Practical Life - Cherry Pitting

Another summer time treat - cherries!

James love to help me pit cherries for our fruit salads, so I decided to make it into a shelf activity.

Pretty self-explanatory - James removed the stems and pitted the seeds, placing both in the little white bowl. As with our watermelon work, he placed one toothpick in each piece of food and then offered them as a snack to others in the house (meaning me and his stuffed animal friends :).

It's the little things in life: James was excited to see two cherries stuck together and said, "They're best friends!"

~Thank you for your comments!~

Magnetic vs. Non-Magnetic

As you can see I've been banging out a lot of posts lately! With just a handful of weeks left in the pregnancy, I'm trying to squeeze in as much as I can before I sign off for a few months. Plus, I have a feeling this cute little babe is going to make an early appearance!

Ok, onto the activity: magnetic vs. non-magnetic is a very common Montessori activity and I'm sure you've seen it all over the blogosphere, but it's something new on our shelves and I thought I'd share it anyway. :)

We had a lot of fun using our jumbo magnetic (from Learning Resources) to determine which items were magnetic, which weren't and which were a bit of both. I credit The Adventures of Bear for using the Venn diagram in her presentation. I created the diagram and the labels in Word.

I set out to find LOTS of things for James to sort through because I knew this would be an activity he'd enjoy. I did not purchase this as a kit, I simply searched through my manipulatives and alphabet box items. Some of the items I chose:

Magnetic
:: Safety pin
:: Nail
:: Nut
:: Lock
:: Key
:: Little wagon
:: Spoon
:: Cookie cutter
:: Bottle cap
:: Paper clip
:: Bobby pin
:: Earring
:: Staples

Non-Magnetic
:: Pine cone
:: Bit of leather
:: Wooden cube
:: Piece of wax
:: Scrap of paper
:: Dice
:: Sponge
:: Crayon
:: Eraser
:: Felted ball
:: Feather
:: Small Plastic toy
:: Tiny tea kettle

Both Magnetic & Non-Magnetic
:: Scissors
:: Clothespin
:: Tack
:: Pipe cleaner

Most of the magnetic things I found were shiny, so I made a point to choose some shiny materials that were non-magnetic just to prove that not all shiny things are magnetic.

This work was a HUGE hit with James and he's done it several times this week.

Here's how it looks on our shelves. :)

~Thank you for your comments!~

FAQ: Montessori Materials

I've had quite a few people ask me which Montessori materials I think are best and which are not worth the investment. Montessori materials can be pricey even when purchased at a discount supply store and I too asked fellow bloggers the very same question when I first started out in Montessori!

The truth is, I'm hesitant to recommend specific materials for a homeschool because a) each child responds to the materials differently and there's no way to determine if they'll love it or leave it, and b) since the materials are costly I'd feel badly about suggesting something only to have it be one of the things your child doesn't enjoy or get much use out of. Again, there's just no way to determine that in advance. In a regular classroom this would be a non-issue since out of 20 some children surely a handful would like whichever materials were in question.

All that said, I can share with you what materials James has enjoyed. Please know I am in no way responsible for whether or not your child(ren) will feel the same way about them. :)

James' Favorite Montessori Materials:
::The Knobbed and Knobless Cylinders
::The Moveable Alphabet
::The Continent Puzzle
::The Continent Globe
::The Binomal Cube
::The Hundreds Board
::The Sandpaper Numerals and Letters
::Almost all Practical Life work

There are certain materials that I felt were key to providing a Montessori experience for my son and even though James liked them, they didn't/haven't received as much attention as I would have liked. I'm still glad I purchased them and would do so again if I had to. They are:
::The Baric Tablets
::The Spindle Box
::The Number Rods
::The Geometric Solids
::The Pink Tower

I must point out here that I've had other children over to join us for school and they enjoyed many of the above mentioned materials. Every child is different.

And now for the moment of truth - materials I wish I wouldn't have purchased:
::The Dressing Frames
::The Color Tablets
::The Sound Boxes

The above materials are mentioned because I realized after I purchased them that I could have easily make them. Here's a list of some other Montessori-ish materials I've made:
::Dressing Basket, Button Snake, Button Turkey, and Button Tree (alternatives to the Dressing Frames)
::Alphabet Box
::Continent Bags
::Grammar Farm
Practical Life work - I have purchased a few kits and specific supplies from Montessori stores, but the majority of this kind of work (which you can find throughout my blog in my "On Our Shelves" and "Tot School" posts) are my own creations often inspired by other bloggers and my teaching manuals.
::Cards & Counters
::Activity Board (an alternative to the nuts and bolts boards)
::Bean Bags
::Fabric Numbers
::Sound Eggs
::Smelling Bottles
::Art Basket
::Bead Bars (page down to Math section)

As you can see you needn't buy everything, but if you're wondering where you can shop please visit this post to see a list of store options.

