Matching Farm Animals

Matching Farm Animals, originally uploaded by omamom16.

O chose to do her Matching Farm Animals work today during school. I've been surprised by how few times she has chosen this work, since it's something that she really enjoys. I downloaded the farm animals pics off the internet (I have no idea where I got them from!) months and months ago. I eventually printed, cut, and laminated them. For this work, I have 5 animal cards and 5 miniature plastic animals (I bought them from the dollar section of Target. I love Target!) in a basket. O brings the basket to her rug, lays out the cards while labeling them, and then matches the animals to the cards. When I introduced the work to her, I showed her how to put the animals to the right of the card, but she usually prefers to put the animals on top of the cards. I think I'll add in a few more pics and animals before tomorrow since this work seems to be very easy for her :)

Sorting Toothpicks

IMG_9169 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

The idea for this activity has been on my mind for a while, so I was glad to finally pull it together this weekend. To complete the activity, O turns the dial on the side of the toothpick dispenser. Either a red or blue toothpick comes out, and she puts it in the appropriate toothpick holder. She LOVED this activity, and she did it at least 3 times in a row. I planned on also having yellow toothpicks, but I used tempera paint to paint the top of the yellow toothpick holder, and it immediately peeled right off. Another annoying thing is that the toothpicks are not uniform in size. Some go in easily, you have to put forth a little effort to get some of them in the holes, and others won't fit at all. I guess I should have tried each toothpick before introducing the work to O :( This will replace the plastic ice cube color sorting work on O's Montessori shelf. That work was too easy for her, and she was totally uninterested in it.

"School" with her Grandmama aka Duh-guh

My mom keeps O on Thursdays while I work, and they had their 1st school session together this past week. At first, I didn't plan on having my mom do "school" with O, but then I realized that my mom REALLY wanted to do it (she's a teacher who has had some Montessori training), and I was curious to see how O would do with her. I was happy, but not surprised, to hear that O did a fantastic job! She worked for about an hour, and her behavior was perfect. My mom was very impressed by how carefully O carried her work to her rug, and then cleaned it up when she was done and returned it to the shelf. O chose several activities that she's never chosen with me, which I thought was interesting. She chose: phonics pouches, water transfer with a sponge, shape sorter, animal/picture match, nesting dolls, jars and lids, and the mystery bag. After school they made homemade whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. Yummy!

Transferring Water with a Sponge

IMG_1073 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

O has really enjoyed transferring water with a sponge. This is an activity that we've done in the past, but we haven't done it in a while. After seeing Laura on My Montessori Journey's post about a similar activity, I realized that this would be a great work to put on our Montessori shelf. It was immediately a hit!

Melissa and Doug Latches Board

IMG_1062 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

O LOVES her Melissa and Doug latches board! I've wanted to buy it for a long time, and I finally bought since I had an Amazon gift certificate. I'm glad that I went ahead and got it for her because after only having it one day, she's already pretty good at unlocking all of the doors (except the 2nd one which requires more strength than her little fingers have :) I introduced the board to her yesterday and put it on her school shelf this morning. It was the 1st work that she chose during "school." O asked if she could "play school" this afternoon (and of course I let her), and the only thing she was interested in was this board :)

A Crayon and Silicone Ice Tray Puzzle :)

IMG_1060 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

O has a great time putting the number crayons BACK into the silicone number ice tray. I would never have thought to use the tray as a puzzle, but she did and she loves it!

Montessori Homeschool- Day 5

IMG_1048 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

Today was day 5, and O did great! She was excited to have her daddy here for the 1st part of school, and he joined in when we did the mystery bag. We worked for about 45 minutes, and she chose: Mystery Bag, transferring water with a dropper, shape sorter, sound cylinders, and sewing block. She only stayed with the sewing block for a few seconds. I think I'm going to move it off the shelf and bring it out when I am sewing so we can sew together, and I'll replace it with a bead stringing activity which she loves. O did a FANTASTIC job with the sound cylinders, which surprised me since she didn't really seem to "get it" last time. The only negative behavior occured when O accidentally knocked over the glass of water when transferring water. She'd taken the top off the dropper and was trying to put it back when she knocked over the water, and she became frustrated and threw the dropper. She immediately picked it up and cleaned up the work. (Thanks, Christina, for the advice to not end school at this time. You made a great point!) We're working on her expressing her frustration with words, and she's definitely getting better, but she forgot today :) We finished on a positive note, and we're looking forward to tomorrow :)

