The 1000s Chain

O(5) had the thousands chain lesson at school last week, and she is SO proud!  Elliott spent the morning with her at school and got to see her do this work and a digital math work.  Then E(2) and I went to observe her doing the 1000s work this week.  Our girl LOVES math!

South American Pin Map and Flag Pins

I bought the South American map and flag pins from Montessori Print Shop, and I LOVE how it turned out!  Actually, everyone loves this map...even our cat!



It was very easy to put together.  I laminated the map before tacking it to the cork board.  I decided not to laminate the flags, and they've held up fine.




Both of our girls love flags and maps, so this is a great activity for them.  I love to hear E(2) trying to pronounce the names of the different countries.




I've just bought the maps and flag pins for the rest of the continents, so we can use them as we travel around the world with our cultural exchange packages.  Hopefully, I'll find the time to print them and put them together soon!

Sunset Painting

O(5) sat at our kitchen table and painted while watching the sunset over the lake last week.  I've decided to keep our liquid watercolors in the center of our table, so that they are easily accessible (and they are so pretty in their wooden holder).  While she was painting, she said "I'm painting the sunset how I see it...not how everyone else sees it."   Love her!

Our Multiplication Board

When I saw the homemade multiplication board on Montessori Print Shop's blog, it reminded me that I never posted about our multiplication board!  (so many things to share...so little time and motivation!)

Here it is...


To make our multiplication board, I took a picture of O(5)'s multiplication board at school.  I printed it and laminated it.  I taped it to a cork board and added 100 push pins (I could only find plain wooden push pins, so I colored the tops with a red sharpie).  I velcroed plastic number squares to the side, and we were done.

O requested that I make this multiplication, but she hasn't used it much since I made it.  She'll probably use it more next year during homeschool...there's just so little time for things like this when she's spending her mornings at school and her afternoons playing.   (I really like the board on Montessori Print Shop's blog better than ours, and I'm tempted to make another one...we'll see).

Sequencing Hearts by Size

I was SO excited when I saw this set of heart cookie cutters for just one dollar at Dollar General!  They are perfect for toddler activities!  E(2) puts them in order from smallest to largest.  We talk about which one is small and which one is the largest.  She hands me the ones that I ask for, and her favorite...naming them with our names.  The smallest heart is E, then O, and on and on.

She enjoys putting them back in order within themselves, but it was a challenge in this rounded bowl.







So, I moved them to a flat container in order to ease her frustration and to help her be successful.

A Moveable Alphabet of Hearts

Here's a Valentine's Day twist on the moveable alphabet!  Fun and simple...that's what we like!

Valentine's Cutting Work

Both girls were THRILLED when I set up some Valentine's cutting work trays for them!  The trays didn't stay this nice and neat for long!


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We all love E(2)'s super cool scissors that she got for Christmas (well, we love them more than she does.  She just wants to use exactly what her big sister uses.  Luckily, her big sister loves these scissors, too!)

A Valentine's Math Work

Both girls were VERY excited by this work despite the fact that it's much too difficult for E(2) and very easy for O(5).  They love it because it involves candy!

O lined up numbered sparkly (or "farkly" as E calls them) hearts in order from 1 to 10.  She then put the appropriate number of candy message hearts under each number.














They got to eat a couple of pieces of candy after O finished the work.  Then, I had to put it out of reach of E because she kept sneaking pieces of candy!

Valentine's Day Sensory Box

Our snow dough hasn't seen much action since Christmas, so I decided to use it as our Valentine's Day sensory box.  I took out a few things and added in some Valentine's objects from the girls' Montessori shelves.  They LOVED it!!!



We had a lot of fun hiding and finding red treasures in the various containers.

Matching Textures While Blindfolded

I recently brought out the tiny pillow matching activity that I made for O(5) a couple of years ago out for E(2).

E quickly matched the pillows, but wasn't interested in covering her eyes to do the activity.




However, O(5) was really excited to see this activity back on the shelf!  She immediately wrapped the playsilk around her head and matched the pillows.  It was too easy for her, but she still enjoyed it.



Her favorite thing was hiding the pillows when I had my eyes covered and was trying to match them!  Silly girl!

Dates with Mama & Daddy

I love the "Year of Dates" on Let's Explore!  Since we've been trying to have more one-on-one time with the girls, these "date" printables are perfect!

On New Year's Day we told the girls that they would be getting cards in the mail telling them about dates with mama, daddy, or both of us.  So far, they've had 3 movie dates with both of us (family movie night is SO much more exciting when they get a letter in the mail telling them about it), and one individual "date" each.

Here are the ideas for our dates:

watch a movie
go out for ice-cream (we did this after O(5)'s ballet practice...she's an inchworm in The Little Mermaid ballet!)
go shopping to pick out a small toy (this just happened by chance when we went to get groceries after getting ice-cream...neither O(5) nor I could resist the teeny, tiny half price teacup piglets)
go out to eat at a restaurant of your choice
go for a woods walk
go fishing
bake cookies (E(2) and daddy did this one today!)
drive daddy's remote control truck with him
go for a kayak ride
make a craft

Hopefully, we'll have at least one individual date per girl each month.  The girls have been thrilled to find the envelopes for their dates in their mailbox. There's always lots of squealing and excitement when they find mail in their mailbox :)

Ways To Play Fun Box

This year I decided to compile "10 Ways To Play" Fun Boxes for the girls since their "subscription" to their Monthly Fun Boxes were their favorite Christmas gift last year, and the box was the highlight of each month.  These great printouts from Let's Explore are making my compilation of fun boxes much easier this year and the focus is on doing more instead of getting random stuff that I gathered throughout each month.  
In their "10 Ways To Play in January" Fun Box the girls received the 10 Ways to Play handout, cotton balls and straws, and organic lollipops.  They were THRILLED!  We immediately played freeze dance and then listed words that rhymed with snow.  We've been collecting rain in a jar all month, and we'll do a couple more activities this weekend.  Thanks to Amy at Let's Explore for the idea and printouts!