Montessori Baby: Octahedron Mobile

Jonah got a new mobile a few days ago after the last one met it's unfortunate demise during a tantrum thrown by a certain toddler. She's still asking for daddy to try and fix it and it should be pretty easy for him to do so but I'm debating whether or not to actual try. If we do, we'd keep rotating them every week or two to keep things fresh but I might want to to let natural consequences serve a purpose. She was pretty upset that she ruined Jonah's mobile but he wasn't - he loved this one! 

He really seemed to like the blue one. These pictures were taken around 7pm which is normally the time of day when he has to be nursing, worn in a wrap or constantly bounced or he is fussy which is how I knew how big of a hit it was.

This was also one of the cheapest and easiest to make using the template and tutorial from Little Red Farm. I already had the dowel and clear string so it only cost $1.50 for three pieces of scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby. Definitely worth the effort!

Joyful Learning in October

Back in September Lucy and I started doing the Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum - Joyful Learning. I hesitate to even call it a "curriculum" because for us it consists of a monthly playdough, a bible verse, songs and fingerplays, books and a few art projects.  (We skip a lot of the projects and the sensory bin and I add in other theme things I find). I also add in more bible stories/songs that relate to the theme. 

I've been thinking a lot about preschool type stuff lately and have a whole lot of thoughts on topics that I would love to talk about someday but right now I'm not only still processing how of things will actually work (as opposed to theories and concepts) and because I don't have the brain power to do that. Craig thinks "Mommy brain" is just an excuse but I am positive I lose at least 10 IQ points with each kid. Actual, my lack of brain power is why we are doing Joyful Learning. I don't have to think up anything unless I want to. And sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't.

My goal is not to even have her learn any of this stuff, although I'm assuming she will because she's not a rock, but to spend some one-on-one time with her. We do this during Jonah's naps - and yes, he naps like a champ in his co-sleeper which still amazes me every single day. Maybe someday I will get used to it and it won't seem like a big deal but I kinda like experiencing mini-miracles one to two times a day. We are really enjoying.the time together (I started calling it school because I didn't know what else to call it but as soon as I start getting Jonah ready for his nap Lucy will come up to me and telling me "I want to do fun stuff with you." Unlike a lot of the other "preschool curriculums" (FIAR, rock star, tot school)  I've heard about, I can't really find much documented about this program online so I thought I would put up summary posts every month. I also have a Joyful Learning Pinterest board that I'm using to hold all the theme-y things I find. 

There are one or two themes per month. September's were home and family which worked nicely as we were about increase ours (family, not house :-) I didn't get around to posting the pictures of those activities because of said increase in family size but here is what we did for October with its fall/pumpkins themes.

Pumpkin pie playdough!

Make a nature tote (decorate the bottom of a cereal box with fall colored construction paper)

Trying out our nature tote

Counting trees

For the first eight, I put the glue where she told me to then she stuck on the correct number of leaves but for number 9 and 10 she did it all herself so her trees look more like bushes.

I already documented our trip to the pumpkin patch but when I told Lucy she might find some non-orange pumpkins there, she got really excited about having a blue pumpkin. I tried to warn her that green and white might be the only other colors she would but she insisted there would be blue. Obviously, there were not really any blue pumpkins but not one to settle for a second best color, she asked if we could paint it blue.

I love her expression in this picture. She was very meticulous in her painting. 

We watched a video about how pumpkins grow as well as read a story about a hamster that grows a pumpkin then had fun with this Montessori pumpkin life cycle activity free from Montessori for Everyone.

Demonstrating how little the seeds are.

I hung up our art work as we went. Clockwise from top we have:

• Leaf rubbing banner.
• Pumpkin patch painting. Fists in orange paint where pumpkins, thumbs in green paint were leaves
• Orange pumpkin "book" This was one pinterest find that I wanted to do but we didn't have time for but then the next week we did it at storytime anyway. Kismet!
• An "acorn surprise" painting. Paint an acorn then put it in a plastic container lined with paper. Shake then reveal the surprise!
• Painting with fall colors 
• Counting tree shown above

I don't have any pictures but she really loved the songs this month and was often heard singing "The leaves fall from the trees!" Our library is hit and miss when it comes to their book selection so we didn't get to read all of the listed books but it was easy enough to find fall and pumpkin books. I also took some good ones from this list.

