2 Little Seeds- The Montessori Potential

Long Hiatus, Best Excuse Ever!

2012-01-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

Baby S.

After a long uncomfortable pregnancy which zapped me of much of my creative energy here she is in all of her angelic loveliness. I'm so excited to feel human again and embark on a new Montessori journey with our sweet baby girl and to resume the one we've so cherished with our 4 yr old.

I've been taking Karen Tyler's Montessori Teacher Training course for 3-6 yr olds over the past many months. The albums are great; invaluable tools full of activities for each of 12 subjects. After taking the birth to 3 yr course through North American Montessori Centre (which gave me the confidence to guide our oldest daughter's development using Montessori philosophies) I was looking for an affordable alternative in increasing my knowledge. I do recommend the NAMC courses, but if you're on a tight budget or don't care about paying for glossy, picture-filled albums then Karen's albums which have all the information without the unnecessary flash are for you! Her course is available through amontessorimarketplace.com

My current project is putting together the pink language scheme for A. We tried the Gettman/Dwyer method as it seemed to be straight forward and much less labour intensive in activity set-up. Unfortunately A. seems to need all of the visual aids that the pink-blue-green system employs so I have my work cut out for me! For a great discussion and comparison of the pink-blue-green scheme vs the Gettman/Dwyer method for learning to write and read check out What Did We Do All Day's research and thoughts.

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Well, off to work on all things pink scheme... until next time, happy Montessori-ing!

About A Girl's Gnome Home Giveaway!

2011-05-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

I whole-heartedly urge you to visit my awesome friend's blog About a Girl to see the wonderful little Gnome Homes she made to participate in a Giveaway and the larger version she was inspired to created for her own Gnome Home Giveaway! The little needle felted homes are so darling and I'd absolutely love to win the one she's parting with! Thanks!!!

Oh Camera Where are You?

2011-05-25T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'm really bummed about our camera just walking away! I haven't been the most prolific blogger of late and when I went to get the camera to record A. making her own soup from scratch it was nowhere to be found. It's been 5 days now since then and still no camera. AArrrrrghhh! I must remedy the situation soon! Please camera, come back to us! We love to use you to capture all of our wonderful life moments together. and... we're sorry for using some not so great language to tell you when we were not happy that you take blurry pictures 10x in a row and that you only work on the action setting. We love you and need you! OK, so if there really is a camera fairy then maybe my heartfelt plea will be heard. Silly? Probably, but if it works......

ButterBlossoms, Flowerflies, and Cherry Friends!

2011-05-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

A-Girl loves a good play on words and rhyming so I’ve titled this post just for her!

Two weeks ago was all about having a great spring birthday party with friends. If you read our last post you may have realized that yes, she has had TWO birthday parties this year! We live a 9 hour drive away from A.’s Mama and Papa and they wanted to celebrate her birthday with her so we met in the geographical middle at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a family birthday. Turning Four and becoming ever more social A. expressed a heartfelt interest in having her first birthday party with good friends so once home we had one of those too. It was fun for me to plan and execute as I could exercise my creative passions and give her a party to remember. The only down-sides to the day were when A. with tears in her eyes came to me and said "Mommy I don't want to be four, I don't ever want to grow up!" Awww my sweetie pie. I think I replied that I didn't want to grow up either but if I hadn't then I would never have had a sweet Baby Aayla to love soooooo much. She liked that but I'm not sure that it made a difference to having to grow up.

The day before the party we made some window stars together to serve as decorations. I think they made the room magical and now I'm wishing for some other colors of paper such as bright fuschia and purples to brighten up the place!

We also dyed some eggs for the egg hunt. A said they needed a nest so we improvised with a basket and some dried grass from the lawn! We especially liked the marbleized eggs. How-to courtesy of Martha Stewart.

Some healthy snacks including: fruit bouquet, raw and vegan "cheeze-its" crackers and veggies with hummus.

Birthday girl ready for some egg hunting!

Watermelon Contemplation...

The tunnel to Pinata time! Kids had to line up and go through the tunnel to have their turn at the pinata. That way they wouldn't get too close to that swinging stick!

Aayla would NOT commit violence against the pinata. My sweet peaceful girl!

Lovely Flowers and Butterflies! The kids did these with bingo dabbers and as you probably have seen a million times before... then they sprayed them to spread the colors. They sat on the hearth to dry and then the pipe cleaner feelers and stems finished them off.

Each child made a beautiful little Cherry Blossom Tree in a vase to take home. (they each picked out a bird on the tray to mark the place of their own tree so they would make sure to take their own masterpiece home) Great problem solving! We finished off the day with a raw vegan raspberry cheezecake. (sorry all of the photos were blurry!) If you're always looking for super healthy guilt-free food (especially deserts) like me I highly recommend raw food chef (dessert chef extraordinaire) Heathy Pace's blog SweetlyRaw. Every year A-girl has a raw birthday cake that is sooooo good and Heathy's raw caesar salad dressing is a weekly occurrence around here. YUM!

