Creative Cousins: Montessori

Last week my sister and niece, "Birdie", came over for another session of "Creative Cousins." My sister has recently been reading about the Montessori method, so I set up a selection of practical life activities for the kids.

Water transfer with a baster was very popular,

as was transferring ice cubes with tongs,

but I think polishing pennies stole the show!

It takes lots of concentration!

Little Brother slept through the work session, but he woke up in time for a pizza lunch!

Penny Polishing

Saturday morning, M. and I polished pennies for our MOMS Club Easter Egg Hunt yesterday.

We used put a drop or two of lemon juice on the front of each penny, dipped a toothbrush in salt then scrubbed away before repeating on the back. Once we had polished them all, we rinsed them clean and let them dry.

We both really liked this work...it was soothing in a way and VERY satisfying to see the pennies restored to a bright and shiny state.

Before:

After:

I found the idea at the 4Real Learning Boards here (scroll down for the post that describes the activity).

Opposite Matching

We had a fun time matching these opposite cards yesterday! M. grasped the concept pretty quickly and was easily able to match some of the more familiar concepts (day/night, big/small, boy/girl, etc.) and after a few times through with me returned to match several times during the course of the day.

The opposite cards are from Montessori for Everyone. They have quite a collection of printable Montessori materials across the curriculum. If you have a little extra in the budget, I recommend them. It certainly saves time trying to track down images all over the web (which may be copyrighted!) and they will send printed files or PDF via email. A great resource!

Rough and Smooth Boards

Tuesday I introduced M. to the rough and smooth boards. We only worked with board #1 (front board in picture), though I did give him a few moments to explore boards 2 and 3. We touched "rough" and "smooth" several times then took turns wearing a blindfold and identifying rough and smooth by touch only. He really enjoyed the blindfold! We then spent a few minutes looking for over examples of rough and smooth in the playroom. Quick and fun lesson!

I made these boards the same time I did the color boxes. Having a handy husband means there's always lots of sandpaper and scraps of wood around!

Child-sized Fridge and Snack Tray

A few weeks ago, I had an inspiration! One of my long-standing goals is fostering independence and allowing our children as much control over their environment as possible (and still be safe, of course). I've been pondering the "freedom of food" issue for a while. It's very important to us that our children regulate their OWN food intake right from birth (nursing on demand, self-feeding solids, no purees, no pressure to "clean their plates, etc.)

I've also long wanted to hand some measure of control over to our older son over choosing, preparing, and serving snacks. As we know, toddlers are grazers and more likely to require many small meals during the day rather than "three squares." How often I've heard other mothers in our group complain that their young children would prefer to eat a few bites, get down run around, then come back for a few more bites. Repeat, repeat. Not the most polished of habits, perhaps, but completely normal. I've wanted to embrace that tendency in our son, but the method has puzzled me for some time.

Dr. Sears and others recommend leaving a muffin tin or similar sectioned serving device available to a toddler at all times whether in the fridge or on a low table. Our refrigerator is a freezer-on-the-bottom mode, however, and the fridge portion is far too tall for a toddler to reach. While some food can be left for long periods of time to allow free access, others cannot (especially in the summer!). So after months of tossing the ideas around, I finally reached a rather obvious conclusion:

CHILD-SIZED FRIDGE. DUH.

Happily, I had a mini-fridge in college and my parents still have it. A quick phone call to my mother later, and the plan was in action! I had the perfect corner for it and voila! Further independence and lessons in responsible use of a refrigerator created instantly! We did install a lock on the top to keep little brother out once he starts crawling and until he can receive the same tutorial as M., but fortunately our little locksmith can still access his snacks.

I'm still "stocking" it, but here's what we have so far: water bottles, applesauce, cheese sticks and cubes, ham cubes, pre-cut veggies, and yogurt. I would also like to add hard boiled eggs and hummus and leave portioned amounts of crackers and granola on top of the fridge. After a week or so, things are working very well!

Here is this morning's snack tray:

I put this out about 9:15 and replenished it with bread and butter about two hours later. M. still wanted a small portion of what I had for lunch (potato soup) then in the late afternoon he wanted some ham cubes. He then ate a good-sized dinner. Mealtimes are much smoother, there is less waste, and our little guy is really growing up!

Bead Sequencing

This has been a popular activity in our house lately! We've been experimenting with this set from Melissa and Doug for a few weeks. M. loves to stand the pattern up in the "gutter" and place the rod just so then...put an entirely random sequence of beads in place! Friday we worked on following the pattern.

First we laid the pattern flat on the floor and I preselected each of the beads he would need to complete the pattern. It's a little tough even for me since obviously on the board the shapes are represented in two dimensions and it's a little tricky to match the picture to the actual bead.

I then asked M. to place the beads over the correct image in the correct order. With my little helps in place, and some redirection because of the difference is appearances (board vs. bead) M. was easily able to do this.

Then we placed the correct beads in front of the pattern but still on the floor. This was also simple for him, except that he wanted to keep putting the beads directly on the board. More fun, I guess!

He had an easier time than other times we tried this, but "reading" the pattern from the bottom up was still a little tough. He managed, though, and I discovered that I had given him the wrong bead in two cases. I told you the shapes were hard to match! We tried another pattern, skipping straight to the vertical placement but he had a tough time. We're going to have to practice quite a bit, I think. Reading from the bottom up is definitely non-intuitive and it's made even more difficult because the pattern is placed behind the rod rather than side-by-side.

We'll keep working on it! Completing the work on the floor left to right is a good pre-reading skill, so maybe we'll continue that for the time being. Regardless of how this activity is used, it is also good practice in fine motor skills and a lot of fun for child and parent!

