken after the lesson, and I set them up to take the photo and she wanted to do each one again!)

Earlier this morning we made organic muffins using a mix we got at the store, but she had a great time. I think we will take some to share for snack this afternoon at school.

Rewards and Punishments

2010-02-15T14:10:00.002-05:00

My essay on Montessori's abolishment of rewards and punishments was due today. Here is an excerpt from it.

"There is thus born a new child, a child that is morally superior to one who is treated as a helpless and incompetent being. This inner liberation is accompanied by a new sense of dignity. From now on a child becomes interested in his own conquests and remains indifferent to the many small external temptations which would formally have been so irresistible to his lower feelings." (Montessori, Discovery of the Child, p. 59)
This “new child,” that Montessori speaks of is driven by his own desire to
work, by his pride in himself and by his own achievements. He no longer needs to
be rewarded because he is no longer driven by outside approval or by an object
of desire. He does not need to be humiliated into obedience but instead he comes
to desire it within himself. He learns from his mistakes through self correction
and through precise lessons, not through negative marks or scolding. He
has no need for traditional rewards or punishments because he is liberated and
free. He possesses a quiet dignity and self respect which guide his behavior and
his drive to learn and master new skills.

Liberty and Discipline

2010-01-25T11:46:00.002-05:00

In order to achieve true discipline the child must be free to move about spontaneously and act according to their needs. We as teachers and parents must be careful to prevent any harmful activity while allowing and protecting all activities which can in any way be useful. It is really a fine line we must walk to be able to do this. It really makes you think hard about "choosing your battles" because what might seem to us as a mere time waster or annoyance might be truly beneficial to the child. Here are some fun quotes on the subject by Dr. Montessori from my readings:

"We claim that an individual is disciplined when he is the master of
himself and when he can, as a consequence control himself when he must follow a
rule of life" The Discovery of the Child p.49
"Discipline is therefore attained indirectly, that is, by developing activity in spontaneous work." The Discovery of the Child p.305
"A room in which all the children move about usefully, intelligently, and voluntarily, without committing any rough or rude act, would seem to me a classroom very well disciplined indeed." The Montessori Method p. 60

Montessori Quote

2010-01-03T23:23:00.002-05:00

I came across this quote today while doing my reading. It is from "The Absorbent Mind." p. 220

"We can not cure destructiveness by preaching. If the child wants things for himself or in order that others may not have them, and we try to correct him by giving him a sermon or by appealing to his better feelings, he may stop for a few minutes but will soon begin again. Only work and concentration, bringing knowledge and love, can induce a transformation which discloses the spiritual man previously lying hidden."

Wow! I think this is the answer I have been looking for in regards to many of the problems I have been having with Goldie. I have been going about it all wrong. I have been preaching to her about respect, I have been reprimanding her for lack of it, and I have been trying to "appeal to her better feelings" in regards to how she treats her things and other people. It is just as Dr. Montessori wrote, for a couple of minutes she seems to get it, but then she goes right back to her previous behaviors, and I end up frustrated. Now I have my answer, help her to concentrate to crave knowledge, and to foster love for the things and people around her, so that she can transform from the desire to "seize and destroy" to the desire to "love and serve by means of her intelligence." Now how do I go about doing that in the home? Any and all ideas are welcome!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you are all having a good one. My husband and I are ringing the New Year this year at a fancy hotel dinner and dance, while the girls are having movie night at the Grandparents. We are all very excited about our plans! We have a lot of hopes for this year, It should be a good one. My husband is set to graduate in a couple of month and will hopefully find a job doing what he wants. No more turning wrenches! I will be finishing up my Montessori training program too, late in the year. A lot of change is in the air, but we are all excited to see where life will take us next. I thought this would be a good time to introduce one my New Years resolutions to you all. I have decided to create another blog. This one is called Story Time with Mama. I plan on writing an original story each week of the year for my girls as one of their bed time stories. It is an effort to expand my creativity and hone in my writing skills, but most importantly it is about increasing my quality time with them. I hope you will check it out and let me know what you think. The first post will be tonight. My best wishes for this new year to you all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all

2009-12-30T19:30:00.008-05:00

At The Christmas tree farm a couple weeks before Christmas. This is one of our favorite traditions!
mmm, roasted marshmallows afterwards.

Home to decorate.

Well I have been away from this blog for a while, I think I needed some time to just be. I have been so unmotivated lately! We had a pretty good Christmas, though the massive amounts of sugar involved resulted in numerous meltdowns from Goldie! The days leading up to Christmas were rough I have rarely experienced anything like it. It got so bad that I was ready to just do away with Christmas all together, but we persevered and Christmas day was a lot of fun. It was a good day for everyone. The next day however was pretty rough again. Goldie had several tantrums where she screamed for 20-30 min straight, She kept steeling the Santa candy and hiding it then lying about it, and she even spit at her papa. Needless to say the sugar has left the house. I threw most of it away and hid the things she did not know about. She has been mostly sugar free since then with the exception of juice and an occasional piece of banana bread. The behavior has gotten much better. The last few days have been mostly pleasant and fun. We are looking forward to celebrating the New Year and all that it has to offer! We are also looking forward to starting back to school and getting back on our routine!!! I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Christmas Eve dinner, and Christmas crackers. We made a Turducken this year. It was quite good.

Sweet dreams.
Before the chaos.
They loved the dolls I made them.

Opening Santa presents. Fun, fun, fun!

Hand Made Christmas

2009-12-10T11:39:00.005-05:00

This year I decided to make many of my Christmas gifts, The ones from Santa will be purchased as I have very little time to make things when the girls are not around and I was afraid they would recognize my work since they have seen me sewing so much. My medium of choice this year is felt. I prefer the wool felts both 100% and blends, but for the clothing pieces I used Eco-felt for washability. Here are the ones I have done so far:
This is a photo year book that we make every year for the Grandparents and Great Grandparents from here.

These hair clips and bracelets are for our nieces they are made with a wool blend felt.

This little monster hoodie is for our youngest nephew.

This little monster polo shirt is for our other nephew.

These dolls are made with 100% wool and this tutorial. They are the main presents for Bella and Goldie. They were fun to make, but they took forever!

This play mat was supposed to be a gift, but I got busted making it so the girls got it early. It is made with Eco-Felt.

This weeks craft

2009-12-10T11:33:00.003-05:00

This week in our afternoon program we made gingerbread man collages. The older kids seemed to have fun with this several children have asked to do it every day. The younger ones want to try but loose interest pretty quickly, and Bella kept trying to eat the google eyes, which is why hers is eyeless. I am trying to do a project every week. Last week we did scratch paper drawing, but I don't have any photos.

This Week in Photos

2009-12-05T10:28:00.005-05:00

Our First Snow!

Goldie sat and watched it snow for a while after we came in, she is sooo excited!

Bella's newest lesson, she places a bean in each suction cup. It really refines her pincer grasp and works on hand eye coordination.

Scenes from the playground at school.

Mead Montessori

2009-12-05T07:01:00.004-05:00

This is Goldie's school, where i work. It is such a beautiful little school.

"The historic Mead School was built in 1936 as a WPA project to provide
schooling for the quarry workers of Mead’s quarry.
Open as a public
school from 1937 to 1959, many of the school’s students and faculty still reside
in the area. The building sat abandoned and empty for decades until two local
visionaries rescued the school and brought it back to life.
Opening as
a Montessori school in 2008, Mead Montessori School is delighted to have found a
home in this amazing building, which is such an interesting part of Knoxville
history. "Shcool History." [Online] Available http://meadmontessorischool.com/history.html
2008.

PL activity 3

2009-11-17T13:21:00.003-05:00

This one is a preliminary exercise.

Liquid Transfer Using a Dropper and Suction Cup Pad

Purposes:
To gain independence
To develop the pincer grasp
To prepare for more advanced Practical Life exercises
To improve fine motor skills and muscle control
To build self confidence
To improve hand eye coordination
To develop appropriate vocabulary

Preliminary Exercises:
Filling a jar with water
Transferring water with a baster
Pouring Water
Using an apron
Carrying a tray
Measuring 1 drop

Materials:
1 small bowl or ramekin
Eye dropper
1 Suction cup pad (from a bathtub no slip pad set)
Food coloring
Pitcher
Tray
Sponge
Apron

(No diagram)

Procedure:
1. Invite t he child to the lesson. Together with the child get the lesson materials from the shelf.
2. Have the child put on an apron.
3. Ask the child to fill the pitcher with water.
4. Sit at a table with the child beside you on your dominate side. Set the tray in front of the child with the empty bowl to the left and the suction pad to the right directly in front of the child, the dropper to the left of the bowl and the pitcher, food coloring, and a sponge behind.
5. Pour the water from the pitcher into the bowl. Show him how to squeeze out one drop of food coloring into the water. Say, “One drop,” as you do this. Slowly and carefully mix it up with the dropper to change the color of the water. Pause and smile at the child.
6. Show him your two fingers and thumb and demonstrate a pincer grasp. Now exaggeratedly show him how to grasp the dropper using the pincer grasp and squeeze the dropper in the water to collect the colored water.
7. Gently squeeze out one drop, just enough to fill one of the suction cups on the pad, and say, “One drop.” Pause and smile at him.
8. Show him how to transfer the water back to the bowl once again using the dropper and how to clean up any spills or missed drops in the pad with the sponge.
9. Thank the child and say that the transferring water with a dropper lesson may be chosen now.

