Knobbed Cylinders

I ordered some REAL Montessori materials, and I am so excited! I've wanted the knobbed cylinders for a while, but they were MUCH too expensive. Thanks to Shannon I found out about an online store that had a huge sale. I got the knobbed cylinders (and lots of other things that haven't come in yet) for 50% plus another 15% off and free shipping. O was more excited about the packing popcorns and bubble wrap than anything else. However, since opening the cylinders she's shown lots of interest in them, and I think we are going to have a great time working with them. Yay!

Popsicle Sticks & an Insulated Mug

Another fine motor work! Dh was given this insulated mug at his conference last week, and he planned to give it away since he knew we wouldn't use it. As soon as I saw it, I thought of popsicle sticks. The little opening is the perfect size for a popsicle stick. My mom introduced this work to O while she kept her today. O really enjoyed it and has done it at least 3 times. The most fun is shaking the cup and dancing after she is finished!

Yardwork

O loves to help with yard work. Today when dh and I got home from work, she was very excited to help shovel dirt and then ride in the wheelbarrow. After that we had fun feeding the ducks in the lake. We had to do lots of coaxing to get the ducks to come close enough to eat the bread, but they finally ate a little bit of it. We are hoping they'll be braver tomorrow.

Homemade Magnetic Toy

I made these magnets for O before our long road trip when we went snow skiing. I printed out pictures of O, family, and some of her favorite things and decopauged them onto foam core board. I cut them out and put magnets on the back. O had fun playing with them on the magnetic wipe-off board.

Finger Painting in the Tub

O fingerpainted in the tub tonight. This time we used store bought fingerpaint instead of homemade fingerpaint, and it worked much better. O had fun, and she made a few masterpieces.

Arranging Wooden Flowers

I found these wooden flowers at my mom's house and thought this would be a fun, fine motor activity for O to do. She really had to concentrate, and it was not easy for her to get the flowers into the holes. She stopped about halfway through. I should have only given her a few flowers at a time. I left the work for her to finish later, and she came back and did a few more after about 15 minutes. For the more experienced Montessori mamas out there... what do you do when your child doesn't finish her work? Did I do the right thing by leaving it for her to finish later? Should I have had her clean it up since she wanted to do something else? What is the Montessori way of handling this situation? Thanks for any input!

Independent Play

O has gotten so much better at independent play lately. Yesterday she played with her rainbow stacker, cat puzzle, and shape book.

Watching the Rain

Its been a rainy day, but O and I have enjoyed it. After watching the rain for a while she decided to sweep the water off the glider. I gave her a cloth and showed her how to dry it, and that worked much better. She also enjoyed drying her baby stroller.

Loving her Wagon

The box lid wagon really is a hit! In this picture O is trying to figure out how to make it go while she's in it. Notice how she has the string around her neck. Ahhhhhhhhhh. She loves to wear necklaces and puts anything like a necklace around her neck. I have to watch her like a hawk!

Ice Cube Tray & Clothes Pins Work

My mom found this ice cube tray for water bottles in her cabinet and told me to think of an activity to go with it for O. I immediately thought of clothes pins... they'd fit perfectly. And they did! O had a great time putting the clothes pins in the tray. I only gave her enough for the 1st row to start off with because I thought it would be too overwhelming to have much more than that. I was wrong. She kept asking for more until the entire tray was filled. This is definitely a work that we will do again soon.

Box Lid Wagon

I made a wagon for O to put her toys in out of a box lid last night. I punched a hole in the side with scissors and tied a rope through the hole. O was very excited to see the wagon, and she pulled it around the room empty a few times before filling it with monk-monk and Baby Sarah. I've been intending to make her a box wagon for months, so I feel relieved that I finally did it. Obviously, the long rope could pose a strangulation hazard, so any mommies that try this at home make sure to keep that in mind. O is closely supervised at all times...our house is so small that there is not way to NOT constantly supervise her :)

Mr. Potato Head

I bought O a box of Disneyland themed Mr. Potato Head accessories for her souvenir from our trip to Disneyland. In one of the shops they have a Mr. Potato Head station set up where you can fill a box with as many items as you can fit as long as the box closes on one side. I had the best time filling O's box (she was napping in her stroller), and I managed to get almost 40 accessories into the box. O didn't have a Mr. Potato Head, but I didn't want to waste room by getting the actual potato. Luckily, Guh-guh had a potato head stashed away in a closet that she said we could have. O and I had lots of fun making different potato heads today. I think I enjoyed it more than her since most of the accessories have no meaning for her since she has never seen a disney movie or read any disney books (other than Winnie the Pooh). I'm sure that we are going to have lots of fun with this in the future and maybe one day I'll let her watch a Disney movie :)

Fill in the Blank

My mom does a fun, simple activity with O that some readers may be interested in doing (or you may already do it!). She says nursery rhymes with O and leaves out key words, which O fills in. For instance... Jack and ____ went up a ____ to fetch a pail of _____. Jack fell ____ and broke his ____ and Jill came tumbling _____. O has such a great time filling in the missing words, and she is so proud of herself. This is a great activity to do in the car, and its so simple. I feel a little silly that I didn't think of it myself! Thanks, mom!

"Its your turn..."

This is a strategy that dh started using with O months and months ago, and it has worked so well that I thought I should share. Whenever O starts crying due to tiredness or just fussiness, he asks her if she wants dada to cry. Sometimes she'll say no, stop crying, and thats the end of it. Other times she either doesn't answer him or says yes, he pretends to cry and then stops and says "ok, its your turn to cry." She ALWAYS says no and refuses to cry. She sometimes looks at us like we are crazy because she can't believe that we are telling her to cry. Its hilarious, and it works every time. We try not to over use this because we don't want it to stop working. We also don't do this if she is crying over being hurt, etc. Let me know if anyone tries something like this. I'm curious to see if it works for others.

Arranging Flowers

The idea for this activity came from Montessori Mama's wonderful blog. I'd never thought about having O arrange flowers since she is so young, but I decided to give it a try. I bought some pretty silk daffodils and cut them into individual flowers. I had them ready to use, but then I noticed that my mom had a vase of real daffodils on her kitchen counter. Its always better to use the real thing, so I removed the daffodils from the vase and took everything into the den. O was VERY excited when I told her that she could put the flowers into the vase. She loves flowers, so this was the perfect activity for her. She had a little trouble since the vase was so tall. I'm hoping I can find some small bottles for her to put her fake flowers in now that we are at home. Thanks, Jennifer, for another great idea!