We're back!

I can’t believe how long it’s been since our last update! I figured I would take a few days off after RJ’s birthday party but it turned into a very long vacation from our blog. I apologize to my handful of readers for being away for so long. I have sure missed posting but things were a bit hectic for a while and it took me some time to get back into the swing of blogging…

Although I haven’t gotten around to posting all this time, we have maintained our weekday routine. Our ”school class sessions” are Monday through Thursday in the late mornings, where we spend 1-1/2 to 2-1/2hours (depending on what kind of mood the kids are in). We don’t have formal class time on Fridays, instead we visit our local library for pre-school story time, a craft, and each of the kids gets to check out one book for the week. After the library, we visit one of the local parks on the way home. We have quite a few parks to choose from so the kids enjoy visiting the different playgrounds and also seem to get pretty excited about what snacks I pack for us.

A lot has gone on in the classroom since our last post but since I cannot manage to cover everything, here are some of the highlights...

RJ received THIS stringing/beading set for his birthday, and it has been a fun addition to the shelves. Initially the boys would get sidetracked and start racing cars throughout the classroom (instead of stringing), but now they enjoy stringing and parking all the cars back in the basket without too much distraction.Another activity that has been enjoyed the last few weeks is a water transfer activity using a turkey baster. This is the first water activity that I have made available for the kids indoors so I was a bit nervous about the possible spills but it has turned out well. Enzo is trying if for the first time in the picture below.

I originally thought this activity would only be for CC and Enzo, but RJ was very adamant about trying it the day I introduced it. This was during a rough few days of teething for RJ so I mostly gave in to avoid more weeping. Although I was expecting RJ to spill water, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn’t too much.
Language materials have also recently been added to the classroom. I decided to follow the method used by My Montessori Journey, a wonderful blog written by a Montessori preschool teacher. This blog is very well organized and is great at thoroughly explaining many Montessori activities. Anyhow, her language system which divides the alphabet letters into three groups is explained on THIS POST. We are currently learning the red letters and are working on “r” and “m”. Here is a sample of the sandpaper letters and little sound books that I made.
Here is CC showing the front of the little “m” sound book and saying “mmm”.On the picture below you can see CC writing the letter “r” with her finger on a sand tray (our version of the sand tray is actually a zen garden that I purchased at a yard sale for $1). In the background of the picture you can see RJ on the floor. On this particular day he laid around a lot while chewing on his blanket to sooth the teething)
In addition to having the letter/sound materials available in the classroom for the kids, we are also regularly reading the “My Sound Box” books that I found at the library. These books have been a good way to reinforce the sounds that we are learning in the classroom outside of the classroom setting.

CC has known the alphabet letters for some time now. She easily learned the sounds and was interested in writing before she turned three (pre-Montessori). She now sort of legibly writes most of the alphabet but only in Upper Case. Although she already knows the sounds, our new language materials have introduced an opportunity for her to learn the lower case letters and how to correctly write each letter. Enzo currently only recognizes a few of the letters of the alphabet so I am looking forward to finding out how our new language activities help him learn sounds.

The last picture I will share today is one of all three kids actively working on their own. RJ is practicing pouring with teacups, Enzo is working on THIS counting puzzle (which he has improved on), and CC is working with numbers and counters. I love to see all three kids actively involved with their work. There aren’t very many of these moments when the classroom is actually quiet…

Home School Chronicle – Not in the mood for class

Today got off to a normal start like any other “school day”. The kids had fun singing songs during rug time and eagerly started their individual work. CC worked on a geometric shapes activity, Enzo was beading with a needle, and RJ practiced pouring.
However, soon after starting their activities I noticed that the kids weren’t really in the mood for work today. CC was getting discouraged and kept saying “I can’t” (to simple tasks that she can normally complete). RJ spilled pasta and did not want to pick it up. And Enzo quickly lost interest in the beading, which he normally patiently completes. There have been days when one of the kids is disinterested in class but with a little encouragement and extra attention those days usually work themselves out. But since all three kids seemed to be in cahoots today I decided to cut our class session short and head to the park.

A windy day was also a perfect opportunity for some kite flying. The kids had fun taking turns holding the kite, watching it fall and yelling “Fly Dora, fly”.

The kids also had fun singing “Ring around the rosie”.

Home School Chronicle – Earth Day

Today was a bit of a hectic day. All four kids were all wound up and picked on each other a few times. It also took a while for CC, Enzo and Lo to settle down and actually be ready to enter the classroom. RJ mostly watched all the commotion but also had an off day.