Control of error:
If the dropper is not grasped properly then the child will not be able to squeeze it to collect or distribute the water. If the child squeezes out more than one drop the suction cup will not be able to hold it and it will spill.

Observations:
Motor skills- ability to hold and squeeze dropper.
Hand eye coordination- ability to drop the water directly into the suction cup.
Child’s ability to measure out a single drop and then stop.
Reaction to errors
Level of concentration and duration of interest
Number of repetitions
Understanding of concept

Variations:
Use different size droppers
Use different shape suction cup pads
Change the color of the water
Transfer with dropper into another dish instead of the suction cups

Vocabulary: Drop, Dropper, Suction cup, Measure, Squeeze, Collect, Distribute, Spill

PL Activity 2

2009-11-17T13:15:00.005-05:00

This one is on Food Preparation.

Peeling an Orange

Purposes:
To gain independence
To develop finger dexterity
To prepare a snack
To improve fine motor skills and muscle control
To build self confidence
To improve hand eye coordination
To develop appropriate vocabulary

Preliminary Exercises:
Hand washing
Putting on an apron
Carrying a tray
Composting
Washing Dishes
Serving food

Materials:
1 bowl
1 small plate
Citrus peeler
Orange or Tangerine
Tray
Sponge
Apron

(Once again no diagram)

Procedure:
1. Invite t he child to the lesson. Together with the child get the lesson materials from the shelf.
2. Have the child put on an apron.
3. Have the child wash his hands.
4. Sit at a table with the child on your dominate side. The tray should be in front of the child with the orange and the directly in front of him, the citrus peeler to the left of and the plate to the right of the orange. The bowl and sponge should be behind the orange.
5. Grasp the citrus peeler in your dominate hand. Point out the hooked end to the child.
6. Grasp the orange in the opposite hand.
7. Show the child how to hook the citrus peeler into the orange at its navel and gently drag it downward towards the bottom. Continue in this manner until four cuts have been made in the orange peel. Invite the child to make the last cut if they show interest. Pause and smile at the child.
8. Now point out the pointed side of the peeler to the child. Show him how to turn the peeler over so that the pointed side is up.
9. Gently insert the pointed side under the peel at the top of one of the cuts to loosen the peel form the orange.
10. Pull the peel back discarding it in the bowl provided.
11. Carefully divide the orange into sections and place the wedges on the plate.
12. Invite the child to eat the orange.
13. Show the child how to use the sponge to clean up any spilled orange juice.
14. Together with the child carry the bowl with the orange peel to the compost bin and discard the peels.
15. Next take the child to the sink and wash the bowl the plate and the citrus peeler before replacing the work on the shelf. Thank the child and tell him that orange peeling may now be chosen.

Control of error:
Appearance of orange wedges, are they intact or messy
If cuts are not mad deep enough or long enough the orange will not peel easily
Condition of the materials after the lesson, are they clean or messy

Observations:
Motor skills- ability to grasp and manipulate citrus peeler
Technique in peeling the orange
Condition of the orange once it has been peeled
Disposal of the peels into the compost bin
Condition of materials when they are returned to the shelf
Reaction to errors
Level of concentration and duration of interest
Length of time and number of repetitions
Understanding of concept

Variations:
Use different citrus fruits
Have child invite a friend to help him eat the fruit
Have him serve the fruit to classmates as snack

Vocabulary:
Citrus, Peeler, Navel, Slice, Wedge, Compost,

Practical Life activities

2009-11-17T12:56:00.002-05:00

This month for my training I had to turn in some Practical Life activities. I thought I would post them to see what you guys thought of them.

CHANGING A TOILET PAPER ROLL
Purposes:
To gain independence
To improve fine motor skills and muscle control
To build self confidence
To improve hand eye coordination
To develop appropriate vocabulary

Preliminary Exercises:
Putting pegs in holes (large peg board)
Threading beads on a dowel rod
An introduction to springs

Materials:
Empty toilet paper roll
New toilet paper (taped to secure from unraveling)
A wall mounting toilet paper hanger mounted on a wooden plaque
A work mat

(There is a diagram here but It wouldn't copy.)

Procedure:
1. Invite t he child to the lesson. Together with the child get the work mat and the lesson materials from the shelf.
2. Sit with the child beside you on your dominate side. Set the toilet paper hanger with the empty roll already on it on the mat in front of the child. Set the new toilet paper roll to the left of the empty one.
3. With exaggerated movement show the child how to take the empty roll off the spindle. Show him how to take the spindle in the dominate hand and gently push it to the side making it smaller so that it will dislodge from the hanger. Then Tilt the dislodged side of the spindle up and remove it from the hanger.
4. Show the child how to remove the empty roll from the spindle and replace it with the full roll.
5. Show the child how to fit one side of the spindle peg into the corresponding hole in the hanger. Then again in an exaggerated manner show the child again how to push the spindle to one side making it smaller and then line the spindle peg up with the corresponding hole on the other side of the hanger and slowly release the spindle making sure that it is engaged in the hole. Gently tug on the roll to make sure it is secure. Smile at the child.
6. Repeat the process replacing the empty roll. Replace the materials back on the tray and together with the child return them to the shelf.
7. Thank the child and say that the toilet paper roll lesson may be chosen now.
Control of error:
If the spindle is not pushed in correctly the child will not be able to remove the empty roll. If it is not lined up with the hole in the hanger correctly it will not fully engage or be secure in the hanger and it will dislodge when gently tugged.
Observations:
Motor skills- ability to manipulate spindle
Hand eye coordination- ability to align spindle with hanger
Reaction to errors
Level of concentration and duration of interest
Number of repetitions
Understanding of concept

Variations:
Use a free standing toilet paper hanger
Use a paper towel hanger
Use a variety of different style hangers for both toilet paper and paper towels.

Vocabulary:
Empty, Full, Spindle, Hanger, Toilet Paper Roll, Remove, Replace, Engaged, Dislodged

3rd day of work update

2009-11-11T21:16:00.003-05:00

So today was my third day of work as an after school teacher at Goldie's school. We had a good day today, both girls just really love being there, I love it to. The kids were all very high energy today so I tried my best to keep up with them. We played a lot of "Ring around the Rosie," we danced, played duck duck goose, "Red Light Green Light," pretended to be various animals and walk like them around the line... It was fun, but man am I tired! I wish I had the energy they do. Could you imagine all that could get accomplished in a day if adults had the energy of children? It would be amazing! If anyone has some great after school type games or activities/projects that you love please share. I want to keep it fun so that it does not get stale for the kids...or me :)

2009-11-10T11:41:00.002-05:00

Here is what Bella did today while I worked on my blog and backing up my computer because it is acting a little funny. (Man I hope it is not about to break!) She really enjoys all water activities. She had a bit of trouble with the eye dropper, but she was so interested in it, she was able to transfer the water some just not consistently. We will have to do it again soon.

2009-11-10T11:30:00.002-05:00

Here is a little peak at the girls home dining area. It is still a work in progress. Our new apartment does not have room for a big table and Hubby and I eat at the counter, but that was not appropriate for the girls as they can not easily get up on the stools or comfortably reach the counter so I put their little table and chairs in the corner of the very small kitchen, but I think it works. I also put some wooden crate shelves under the counter overhang to hold their dishes and cleaning supplies... They have their own towels and napkins on the bottom shelf, a tub for dirty dishes or towels, plates and bowls, and then glasses on top, their little broom for sweeping sits next to the shelves. I am still looking for a good silverware holder for their forks and spoons that will fit on these tiny shelves. We are also working on learning that the dishes are for eating/drinking and not playing, but they are getting better!

New job!

2009-11-10T10:00:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I started a new job! I have not worked since Goldie was born nearly four years ago. I am working as the new after school care teacher at Goldie's school.This job is perfect for me. I only work 3 hours a day. I have both girls with me the whole time so I don't give up any time with them. Goldie loves it because she gets to stay at school longer and have extra time with her friends and on the playground. Bella loves it because she gets to go to "school" with Goldie and play with the big kids, and I love it because I get to be in a Montessori environment with both my girls! All of the kids I watched yesterday were great, they really are a wonderful group! I really look forward to spending my afternoons there with them. I think it is going to be a really nice time for the girls too, much more fun than coming home and watching me do chores! Goldie was still sad to leave at the end of the day, she loves it there so much, I think she would like to just move in. lol. They were both so tired when we left that they both fell asleep in the car on the way home. Too cute!

What would Montessori do?