Color Boxes

About a month ago, I recreated Montessori Color Boxes. This was an easy project requiring only 80 2x3 pieces of plywood, paint chips in 11 or so colors and shades, and glue. Hah. While the finished project is simple, this did actually take quite a bit of time to put together. We had to search for just the right shades of each color, my husband cut all the wood for me, I sanded it, trimmed the chips to the right size then glued them all on. I actually worked here and there over a couple of weeks but the end result was worth it! Despite the sweat equity, it was quite a cheap "work" to assemble.

(Color Box #1 involves matching the primary colors.)

I'm not sure exactly when/how it happened but sometime during the fall and early winter, M. suddenly exploded and knew all his colors. He could identify them all before he could talk, and seemed to have picked them up just through everyday experiences (just what we want, right?) Therefore, I knew going in that he was beyond Color Box #1 and nearly Color Box #2, but forged ahead since this will likely be used by several more children (Lord willing!).

(Color Box #2 is matching pairs of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, black, gray, pink, and brown tablets.)

We started working on Color Box #3 late last week, and I was floored that M. needed almost no instruction on what to do! He seemed to know instinctively that the goal was to arrange the tablets from dark to light and he was easily able to self-correct and rearrange when necessary. We did pink/red, purple, and half of green before he got tired.

(Color Box #3 involves gradation of shades: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, grey, and brown. There are six shades in each family.)

What we do need to work on is naming the various shades of each color. He referred to the lightest tablet in each family as white and saying "light purple," "lighter purple," "medium," "dark," "darkest" seemed to confuse him slightly. He did better without my input, actually! It was clear that while he can see the differences in the shades, he still needs help putting a name to each slight variation in color.

I think we're going to have a lot of fun with these this winter!

Around the House

A month or so ago, we cut down a broom and mop and hung them at our son's level...

Over the last week, I rearranged the shelves in the playroom and "extension"...

Most of M.'s Montessori works are on this shelf. It's not perfect since he can only reach the three lower shelves, but I rotate what's higher every few days. I don't have enough shorter shelves to keep everything at his level-- or the room for that many sets of shelves! The top shelf has works that are out of rotation (one good thing about the tall bookcase-- toddler-proof!)

This side has our arts and crafts supplies on the highest two shelves and more learning toys on the lower three.

Christmas Tree Decorating Activity

Borrowing an idea from Starry Sky Ranch, M. and I created a mini-Christmas tree this week. Everything "Christmas" at A.C. Moore was 60% off!

The lights stay on, but the ornaments can be removed and the tree decorated over and over again!

We created the ornaments ourselves from bells strung on embroidery floss and unfinished wooden shapes and beads that we painted on a snowy afternoon.

Gingerbread Felt Board Activity

Shamelessly borrowing from Chasing Cheerios, I created this holiday felt board activity for M. last night. The idea is that he has to recreate a design from a photo on the gingerbread man. We haven't tried that yet; I gave him the cut-out and pieces to play with first thing this morning while I was getting organized and dressed (hence the messy bed!) and he's been enchanted with it all day! I made a similar activity at Thanksgiving with a turkey, but this one has already proven more popular. Every so often he runs up to his brother and says, "Look, Nay! Man!"

Here are a few of the designs I printed and laminated for him to copy:

I'm planning a similar idea with a snowman later in the winter.

Creating a Child Friendly Environment: Low Shelf

I was inspired recently to keep working on our child-friendly environment. I have toyed with the idea of moving tableware to a cupboard for a while, but wasn't thrilled with the idea of rearranging our cupboards so thoroughly to accommodate such a change. After reading this post at Chasing Cheerios, however, I had a brainstorm! Why not move around my pots and pans and use the rolling shelf for our older son's tableware and some of his other supplies? My mom helped me find new homes for about half of my pots and pans, and we were in business! Our little guy spent time washing windows after I unveiled his new set-up, and happily helped himself to his dinner plate at suppertime!

On the right, you can see I also attached a hook for his apron!

The left side features his window washing/cleaning kit, our child-sized washboard, and his brush and dustpan. On the right are his plates, several bowls and cups (I couldn't fit everything!), and his toddler-sized silverware, courtesy of Oneida Limited. I love these sets: they include a spoon, fork, and butter knife and are not the small baby sets, but not quite full-sized either! Just perfect for preschooler hands!

Creating a Child Friendly Environment: Table and Chairs

We've been working very diligently over the past few months to outline our homeschool philosophy and create a very loose "pre-school curriculum" with our son. As time has gone on, it appears that we are becoming "eclectic" homeschoolers, embracing parts of the Waldorf, Montessori, and Charlotte Mason philosophies/approaches. I hope to do a series of posts detailing what our days look like in the coming days and weeks.

Here you can see part of our playroom (what was a formal dining room-- note the wallpaper) and what we've done to create a child friendly environment. Part of our inspiration came from Barbara Curtis's book, Mommy Teach Me.

DS is playing with his play dough here, and working on cutting out a star. His table and chairs were an early birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa. For some reason, he likes sitting facing the wall. Wouldn't be my choice, but hey!

Behind him, you can see one of the clotheslines we have strung to display various pieces of art, DS's creations, religious images, etc. We have three of DS's fingerpaintings on our other portion of clothesline. Above the clothesline are our corkboard and whiteboard. Neither are in use right now, but they should be again soon! His rocking chair is on the far left, as well as a basket of books: his Bible, book of the saints, etc. I'm working on the logistics of creating a better reading corner for him: moving all his books to one location and finding a better way to display current library and seasonal books.