Eventually we made it to the classroom where we first had to work through a disagreement that started when everyone wanted to use the same maraca for our rug time songs. After singing we learned about Earth day. I didn’t go into too much detail about the earth. I read a book about the earth and we went over ways that we can help take care of the earth, “our home” and keep it clean.

During the rest of the class session, there were a few distractions, but the kids eventually settled down and I was able to capture all the kid absorbed in individual work!
Lo is working on foam beading, RJ is filling the bank with (plastic) coins, CC is comfortably working on a number/counting puzzle, and Enzo is hammering.

After class today, the kids worked on an earth day activity. Here are the finished products.

I got the idea and earth template here. However, instead of gluing construction paper cut outs as recommended I decided to have the kids paint. The idea was to use green paint for the land and blue paint for the sea but everyone ended up just mixing the two colors together. Nice effect I think. The hands are cutouts of each child’s actual hand print.

Home School Chronicle-Introducing “Enzo”

Meet Enzo!
Enzo is a new “student” to our home school. He is almost three years old and is new to the Montessori environment. Today was actually his second day in the classroom but I did not get a chance to post about his first day last week. On his first, we spent most of our classroom time in orientation mode introducing Enzo to “rug time” and the classroom basics (learning how to roll a place mat, how to carry work to and from the shelves, classroom rules...). I haven’t encouraged any specific activities for Enzo yet, I have been mostly observing to learn more about him. He seems to know most of his colors but not his numbers or letters yet so I am looking forward to what’s ahead.

Here are a few of today’s highlights.

Enzo worked on this color sorting activity for the first time today. I think he was initially drawn to the actual toys but quickly understood the concept of color sorting and he named most of the colors correctly. Enzo had a hard time maneuvering the tongs and would use his free hand to place the toy in the tongs. I did have to persuade him to continue to try using only the tongs but it wasn’t until CC volunteered to show Enzo how she uses the tongs that he got the hang of it. I guess her demonstration was more successful than mine.

This next picture really put a smile on my face.

All three kids were very focused on their work! RJ is practicing pasta pouring, CC is beading foam beads with a (plastic) needle, and Enzo is working on a pasta spooning/transferring activity.

Seeing RJ correctly match the colored pencils and erasers for the first time also put a smile on my face. Last week, RJ would quickly place random erasers on the colored pencils and be done with the activity. But today, he actually took his time and matched all the colors! He is also starting to correctly name some of the colors.

The kids and I usually have two or three Spanish days a week but we have not had one in two weeks because I didn’t want to overwhelm our new friends (Lo and Enzo). I am now starting to gradually re-introduce Spanish into our days and after lunch today we had ‘Spanish music time’. After lunch we watched one of CC and RJ’s favorites, Cantamos y Aprendemos con José-Luis Orozco. When I play this DVD CC and RJ grab some instruments and like to dance and sing along. Enzo, just watched us for the first couple of songs but then decided to join the fun. They were parading around the living room.

A general note on “Practical Life” activities / message to Enzo’s parents:
The practical life activities that you will see Enzo working on may seem simple, however activities like pouring, using tongs, spooning and the delicate handling of materials are designed to help with concentration, hand-eye coordination, small muscle control... These exercises are also preparatory for further activities to come, including the handling of a pencil that will be needed for writing in the future. I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse at what your son is up to!

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.

Home School Chronicle – Class time, then off to the Strawberry Patch we go.

After an eventful weekend, the kids and I made it back to the classroom today. I brought some of February’s activities back out to the shelves and CC and RJ were immediately drawn to them. After Rug Time, both CC and RJ dashed to the shiny spooning-transfer activity below. Thankfully, RJ quickly found something else to work on when I reminded him that he had to choose an activity from his shelf first. You can tell from the picture that CC needs some brushing up on her spoon transferring skills. RJ is working on a foam puzzle that he struggled with just a few weeks ago, but now enjoys often.

RJ then moved on to some hammering.

But as soon as CC put the spooning-transfer activity back on the shelf he decided to give it a try. He did much better than I anticipated.

The color sorting activity that CC is working on is the first Montessori inspired material I made. Except for the pom poms (which I purchased for $1), I used all recycled materials. It was made with the white box that packaged a case of water bottles, small apple sauce cups, and a larger container that used to hold rice pudding. CC enjoyed finding it on her shelf after not seeing it for over a month.

I must have been a little distracted because I almost missed the fact that RJ seems to be getting better at color sorting. He normally just randomly places the small toys in the compartments with his hands. But today he grabbed the tongs from another activity and got most of the colors sorted correctly=)

After today’s class session, the kids and I went to a local strawberry patch to pick some fresh delicious strawberries. The last time we were there, RJ was much younger and didn’t do any strawberry picking, but today CC and RJ both had a great time filling their own containers.