2009-10-29T09:31:00.004-04:00

Here is my problem: I have a wonderful daughter who despite all her fabulousness, could care less about natural consequences. I have all tried many things but none have worked for her, she just could care less. She has her own agenda and that is all she cares about. here are some examples:
1. During snack time at school she will sometimes eat all he food for the day. Natural consequence: She has to sit and watch the other children eat lunch while she has nothing. Her response: nothing, she is fine with it.
2. Broken dishes repeatedly. Natural consequence: no more dish and numerous lessons on care of dishes. Her response: Oh well I'll get another one later...still not taking care when carrying dishes or putting them away.
3. Not putting toys away at home. Consequence: many have been stepped on and broken. her response: a slight shrug of her shoulders. (I have also tried taking the left out toy out of her room for a week to which she responded by just moving on to another toy, and when I threaten to take that one when it too is left out she says "OK mommy, you take it.")
There are many others I could go on all day! Nothing I have tried works. Her teachers say that they are having issues with it as well. All suggestions welcome...please!

Here is some of what we have been up to lately

2009-10-28T10:39:00.008-04:00

This is our new home classroom. Much, much
smaller, but I think it will work for our purposes, since we are no longer doing the co-op.
Language material, sorting dogs and cats. We started by doing a three part lesson on naming "dog" and "cat." when Bella mastered that we added more pictures and now we are learning to sort them. The cards are made using stickers on card stock covered in contact paper. All on an orange background to keep them uniform. Orange is just the color I had on hand.

Social/Language activity recognizing and naming expressions using a board book of photos displaying babies expressions and naming them. We then imitate the expression in the photo and look in the mirror. Lots of fun!

Social/Language activity on naming and recognizing emotions. Here we are learning "sad" and "happy" I have several cards with various babies displaying these two emotions and we name them and then sort them into two piles. The cards were made from a old book that I had two copies of and I covered them in contact paper.

Here we are using a whisk to create suds.
This is Goldie in her school's garden, one of her favorite places to be! Goldie is still loving school. She has started this week working on land forms and is so excited about it. She has also formed her first crush on a little boy in her class who is always helping he to do things. Everyday she tells me all about everything that he did that day, and she says she is going to marry him when she grows up!

The girls are washing our camping dishes on a trip we took in late September. It rained a lot but we still had fun!

A little Halloween fun at a Pumpkin patch and Boo at the Zoo. The girls are garden gnomes this year.
Finally, a little time for Mommy and Papa too! We went to a friends wedding this year on my birthday, and hubby bought me a beautiful vintage 1940's complete outfit to wear, he picked it all out as a surprise, and he wore his dress blues! We had so much fun!!

Error

2009-10-26T21:13:00.004-04:00

I am writing my essay on the teacher's reaction to error, and I have really been struggling with this at home. I want so bad to react in a Montessori way when my children error, but it is just so hard to be consistent with that. I have a tendency to over react when I am stressed out or busy, and of course your own children always know how to push mommy's buttons! Here are some quotes that resonated with me on the subject:
“It is well to cultivate a friendly feeling towards error, to treat it as a companion inseparable from our lives, as something having a purpose, which it truly has. (The Absorbent Mind, 1995, p. 246)
“If a teacher sees that the material is being used in a way that will not attain its goal, that is, in a way that does not benefit the development of the child’s intelligence, she should prevent him from continuing. She will do this with the greatest of sweetness if the child is calm and good tempered; but if he shows a tendency to misbehave, she will check him with earnest words, not in a way that can seem to be a punishment for noise or disorder, but rather as an indication of her authority over the child.” (Discovery of the Child, 1972, p. 153)
“Fraternity is born more easily on the road to error than on that of perfection.” (The Absorbent Mind, 1995, p. 249)
Dr. Montessori realized that to be human was to be a constant companion to error, and she planned accordingly. She designed a control of error into all of her materials allowing the child the ability to exert his independence in regards to his learning. She trained her teachers to accept error as part of life, to embrace it and to learn from it, enabling them to provide a healthy model to their children for how to handle their own errors. She asked that the teachers allow the child to work through his errors as long as he was working along the path of development, and to only interfere if the child strayed off that path, but then in such a way as to provide support to the child not to punish him. As a teacher in Montessori we must learn how to observe the difference between the types of errors and know when and how to step in, and when to allow the child to continue on his path uninterrupted. The goal is to allow the child to become increasingly self guided and the teacher to become more of a background figure in his learning.

binomial cube

2009-10-26T21:06:00.004-04:00

Today I watched the lecture from Margaret Homfray on the binomial cube. It is a piece of work that I am just not comfortable with. In my training this summer we went over it extensively, but I have still been confused. I understand how to present it sensorialy and I also am aware that at the primary level it will probably never go beyond that, but I still feel like I need to feel comfortable with it mathematically, and my poor brain is not a mathematical brain! Not at all!!! The lecture did help me to sort it out a bit more though, I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting a better understanding of the binomial cube. I will probably watch it again myself, maybe a couple of times...lol

The Lesson

2009-10-15T14:20:00.008-04:00

Today I am watching Margaret Homfray's video lecture on "the lesson." This is very interesting to me right now because the series of essays I am doing now are also on "the teacher and the lesson." She discusses all of the typical points including how to give the lesson using as few words as possible, characteristics of the materials, etc, but here are some points of interest for me on things that I have been unclear on thus far:

1. She discusses not getting into a power struggle with the child. She says, for example, that you encourage the child to pick up the lesson when they are done, but you do not force it. You make the suggestion, you show them where and how, you even offer to help, but if the flat out refuse you simply do it, saying something like, "I will put it away for you this time, and perhaps you can put it away later." I love this because I have been so stressed in the past trying to get my girls to complete the lesson by putting it back, only to end up in a power struggle with everyone frustrated and just over the whole experience. She says, "We lead them to order, we don't try to start forcing them." Something to remember!

2. She also talks about the need to treat the child "warmly." I have found in some Montessori schools that the children are treated very abruptly which I don't like. Goldie's school was such a breath of fresh air to me because of how warm her teachers all are!

3. She says that if a child is insistent about wanting a lesson with a work that you do not think they are ready for then you can give them an "exact lesson" with it. Sometimes it may be that they really are ready and you have misjudged, or it could be that they were just curious and needed to handle it, and after the lesson their curiosity will be ended and they will likely leave it until they are ready.

4. Fantasy and learning. We all know that Montessori encourages reality over fantasy, but Margaret Homfray actually had one of the best explanations I have heard as to why. She says that when the child is small they know so relatively little about their world that they are just trying to make sense of it all. When they are constantly bombarded with fantasy they become confused and frustrated. They need to be taught truth and really understand what is real before fantasy can be added, she says around age 6. I have always struggled with this idea because I love fantasy!!! I do understand the thought process though.

Margaret Homfray

2009-10-14T09:47:00.001-04:00

I am starting the Margaret Homfray videos http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Margaret+Homfray&emb=0#q=Margaret=Homfray&emb=0&start=0. These are a wonderful resource for those interested in teaching Montessori, or parents curious as to what their children are learning in school. Today I watched the Knobbed Cylinder lecture. Some points that I found very interesting were these:
1. She mentioned that she never has been able to get through a whole demonstration of the blocks before the child wanted to join in. In my training it was stressed that the teacher does the entire demonstration from start to finish including putting it away before inviting the child to do the lesson. I found this difficult. When I have tried lessons this way with my girls it usually leads to frustration on both their and my part. They even loose interest and do not want to continue. She however suggested letting the child continue and slipping away once they were concentrating. I like this way so much better. It seems to really follow the child without interfering with their interest. The lesson happens much more organically.
2. I loved the part where she discusses coming back the next day and giving the child a lesson on using the cylinders quietly. So many times kids get so excited by the work that they start acting kind of rough with it, banging them around and such. I have often struggled with the idea of how to get them to respect the lesson and handle it with care. She really makes it so much fun to be quiet. It is such a simple lesson and yet I never thought of it.
3. She does the same thing with the pincer grasp. My girls both instinctively held the knobs correctly, so I never thought about what to do if the child does not.
4. I really liked the comment that the goal is never to see how fast the child can do the work because "If you learn quickly, you forget quickly."
I just have to say that I am really excited to know about these videos. I have read about them on several blogs, but have only just had the time to check them out. They are wonderful and will hopefully help me to stay refreshed on my lessons over the year since I am currently not teaching in a school. I have been worried about that because I am the only one in my training class that is not teaching and will have to go into exams next summer with little to no practical experience. It really is amazing what you can forget when out of practice. I hope that watching these videos will help me to remember better my lessons.

Almost packed

2009-09-30T20:10:00.000-04:00

Wow! We get our apartment tomorrow, I have been packing like mad trying to get everything cleaned before packing takes so much more time. It will not be all done but I think I will have the bulk of it done. Hubby is taking off Friday to move, which is good but everyone will be working so that leaves us to move all of the furniture down the hill to the truck and then up the stairs to the apartment by our selves! Wish us luck.