In-Home Hatching: Baby Robins!

2011-04-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

A little 4 year old somebody in our house just LOOOOVES birds. Well, we all do around here but I mean she LOOOOVES them! She has two of those great Audubon singing plush birds (Male Robin and Eastern Bluebird) She also received a needle felted female bluebird from Santa (with a little help from mom) for leaving him such healthy treats to fortify him on his epic Christmas Eve journey. She left him blueberries and almond milk! She just loves to play "Birdies", finding new types of nests for them and now since those little fuzzy Easter chicks appeared in stores, the birds can be Mommies and Daddies. I was inspired to give her some robin babies as the Plush Robin has been father to baby chicks for quite some time. He seems perfectly paternal in his adoption of chickens but well....

First Hatchling

And Then There Were Two...

So Ugly They're Cute!

Feed Me, Feed Me!

Now to make a Female Robin. Over at our house it's not a question of which came first, the chick or the egg, its- which came first, the babies or the mommy. Babies came first due to lack of time in making a mommy bird. A. doesn't mind, the daddy Robin is a great Daddy just like her own!

A Froggy Family Birthday

2011-04-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little A-Girl is 4! We had a wonderful family birthday with all of the Grandma's and Grandpa's and Great Grandma's. We now have two new friends at home who live in the Montessori classroom area and have become the object of much study! Grandma and Grandpa T purchased two African Dwarf Frogs (Hymenochirus Curtipes) at a great Educational/Toy store in Vernon BC called Vernon Teach and Learn.

Their classroom habitat

They live in harmony with Living Gravel TM (a bacteria infused gravel) and a Lucky Bamboo Plant. Essentially, the unique “Living Gravel” is acting as the natural filter for the water, filtering the dangerous ammonia left from waste material and converting it into nutrients for the aquatic plant. The plant feeds off of those nutrients and converts them into nutrients for the water and the wildlife. The wildlife then converts those nutrients into nutrients (waste material) for the gravel. It is a balanced ecosystem environment that is constantly cleaning and conditioning the water. Not only can A. learn about aquatic frogs but when she starts learning about ecosystems this habitat will be a simple example for her to understand. She can also learn about aquatic plants and bacteria! It's a 4 in one learning tool and the frogs are so cute too!

I call them Tiny and Mini but according to A. they don't have names!

Physical Science and Zoology shelf.

The top two shelves are dedicated to learning about our new friends.

Frog Life Cycle. The images are from Montessorimom.com's frog lifecycle cards

Frog Matching from Montessori Print Shop's free downloads

Laying out the Life Cycle with cards and little froggy miniatures

Frog Coloring Page courtesy of www.first-school.ws

Beautiful Bull Frog!

I long to find some frog eggs that we can nurture to frog maturity and then let go back in the wilderness. I was very fortunate to be able to experience that when I was young and I'll never forget taking care of those little guys from egg to adult frog! We've heard of a park fairly nearby that has an explosion of frogs every year. So many that there are signs posted telling cars to slow down or they may skid off of the road due to the thousands of car tire frogicides. Maybe we can save some from that fate. Will keep you posted!

First Day Back to Montessori Home-School

2011-03-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

The anticipation, trepidation and anxiety (all on my part!) are mostly over with regards to restarting A-girl in her very own home Montessori environment. After a 2 year hiatus where she went to a wonderful Montessori Preschool called A Loving Family Montessori here in British Columbia, our move to a new location in the province has meant that I am her new/again directress. Just after the first work period here today I'm realizing how out of touch I've become with A.'s development and also how ignorant I am about an almost 4 year old's cognitive abilities. I have the master activity sheet from her old school which tracked which activities she was introduced to, and whether she achieved mastery or not with each one but still I was expecting her to be able to do things that she cannot yet accomplish just because of how she interacts with me and how smart I perceive her to be. Silly me!

Today has been a lesson for me in how my daughter perceives some aspects of the world and how the Montessori materials all mesh together to form the connections in the brain to allow them to recognize patterns and symbols in our world.

She was so ready to soak up all that she could. I pointed to and named each activity that she could choose to do and she ended up choosing each one for a total of 12 and still asked for more!

Circle Patterns:

using knobless cylinder patterns A. attempted to duplicate the pattern with the colored circles we have (don't know what they are called and can't find them anywhere on the net. We got them from A.'s former school which closed a sister school and had a lot of materials to sell. We got a SUPER deal and these unknown circles were a part of the package.) This was the first activity of the day which proved to me that I need to prepare the activities more thoroughly and start with presenting the easier versions first to see just where A. is in her abilities. I thought presenting two colors at a time to place in a large to smallest sequence would be easy but I was very wrong. Lesson learned for me!