Also not shown was the fall tree snack Craig made for her. A lot of the theme snack options, both in JL and on pinterest, are not healthy so I was really excited to find a real food treat that was fun. She was also my helper in many of my pumpkin cooking endeavours  At first she didn't believe me when I told her the stuff in the can was pumpkin but eventually she came around. I just don't think you can do preschool without snacks, am I right?

So that was October.  I can't wait to share with you all the fun stuff we have planned for next month and from the look on her face, neither can Lucy!

Montessori Baby: The Munari Mobile

I talked back here about how I wanted to buy or make some montessori mobiles before "baby" arrived. I ended up making four (Munari, Octahedron, Gobbi and Dancers). Several look a bit homemade but I still love them, especially since I made all for for less than $15 total! I'll try and get pictures of each one and include a link to the tutorial if there is one.

The Munari is the first one we are using, it's geared to babies 3-6 weeks although we put it up at 2 weeks because I wanted Craig to get around to it before he went back to work :-)

I used this tutorial which helped a lot but it was still the trickiest of the four to make and balance.

Jonah seems to enjoy it for the few minutes he'll lay on his back (we have some oversupply/reflux issues going on so back time doesn't last long as it often leads to massive spit up time) but hopefully as that resolves, he'll be able to enjoy it more.

Until then, we'll keep using these black and white art cards since they can be used with Jonah propped up on our knees. My SIL got them for Lucy when she was just a baby and they were a bit hit her first 6 months. Now she loves to show them to Jonah and tell him what sounds the animals make. It's a lot of fun to watch such a small baby focus so intently on something - even if only for a few minutes at a time.

Toddler Tuesday: Mat Work

I've said before that I'm not a stickler for educational rules and theories. I like Montessori a lot but have no problems completely throwing out ideas that I don't think will work for us. But there are other ideas that I want to incorporate, but it just takes me a while to get to them. Work mats was one of those areas.

The idea of the Montessori mat is to give children a defined space to work. It helps them maintain order and gives them a way to save projects if they have to stop for some reason.

Mommy and Me time (reusing an older picture from the rowing Good night moon post - I'm even bigger now, haha!)

I just gave Lucy a work mat about two months ago and regret not having started earlier. She loves her mat and takes such good care of it - rolling it up and putting it away when she isn't using it and always saying "on my mat mommy" if we start to play something. I thought she would only use it for more "school' type but it is just as likely to have a tea set on it as a pouring set or counting work. I guess that makes sense because in her mind they are all "games." 

Color Tablet Fun - She figured out her pom-poms matched by herself and just had to include them so they are now a permanent part of the color tablet tray

I love it too. I really do see a difference in her play/work when she is using it. For more school-type activities, she can focused longer and keep things lined up nice and tidy. And it helps control the chaos that occurs during playtime. We've always had a "one toy at a time" rule and when it is just her and me at home she follows it  pretty well (when Craig is home it doesn't seem to work as well, probably because I am not as consistent with her - bad mommy). The mat helps reinforce that idea. If her mat is full, she has to pick up before she can get something else out. This is especially useful now that the rule is evolving into a "one game" at a time rule as she is engaging in more imaginative play and often plays with toys together - uses her blocks to make tables, chairs and beds for her duplo people or using her pattern pieces as pretend food. As long as it is still relatively contained by the mat, she is fine.

She's showing me her duplo town...a great example of what I consider "relatively contained"

Currently her mat is a small ikea rug that used to be in our kitchen. I believe it cost $3. It isn't quite ideal according to Montessori standards because it has a slight pattern but its red on red and I don't think it really detracts from her games/work. It was an ideal size to start with because it is fairly easy for her to manage on her own but she will also need a larger one though as several of her new tot school activities won't fit on the red one. But I've got plans so stay tuned!

This picture is basically here to prove that Lucy doesn't always run around in her undies - just most of the time :-)

BFIAR: Goodnight moon (our first row!)