Update

2009-09-21T09:24:00.000-04:00

So we are taking a break from our Montessori at home time. There is just too much going on right now for me to concentrate on it. I will post more on Montessori as things start to settle down again. Right now however, we are very busy. The Mold inspector will come on Wednesday to kill all of our mold by fogging our house with a natural mold killing agent...I think it is a Tea Tree oil based product. We will have to be out of the house all day but will be able to return by early evening, just in time to make hubby a cake for his 35th b-day! We have also decided to go ahead and move so that we can get this house fixed and on the market for my mother as soon as possible. We will be moving Oct.1 to a very small apartment... I will miss all of the space, but it will be nice to get out of this house. My Montessori room will be greatly missed however. It will soon be just a corner in a very small office, but you do what you can right? Before Oct. 1 we have to go through everything we own and clean the freshly killed mold off of it so that we are not bringing the allergens with us...that should be fun! Oh, a bit of good news on the car front, the check engine light was due to a very minor problem with a part in the "new engine" and they just replaced the part with the old one which was fine for no extra charge. The car seems to be running fine now! Yeah!!! So things are starting to look a bit better, though we still have a long month ahead of us before they seem normal again.

Oh the aggravation that is my life lately

2009-09-13T23:21:00.000-04:00

This is just a gripe post so feel free to just skip it...August and September have brought one headache after another, both figuratively and literally! As August came to a close we discovered that we have a severe problem with mold in our home. It is growing on everything and I mean everything, furniture, clothing, toys, some of my Montessori Materials, air ducts...you name it and it is moldy! Hence the actual headaches and sniffles and coughs... We had a Mold specialist come out and test and luckily it is not toxic black mold, but the concentration in our home of mold spores is at such a severe level that illness is likely as well as property destruction. Basically if it can't be put through the wash or dry cleaners it will have to be tossed. I have already had to toss most of the girls stuffed animals and several baskets, next to go may be the couch and the mattresses! Yeah!!! The same day the Mold specialist came, one of the cabinets fell off my wall, not in and of itself a huge problem, but it was just the topper. Then on my way back from driving Goldie to school my car breaks down...It needs a new engine, Oh yeah! Then Hubby's car starts acting up...only new breaks and rotters for him though. Really how much more can you fit into one week? Did I mention that we were preparing to leave for our vacation which has been bought and paid for for 9mo. Well that part was probably good timing cause I think we did need to get away for a while. 1 Week in sunny CA visiting family all over, not restful, but fun...Then back home to the mess which is our current life. Another week without my car being stranded in the moldy house with nowhere to go and no way to get there while Hubby tries desperately to play catch up at work and, take Goldie to and from school, and still have time to hit the grocery store since we had absolutely nothing at home to eat! AHHHH!!! Finally Friday rolls around and my car is done so at least I can get away for a while and get us out of the giant mold spore that we call home. Oh wait what is that I see? My check Engine light??? WTF!!! Tomorrow a fun day filled with calling contractors, Mold removal specialists, and car repair shops...and maybe a little apartment hunting too. Did I mention that this is not even our house...no it is my Mother's and she lives out of state so we will have to help her...but we won't have to live here...and that will be good! I eagerly await moving day though who knows what will actually be left to move by then!

2009-08-29T21:16:00.000-04:00

I received this comment from Montessori Moments, "I was wondering how old Bella is. We have a daughter "Belle" who turned a year at the end of July. I am wondering because she seems to be doing so well with her "work". Belle is just SO BUSY! She would not even sit for half a second!" It made me giggle because I am forever looking at other people's blogs and wondering the same thing. It always seems like everyone else just has it all together, and maybe they do, but as far as we go each day is different. Some days all Bella (16mo.), or Goldie for that matter, seem to want to do is run around in circles and dump stuff out on the ground. Then other days something will catch their attention and they will lock in. Goldie has now gone off to school during the day and according to her teachers she is doing very well and just loves to learn new things. Bella and I are on our own and our days are spent running errands and taking Goldie to and from school, or cleaning... Bella still naps regularly around 10:30, so basically once you take all of that stuff out we have only around 45mi to an hour and a half to work in our classroom.

I usually let her select the first couple of things on her own and I don't really interfere with those. She will typically pull something out and then get bored with it and want to move on to the next thing rather quickly. After a couple of times of her doing this I will invite her to a lesson, and I will work with her to at least complete it once all the way through. If she remains interested I let her continue, but if not I just thank her for the lesson and let her move on. Sometimes if she is really not wanting to finish it I will go ahead and finish it. If I do this I will slowly and deliberately repeat it 2-3 times before returning it to the shelf. I do this because she has no one to follow and observe. It seems to help and often she will regain interest and want to do it again when I am done. All of her lessons are very short so that she does not have to focus long to complete them unless she chooses to repeat. I have definitely noticed a difference though in her concentration. She is really spending more and more time with each lesson that she chooses. The other day she even spent 20min or so rolling out homemade play dough! That is really a long time for her. Most lessons she spends only a few minuets with before moving on.

Another busy week

2009-08-28T21:07:00.000-04:00

This week has been very trying. So much has gone wrong, from car troubles to house troubles, and nothing seems to be an easy fix. In the midst of it though I have gotten to spend a lot more time at home with Bella since I could not be out running my usual errands, so I guess that is my silver lining! Anyway Bella had a great week. She is really starting to adjust to her little private classroom. She still lacks focus, but she is young and it is all so new to her. She tends to want to rush through her works and move on to the next one, but I did get several moments this week of real interest in various lessons. Here are some that we worked on.

transferring pompoms with toast tongs.
She liked this but still has some trouble controlling the tongs.

Sponge squeezing.

I added a new jar to her open and close lesson which intrigued her she can get the lid on and off but she does not twist it into place. All the other open and close objects in the basket she has mastered though.

The latch puzzle is always a favorite.

She spent quite a bit of time exploring the nesting dolls though she has not figured out how they fit together yet.

Goldie update

2009-08-28T20:55:00.001-04:00

Goldie is growing and changing so much! It is hard to believe that she is not a little baby anymore!!! She has had two full weeks of school and she loves every minute of it. She does not want to come home at the end of the day. Her teachers say that she is doing very well and that she loves learning. When I ask her about her day she usually does not want to talk about it or she will just say "I did a puzzle and played in the garden," or " I sang a song." Every now and then she will tell me about a lesson though, like she told me about doing the Red and Blue Counting Rods a couple of days ago. I can also tell some of the lessons that she has had because I will catch her practicing them or "teaching" her sister. These are usually Grace and Courtesy lessons, like how to quietly observe or how to walk in line with your hands behind you. It is so much fun to see! I am so glad that she is there. I can't wait till I can go observe her class and see it in action.

This Week with Bella

2009-08-20T11:31:00.000-04:00

This Week Bella and I had our first solo week. Monday we came home after taking Goldie to school and did some classwork of our own. Tuesday we took a trip to the zoo. Wednesday we went to story time at the downtown library and then to the farmer's market. Thursday (today) we came back home to work in our classroom and tomorrow we plan on class time as well. We just do very short work periods now because Bella tends to get tired and need a nap in the mornings. So, we get home around 9:00 and work for about 45min to an hour and a half, then she has snack and goes down for a nap.
Bella spooning wooden beads from our practical life shelf.
Bella wanted to try two cylinder blocks today, but I don't think she was ready for it as she lost her focus pretty quickly and did not want to finish. She is really good at doing one block at a time though, which is why I let her try two. (We have mini-blocks)
A picture from the zoo, the black bears were splashing in the water and playing with the kids watching. It was pretty cool. Bella loved the bears!

2009-08-20T10:58:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in a previous post I have changed our home classroom to suit Bella who is currently 15mo. Last year I had a co-op of moms and kids ranging in age from infant to three, but this year I have no other kids as they have all moved on for now, so I took out all of the things that Bella was not going to be ready for and arranged the room around her. If we add others later we may need to rethink it a bit, but as of now we have no one interested. I did leave a couple of Goldie's lessons in the room just in case we want to work when she is out of school. So here is our room. It goes clockwise in the following order. Notice that I do not have a math section currently as Bella is not ready for that yet. Also I have several blank spots on the shelves which I will fill as we progress with lessons that I have already planned out, but either I have not made or bought yet. This way Bella will be getting new lessons on the shelves frequently. I will give a closer look at the lessons in later posts.

This is our practical life shelf.

Sensorial, both nontraditional and some traditional.

Language.

Science, Geography, and Culture (I combined these because Bella will only be doing very limited work in these areas)
Reading corner.
Music and non-Montessori manipulative's.