Punching out a traced triangle from the Geometric Demonstration Tray (Persistence is the key! We have some work to do on that)

Close-up of punching (that's a lot of holes!)

Flower shaped Sewing Card

Rough and Smooth Boards

Spring Themed Memory Game

Visual Discrimination Cards (Can you find the frowning face with only one eye open?)

Knobbed Cylinder Blocks #1 and #3

Numeral Cards and Counters

Tracing some Sandpaper Letters

Tracing Sandpaper Numerals

Matching Sandpaper Numerals to the Moveable Numbers

AAAAhhhhhh, having a little quiet reading time after a hard day's work!

Madly Making Materials- Teen and Tens boards

2011-03-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

These were so satisfying to make. From sanding the wood to gluing the wooden divider strips to the boards and especially applying the non-toxic wood polish.

Some of the supplies which include:

*(2) 15.25" x 5" from 1/8" birch ply boards

*(2) 19.00" x 5" from 1/8" birch ply boards

*(22) 5" long 11/16" oak trim strips

*(18) 2.5"x 3" from 1/8" birch ply boards * weldbond glue

* 120 grit sandpaper

* green Sharpie permanent marker pen

* beeswax polish

For assembly, cut wood to size, then measure out spacing of the oak spacers and glue in place. Make sure to test all of the 18 wooden numeral cards in between each slot on the boards for a good fit. I made the mistake of using only a few of the cards as spacers to position the wood divider strips instead of measuring with a ruler and then when the boards were dry I found that some of the cards didn't fit in between the slots as they were all not the exact same size. I then had to sand some of the numeral cards down to fit. Next I used a sharpie marker to draw numerals on the boards and cards. This was my quick and easy method which I would not recommend if you have the time to paint on the numerals. The marker bled a bit beyond where I wanted it to be by running up the grain in the wood. I left the marker to dry for 12 hours and then the last step was to apply the wood polish. Just like when polishing shoes etc. I just smeared on the polish and rubbed it in with a rag and then buffed with a dry cloth. The marker I used was an old one that didn't have a lot of wet ink oomph so (as I later found out in making the small and large numeral cards when I used new markers) the ink didn't smear when I applied the wood polish.

YUM. beeswax.

Smells so divine! For a wonderful child friendly wood polish melt 1 part wax with 2 parts mineral oil in a double boiler, pour into glass jar and let solidify.

Almost finished!

You can see the difference in color between the polished pieces and the unpolished pieces. Love the golden glow and they smell good enough to eat!

Fully Friends and Family Fun Day.

2011-03-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

I needed a well deserved break from spending all of my waking hours making Montessori materials, setting up the school area and studying the presentations. So A-girl and I spent some quality time in the kitchen whipping up some healthy raw treats.

First we made raw lemon shortbread cookies and being the Montessori mom that I am I couldn't resist offering the numeral cookie cutters for use. I'd ask A. to find certain numerals and she didn't balk at doing this since it was incorporated into a fun activity.

We'll be eating numerals in no time!

(well actually they have to dehydrate for 8 hours!)

A. put some oat grain in our super duper blender to grind into flour. That went into a big bowl and then she put some almonds into the blender to grind... and that went into the bowl. Then some coconut flour, some melted coconut butter, fresh lemon juice and some agave syrup. Little hands mixed well and tasted too many times! I kneaded the dough and then we got rolling.

There were some major motor skills involved

in trying to roll out the slightly tough dough.

Cutting out the numerals.

Last step, put on the dehydrator trays

and into the dehydrator to crisp up until tomorrow.

Now I will inevitably hear "when will they be done Mommy?" every hour or so until bedtime. And I will say then "they will be done in the morning and you can have some at breakfast time!" "Yayyyyyyy!" The great thing is we can have cookies for breakfast because they're so healthy!

We also whipped up some raw "cheez-its" (vegan but taste amazingly like cheddar cheese!) and raw onion bread. (this one takes two long days of waiting for it to dehydrate until you can savor that oniony flavor!) Do we learn patience around here? Yes!

Madly Making Materials - Sandpaper Numerals

2011-03-18T23:01:00.000-07:00

Countdown to home-school grand opening: T minus 3 days and counting... AAAAAHHH. So much to do but it's been a creative bonanza for me! Something I had been lacking for a few months except for home-made Christmas presents. In the last post I made the following list of materials that were on the drawing board:

1. Teen Board

2. Ten Board

3. 2 sets of Lg. number cards

4. 3 sets of Sm. number cards

5. Lower case sandpaper letters (print)

6. Sandpaper Numbers

7. Number cards for number rods

8. Red rods

For the sake of including my home-made material forays in What Did We Do All Day's Ultimate Montessori Home Made Materials Collaboration I'm posting each material I've crafted separately. Today is the saga of Sandpaper Numerals!