~Thank you for your comments!~

Practical Life - Watermelon Snack

It wouldn't be summer without watermelon!

I prepared this practical life work for James after seeing how much he enjoys using a melon baller in our spooning activities.

As with all of our activities, we remove the items from the tray and set the table for the work. James needed to use the melon baller to remove parts of the watermelon and then transfer them to the small serving plate. He then stuck toothpicks into each ball.

Offering a snack to me and daddy - practical life and grace & courtesy all in one lesson!

Delicious!

~Thank you for your comments!~

A Friendly Reminder...

Please understand that I do my best to provide links and details in my posts whenever I can and when/if I have the time. I get A LOT of emails with questions and while I'm happy to help please keep in mind that I am no expert and that it takes quite a bit of time for me to go through and answer your emails. Oftentimes the answers you seek can be found on my blog in my FAQ post, by reading carefully through my previous posts or by using the search tool on my sidebar, so please take a few moments to take advantage of those resources. I know it seems easier and quicker to just email and ask me, but like you, I'm a busy mama, too! Of course if all else fails, go ahead and email me - I'll do my best to get back to you. Thanks!

PS: I also want to say a special thank you to those who reply back after I've answered an email - such a common courtesy is something I really appreciate!

Busy Hands

~a fascination with the moveable alphabet~

I'm taking a leaf from Anne's blog and I'm going to create a recurring series of posts called "Busy Hands" where I'll share a random action photo from our schooltime. I no longer take very many photos of James while he's in school (I find it distracting for both of us), but since this blog is sort of a scrapbook of our homeschool journey, every now and then I'll bring in the camera to capture a moment on film. :)

~Thank you for your comments!~

On Our Shelves - July & August

This is my last "On Our Shelves" post for a few months. The baby is due is just 5 weeks (!) and I'm now shifting my focus toward preparing for her arrival.

Our theme is summer. Keeping the theme broad like this really allowed me to put pretty much anything on our shelves, so long as it looked summery! :) As always, there are a few activities that aren't theme related. Click here and here to see what was on our shelves last summer.

Practical Life
Water Transfer. When James is ready to do this work he'll need to fill the bowl of little sponges with a bit of water. Then he'll place one sponge square into the garlic press and squeeze the water into one section of the ice cube tray. Oops - I now realize I need to add another bowl to the tray for the squeezed sponge squares. To remove the water from the ice tray, James will simply put the squeezed sponges back into the section to absorb the water and then transfer them back to the bowl.

Pencil Sharpening.

Pouring Sand. This is sand from one of our local beaches. I added a funnel to make this work a little more exciting. :) The bottle on the left is in a basket to keep it from falling off of the tray. James is really careful about transporting his work to the rug or table, but this tray just isn't that great.

Paper Punching. This is something new for us and I think James will really like it. The blue container (from Mexico) holds small paper squares of various colors, textures and weight. The silver container will hold the punches.

Tweezing & Transferring. We've done something similar to this several times before, so this is nothing really new, but I know James will enjoy it. The mason jar is what I think he will find most interesting - there are two parts to the lid and they have to go on in a certain way in order for them to fit properly.

Sensorial

Sensory Tubs. We have two available right now: Pond & Transportation

Sandy Playdough. Same as last year. :)

Creating Polygons. These colored popsicle sticks have been used for so many activities in our classroom! I printed out this chart from the internet and James will use it as a guide to create some basic polygons. I provided a control of error by using a single color for each polygon.

Still on our shelves: Knobbed & Knobless Cylinders, and The Pink Tower.

Language
Poetry Basket. I found this poem online and modified it a bit. I needled-felted the water and grass, and knitted the little fruits in the basket.

Summer Bingo. I made this myself using graphics from here. The small bingo cards are in the little box, and the colored shells will be used as card markers. (Btw, I did not color the shells - I found a bag of them at our local thrift store.)

Sequencing. These stars are filled with water (meant to be reusable ice cubes). We'll use them to create various patterns.

Tracing. James finds worksheets a bit boring, so I try to liven this kind of work up by adding fun writing utensils to the tray. You'd be surprised how often this works to entice him. These printables came from abcteach. (Btw, since a few people have asked, yes I do have a membership to this site and yes I do find it well worth the price - I use it quite often).

Moveable Alphabet. I collected a bunch of images from Google and made these cards to accompany our moveable alphabet. James will spell out the name of image. In the case of the card shown in the photo, he can opt to spell either 'shovel' or 'pail'.