A very busy week

2009-08-13T05:50:00.000-04:00

Goldie started school this week. We went to her orientation on Tuesday morning. She has a brand new classroom which was built over the summer. It is so beautiful!!!! I could so see spending every day there. I will post pictures later, I have not had time to go through them yet. Bella and I have to wait thee this week because the school is about a 30 min. drive and she is only there for 2 hrs. a day this week. Needless to say I have not had a lot of extra time to Needless to say I have not had a lot of extra time to work on photos this week. Bella was so sad. she wanted to stay with her sister at school too, but I have a lot of good things planned for her as well. Yesterday we went to a local nature center while we waited, and we will probably do the same for the rest of this week since nothing else seems to be open that early in that area. Starting next week though I plan to take her every Wednesday to the downtown library for story time. I did it with Goldie when she was young and she loved it but it got too hard to get there with two, so now it is Bella's turn. After story time is the downtown farmers market which is always fun for lunch. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays I figured we would just come home and work together in our class room for a while, which I have completely redone to suit Bella's needs and improve the flow. It is so cool. (I will post more about that later with pictures.)
I can also use those days for my typical house work too. On Fridays I thought I would use that time as a field trip day and take Bella to do something fun like the Zoo or play gym, maybe set up some play dates for her too. It should be a really great year for both girls!

What is the difference in training?

2009-07-31T08:29:00.000-04:00

Below is a question that I posted to Montessori Mama, but I though I would post it here as well because I would really like as much feedback as possible.

What is the training that you and your husband did? I am trying to understand all of the differences in AMI vs. AMS ect... It is so hard to sort all of that out. The answer I typically get is regarding their founding. I am really more interested in the actual differences as they apply to the lessons and the classroom and I can't find the answers. I am doing an independent, though MACTE certified training, called MEI. It is a derivative from the St. Nicholas training. I chose it because it is local and I have two small girls that I was not ready to leave for any period of time. It seems to follow the materials in their purest form. Lessons are given without any verbal unless you are teaching vocabulary or it is completely necessary. They do not advocate any extensions beyond matching, grading, and then adding vocabulary, though if a child were to discover it on his own they would not consider it misuse. My instructor said that they were presenting them as pure and un-deviated as possible because when we teach we will have to deviate at times according to local laws or school policy and if they deviated than we deviated then eventually the original philosophy would be lost. I know this is wordy, but I am really so confused and I want to know so that I have an easier time locating a school that fits me and my children...Thanks

Class over

2009-07-30T08:28:00.000-04:00

Well classes are over. It was so intense!!! In two weeks we got 100 hours of instruction. We covered Practical Life, Sensorial, Language (only through the Pink Materials), And Mathematics. My brain is fully saturated! There is so much to remember. I always knew that the materials had a sequential order but I never really understood that order until now. It really makes sense though, how it builds on itself from the concrete to the abstract with each lesson. We also covered a lot of practical issues related to classroom dynamic. I am really excited and I wish that I was going to be in a classroom this year to practice, but alas, Bella is still too young. Instead We will go into this year with Goldie starting her new school and hopefully I can observe and volunteer some. I will continue with my reading assignments and my essays (approx. 2 a month). Next summer I will return to class for 100 more hours in Language, Science, Art and handwork, geography, and more. I will also be ready to take my exams, which I am scared to death about since I will be out of practice for a whole year (everyone else in the class is working and thus will be practicing with the materials daily). I have to say though, that I really am very excited, It was such a wonderful experience!!!

Class update

2009-07-20T19:27:00.000-04:00

Just a little update for those of you who care... I am in my second week of MEI training. Last week we covered Practical Life, Sensorial, and the beginning of Language through the Pink Material. This week we have moved on to Mathematics. Today we covered all the 1-10 work. I am on brain over load! So much to remember!!!!!!! More later.

I will be taking a posting break

2009-07-10T17:51:00.000-04:00

I will be taking a break from posting starting Monday and lasting for two weeks. I will be attending a two week Montessori training (MEI). The class is Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 7:00pm. I have never been away from my girls that long. I will be home in time for bed every night and gone before breakfast every morning. I am so nervous, especially because Bella is still nursing. She does not have to because she eats meals and drinks from a cup, it is more of a comfort thing. I am sure everything will be fine. We have a trusted friend flying in to stay with the girls and she is wonderful! Hubby and my father will be close by during the day too if she needs them. Still, I can't help but feel nervous.
The class should be pretty intensive and I have no real idea what to expect, so I am both excited an scared about that. I still have to finish some preliminary written work this weekend before the class. Talk about a procrastinator! Well wish me luck! I am sure that I will have lots to blog about when this is over!!!

recycled fun

2009-07-02T20:28:00.000-04:00

Thanks to our wonderful Papa who thought it would be fun to bring home two of the largest boxes I have ever seen for our living room, the girls now have the coolest play house ever! Papa rocks!!!! As a child we would get the occasional refrigerator box to play in and we always loved it, but these boxes take the cake. They are boxes used to ship solar panels and they are huge and really heavy duty, about an inch and a half thick and very sturdy. So he brought them in and set them up one on top of the other and proceeded to cut out a fun castle. It has two doors and windows on the bottom and a loft on top. After the girls went to bed I painted it up to look like a stone castle with ivy crawling up. They love it! I do too, I hope it lasts a long time.

It makes a great puppet theater.

The loft is a fun place to paint. I have been letting them take whatever art supplies up there, all the mess is contained and they get to paint and draw on the walls and floor. Too much fun!

under construction

2009-06-25T14:23:00.000-04:00

In light of recent photo theft scares as posted on other blogs I have decided to redo all of my photos. I am taking down any that have non related children in them and I am adding a watermark to the others as well as making them smaller so that they are harder to reproduce. I know that it is not full proof and that in all honesty there are just people out there who either maliciously or innocently use other peoples photos without permission for their own purposes, but that does not mean we shouldn't make it harder for them. It is really creepy thinking that your child is out there promoting God knows what without your knowledge! I think that in this information age it pays to be a bit carefully, because it really could happen to anyone. So please pardon my construction as I make my updates. Thanks.

Summer Food Work

2009-06-24T15:02:00.001-04:00

I mentioned in a blog a while ago about how we were going to dedicate this summer to the study of our food. So far we have attended a farm festival on an organic community farm, sorry no photos my camera was broken then. We joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where we get shares of local farm fresh produce every week. Through the CSA we have experienced some fun new veggies like Kohlrabi and Bok Choy, we have also rediscovered some old favorites like Kale and Sugar Snap peas, and we have tried some fun new recipes like this one http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1926,146161-255198,00.html for stuffed cabbage. We are planning a trip to a fruit and berry patch to pick our own food, and we hope to visit both a dairy and an organic meat farm close by.
Here are some of the classroom activities that we have done to study food:

Here are some nomenclature cards on the life cycle of an apple.

Here is a food pyramid I made up to sort pictures of food.

Here is a food origins lesson from http://montessori-n-such.com/. This is a great lesson but it has so many pieces that it can get a bit jumbled up and hard to keep track of. I think this would be fun with multiple kids as a game.

Here is Goldie working intently on it. She can self correct because on the back of each there is a symbol such as a triangle or a square for each group card that matches the symbol on the back of the corresponding food cards. Since this is a more involved work it has the side benefit of building concentration, which is something that Goldie and I are trying to work on. She has the habit of getting board half way through a work and then miss using it, but this one seems to hold her attention better as I only had to remind her a couple of times to continue with her work until it was done. Ahhh progress!

Baby Bella's work

2009-06-24T14:51:00.000-04:00

Since Bella started walking the Montessori classroom has been full of challenges. Many of the lessons contain small pieces which are choking hazards, and Bella just is not ready to explore them. Goldie on the other hand needs to have all of those lessons accessible, so what to do? I tried just watching her closely, but that became just too frustrating for all three of us. I tried waiting till she was down for a nap to take Goldie up, but that just was not fair to Bella, so the solution I came up with was to create Bella her own class space within the larger classroom. Basically I gated off a section and set all of her work in that section. Now she can be free to work as she pleases along with Goldie in the main classroom. It has worked beautifully. I can go between the two spaces and work with both girls as needed. Bella loves her new space!

Non-food related new summer work

2009-06-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

This is a pattern work. There are several cards and the object is to create the pattern on the card. One thing I like about this work is that there are no small pieces to get lost or for little ones to eat. The pegs just slide along their track and do not come out. It would be great for travel as well. It came from http://montessori-n-such.com/

This book is a wonderful book on the monarch butterfly. It has lots of great information to go with it. I put together this simple life cycle of a butterfly puzzle to go with it, but I am not really happy with the puzzle. I plan on replacing it with some handmade felted pieces which will present a more tactile experience, if I ever get around to finishing them! The book came from a local book store.

This is a texture matching work. The child wears a blindfold and chooses a tile from the basket with two handles, then using only their sense of touch the try to find its mate from the basket without handles. I love the premise of this lesson, however the tiles are way too small and some of the textures are too similar. I removed the ones that were too similar before putting the work out. All in all I think that the same activity could be done better by mounting fabric swatches from your local fabric store on a larger tile. This activity came from http://montessori-n-such.com/ as well.

Dance Break

2009-06-24T14:06:00.001-04:00

Some times you just need to cut loose and have yourself a little dance break...especially when you are wearing your "princess dancing dress!"