Home School Chronicle – Productive Tuesday

Tuesday was a very productive day in class (I know, I’m a little behind). It was our first day back in class after four days off so the kids were eager to enter the classroom. You will notice that our classroom doesn’t have typical Montessori materials. There are so many great materials that I wish I could have available for CC and RJ, unfortunately purchasing pricey Montessori materials is not in our budget at the moment. So I’ve had to get creative. Here are some of the activities CC and RJ worked on.

After an extra jolly and musical rug time, CC first chose to work on my version of the Spindles Activity. THIS is a description of a typical Spindle Box and its function. Ours is not so much a box with compartments and has pencils instead of spindles, but it still serves its purpose. CC usually likes to work on this activity together, however today she pulled it out and worked on it correctly all by herself=).

Here is a close up of the box. To make this box, I cut down and resized a larger cardboard box, cut out the openings and wrapped the box with the brown paper (left over painter’s roll). The cylinders are cut from a roll that our ‘Rug Time’ rug was wrapped around. All the materials needed were found around the house, I only had to purchase the pencils so the total cost of this activity was $3.

After watching CC work on the Spindles for a while RJ chose to work on the Bowl of Clothespins. This activity is meant to help with fine muscle control and strengthens the three finger grip. You’ll notice that there are numbers in the bowl. This is not necessarily Montessorian but I added the numbers to give CC an extra challenge when she chooses this activity from RJ’s shelf. When CC works on this activity she clips the clothespins in numerical order while saying the numbers out loud.

Here is CC working on a Color Sorting activity. CC completes this activity using tongs very easily. I have been trying to work on colors with RJ, but he still does not show much interest in sorting by color. The tongs aren’t available for RJ with this activity, when he works on this activity he uses his hands to randomly place the small toys in the compartments.

This Coins In the Bank activity is very simple, but RJ and CC both like it. You can see how much RJ focuses on this picture. RJ repeated this activity a number of times before moving on. When CC works on this activity she tries to name the coins out loud. Although she still doesn’t quite understand the value of money, she is learning the difference between quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.

I have been thinking about removing this shape sorting activity because it has been ignored lately, but I recently added the blindfold to help CC work on her sense of touch. It is going well, so this activity will get to stay in the classroom a few more weeks.

After CC and RJ got a little distracted and had some fun blindfolding each other I suggested that they do one more activity before ending class. CC chose to cut paper and as usual RJ joined her. CC’s cutting is improving while RJ doesn’t yet have the hang of it. I also just noticed on this picture that he was cutting with his right hand... RJ is left-handed. That reminds me, I need to go out and find some left handed toddler scissors.

We usually end our class session by reading some books. On this day we read the latest issue of Little Kids National Geographic. This is such a cute toddler magazine designed for three to six year olds. CC gets excited when it arrives in the mail.

Here is a peak at one of the activities found in this issue which helped CC practice on Sounds. RJ doesn’t know letters yet but he enjoyed pointing to the animals that CC named. I would highly recommend this magazine.

Home School Chronicle – Sunflowers and Daisies need water

As much as I enjoy flowers I don’t have an ounce of a ‘green thumb’, so I am starting small. The kids and I are attempting to grow two tiny flower pots of Daisies and Sunflowers (found in Target’s dollar section). Our goal is to eventually plant them outside and hope they bloom. We had a minor setback… we found a very sad looking sunflower pot in the classroom this morning.

“This is what happens to flowers when they don’t get watered”, was today’s first lesson. It actually looked worst when we found it. The picture above was taken about an hour after it was watered, none of the stems were pointing up this morning. Our sad surprise made CC a little upset but she quickly suggested that we give it water QUICK. Thankfully, the sunflowers seem to be making a recovery.

Today we had a productive short class session since we had a pediatrician appointment to get to in the early afternoon. Here are some of the highlights.

RJ spent quite a bit of time working on a Practical Life pasta pouring activity from CC’s shelf. You can see that not all of the pasta stays in the cups but he really enjoys this activity and doesn’t seem to mind cleaning up with a little encouragement.

CC is working on my version of a Sensorial geometric shapes activity. The wooden shapes are part of a small puzzle that I found in the toy clearance section of Cost Plus World Market. I made the pattern cards by hand with colored pencils. For the last three weeks it has been one of CC’s favorite activities and it cost less than $2! Here is a close up of the cards.

CC & RJ ended our class time at the organ. They hadn’t touched the organ in some time but today they both had fun making music for mom.