Last week we took some time to "row" the book goodnight moon. For those of you who don't know what that last sentence means - it is from the curriculumn Five in a Row (or in our case, Before Five in a Row which is for kids age 2-4) where you read a book over a week and do different activities with it.  I was going to share what we did through-out the week but no computer last week means you get it all in one gigantic picture filled post.

First off, just in case you missed my posts last week and think I did this because I am some sort of super-mom, let me burst that bubble right now. No, I did this because my child was driving me crazy. Seriously. We had such a bad week (or two or three, but who's counting) before I realized that it might have something to do with our messed up routine combined with my attempts to get stuff done before the baby comes. Then I wrote that weaning post and realized that she had also started sleeping through the night and weaned during this same crazy period and while I know she was ready for both, it still meant a whole lot less attention, snuggles and one-on-one time that I wasn't being intentional about replacing. And shockingly, she was being extremely whiny and clingy!

So I took a time out from everything else and we had a "Lucy week." I wasn't really going to do anything specific but she picked out Katy no-pocked from the library and I remembered it was a BFIAR book. The book ended up being okay but I didn't really like the activities I saw but the Goodnight Moon activities seemed like stuff she would like and I easily came up with additional things too.

I don't have the actual BFIAR curriculumn. If we do more in the future, I will buy the book because I don't think it is completely ethical to take all the ideas off the internet when I know they came from the book originally but in this case, I actually came up with a lot myself - not that it takes a genius to think of eating "mush" and talking about the moon when you read Goodnight moon. Okay, enough talk. Picture time.

Day 1 (Bible and Science):
We started off our first day by reading Goodnight Moon and eating cream of wheat "mush." Actually I ate mush, she tasted two bites while I took these pictures then decided she wanted cheerios :-)

And get used to this face. It's her new "smile" face. 

She had already memorized Genesis 1:1 - although every time she says ""earth and da heavens" instead of "heavens and the earth" but I figure that is close enough. If you ask her what it means she'll start naming things and won't stop..God made the moms and the dads and the flowers and the moon and the stars and the sun and the dogs and the cats and the mice and the horses... so I knew she understood the basics (as well as a 2 year old can).  When we were reviewing her verses, I realized it would be a good fit for this book so we read over the creation story from her Jesus Storybook bible again - focusing on the heavens and earth part and the day and night part.

I had a coloring sheet about the creation story but after a few minutes she turned it over and drew her own picture on the back. Coloring pages are so stifling to a two year old's creativity, you know  :-)

We also did a printable game where I put stars in the sky and she counted them and moved the right numeral into the box. The game went up to 15 but we just did numbers 1-10 (randomly). You could also do it where you give the number and they put the right number of stars in the sky which is what we do with her other counting printable but she can only count and add to about 6 before she has to stop and count each time to see if she has enough - then add one more and count again. She can do it but it ends up taking a looong time. 

We also checked out several other moon stories from the library to read: Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, Kitten's First Full Moon and Happy Birthday, Moon all of which were hits with Lucy.

Snack time was a special treat - moon cookies! (Otherwise known as oreos split in half with the filling removed to look like various phases of the moon) I've seen this on pinterest several times but wasn't really going to get into the phases concept except that Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me is about a moon that shrinks then gets bigger and I'm always up for a chocolate sandwhich cookie so I added it in. I didn't go over any specifics other than to say the big circle is called a full moon then it gets smaller and smaller until it disappears and then it comes back and gets bigger and bigger until it is a full moon again. Now Lucy loves to point out all the moons she sees in pictures books and tell me if it is a full moon or not.

Smile!

 Can I eat them now?

Not surprisingly, the "full moon" was the first to go. She shared the "new moon cookie" with me.

Day 2 (Math and Art): We read Goodnight Moon again and then put together a little printable book on the numbers of things we saw in the book (1 moon, 2 kittens, 3 bears, etc). Then  I explained what a pair was and she did a work sheet game where she sorted socks and mittens into singles and pairs and glued them. She had never used a glue stick before and really enjoyed watching it go from purple to clear and how it turned paper into "stickers". 