New camera

2009-06-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

Well we finally got our new camera. We decided on the Canon PowerShot D10 waterproof camera. It is waterproof to 33 ft and shock proof to 4ft. So hopefully we will not be able to harm such a camera. We got it just in time to go out of town for the weekend.
We went to Ohio to my Mom's house for my daughter's baptism. We had a lot of fun while we were there and we really got to test out the camera. Here are some of the results:

Portrait setting

inside in low light

Under water

Macro

All in all I think it did pretty good. It is going to take some getting used to, but I think we are going to be happy with it.

questions

2009-06-16T10:11:00.000-04:00

So I have been trying to really spend some time each day with Goldie in the classroom, but I have been a bit frustrated on several occasions. I was hoping to solicit some advice. Here are the situations that concern me. The first on is that she gives all of her work a personification, she talks to the cylinders like they are people, she has them talk to each other too. Other times she just plays with the pieces instead of working with them. I have tried to gently remind her to use the work in the correct way. I have also just let her "play" and then later represented it to her in the correct way. I have also just requested that she put it away and then shown her a different work, at which she throws a tantrum. She knows how to do a lot of them, but just won't. I am really not sure what the best course of action to take is.

The second issue is that she will get things wrong on purpose. Ex.: I was presenting a three period lesson on sandpaper letters. We were doing letters which we had done before and she knows somewhat but has not mastered. I showed her the letter, named the sound, we traced it and then I asked her to hand me the letter and she would get it wrong so I would say "thank you for the "i" please hand me the "a" and so on until we had done all three and then I would start again with the first step. We repeated it several times and she was still getting them wrong though I am pretty sure it was purposefully because the other day she did it fine up to that point, she just had problems on the third period. Anyway, I ended the lesson and suggested that perhaps she was not interested in working and we should end for now. She threw a tantrum so I put everything away and left the classroom. At this point I was pretty frustrated.

I am just not sure what to do. She expresses interest in doing the work, but when I try to present a lesson she just acts silly and refuses to do the actual work. Please offer any suggestions you have. I am really at a loss. This has been going on for a long while.

what discipline methods do you use at home?

2009-06-08T09:24:00.000-04:00

I have just read a blog about the use of time out here on this site http://beautifulsunmontessori.blogspot.com/. There were lots of good ideas for the class room , however not all of those ideas translate to home use as well, so I posted this comment to her asking for at home ideas:

Those are all great ideas for the classroom, but what do you suggest for home use? I have a three year old and a one year old. The one year old is still too young to understand at all, but the three year old has a definite need for discipline. I am however stuck as to what to do. She is very strong willed and not a lot really gets her attention. For example if she tackles her sister I usually have her sit in "time out" for a couple of min. to think and calm down. Then I have her talk with me about why it is not nice to tackle her sister and other ways to handle her frustration that might be better. Then she goes to apologies to her sister. This worked for a little while but now it seems very mechanical and not heartfelt. I just can't think of another alternative. Also she has hit a very defiant stage where she will simply refuse to listen, she will say things like, "No, Mommy I won't, you do it!" when I ask her to clean up her toys. It is easy to lose my temper and I really would like to find a gentle way to diffuse the situation before it escalates. Any ideas?

I thought I would also post the question here as I would love to get as many ideas as possible.

More camera drama and a farm trip

2009-06-07T09:42:00.000-04:00

So yesterday was farm fest and I took the girls. We had a great time! On our way there we talked about what a farm was and Goldie named things that came from farms. Mostly she named animals, but we discussed that veggies and fruit also come from farms, and that the farm we were visiting grew those instead of livestock. Earlier in the morning she had watched a program on PBS about honey bees and she was asking me in the car where the honey bees were. It was really neat to pull up and see right off some honey bees at the farm. This is where the camera drama begins. Being without a camera I got the genius idea to snap a few cell phone pics to document our farm visit, and I got a really lovely one of the bees. I got another nice one of the girls in front of a kohlrabi plant. (we just ate our first Kohlrabi the other day and it was yummy!) I got several others of the girls dancing to a band, and doing activities in the kids area including Goldie in a fun newspaper hat that we made there. As you have noticed, however, none of those photos are visible...Well that is because when I got home and tried to retrieve them from my phone I hit the wrong button and every thing on my phone was reset. I lost everything! All those pics plus others I had taken at other times, my entire address book, all of my phone settings...all gone and like an idiot I had never backed it up, so there will be no retrieving any of it!!!
So I decided to go to Best Buy and purchase a new camera. I was looking at the Olympus Shock and Waterproof Series cameras as I thought a nice sturdy camera would be a good choice for my family, and they claim to be virtually indestructible. I asked the sales girl if they really stand behind that claim, and she said they do and then took the camera on display and hit it on the counter, not very hard either, then we looked at the camera and the LCD screen had a big crack in it. She claimed that it was already cracked, but I had just been looking at it prior to asking her about it and it was defiantly not cracked. Needless to say I left with out that cracked "indestructible" $400 camera. I think I will keep looking! Meanwhile how many more beautiful pictures will I miss? I think I will give the cell phone another try today though on our trip to the zoo...Wish me luck!

new camera

2009-06-03T09:04:00.000-04:00

New camera sucks...sending it back. So still no camera. I am missing so many pictures. This stinks!

Camera trouble

2009-06-02T00:08:00.000-04:00

Well my camera is on the fritz...boo hoo
I have a canon rebel that I have loved but it has started acting up. I sent it in to get fixed a while back and $200 later I got it back. It worked for a while but now it has stopped again, totally different problem though. I am struggling with weather or not to send it in again or save up for a new one. We bought that one in 2000 and now they are better and about half the cost that we paid then, so do I really want to keep fixing it or just cough up the $600 for a new one...Well it doesn't really matter now because I can't do either budget wise so I guess I have time to think it over. Until then I ordered a cheep point and click that should arrive tomorrow so that i don't just miss all those photo moments while I ponder and save.
I got some fun new lessons in I will photograph and post about as soon as it gets here too. yeah!

Week of adventures

2009-05-28T09:53:00.000-04:00

Last week was full of mini adventures. First the girls and I took an impromptu trip to Ohio to visit my mom in Washington Court House. While we were there we spent a lot of time playing in her yard, and exploring Ohio. We went to Cleveland and drove around the city. We stopped to eat at a fun little Greek restaurant, and took in the scenery. We also drove through Amish Country on our way to picnic at the lake.

We got home Friday afternoon and then left again Saturday for a family trip to Nashville. First stop the Renaissance festival.

We got to see a "princess castle" but not much else as it was just too crowded. Papa called it the festival of lines... We hope to take the girls to a smaller one so that they can experience it more.

Next it was on to meet some cousins who even though they are only three hours away we had not met yet. We all hit it off and they plan on visiting us in June.

(photos removed)

Thanks

2009-05-17T18:38:00.000-04:00

This evening we took our girls out to a local restaurant. We were waiting on our food to arrive and My husband was trying to entertain Goldie while we waited. He was drawing things for her to color and trace. They were laughing and having a good time, while Bella and I ate the bread they brought out. A middle aged couple sat diagonal from us and when they got up to leave the woman stopped at our table and said that she loved seeing a father interact like that with his children, then she set down $20 and said that she would like to contribute to our meal. We tried to give her the money back but she insisted and said that it had made her happy she was on the verge of tears. We thanked her and she left, but I felt like it should not end there. There must have been some story there, some reason why she was so touched and kind. I wish I knew her story, I wish I could have thought of something better to say to her than just thanks. I love that there are people out there like this woman, she really made us feel good, what a happy evening! I want to think of a way to continue that gesture and hopefully make someone else feel good. If any of you have stories where you have treated a stranger with kindness or where a stranger has treated you with kindness, please share them. I just want to say thank you to this woman and to others out there who make this world a better place by a small gesture of kindness offered to a stranger. It gives us all something to aspire to.

CSA

2009-05-15T16:26:00.001-04:00

We started our CSA this week. It was so fun to go to the farmers market to pick it up. The girls were most interested in the strawberries. It was all packed in a cute little basket too.
Goldie with our produce.

Bella sampling the her first ever strawberry, she loved it!

My first attempt at making jam...we'll see

It looks good. I used a recipe from you tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaPpxWlyrfw I used a bit less sugar although it is still more sugar than I would like. Since it was my first attempt I did not want to stray too far. I think I will do some more research for next time though because I really don't like added sugar in my jam. I just made a small batch and it only filled this one 8 oz jar. I like that I don't have to make a bunch at once especially till I find a recipe I really love!

recent classroom photos

2009-05-15T16:21:00.000-04:00

Goldie cleaning up.

J. flower arranging and Goldie getting out rice pouring.

B. exploring scent bottles.

Bella doing "nap work"

2009-05-13T08:13:00.000-04:00

Wow, it has been quite a few days. We went out of town over the weekend to celebrate the first communion of our niece. They are Roman Catholic and we are Unitarian Universalist, so it was a very different experience, but it was important for them and we wanted to be there with them to celebrate. Goldie and Bella had a lot of fun with their cousin too!
On Friday as we were getting ready to leave Bella gave us quite a scare. Goldie took a book away from her and she got so mad that she stopped breathing. She actually turned blue from lack of oxygen and her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out. I freaked out and called 911, by the time they got there she was fine and walking around. So we got a nice tour of the ambulance while they checked her out. I felt so stupid, but I would rather overreact than under react.
While we were there we ate so much junk food that Bella got a little canker sore in her mouth which led to a nursing strike, due to discomfort. So for a day and a half including two overnights she just screamed every time she saw the breast, and then screamed more when she didn't. Finally last night, the second night, at about 3am she ended her strike and we all got some much needed rest. After eating all of that junk food though I really felt the need so some serious detox, which combined with the fact that our CSA (community supported agriculture) starts this week led me to the Idea of a new focus for our summer Montessori program. Food. Where it comes from, pollination, healthy verses unhealthy...More to follow on specific lessons and activities as they develop.