Montessori Homeschool - Day 4

IMG_1041 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

We took an unexpected and unavoidable week off from our Montessori homeschool, so we didn't have our 4th day of "school" until today. I was expecting O to continue "researching" the limits :) However, I was shocked when she THREW the lentils pitcher during the pouring work! What is going on with this girl? She was clearly doing it just to get a reaction, but I'm VERY consistent in my reactions (very calm, firm, etc). I'm a trained behavior therapist for goodness sake :( I just don't understand why she feels the need to continue "researching" the limits. I've made them VERY clear. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
I'm holding out hope that this behavior will resolve itself once we are on a consistent school schedule, but I'd love to hear any advice that any of you might have :) Thanks!

Artwork and Photos at O's Level

IMG_1037 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

I've been planning on hanging O's artwork and pictures at her level for a LONG time, and we finally got around to doing it a week ago. I bought lots of these cheap acrylic frames from Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off (so they were REALLY cheap). I hate to use so much plastic, but I didn't think it would be safe to have glass frames down low since she likes to take them off the wall and hold them. O LOVES the pictures. She walks by and says "O likes this one and this one and this one..." She especially loves the baby pictures since she is REALLY into babies right now :)

Making Shapes

Making Shapes, originally uploaded by omamom16.

Since O is still learning her shapes (she knows most of them, but she does need to practice!), I thought this would be a good activity for her. The idea for this came from Lapaz Home Learning. To make this activity, you need tongue depressors, stickers, and a pen. I didn't make a control shape at 1st, and O had a bit of trouble making her triangle. She did MUCH better after she had a model to look at so that she could check her work. I originally planned on glueing the control, but then I decided to use velcro to connect the tongue depressors so that I could take it apart for storage. I've also made a rectangle and plan to make a diamond.

Please excuse the off center photo. It's another problem that I'm having when blogging through Flickr :)

Day 3 of Montessori School

We had a GREAT school day on Wednesday! We worked for about 45 minutes. O chose different work today, which was fun. This is what she chose: wooden shape sorter (Melissa and Doug), Mystery Bag, transferring water with a dropper, jars and lids, sound cylinders, phonics bags, sorting colors into cups, and red rods. We had LOTS of fun with the Mystery Bag and the phonics bags. The red rods were the last work, and she carried the 1st one to the rug wonderfully, but then she threw the 2nd one (several times!). I was shocked, but I did not show my shock. I quietly, but firmly had her pick up the red rods, return them to the shelf, turn the shelf around (school was over), and then I took her to time out. O likes time out, so she wasn't upset, but I think she got the point. When I went to her room at the end of time out, she apologized, hugged me, and said she wouldn't be naughty anymore. She wanted to do more "school," but I decided that we were done for the day. I can't wait until school isn't "new" anymore, and she no longer feels the need to "research" the limits!

Our 2nd Day of Montessori School

We had a quick school session on Tuesday morning because we had an unexpected appointment. O was VERY excited about school, and she was proud that she turned the school shelf around "all by self!" She did the following work: transferring water with a dropper, pouring lentils, red rods, and marbles and frog. She didn't like it when I corrected how she was holding the lentil pitchers, and then she started throwing marbles. This is VERY uncharacteristic behavior, so I think she's still adjusting to "school." After she threw the marbles, I made her pick them up, finish the work, and put the work back on the shelf. Then school was over. She was upset and cried when I told her that school was over. I am definitely putting the frog and marbles work away for a while since they seem to inspire naughty behavior :)

1st day of "school"

1st day of "school", originally uploaded by omamom16.

O and I had our 1st day of real Montessori homeschooling on Monday! Up until Monday, we've done lots of Montessori inspired work, but its been in a very laid back, unstructured format. Elliott and I finally finished our Montessori school shelf, and I've been reading this book to help me prepare (thanks for the recommendation, Stephanie!). O was very excited when I told her that we were starting school, and her eyes were bright with excitement when we turned the shelf around (it stays turned with the shelf to the wall when we are not having "school"). Here is the list of activities that she chose during Monday's session: transferring water with a dropper, placing marbles on the frog, red rods, matching tiny animals, putting clothes pin in an ice cube tray, pouring lentils, and matching cats tray. I presented each work to her (even though she was familiar with many of them), since we haven't done them in a while, and I wanted to be very precise and careful in my demonstration. She did a fairly good job and seemed to enjoy herself. However, she also seemed to be trying to be intentionally naughty. She let out a little squeal and quickly checked me for a reaction. I just quietly reminded her that we only use inside voices. I reminded her that I wanted her to use her nice, school manners, and she said "not naughty manners." I had to remind her to only pick up one clothes pin or one marble at a time, and she laid on the floor and said "O take a deep breath." I have no idea where that came from, but it was pretty funny. When I told her that we were finished with school, and we would have school again tomorrow, she said "O not be naughty morrow." So... she was just "researching" to see what she could get away with during school :) It was very interesting to observe her!

