E's Montessori-ish Bedroom

Several readers have asked (many) times for me to post pics of E(1)'s bedroom. I've always planned to do this, but just never got around to it. Now that we are about to move E into O's room, I decided it was now or never!

This is the view from the door. The shelf under the window is from IKEA. I used to have one basket in each space. The baskets each held a set of toys...knitted fruit, blocks, and beanbags. Once she grew out of these, I replaced them with books. The wall shelves are rain gutters that we installed a couple of years ago. They are great for storing books!

My favorite part of the room is the bird mobile (hanging over the rocking chair). My mom and I made it when I was pregnant with E. E LOVES birds, and I think that seeing birds fly around her room has inspired this love!


This is the closet door. There used to be a mirror on the bottom of the closet door (in addition to the mirror on the wall), but it fell off. Since, we rarely used it, I didn't put it back up.


E's floor bed. It's a double bed, so that we would have room to sleep with our little snuggle bug. We used to have books in this rain gutter bookshelf, but she started pulling up on it and it started pulling out of the wall. We'll move this rain gutter shelf to O's room soon (along with E!).

I'm sorry it took so long to write this post! Hope it helps someone out there who is planning their baby's room :)

Planting Seeds

The girls received daisy, sunflower, and basil seeds in their April Fun Box, and we planted the seeds in baseball card sleeves! This idea came from Family Fun magazine.

We put a little bit of dirt in the 6 bottom pockets and taped the sleeve to the sliding glass door with clear packing tape. We put seeds in each pocket. The soil was wet, so we didn't water them for a couple of days.

Within about 3 days, we saw growth! It has been very exciting to watch our seedlings grow!



O(4) uses a medicine dropper to water each seedling.


They are growing FAST! We'll transplant the sunflowers and daisies to our yard and the basil to pots very soon!

Coffee Bean Jewelry

Several months ago, I hosted a giveaway of unique handmade jewelry. The jewelry is made by women in Guatamala who are seeking shelter from abuse. Several of you have asked where you can buy the jewelry. Here is a link to a website that is now selling the jewelry.

Also, here is a message from my friend about the women's shelter (she left this message in the comments section of the original post, but I wanted to be sure that everyone sees it!).

Thank you all for your comments! I just got word that the shelter may close due to lack of funding! The link above is where you can purchase the jewelry! They have finally gotten it up and running through a partner group that has added it to their website! Spread the word, please!

Also, if you know of ANY organizations with Grant money or other money to donate, please, let me know. B/c they are faith based (but DO NOT force or require faith) they are often denied funding.

Thanks for your support!
Rebecca

Making Goop

Making goop on our beach is one of our favorite Spring/Summer activities, and we did it for the first time this year on Sunday afternoon. The girls mixed equal parts water and cornstarch and then mixed it together with their hands. We kept adding more cornstarch, and O(4) eventually added sand "just to see what happens."

We talked about how the consistency seems to change from a solid to a liquid as we played with the goop. We usually add food coloring to our goop, but I decided to make it a little simpler and skip the food coloring this time.

Painting a Mural

The girls and I painted a mural outside on Sunday afternoon. Elliott and I taped a long piece of paper to our fence, and we gave the girls a few cups of paint.

We had fun, but E(1) was pretty fussy and didn't enjoy it as much as I thought she would (she was overtired). This activity quickly turned into a body painting activity, which was not surprising at all :) Luckily, I thought ahead, and we painted right by the lake. Once the girls were through, we just stood in the water and washed the paint off of our bodies.

Next time we'll use finger paint or maybe shaving cream (tinted with food coloring), and I'll have them wear old clothes (the paint didn't come out of E's bathing suit).

Decorating (Hot) Easter Eggs with Crayons

Drawing on hot boiled eggs with crayons is SO much fun! This idea came from Family Fun magazine as a quick and easy way to decorate Easter eggs. However, we enjoyed using eggs as an art medium so much that we may draw on our boiled eggs every week!


As soon as the eggs finished boiling, I put them in a tray (that came with an egg dyeing kit). O(4) and I drew on them with the crayons, and the crayon wax melted as we drew.