Memory Game. This is one from last year when we focused on Independence Day.

Books. On The Seashore by Anna Millbourne, The Sun Egg by Elsa Beskow, Bermuda 123 by Dana Cooper, Summer (Series) by Nuria Roca, America a Patriotic Primer by Lynne Cheney, L is for Liberty by Wendy Cheyette Lewison, Coral Reef by Marcus Phister, The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller, Swimmy by Leo Lionni.

Still on our shelves: Dry Erase Spelling, and the Grammar Farm.

Math
Buying Water Balloons. Put on your creative hat, go into the dollar store and you'll be amazed at what you turn into a learning activity! In the past, I would have made a simple sorting/matching activity with these balloons, but since that's a bit old hat for James, I decided to go this route instead. James will need to "buy" these balloons for a penny a piece/25 cents for the lot. I provided various coins that equal that amount and it'll be up to him to decide which combination of coins to use. This activity falls in line with our recent Money Matters lesson.

Cards & Counters. It's true we're a bit past this kind of work, too, but if I've said it once I've said it a million times - repetition is a good thing. Plus, I have a bazillion of these fruit counters and I've been dying to use them. :) I bought them at a garage sale a few months ago, but I think you can buy them from Lakeshore Learning.

Less Than/More Than/Equal To. I chose sea glass for this work and I think James will really like the look and feel of it. The less than/more than/equal symbols come from this magnetic set.

Lego Math. You can read more about this here.

Skip Counting. I made these bead bars out of pipe cleaners and pony beds. Super easy. The tiles come from our Hundreds Board.

Still on our shelves: Telling Time, and Sandpaper Numerals.

Science & Culture
Discovery Tray. It's been a while since I created a discovery tray for our shelves. This one is full of ocean treasures - shells, coral, sea glass, and bits of pottery washed up after a hurricane a couple of years ago.

Examining Sand. My husband found the idea for this activity here. We'll put some sand on the white paper and make note of what colors and particles we see. We'll do the same with the black paper and see if we notice anything different. We'll use the jumbo magnet to see if any iron-rich minerals stick to it. We'll also talk about why Bermuda sand is pink!

Still on our shelves: (Parts of) the Africa Continent Bag.

Water Experiments - coming soon!

Art & Music

Composer of the Month: Verdi. I often get asked what exactly we do with our COM. Right now I'm keeping it really simple - I download that composer's music onto my iPod and we listen to those songs during our schooltime for the entire month. I also print out a photo of the composer. At some point we'll likely spend more time learning about the composer and the style of music, but for now it's just not something James is interested in.

Coloring Book. I printed this mini coloring book from abcteach.

Circle Time Songs. I can make these available, just let me know if you're interested.

Line Art. The idea here is simple - James can use the ruler to create lines in various lengths and angles. He can color the shapes in if he wishes to.

Happy summer!

~Thank you for your comments!~

Lego Math & Other Activties

We are Lego fanatics. I mean, what's not to love about Legos, honestly?! Aside from building and creating, there are SO many things you can do with them. Recently, while playing with James, I had a sudden brainstorm...

Lego Math!

I created this lego "worksheet" which has several basic addition/subtraction equations on it. James will need to find the sum in the little silver bucket and click it onto the worksheet. For the symbols I used flat, "bumpless" Lego pieces and simply drew symbols on them with a permanent marker. For the sum of zero I did something similar - I used a flat piece stuck to another Lego.

To provide a control of error I made sure each equation had the same color. The thing I like most about this activity is that it has a sensory aspect to it. The little bumps on the pieces have such a pleasant feel to them when traced with a finger. I'm all about tactile learning and I love that it helps to cement concepts into the brain.

We've used Legos in our learning time in the past. Here are some other fun and educational things you can do with Legos:

:: Sorting by color, size, shape/type, number of bumps, etc.
:: Measuring
:: A mystery bag - here you'd place several different kinds of Legos in a bag and have a matching set available on a tray. Have your child close their eyes and reach their hands in and feel one of the pieces. They'll need to match it to one of the pieces on the tray.
:: Painting/stamping
:: Graphing
:: Music Theory
:: ABC/123 - simply build jumbo letters and numbers. We did this for James when he was first learning his name.
:: Bingo - there's a free printable for this!
:: "Spinny" Speller - I've seen this idea all over the web, but here's a great example.
:: Picture matching

:: Organizing! Ok, so this may not be fun to everyone, but this is my idea of a really good time - I purchased these containers and blissfully entertained myself for hours!

For even more ideas, hop on over to Pinterest and enter "Legos" into your search - holy Lego mania, Batman!