Texture Boards

I made a few texture cards for O about a year ago using old cereal boxes, fleece, bubble wrap, and aluminum foil. She wasn't very interested in them, and they fell apart quickly. I was disappointed, but didn't think too much of it. When I saw these texture boards, I decided it was time to try again! I bought 2 pieces of balsa wood from Hobby Lobby and cut each piece into 9 rectangles using a hand miter saw. I sanded the edges, and then got to work :) I made 2 of each board so that we can do a matching game using touch only (O will wear a blindfold). The boards in the picture are covered with hot glue gun swirls, craft foam squares, lentils, velcro, fleece, paper clips, bubble wrap, and toothpicks. I ran out of wood, but I plan to make many more of these boards. So far I'm thinking of using popcorn kernels, beads, pipe cleaners, pea gravel, mesh, aluminum foil, velvet, flannel, lace, noodles, pennies, etc. I'd love more ideas, so let me know what you come up with!

Number Rods

I decided to make the number rods at the same time that I made the red rods (if I hadn't, I doubt I would have EVER made them!). They were a bit more complicated, and I'm SO GLAD to finished with them! They are also cut into 5 cm increments. I was VERY tempted to only paint the red sections and leave the other sections as raw wood, but I had too many red smears on the raw wood.

The Red Rods

These red rods have been in the works for a LONG time. It took me quite a while to finally decide to make them instead of buying them. They are priced very reasonably, but they are so big that I knew I wouldn't have anywhere to put them. I decided to make them myself, so I could make them on a smaller scale. We've had the wood for months and finally got around to cutting it a couple of weeks ago. The pieces are cut in 5 cm increments (instead of 10 cm increments). They needed at least 3 coats of paint, so painting took a while, too. I'm really glad they are done, and I'm happy with the finished product. Now, I just hope that O likes them :) I ended up saving lots of money (only because I made them smaller). I spent about 20 dollars on wood and paint, and I had enough wood (and paint) to make the red/blue rods, too. I actually have enough paint left over to last for years, and I have a little wood leftover that I'll probably just sand and give to O to add to her box of blocks.

Matching Dowels

The idea for this activity came from a preschoolers activity book that I checked out from the library months ago. I wrote a list of activities from it, but forgot to write down the title :( For this activity you need several dowels of different lengths and diameter. We cut these in 5 cm increments, so they are uniform.

O will match them according to length. As extension activities, she can arrange them in order according to their length or diameter. The dowels get progressively longer and skinnier. This was fun and super simple to make!

Washing Shoes

The idea for this activity came from the Montessori n Such catalog (I LOVE that catalog!). You need a container, wash cloths (the small one is for washing and the larger one is for drying), a couple of brushes, a sponge, and shoes.
O had a great time, and I was excited that we accomplished a few tasks that have long been on my lists. In addition to 3 pairs of shoes, we also washed O's outside baby buggy and a rubber placemat that's been in the garage for several months.

Mini Animal Match

I bought these decorations for O's crocs a couple of months ago from a dollar store (Family Dollar, I think). I wasn't sure if they would work for her crocs (they didn't), but I knew they'd make a cute matching activity. I know she'll love this work since she loves "niney" things. Don't try an activity like this if your child still puts things in his or her mouth! O occasionally puts things in her mouth, but usually only after she makes SURE that I'm looking. She likes my reaction (or perhaps my overreaction). Regardless, she'll not be unsupervised while doing this work.

What She's Into...

Most of our Montessori work is put away until we start back with our school, but we have a few things out that see daily use. O LOVES the lentil tray! I'm so happy to see her enjoying it so much because she ignored it for months after the initial "newness" wore off.
She also is really into washing the windows!
She gets the knobbed cylinders down every other day or so. I planned to put them away for a while, but they are so big that I didn't have anywhere to stash them. I guess that's a good thing, since she has enjoyed working with them so much lately.