My baby is growing up

2009-05-08T08:04:00.000-04:00

Baby Bella finally slept through the night! It has been so long since I have had a good night sleep, not since early pregnancy. That is like a year and a half ago. I had forgotten how it feels to be well rested!!!!!!

We have chosen a school

2009-05-06T20:43:00.000-04:00

We have finally chosen a school for Goldie! We did a lot or research and narrowed it down to three local Montessori schools, by price and location, then I visited all three. They were all very different. One was a very "strict" AMI Montessori, When you walk in you get the feeling that you have entered a truly "normalised" class. It was the perfect picture of the Montessori in all the books. The children were happy and calmly working, there was a low buzz of activity, but zero chaos. It was beautiful! Another was a much more loose environment. The children were happy and all of the Montessori didactic materials were available and lessons were done according to the philosophy, but there was not that "normalised" feel of the first school. It was a bit more chaotic. The third school and the one that we ultimately chose seemed to be somewhere in the middle of the two. It is a new school started by two women, and though I did not see the kids in action there, it was an open house not an observation, I just really liked what I saw. I felt from talking with the two women that they really captured what I am looking for. They had a lot of wonderful ideas and the location is great. I also felt like there would be a lot of opportunity for family involvement there, that did not seem as important to the other schools. They are also dedicated to taking the school in an environmentally responsible direction, where as the other two did not even recycle, so I felt that they also fit our values better. Goldie also knows a couple of kids there so that will be nice for her too. I am really happy with our decision, and it was a hard one I really agonised over it, but I feel like I chose the best fit for us. Now all we have to do is wait and see if we are accepted, but I don't foresee any problems there...yeah!

yeah!

2009-04-30T07:54:00.001-04:00

Well it has been a big week!!! We sold a house that has been on the market for almost a year, YEAH!!! This means that I have the money to finally send Goldie to a Montessori school, I can only afford a half day program but still, YEAH YEAH!!! She is so excited, she has been asking to go to school pretty much every day all year long. I am so pleased that I am going to be able to give her this.
In other news, Bella celebrated her first birthday yesterday. We had a small "Hungry Caterpillar" themed party for her last night and everyone had a blast.
What a week, and it is only Thursday!!!

Back to our schedual

2009-04-20T22:01:00.000-04:00

Well it has been a couple of crazy weeks and our schedule has been thrown out of whack, but today it was back to it. I think this week is going to be a bit chaotic too just trying to get back in the swing of things and get caught up on all of the work we have let slide, but we will get there! Today Goldie and I started a new work. She has been asking me a lot of addition questions so I quickly put together this work for her. She seemed to like it, but I think I am going to have to present it several times before she can do it alone. She did a pretty good job though for her first time. She did start to get a bit silly towards the end of the lesson, like refusing to count or counting wrong on purpose... I think she was just tired of it though.

2009-04-20T21:57:00.000-04:00

We spent all day Saturday at Earth Fest 2009. Papa was working a booth, so the girls and I just played. The East Tennessee Montessori Society was there with a mock classroom and we spent most of our time there, with a couple of breaks to check out the bands and dance.

Easter Pics

2009-04-20T21:47:00.000-04:00

These are the Easter clothes my friend and I made for all four kids.

Here are the silly bunnies I made my girls from a tutorial that I linked to in a previous post. Mine did not turn out as cute as hers, but we love them anyways!

Here are my hallow felt eggs, they worked beautifully!

I bit off more than I can chew!

2009-04-06T12:34:00.000-04:00

Things have been crazy here!!! There has not been much Montessori class going on so I have not had a lot to write about, but I have started my MACTE training for preschool to five. I am currently working on my first set of essays. They are all on the importance of the prepared environment.
I also decided to do a mostly handmade Easter this year so I am making Easter outfits for the girls. Actually a friend and I are doing coordinating outfits for our four collective children. I am sewing and she is cutting. We only have one finished...
I also made the girls Easter bunnies out of felt from a tutorial I found at this link. http://www.weplaywithdolls.net/blogs/jamfancy-bunny-pattern/ Mine are not as cute as hers, but for a first try at making softies I am pretty happy with them, and they are 100% wool I will post photos soon.
Then I decided to make felt fillable Easter eggs, I was inspired by this blog http://www.onecraftyplace.com/2009/04/03/how-to-make-fillable-fabric-eggs/ but I made my own pattern I wanted larger eggs with bigger openings so I made a flip top egg. I will post some pictures as soon as I finish them. I have two more to go.
So much sewing and so little time. I hope I can finish in time.

2009-03-31T13:08:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning to a lovely surprise. I had been nominated for two blogger awards. It is so nice to know that there are people out there who are interested in what I say...As a stay at home mom one tends to feel a bit isolated at times, and it often feels like I have nothing to contribute to a conversation, so I have to say that this blogging experience has been a wonderful. Not only have I found other parents who share my interests, but I feel like I even have something to add at times.

My husband and I have both been evaluating our outlook on life recently and we have both been trying to become more positive. This morning we were having a conversation about how we both were feeling so much more optimistic and open to life as it is, and where it is heading, then I opened my e-mail only to find this comment from Jennie at http://montessoristory.blogspot.com/ nominating me for the

Lemons to Lemonade award: for bloggers "who have a good attitude or who show gratitude,"

and the I Heart Your Blog award:

I have never been nominated for an award before so I have no idea if I am doing this right but the rules were as follows:

1. Put the logos on your blog or post.

2. Nominate other blogs that you enjoy.

3. Link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link this post to the person from whom you received your award.

So thank you Jennie I am honored that you enjoy my little blog.

I would like to Nominate:

1.http://mommyme-thewonderyears.blogspot.com This blog is filled with wonderful ideas.

2.http://spiralmontessorimama.blogspot.com This blog is an inspiration to me.

3.http://beautifulsunmontessori.blogspot.com/ This blog is truly uplifting

4.http://montessorimum.blogspot.com This blog is fun and has many great ideas.

5.http://www.montessoricandy.com This blog has lots of good information.

6.http://montessorinsuch.blogspot.com/ This blog is has great lesson ideas.

7.http://superfunmama.blogspot.com/ This blog is creative ans fun.

A bit of history

2009-03-24T16:33:00.000-04:00

We have slowly been working our way through the little house series during nap time. We are currently on "Little House on the Prairie," but we skipped "farmer boy" for now. These were my favorite books growing up and I thought Goldie would like them. They are really a wonderful lesson in simplicity. Goldie loves to talk about Pa and the girls, so even though she is still a bit young for the books I think she is still getting something out of them.
This weekend Grandpa came for a visit and we took him to Cades Cove, a little early Appalachian settlement in the TN smokies. Even though the region is different the people of Cades Cove led a similar life to the Ingalls family, so it was fun to relate these homes and stories to the ones we have read about in the books. We all had a wonderful time!

This is an old Grist Mill used to grind corn meal for the families to cook with. It was operating the day we were there and it was neat to watch it. The man working said that the families would come to the mill once a week to grind their meal up so that they did not have to store much, since there was no preservatives or refrigerators. The water was pumped down the trough that we are looking at from the mountain creek and it spins the big wheel on the mill which in turn turns the gears. It was really cool to see.

Here we are hiding in a smoke house, I think.

Bella in front of on of the old buildings, I am not sure of its function.

Goldie getting a lesson on black bears, which populate the smokies, from a park ranger.

2009-03-16T11:27:00.000-04:00

Here we go, a better frame of mind...
During Papa's limited free time he took Goldie to the hardware store and let her pick out some seed. Together they germinated the seeds and every morning they check on their progress. Papa also created her a garden journal. He taped each seed they planted in the beginning and they record the progress of the plants by him drawing the plant and then Goldie colors them in. They talk about the changes and he points out various things about the plants and their differences and their similarities and names the parts of the plant for her. He plans to continue the journal till the plants go to seed and then they can add the new seeds to the end and have a recorded life cycle of her plants. It is really a wonderful project and he thought it up on his own too! I will add some photos soon.