Then we hung up mittens I cut out from red felt. The "clothesline" is always there but normally holds her play silks. This was a bit tricky but if we worked together she could do the simple clothespins while I held the mittens or she would hold the mittens while I put the spring clothespins on. 

Then she decided she wanted to put her play silks on instead and I found since they drapped over the string, she could do that herself - which was nice to know since normally she brings them to me and I hang them up and now that can become her responsability.

She alsp sorted the mittens into pairs. That wasn't planned but she enjoyed it and kept making them one big pile then resorting them into pairs while counting one, two...one, two.

Then we colored a balloon sheet. I pre-colored the color names (since she can't read :-) and she colored the balloon to match. The last page asks "What color was the balloon?" and she told me red but was upset because they didn't have a purple balloon to color so instead of telling her to color it red like I think she was supposed to, I let her color it purple and  just circle the red balloon - I'm all about compromise :-)

After going over the colors, we went on a color hunt. This is something we had done before and Lucy loves it but I always forget about. She picks one of her color tables (but you could use anything, crayons, pieces of construction paper, etc) and goes from room to room finding all the blue items (if it's a blue tablet), then we repeat. We normally do 3-4 colors before she loses steam. And I can now tell you where every single purple item in our house is because we don't have many and I've had to strategically plant a purple book, item of clothing, etc so she doensn't get upset if we do purple :-)

We also painted the moon. I'd seen thick paint made with white tempera paint and flour but I didn't have white tempera paint so I mixed flour, white glue and shaving cream and it worked well. I traced a small plate to make a circle and she filled it in and added stars. Then she wanted to do a daytime sky (since God created day and night, mommy) so we did some clouds on a blue page. The paint dried very foamy and textured and was pretty cool.

Day 3 (Literature) : Our last day was pretty low key. We read through Goodnight Moon yet again and then did a few paper activities. I'm not really a fan of these types of activities for such a little tot but Lucy loved them. Here she is picking out the items as we read the book and said goodnight to them. 

We read Hey Diddle Diddle from our Mother Goose book (to go with the cow jumping over the moon picture) and then we sorted items into daddy bear, mama bear and baby bear sized groups (to go with the three bears picture - she already knew the story of Goldilocks or I would have read it prior to that activity).

We also did a few activities with the letter M - luckily m is one of the fourletter/letter sounds she knows (we are following Tim Seldin's letter order but she only has her first four sandpaper letters out). We made a little M book and colored the smallest and circled the largest m item (moon, monkey, etc). That was actually Lucy's favorite although I'm not quite sure why.

The last thing we did was a narration sheet. Lucy's never done narration before but she loves to tell stories so I think she could do it easily for almost any other story but Goodnight Moon is probably the worst book to start with - there's no plot! But she did pretty well considering. I read the questions from the sheet and here are her answers

Mommy: What happened in the story?
Lucy: Big red balloon and bunnies and bears and the cow then goodnight.

Mommy: What was your favorite part of the book?
Lucy: The cow jumping over the moon.

Since that was a kinda lame way to end, I asked her to draw a picture of Goodnight Moon. Here is what she came up with - she asked me to label the items, she's a big fan of labeling these days.

On a funny toddler drama note, she told me what to write but then got really mad when I wrote "green wall" because it was "two times." I tried to explain that green wall was two words but everytime she told me what to write after that, she would remind me to only write it "just one time, mommy!"

I think my favorite item is the comb. She drew the short lines then tried to connect them with the long line. And if you just scoot the long line up a bit, it really would look like a comb. 

And after drawing the stars, she told me she wanted to draw the air but then took a minute to stare at the paper before giving me a crayon and telling me to draw the air. I told her air was difficult to draw and that we should try something else but she caught me in my own trap. If she tells me she can't do something or its too tricky, I normally ask her to "just try" so of course, when I said I couldn't draw air she said "but you'll try mommy?" I'd like to say that I was a great example to her and actually tried but I can not tell a lie - I just suggested we eat a few more moon cookies to distract her. 