Thanks Grandpa T for cutting out all of this lovely 1/8" Birch Ply!

And then the sanding began... and it went on... and on... and on... until we had beautiful smooth rounded edges and corners on every piece! Well worth the work.

Now for the paint. Watch out for that wind blowing!

My "what I thought to be a brilliant idea"

of making stencils out of good ol' macTac so that I could paint glue on and then pour sand on the glue. I wanted the letters to be as authentic Montessori as possible and durable. After cutting out all of the stencils and applying I then was educated on the impossibility of finding fine sand where we live! Play sand--- NO, too gritty. Gravel Pit sand--- NO, it's covered up by 5 feet of snow here! Craft sand?--- NO, it doesn't exist around here. Oh well, sandpaper it had to be...

They must be looking OK as little fingers are itching to touch them!

Madly Making Materials! - Sound Cylinders and Smelling Cylinders

2011-03-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

A. and I are visiting Grandma and Grandpa T for a few days and it's been the perfect opportunity to run around shopping for supplies. On the drawing board are:

1. Teen Board

2. Ten Board

3. 2 sets of Lg. number cards

4. 3 sets of Sm. number cards

5. Lower case sandpaper letters (print)

6. Sandpaper Numbers

7. Number cards for number rods

8. Red rods

I've purchased 1/8" birch plywood and 4- 8 foot lengths of 11/16" square trim to make all of these items. Grandpa T. is right now inputting all of the dimensions into a free wood cutting layout program to get the most efficient use of our wood and then he'll start cutting! Thank-you Grandpa T! Then it will be Sand, sand sand and more sanding on my part. I'll keep you posted on these items as they come along.

Last night I put together the Sound Cylinders and Smelling Cylinders. Here's what I used:

24- film canisters (free from the drug store film developing lab

1 roll of wood look Mac Tac (drawer liner)

6 each of round red, blue, green and yellow stickers

4 cardboard boxes with lids

(See Below)

Sound and Smelling Cylinder Supplies!

We would all love to have the beautiful wooden cylinders with their matching boxes I'm sure, but reality doesn't always cooperate soooo.... At least these will look like wood and not film canisters! I cut strips of the MacTac to stick around the canisters, put a matching color sticker to differentiate the different cylinders and then covered the boxes to match. The MacTac was a little fiddly but after a few I got the hang of it so that they didn't look too ragged. I think they look pretty good considering the faux-ness of it all! The best part is that both of these activities together only cost $5!

Now, what to fill them with?!

My ideas for the sounds are: rice, mung beans, popcorn, sand, small rocks and kidney beans

My ideas for the smells are: lemon juice, mint oil, vanilla, cinnamon stick, oregano and basil

I'd be interested to hear what other people put in their cylinders. Would it be weird to put one or two yucky smells in there?! It might be fun and then to take photos of the child when they smell each one and do some emotion recognition! A. is very interested in what I'm making. I think it helps build anticipation for the activity when they can see it being created. She keeps asking when she can use it but I think we'll wait until we're home in our environment so that we can formally "Open" her school with a little celebration to make it fun and exciting! That idea just popped into my head now while writing. What am I doing, making more work for myself! Am I complaining, NO that's what I live for nowadays and it's just as fun for me crafting materials, learning new things and sharing this learning experience with A. girl. My life couldn't get much better than this!

Montessori Print Shop Giveaway at Mommy Moments!

2011-03-04T22:12:00.000-08:00

Mommy Moments is hosting a super giveaway for their Birthday Bash:

Birthday Bash - Montessori Print Shop Deluxe CD Rom Giveaway (ARV$580)

http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/02/birthday-bash-montessori-print-shop.html Winning this would go a LONG way towards setting up a wonderful homeschool Montessori environment for some lucky little child/children! Good Luck!

Why We Were Gone, Why We are BACK!

2011-02-25T10:22:00.001-08:00

New life, new endeavors! So here's a little background on what's been happening in the last year or so...

1. August 2009 I started a new business selling Strider PRE-bikes http://www.runbike.ca I received an offer to start my own dealership selling these wonderful bikes and I thought "how can I let this opportunity pass?" My intention was to get it up and running which I knew would take away from home Montessori time and blogging and then come back to those two important things in my life once I had everything running smoothly. A. girl started going to her Montessori school full time and she seemed to thrive there and love it (but as you can see from the previous post I was struggling with it)

2. January 2010 I became pregnant! yay! This was planned but I hadn't anticipated on how it would reorganize my priorities. (and how much morning sickness I would have!) In light of all his my new business just wasn't intriguing me as much anymore so I decided to do it on a more casual basis and to let a wonderful wahm supporting boutique sell the bikes for me. It is called KidzOwn Boutiqes and they are located in Surrey B.C.