~Thank you for your comments!~

Yarn Along - Baby Knit

~some more cozy things for my little girl~

This bonnet, the Small Things Bonnet, threw me for a loop a couple of times, but overall I would say it was a very quick knit. I had it done in less than a day. I opted for the pixie style and it is absolutely adorable (I tried it on a teddy bear) :) with just the right amount of pointy-ness at the top.

These booties also knit up very quickly (that's the beauty of knitting teeny tiny things). I tried a few different bootie patterns and liked this one the best. I added little yarn bows to the front because my stitching skills are less than stellar and I needed something to camouflage this fact. :)

And finally these wee mittens. I cannot wait to see the wee hands that will go inside of them! I crocheted (yes, crocheted - I learned how to make a simple chain!) a string and attached them to the mittens so they won't get lost should they fall off the baby's hands. That string makes me smile because it reminds me of the kind of mittens I wore as a child back in the 70's.

I must admit, a lot of ice cream was eaten by yours truly during the 3 days it took to knit this set. That delicious looking yarn (Dream in Color Classy in the Petal Shower colorway) kept reminding me of Neapolitan flavored ice cream (you know, the strawberry/vanilla/chocolate mix). My sweet husband was wonderful about making me ice cream shakes every day. :)

I also have to admit that I have no book to share, making this post a poor entry for Ginny's weekly Yarn Along. What can I say... I had no time to read - I was too busy knitting and eating!!

Only 6 more weeks 'til baby comes!!

~Thank you for your comments!~

Mini Unit - Transportation

~an overview~

Here's a closer look at what's inside this unit:

Lacing (Practical Life). These tiny vehicle buttons have little loops in the back. James can make a sequencing game out of this or he can sort the buttons by type of vehicle and place them on the corresponding pipe cleaner (i.e. white for air, green for land, blue for water). Or he can just practice his fine motor skills. :)

Mini Sensory Tub (Sensorial/Practical Life/Geography/Language). A scaled down version of our large transportation tub.

License Plate Matching (Geography). Also from our sensory tub.

Skip Counting (Math). I created some blank numbered cards and placed some transportation stickers on them for an added point of interest.

Tweezing (Practical Life). I found some transportation themed Bandz (stretchy plastic bracelets shaped into various things) and I thought they'd be great for a transferring activity since they're so thin.

Worksheets (Math/Language/Art). Most of these sheets came from Homeschool Creation's Transportation Pack, others - like the coloring pages - came from searches on Google Images.

Parts Of Vehicles (Science/Language). I printed these booklets from Montessori Print Shop...

and hunted through James' vehicle collection to find an airplane and a car that had all the parts indicated in the booklet.

Build A Car (Science/Language). These are Automobloxs and we LOVE them! Like the "parts of" activity, this one is also good for learning the names of the parts of a car and the science of how one is constructed.

Fine Motor (Practical Life/Art). These teeny tiny purler beads require some real concentration and a steady hand. James can create various patterns or designs on the pegboards and then when he's finished we'll "cook them" which makes the beads fuse together to create a mat. You can find the kit here.

Vehicle Puzzles (Just For Fun!). James still enjoys working with puzzles and as I've mentioned here, we have quite a stash of them.

Sorting/Lacing (Sensorial/Practical Life). I found these black beads here and they kind of remind me of boulders or tires or tar, so I thought they'd fit right in with our theme.

Books (Language). Cars by Patricia Hubbell, Sailaway Home by Bruce Degen, Thomas The Train by Rev. W. Awdry, and a couple of books from our Kindermusik class. I recommend the Cars book, but the others are just ok in my opinion. They're all I could find at the thrift shop and on our bookcase.

Sorting by Land/Air/Sea (Science). I simply gathered several of each kind of vehicle from James' toy box and created category labels. I think it's so much more enjoyable to sort actual objects, rather than photos of those objects.


Identifying Quantities (Math). I've noticed lately that James is a bit overconfident when it comes to determining quantities visually. He can easily declare small quantities, but when it comes to larger amounts he tends to just blurt out a number instead of taking the time to count it. I think these cards, from HC's preschool pack, will help. And the little clothespins (found at our local dollar store) will be fun for him to work with.


Rub-Ons (Art). I purchased these online and I think they'll be a big hit. Included in the package is a popsicle stick which James will use to transfer the images onto paper. The activity requires some focus and patience because you need to make sure the sheet has been kept still during the rubbing process and that the entire image has been worked in order for it to transfer properly.


Grow Capsules (Science). These are such fun! You simply put the capsule in warm water and watch it expand into a small sponge. These sponges are shaped into various vehicles. I found them at a local store, but you can buy them online here.

All packed and ready to explore!

~Click the button below to view more of our mini units.~

~Thank you for your comments!~