I was undecided about whether or not to allow E(1) to join in on this activity. However, it was a moot point since E understands "hot" and was not at all interested in getting near the hot eggs. She sat quietly and watched her sister draw.

After drawing for a while, O decided to shave her crayons and sprinkle the shavings on the eggs. What fun!

Felt Storyboard Activity

I love doing felt board activities with the girls (I think I like them more than they do!) and here is a recent activity that E(1) and I did...

I printed the felt story pieces for Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? from Kiz Club. After cutting out the pieces, I glued a small square of sandpaper on the back of each piece. As E and I read the story, I put the pieces on our felt board.

After we finished the story, E had fun matching the pictures.



I love all of the story pieces at Kiz Club, and I'm planning to make a bigger felt board this weekend!

Making Volcanoes on the Beach

The girls and I love to make volcanoes on our beach! (see here and here) This is the 3rd Spring/Summer that we've done this fun activity, and it was just as fun as ever.

To make the volcano, O(4) filled a plastic bottle 3/4 full with lake water. We then built the volcano around the bottle using beach sand. O put 2 tablespoons of baking soda and several drops of food coloring into the bottle. She then poured white vinegar into the volcano, and we watched the eruption.

This is the first year that we've had red lava...since O's favorite color is blue, we always have blue lava. This time she wanted the lava to be red, and she told me that red is the "proper" color of lava. Can you tell she's been studying volcanoes at school? :)

We erupted our volcano 3 times, so that E(1) would have a chance to measure the baking soda and pour the vinegar. She LOVED it!

E's Montessori Shelf

E(1)'s Montessori activities are set up on a small shelf that was mine when I was little.  We attached the shelf to the back of the girls' play kitchen since we did not have a wall to attach it to.  This has worked out nicely because I can turn it to face outward into the room during the morning and then face it towards the sliding glass doors during most of the day.  Having these materials out for only a few hours a day seems to keep them a little more fresh and exciting :) 

The top row of E's shelf has the following activities: geometric solids, wooden nesting bowls, Brown Bear "I Spy" bottle and matching cards. On the second shelf is an imbucare box, a q-tip and bear bottle activity, a sandpaper e, and a bead maze (she was uninterested in the bead maze, so I replaced it with cutting fruit). On the 3rd shelf are the Montessori Cylinder Blocks and Ryan's Room (Lace 'Em Up Dragon) 2 (ours is actually a snake, but they don't make it anymore).



Here is the play kitchen.

Raising Readers

Elliott and I are raising readers! We started reading aloud to both girls while they were still in utero, and we've read to them every day since their births. It has paid off, and they both LOVE books!

Reading aloud to my girls is one of my favorite things to do, but even if you don't enjoy it, you should still do it. Reading aloud to your children is one of the simplest things you can do that will have a tremendous impact on their educational development.

Lately, when E(1) gets quiet we can find her "reading" to her friends. She gathers her animals and/or babies and surrounds herself with books! I love it! I love how she arranged her bear to look at the book.


While I was making lunch on Saturday, I suddenly realized that E was very quiet. I felt a moment of dread and fully expected to find her covered with lotion or vaseline or something else that would be difficult to clean. I was SO relieved when I saw this!

I LOVE that our girls love books, and I hope that their love of books and reading will continue throughout their lives.

Learning Her Letters

I put the E(1) sandpaper letter on E(1)'s Montessori shelf. She enjoys tracing it with her finger. I was so surprised a few days ago when she picked the letter up from her shelf and said "e!" She's proud of her e!

Puddle Jumpers

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We've had a lot of rain lately, so I told the girls to put on their boots and we went out to jump in puddles! This isn't something we do often (I actually can't remember the last time we did this), and the girls were THRILLED! We went out to jump in puddles twice in one week, and it was thrilling each time.

Reading Charlotte Mason's book (Charlotte Mason's Home Education in Modern English (Charlotte Mason Series Paraphrase)) has inspired me to be more open to activities such as this, and I'm so glad because these are the moments that the girls and I will always remember.