3. April 2010 The little being inside of me went back to Creation (or God or whatever belief it is that you have in where we all come from and may return to). This was of course devastating news. I can say without a doubt though that I believe this little soul came to us just long enough to push us in a new direction. This was his/her gift to us. My husband and I have always wanted to live outside of the city, and we had for quite a while but circumstances pushed us there again and we were longing to leave. Somehow this tragic event was what we needed to make the leap of faith to purchase our first home and move to a new rural town 9 hours drive from any large city without jobs to go to right away.

4. September 2010 We bought a house on 1/2 acre of land complete with barn, and wood shed! Room to have a large garden, tree fort, play house, swing set... yahoo! This house is in an adorable town; population 350 in the Kootenay area of Beautiful British Columbia! We were fortunate to have 2 good friends and their 3 super sweet daughters to welcome us to town and to introduce us to so many genuinely wonderful people that we are fortunate to now call friends. Our only reservation against moving to such a small community was that there is no Montessori schooling unless you wish to drive over an hour each way. A. does attend a pre-school 2 days a week at this time which she loves. I was hesitant to put her in another type of school but she does like it, and the teacher there is a lovely woman who has won many awards for her dedication to young children. She includes a lot of outdoor nature inspired and local aboriginal inspired content in her school which I feel is important. The kids learn about their local environment, what challenges face the animal species (such as the salmon who can't make it back to their spawning grounds due to the Kootenay and also the Washington (U.S.) river damming systems which are connected).

5. February 2011- We are feeling settled in to our new home and are becoming increasingly aware of the lack of resources for the local school system the more we talk to parents in town. I never really thought that I would send my children to a public school but I was trying to keep my mind open to the possibility if the local school was in some way special. The school however is struggling to stay open and every year there is talk of one of the 3 multi-aged classes closing and then having to bus the kids away down the road. My lady friends and I started talking about the possibility of the town buying the school and then having a school c0-op where we "home-school" but at the school location. I realized that I needed to make a decision and get back to Montessori in the home. We practice the philosophy at all times but there was not a formal area with activities for A. in our new home.

6. March 2011- I've enrolled in an online Montessori course from Karen Tyler. You can find it here: http://www.worldwidemontessorionline.com/ I found out about her course through a giveaway post on http://livingmontessorinow.com. A lucky lady won a free course on that giveaway! I'm doing the Fast Track method of the course which means you pay for everything up front and then you can do double the curriculum as well as you can receive all of the albums ahead of time to use. The Standard curriculum offers a pay as you go format over 24 months and then you are sent a portion of an album each week to work on. Her prices are very affordable and the content is also very comprehensive as far as I can tell! She also gives you templates and tips on making your own materials because as we all know, they are EXPENSIVE! Here's the preliminary set up for her Montessori home-school. It just needs activities! (and maybe a little tweaking and decorating!)

Table and sensorial shelves

Math, Language and Art shelves.

Reading area

Physical Sciences (and maybe I'll throw in a Waldorf nature table as well)

Many posts on my learning journey to come and once I have set up A.'s environment and officially opened her school well, look out!

I also want to thank those of you that have welcomed me back to the bloggy world! I'm grateful to connect with all of you and love reading what you share! I so look forward to the coming years of learning, friendship and inspiration!

We're coming back!!!!

2011-02-08T21:37:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited to officially type here that I'M COMING BACK TO BLOGGING!!! I won't get into all that has happened in the last year or so YET but big changes have occurred (not all wonderful, but certainly educational). Just sitting down and writing these words has suddenly transformed me. I'm filled with new hope, energy and excitement! I can't wait to share with you, but first I have to get home to my family (A. and I are visiting her Mama and Papa (my inlaws)). I will also sit down and think about what I want this new blog to incorporate. I miss the close connection to my daughter's ongoing development, how she learns and what fuels her passions. I miss the blogging community of amazing moms and their heartfelt drive to give every opportunity they can to their children's growth in all areas of life. I also miss myself, as a productive, giving, loving and dynamic woman who has the time to see, really see her family which then fills my being with such gratitude and overwhelming love and in turn allows me to give myself fully to them. AAAAAhhhhhh, big sigh! Be seeing you soon!