And that was our first row. I hadn't heard great things about BFIAR (although I have about FIAR) and it often times seems to depend heavily upon printables - or at least that is the impression I get from blogs - so I didn't think it would be a good fit for us but we really had a good time exploring Goodnight Moon. If I wasn't about to have a newborn, I think I would probably buy the book and continue on. Perhaps in the spring we will.

*I used ideas for a couple blog posts as well as printables from two different sources, all of which I carefully kept track of so I could share with you - on the other computer. So sadly, you get nothing. But it really only took me an hour or two internet searching to find everything so you shouldn't have trouble finding it either. 

Toddler Tuesday: Kid-friendly kitchen

When I was first designing our kitchen, I knew I wanted to make sure it was kid-friendly. The biggest thing we did in that area was what we call the "Craig pantry." They are a set of shallow lower cabinets under our pot rack. 

The cabinet on the right holds canned goods and pasta which a shallow shelf is perfect for because things don't get lost back. But the one of the left is probably my favorite - it's Lucy's cabinet. 

                                                   

The top two shelves are the ones she really uses. The white bins holds her silverware. We have this set but need to move up to this one. Then there is her utensil caddy which holds her mini whisks and spatulas although it looks a bit empty right now - she loves them and every time we mix something, she insists on using hers even though it isn't always very efficient to stir a double batch of pancake batter with a teenty tiny whisk. Below them are her mixing bowls - just the smallest two from a nesting set my mother-in-law gave us. These items pretty much stay in those places. 

The glasses are these Montessori weaning glasses but again, she is ready to move up to these. The bowls are pyrex custard cups that came with plastic lids - perfect for storing her uneaten yogurt or snack in the fridge for later. And her plates are just clear glass plates my mom had for when she hosted luncheons - she had about 50 so I "stole" 6. 

Lucy is responsible for keeping her pantry tidy and she does a good job. I didn't change anything when I took this picture. All the glass items tend to shuffle around since she is responsible for putting them away and she is often returning them to a empty shelf - but she does keep the bowls with the bowls and the glasses with the glasses, etc. And while you might think all the glass is dangerous but she has been using a glass cup since 6 months old and has only broken one glass and no plates or bowls so far. I wish I had that track record - I just broke a glass last night :-)

I take her dishes out of the dishwasher and stack them on the edge for her to put back on her shelf. She's been doing this for quite a while but until she was 2, it was optional. Now it isn't. Sometime she doesn't want to but I just remind her that it is her responsibility and we all help in our family and she's never really fussed after that (same thing with making her bed and putting her dirty clothes in the "dirty bin"). She also helps me unload the rest of the silverware which is nice since it lessens the amount of bending over I have to do. 

 The bottom holds wooden trays we use if we take our food outside for a picnic and some plastic stuff we use when other kids come over or for outside.

I also need to make room for a basket of kid-sized cloth napkins. She has just reached the stage where she wants to use a napkin instead of being attacked by a washcloth after every meal and depending on what we eat, that is normally a reasonable request. I just need to find the 10 minutes it will take me to sew up some. 

I've seen other Montessori toddler/preschool kitchen areas that have a dirty dish bin and sponge area but we didn't add that to her responsibilities until a month ago when we moved her from a high chair to a junior chair and she could get down on her own and now she is tall enough to put her dirty plate and glass on the counter after she is done with her meal so we do that instead. 

Putting together a kid-friendly kitchen took a little bit of planning but was well worth it. Lucy is able to be independent and I get some help that is actually helpful.

Tot Tuesday:Montessori's everywhere!

Lucy and I are tagging along with Craig on a business trip right now. While he's working, we've been exploring the city of Washington DC. We've having a great time so far, so much so that I'm too tired to write real posts but I just had to share these pictures.

When you keep your eyes open, Montessori really is everywhere. Lucy loved this rocket building activity at the  Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. She did it 5-6 times, and only stopped when another girl came up to give it a try. After the other girl was done, Lucy started up again. If she got it wrong, she would look at it then say "Oh, try again!" but if she got it right she would throw her hands up and say "One more time!"

I've been thinking that Lucy is almost ready for the pink tower and seeing her interest in the rocket confirms that. The pink tower is much obviously larger and more complicated so I think it will be a real challenge for her, but one that she probably will enjoy.