Busy week

2009-03-16T11:14:00.000-04:00

It has been a very busy week! Papa is in a new class in school and it is a very time consuming one so I have pretty much been left with the girls. I feel like a single mom sometimes, I will be glad when he is done!!! Bella took her first real steps this weekend, and last night she slept through the night for the first time ever!!! YEAH! It is hard to believe that she is almost a year old. Goldie has been acting out and I am at my wits end as to how to correct the behavior. She has regressed in her potty training. She went from having zero accidents in several months to having one almost every day and sometimes two. She has been talking mean to people, and flat out refusing to listen when we talk to her, much less follow an instruction. I have been losing my temper a lot more with her too and I am not proud of that. She is just not responding though and I am at a loss as to what to do. This has turned into more of a rant then I meant for it to. Sorry. Please disregard. i will post a more upbeat one next.

2009-03-12T08:44:00.001-04:00

Well I have finally sent off my application for my MACTE certified Montessori training. I have no idea how I am going to pay for it but I am going on blind faith that I will come by the money when needed! Ha!!! I better start saving...I am really excited and slightly nervous to get started.

Practical Life activities

2009-03-06T14:54:00.000-05:00

Practical Life work is always a favorite!

Here J. and her mother are working on rolling out lavender scented play dough to make "cookies."

Here Goldie is arranging flowers. This was a new work I added this week. I have a pitcher of split peas that she pours in to the vase to hold the flowers up. She loved this work and did it several times.

Here J. is working on pouring rice. She is getting quite good at it!

This is another new work I added this week. B. is transferring water using a dropper. He really liked the squeezing action and he made sound effects to go along with it.

Lessons

2009-03-06T14:43:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the lessons that we focused on during co-op this week.

Here B. and his Grandmother are working with a mystery bag. I made two of these so it can be done in pairs. One person reaches in the bag and pulls out an object, then the other person can reach in an feel for the match. I have six pairs of simple wooden objects to start with. As the children gain experience I will add more objects and eventually increase the difficulty of the objects in the bag.

Here Goldie is working with some wooden Dominoes we found in the dollar section of Target. She is matching the numbers, and she can check herself by making sure the colors match too.

Here Goldie is working with African animals. I got the box of magnetic animals at the zoo and I drew Africa on construction paper and taped it to a magnetic board.

A new work

2009-03-06T14:36:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since I posted. We were all sick so we did not do anything worth mention. I did take that time to finish a new work however. I made these felt sushi. I needle felted them.
Goldie loves sushi so I thought it would be a fun activity for her. I lined a Melissa and Doug stamp box in black felt and I got some cheater chopsticks so she can practice transferring using chopsticks.

2009-02-19T16:36:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of the practical life lessons that are popular with my girls.
Here Bella is working on opening and closing doors. Goldie uses the locks on this board too.

This is a silver ware sorting activity. Goldie matches the utensil to the silhouette of that utensil.

2009-02-19T16:28:00.000-05:00

Here is a lesson that can be done either counting or by color matching. Goldie uses the toast tongs to transport the ball to the appropriate box.

Here is a bug matching work the bug is matched to the card with the picture of the bug. Bella uses the bugs to explore later we will name them.

Here is a Land, air, and water board I made and we use animals to sort, because we are focusing on learning animals.

2009-02-19T16:06:00.000-05:00

Here are some other sensorial works that I made for our class.

This one looks at emotions through facial expression. Goldie will separate the photos into "happy baby" and "sad baby" There is a mirror so that she can emulate the emotion as well. Bella uses these cards as vocabulary cards. We are working on saying "baby."

In this work we explore the five senses. there is a card for each sense and Goldie matches them to the primary sense to which the object appeals. Once the objects are all matched she goes back to see what other sense each object appeals to.

2009-02-19T15:56:00.000-05:00

I thought I would write about some of the lessons we enjoy in our classroom.

These are classic Montessori sound cylinders. Bella is working with just one box. She listens for the variations of sound, later I will add vocabulary, soft, loud, etc. Goldie uses both boxes and matches the sounds.

Here Goldie is working on the pink tower, she can do it, but she seems to enjoy it more out of order!

Here Goldie is matching scent bottles. I used essential oils on cotton balls in clear bottles and I colored one set of lids red and the other blue.

Here are some color tablets I made from paint swatches and masking tape. We do "color store" with them. Goldie will separate them into two different areas of the room and then ask me to please go to the color store and get whatever. I then bring it back and we set the pair together and I take a turn asking her to go. I got this idea from a Montessori program she attended this summer.

2009-02-13T14:13:00.000-05:00

The weather has been so lovely here lately that we took a field trip to the zoo on Thursday. We had a great time! One of the chimpanzees had a baby last summer and it was out playing. At one point it started nursing and Bella thought she should nurse too, so we sat with the chimps and nursed. Then we had a picnic with the cheetas. Both girls fell asleap on the way home so I put together a lesson for Goldie while they napped.

We did a mathcing adult animals to their babies. All of the animals we used were animals that we had seen at the zoo.

We did the "ch" sound and then she colored the chimpanzee. She liked this one the best. She colored him purple with "fur" on him.

My book

2009-02-07T08:44:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wanted to publish a book? Have your kids? If so then you should check out www.tikatok.com. Tikatok is a great site. It was designed for kids, but even the biggest kids can enjoy it. You can write, illustrate, and even purchase books on the site. They hold the copyright unless you request it, and they hide all personal info, so you and your kids are protected. True you will not be circulated and you will not receive any money for your work, but it is fun and it makes great presents. I did one in honor of my girls and ordered them both copies for x-mas.

A renaming

2009-02-06T09:41:00.000-05:00

I changed my title today because I feel like this is more descriptive of me. I am a work in progress and I don't have it all figured out, but I am trying my best. I read Montessori Mama's blog today and I was inspired by her admission that she is not perfect. It is not that I assumed that she was,but that it is easy for me to look at her or others and say, "Wow! They have it all together. They do it right." I, then compare myself to them and fell like I fall short. I have been struggling with this all my life and I know that in reality everyone falls short sometimes, but it is so easy to feel like they have it all together and I don't.
I love the Montessori philosophy and I want to raise my children according to her principals. I want to complete my training and eventually teach...but something inside of me holds me back. I see myself and all of my inconsistencies. I see that I am trying, but falling short. I struggle daily in how I interact with my children, and I am often hard on myself when I don't live up to my expectations. I feel guilty when I yell or loose my temper, after all what would Maria Montessori do. Maybe I just don't have what it takes. You know what though, and Montessori Mama's blog helped me realize this, even those we look up to are not perfect. They make mistakes too. We see their best side, not their whole. Montessori herself could not live up to the perception of her that I look to for inspiration, she to, after all, was only human!
In renaming my blog I feel like I more accuratly portray myself and my goal with this blog. I am here to learn and grow, to explore and improve. I don't have to be perfect, and I am learning to be ok with that. So thank you to Montessori Mama and others of you out there who provide inspiration, oppertunities for growth, and the occasional insite to their not always perfect lives that remind me that they to are human like me.

frustrated

2009-02-03T11:14:00.000-05:00

One of my biggest frustrations when working with my eldest is when she is simply not interested in doing the work as intended. I am at a loss as to what to do. Some people say to end the work and put it away, selecting another work. The problem I have with this is that I feel like I am always just putting away her work. If I follow this advice it seems as if I can never get through a presentation. Others have told me to allow her to finish the work as she wants and represent it to her later. My problem with this is that she never wants to have it presented the correct way, she just gets in the habit of doing it "wrong." I am at a real loss here. I wonder how all of you handle such situations?

2009-01-29T10:29:00.000-05:00

This is a photo of Bella in the peace corner

This is J, A, and Goldie working.

Goldie working on place setting

(These are all photos of our mommy and me co-op on Wednesdays.)

2009-01-29T10:25:00.001-05:00

I thought I would post an introduction to our classroom. We set up the classroom in what is supposed to be the master bedroom of our home, because it has an attached bathroom and outdoor access, and because it was the largest space available. I am still working on filling the shelves, and currently we are not using the space as often as I would like. I hope to increase our class time to make good use of it.

2009-01-26T14:39:00.000-05:00

Today we did bubble art! it was a lot of fun and the end product was beautiful!

Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act

2009-01-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

I was just wondering how other people felt about the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act and its implications on the small business owners and crafters out there. I have heard of a lot of people just going out of business because they cannot afford these strict testing requirements and the repercussions are just too great. I fear that the prices of those who do remain are going to have to go way up to compensate and their range of inventories are probably going to come down. I think that it is really sad that the only affordable options for children’s toys, after February 10th, are going to be the large foreign manufacturers who caused the problems in the first place. As Montessorians we look for natural products which are beautifully made and I fear that they are going to be in short supply and at a hefty price tag, which I for one cannot afford!
http://coolmompicks.com/savehandmade/ Check out this link for more info.

Introduction

2009-01-23T14:56:00.000-05:00

I would like to introduce my self. (I will create nicknames for everyone for the sake of privacy and safety.) I will refer to myself as MM, or Montessori Mama. My eldest daughter, I will call Goldie. She is three and a real spitfire. She keeps me on my toes. My youngest, I'll call her Bella, is doing her best to keep up with her sister. She is not one to be left behind. My husband will be known as Papa, because well, that is what we call him. Also a part of our group is our classmates, whom meet with us on Wednesdays. I will use their initials to identify them when needed.