Out of the Loop- missing my baby

2009-10-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, I feel like a stranger on my own blog! It seems like forever since I wrote anything or visited anyone else's blogs. Even as I write this I'm feeling like a "fish out of water". I miss seeing the inspiring activities and musings and the heartfelt words of other moms, Montessori or otherwise. I have to thank Jen from Montessori Beginnings for awarding me her giveaway, lucky number 7 did it! 1000 stickers of real life animals and objects, we will definitely have hundreds of hours of fun with that once I get my new business streamlined and A. can be home with me more! Turning over A-girl's Montessori education to a professional for the most part has been bitter-sweet. I know that she is progressing in so many areas, especially socially very quickly and that makes me very happy. However it's so strange to not know what my little girl is doing every moment of the day and how she is reacting and creating. I'm like an information addict when it comes to what she is doing while at Montessori preschool. I can't wait for the Teacher/parent meeting week after next! I sit here looking at her Montessori shelf in the living room and it seems like a ghost town. I feel like I'm failing her. I always said that I'd never put my child in daycare because I didn't want anyone else raising my baby. Now it's almost like that and the only thinly veiled excuse that makes me feel any better is that she's in a good Montessori school. Well, that and when she says to me "I had fun at school today!" or "I want to stay at school!" How often do you hear that from a public school child?! I'm betting not too often.

So busy so lots of practical life!

2009-10-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

I started a new business! (more on that in the future once I get my website up; it's for toddlers!) so A. has had to amuse herself a little more than usual. She also gets to go to her Montessori preschool every weekday morning now that I am working ( Thank-you Canadian Government for paying for Montessori school!) I'm finding that now that I'm busy getting all of the work done in setting up my new endeavor and I'm not observing her at all times she does more activities! She has been helping me do many things around the house. I almost think she has intuited that I need the help now!? She just had to do the vacuuming on the hard floors because in her own words "because it makes it beautiful".

Then because the carpet attachment is too heavy for her to push she used her little carpet sweeper to do the carpet.

She later went upstairs and her Papa was mopping so she helped with that too. (no pic) What a sense of importance and accomplishment she had in helping her family clean the house! The next day A.-girl decided to unzip a "bean" bag pillow I have and to take a lot of the corn out of it. So of course I said "well you made the mess so you please clean it up". Her new word of choice right now is "OK!", which makes life so easy! Everything is Ok, OK affirmative and positive! Broom in hand, she swept it into a semblance of a pile and we picked it up together and put it back in the pillow. Phew!

I've of course been feeling guilty not spending as much time with A.-girl as we are used to. I'm trying to find activities that will still challenge her, make her feel a sense of accomplishment and make her and my life easier. What better ones than practical life which you can incorporate into the daily routine of what you need to do anyway. Case in point, cutting with a knife: at breakfast time instead of cutting up her cantaloupe for her, I cut it into long strips and asked her to get a fork and knife from her dish drawer. One presentation and she was happily focused creating nice little cantaloupe cubes.

I hope in a few weeks everything will get back to close to "normal" after the growing pains of starting a business subside. In the meantime we will be doing lots of practical life activities (as I write this A. is cleaning the chair I'm sitting in because "maybe it has bugs in it"!) and she will get to stay for some longer days at her preschool which are contributing to her increasing independence and social skills. I like to try to look at the positive side of things, however I miss my little girl and look forward to whipping up some great activities for her at home when my time frees up!

We love Masterminds... Beads well, that's another story

2009-09-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

Eons ago my husband and I bought a puzzle game called "Super minds" thinking it would be good for the future. I can't even remember where it came from. I got it out the other day to see what it actually was and got very excited when I looked at it. It is for kids age 5-9 but after looking at their marketing materials in the box I realized they have a version for "3-8" year olds called Mighty mind. As they state in their description of Mighty Minds;

Starting with the simple concept of manipulating two wood half circles, the child builds a full circle. Then by following a logical numerically programmed sequence of patterns, the child learns how to manipulate 32 wood geometric shapes to build pictures of increasing complexity.

So since we had bought the advanced set, I had to glean from the ads for Mighty Mind how to set up some puzzles from beginner to advanced. All I needed was some cardstock, a pencil to trace around the tiles and some colored felt pens. The mighty mind set has little colored spaces to first put the tiles that you need to use to build a particular puzzle. You then use those tiles to build the shape of that puzzle.

Here's some of the beginner puzzles I made from the absolute easiest to a slightly harder one.

The difference between these puzzles and a normal puzzle of course is that there is no picture scene being put together with the pieces. You just use geometrical shapes, each piece one whole color, to make shapes. A.-girl isn't interested in doing puzzles very often but as soon as she saw this activity she was hooked! They even have a magnetic set for traveling. We will be getting one before the next long trip!

We also tried sorting some beads by color. Well, that went well for about 5 minutes. A.-girl was so focused and then....beads everywhere! On the second and third attempt sthe following day the beads just went straight onto the floor so this activity has been "shelved" so to speak!

