CC's Last Soccer Saturday

Today was CC’s last soccer class. It was a noncompetitive class that typically involved learning drills and fun soccer activities. Although, during the last couple of classes the kids were split up into two teams and they played a “game”. Or as best a game that can be played by three year olds. It was very entertaining to watch all the children trying to make sense of the game rules.

The last time the kids played a game CC did not enjoy the experience. She did not want to run for the ball and she sat out most of the game. By the way, she wasn’t the only one that did not truly enjoy the game; there were other kids that shed tears when they weren’t able to get the ball or make a goal.

Here are pictures from today’s class. She was in a better mood and (with a little gummy bear candy enticement) she did great during the game. She did not score any goals but she got an “A” for effort. Mom and Dad were very proud!

Home School Chronicle – Lo visits the classroom

A new “student” joined our home school today! Our viisiting student recently turned four years old, is new to Montessori education and will be known as ‘Lo’ on this blog (what RJ calls him since he is not able to pronounce his real name). I am not sure how long Lo will be joining us, but I decided to introduce him to our classroom since I will be caring for him on three days this week (during our normal class time hours).

During our rug time Lo enjoyed playing the maracas and eagerly joined the singing of unfamiliar songs, even the Spanish ones! After our rug time we gave Lo a mini-tour of our classroom and CC helped me go over some of our classroom rules.

The first activity that Lo chose to work on was the transfer/spooning of pasta. Initially, Lo did taste the pasta and said that he was going to mix it and take some to CC and RJ. But after I explained the activity and a gave him quick demonstration, Lo easily completed the task with only a few spills.
The activity that CC is smiling at below is new. It is a very simple color pencils and erasers matching activity that I had in mind to help RJ work on his colors. Unexpectedly, it was more appealing to CC and Lo today.

Another new activity this week is THIS self-correcting counting puzzle (it retails for $12, but I purchased it at 'Ross' for half the price) . The puzzle counts to 20, but I thought I would keep it simple and only used the numbers 1 through 5 today, I will be gradually adding more numbers. CC has worked on this puzzle outside of the classroom in a more playful setting and she would quickly lose interest. However, today she completed the puzzle a number of times...

...before getting distracted with the new boy in class. You can also see RJ in the background. He did not show much interest in Lo and kept busy (mostly) working on his own work today.

After observing Lo for a while CC did get back to her own work and completed a number of activities but always seemed to be alert to what Lo was doing in the classroom. And when she saw that Lo was not working on an activity correctly she made sure to let him know.

On a side note… Lo did complete the spindles/pencils counting activity but did not seem to have a good understanding of the number zero, so the spindle activity was a great opportunity for him to learn about the number zero.

Overall, I feel that Lo did well in the classroom and enjoyed working on many activities. He did seem to want to rush through activities so that he could move on to the next one. And he did not repeat any one activity in particular. I believe this might be the case because our classroom set up is new to him (he normally attends a traditional preschool). I am curious to find out how the next couple of days go.

After our class session the three kids and I enjoyed playing outside, blowing bubbles, coloring, drawing and chalk writing.

Later Tuesday evening…

The following has nothing to do with home school or Lo’s first day, but since I also took these pictures today, I thought I would share them as well (and I know Dad will enjoy them).

CC and RJ started a gymnastics class three weeks ago. CC has taken this class in the past and she is loving it as usual, and RJ is adapting well. He does get distracted now and then, but his attention span is improving each week.

Here is CC on the low balance beam while RJ patiently waits his turn. RJ loved crawling through the tunnel part of today's obstacle course.

Soccer Saturday

CC is enrolled in a soccer class on Saturday mornings. It is the first class that she has been able to take with Dad and they are both really enjoying it. Since the class is only for three to four year olds RJ is not able to join his sister, but we all go to the park anyway and make a fun family morning out of it. I usually try to keep RJ distracted and busy at the playground or watching other kids play basketball, another sport he would love to join but can’t yet=(.

After unsuccessful attempts at joining CC and Dad for some soccer drills, he found something else to do today. He started lining up all of the scattered cones. His own little Montessori inspired activity!
















Once he lined up all the cones, he then moved them from one area to another…















After organizing all of the short cones he moved on to the large cones. (Please excuse the video quality, it was taken with my phone). By the way, he continued organizing the cones but I ran out of memory on my phone.

I wouldn't have guessed that RJ had the patience to complete something like this. I guess our Montessori activities are rubbing off on him after all!