Real life and practical life

2009-09-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever truly seen a little worm poking its head out of an apple? It is of course a common image in children's books but an elusive one in real life! A.-girl was so delighted to see this little guy peeking out of his appledom. If only it had been a caterpillar, we would have read Eric Carles "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". Maybe I should have anyway!

After 2 weeks of sitting in it's crock, our batch of spicy garlic sauerkraut was ready. MMMM! So A. and I put it into jars to keep in the fridge. She stuffed the jars using her tonging skills (not! She does not like tonging activities) and then used her little fists to pack it in. She then poured in the juice to cover the kraut and after I cleaned and dried the jar she put the lid on. We then bottled the leftover juice to drink. Spicy Acidophillous coctail!

Recongizing a Pattern Sequence

2009-09-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

My husband was delighted to discover while reading a childrens magazine to A. that she could recognize a pattern sequence and determine what object would come next in the sequence. I was excited to make this activity to further her skills in that area!

I started out by making four sequences out of foam silhouettes, each with 5 objects in a pattern. One sequence has only 1 object but in 2 different alternating colors (c/c/c/c/_, 1 sequence has 2 different objects in alternating order (A/B/A/B/A/_, 1 sequence has 2 different objects in the order of: A/A/B/A/A/_, and the last sequence has 3 different objects in the order of: A/B/C/A/B/_. I provided only one answer for each sequence on a separate blue foam square. She then has to put the foam answer square in the spot where the blue box is located at the end of the sequence.

I first introduced the activity by laying all of the pattern sheets out at once and the answer squares in a basket on the work mat. I made it both a cognitive and language activity because it seemed to me that in order for her to understand the sequence she would need me to demonstrate by naming each object while touching it as I went along the pattern from left to right. "barn, barn, pig (pause) barn, barn____" " I wonder what comes next". I soon realized that with all of the sheets out at once it was too chaotic and she had trouble recognizing the pattern. As soon as we did only one at a time on the work mat she had no problem deducing the pattern sequence.

I can see almost endless possibilities for extensions of this activity. I plan on next adding in too many answer squares so that the probability of guessing correctly is very small. I will combine more than one object with more than one color for each object and also increase the number of objects and the length of the pattern so as to make the patterns more and more difficult. I wonder if introducing new words by making new patterns with objects that are new to A.-girl would be good, or would I be combining too many things into one activity?!

Here's A.-girl doing a classic old favorite; her nesting/stacking boxes. She probably brings these out on a regular biweekly basis. They are a regular fixture in the living/montessori room (yes the montessori area is in the living room, we live in a VERY small area!) even though they take up a lot of room as when the are stacked up they make a beautiful sculptural piece. realized after introducing the Recognizing a Pattern Sequence activity that this activity actually incorporates pattern recognition because the boxes are colored in a certain sequence which is repeated. ie: orange, red, purple, dk blue, lt. blue, green and repeat. I now wonder if she was paying attention to more than just the size of each box when fitting them together or was she also looking for the correct color in the sequence? It couldn't have hurt in preparing her for her new Recognizing a Pattern Sequence activity!

Have You Seen This Man?

2009-09-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

"Emergency" alert: purple skinned male of unknown ancestry, standing 7cm tall with dark purple hair and blue eyes. Has a penchant for red and purple clothing and lives in bathroom walls. Last seen accompanying a little girl to a doggy park. He may frequent the produce section at grocery stores. Only certain people can see this man; usually people between the ages of 2-4 but he is thought to make himself visible to some older individuals.

If you see this man, please comment to this blog as a little girl named A.-girl claims he has befriended her and due to his strange interstellar pimp-like appearance has caused some concern. ;0)

She made a boot!

2009-09-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

It's "A. and Daddy day" Yay! You may remember we started having the weekly special day for them as inspired by the "Pee Pee Protest ". So I'm home alone (relaxing sigh) and I just remembered that A. made a boot. Maybe it's just our household which includes extended family (A.'s Mama and Papa); and what grandparent isn't impressed with everything a grandchild does) but we were blown away by what she did. She was doing her cutting activity which involves just getting out the scissors and cutting away at the paper I have provided at that time. It usually degrades into paper tearing but oh well. She says to me "Mommy I'm going to make a boot". Well, I just thought Ok, sure that probably won't happen because you aren't even 2.5 years old yet, but of course I said " OK, I can't wait to see it!" So a few minutes later she excitedly is trying to get my attention (because I admit I find it hard sometimes to observe her doing her activities at all moments) "Mommy look at my boot, I made a boot". And here it is. I was shocked! She was so proud she went to show everyone and they were all shocked as well. It's so cute that little green boot!

Summer Holiday: glimpse #1

2009-09-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

This is totally out of chronological vacation order but... well to be honest these are the only pics I can access at this time so you get to hear about our choke cherry picking expedition. A short drive from Grandpa J's house and we were in Choke Cherry Heaven. They were hanging from the branches like grapes! There was evidence that the bears had been dining recently so we kept an ear out in case they decided to come back for dessert. Aa.-girl picked them directly into her mouth and then experienced that mouth drying effect as only choke cherries can do and then decided she would rather put them in the bucket! It's not often you can get a kid to pick and put them in the bucket; woo hoo!

After tiring of picking, after about oh... 5 minutes! She started to explore around and found a birds nest. I swear she's a birds nest diviner/dowser! How often do you find a birds nest on the ground? Once every few years? Maybe once every year if you're lucky? Well she has found 6 this year! I'm kicking myself for not getting a photo of the nest with the beautiful little red cherries that she nestled in it.

Of course being Aayla-do she wouldn't be a happy girl if she couldn't at least help carry the bucket! Maybe I'll have to change the name of my blog to "I would like to do it- Montessori" as she no longer states her emphatic "Aayla do!"

Quite a haul, it was easy pickings!

Once we got these glistening beauties home they were gently heated until the skins split and then the juice was squeezed out and put into the fridge. What resulted was a nice thick pink jelly-like "pudding" with none of the dry mouth effect. Yummy, all natural, sugar free pink Cherry pudding makes little girls happy. (And big girls too) ;0)

Bees and Butterflies need to take baths too

2009-08-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

We've actually been back from our vacation for a week now. It's taken that long to get back into the groove of being home and doing activities. It still feels like summer vacation. Just before we left for our trip A.-girl and I decided to give the Bees and Butterflies a place to take a bath. The birds can't have all the fun! I had a couple of bucket-fulls of nice smooth river rocks that were used as table decorations at our wedding. They had been sitting around doing nothing so why not become landing pads for Bees and Butterflies to take a drink, cool down and maybe bathe? We also used a beautiful blue ceramic pot tray and a low birdbath holder ( at least that's what I think it is)

All A. had to do was put the rocks in the tray...

(We figured the family rock was one of the most important)

Then put in some water...

and leave the rock tops above the water for the little guys to land on,

and then wait... and wait... and wait...

We're still waiting. No bees or butterflies have graced our bath. Possibly we'll move it to a high bee populated area like under the Sedum plant in the front yard. A.-girl wonders if the water is too cold!?

Thanks so much!

2009-08-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

Yay! My first honorarium so to speak! Jen from Montessori Beginnings has tagged my blog as one that she enjoys. Thanks so much Jen, you inspire me too!

Conditions of this award are: Tell your readers 10 things about you that they may or may not know, but are true. Tag ten people with the award, and be sure to let them know they have been tagged (a quick comment on their blog will do). Don’t forget to link back to the blogger who tagged you.

Let's see, 10 things about me!?

The sunflowers growing outside my window brighten every morning, so I love sunflowers.
We're seriously considering having another child!
I have an undying passion for raw cacao.
I try to learn something new from nature everyday
I'm learning about wildcrafting so that my family and I can enjoy super nutrient dense food at no cost.
I want to move to the middle of nowhere and live fully self-sustained and off of the grid.
I eat mostly raw foods (until my husband comes home and says "Let's make popcorn"
I am so thankful for the Montessori method. It's given me a way to raise my child with less confusion and self-doubt. Being able to nurture a happy, respectful, resilient and wonder-filled child in this crazy world is such a great relief and blessing.
I miss my Volkswagen van! Now I am going to acquire a Delica or a Toyota Hiace, and fully enjoy the economical advantages of a diesel engine in a fully camperized 4 wheel drive vehicle that can fit many children!
I think my husband is brilliant!

Now comes the really fun and actually hard for me part, tagging 10 other blogs that I really respect and enjoy. I don't find that I have enough time to frequent and find many montessori inspired blogs so I'll list 5 of the ones that I don't see listed on other blogs too often but that I love (They are mostly crafty blogs but they have wonderful ideas:

filth wizardry: So many great craft and activity ideas. Her kids have a super duper time!
one inch world: Crafty, creative and fun
over the crescent moon: Honest, real and real fun
little eyes on nature: A beautiful blog about sharing nature with children. The blog author is also the principal of two montessori pre-schools which she calls enviro-nature pre-schools. Awesome!
Sadly lost blog!: Oh NO! I was so happy to link whoever visits here to this blog. It is a spectacular kids art blog but I have lost the link and name. ;0( I must find it again and if I do I will definitely mention it then). It's too good to not spread the word!

Pickle Pinching, yes you read that right!

2009-07-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

I was digging through "the drawer". You know, the one that is so full of junk that you can barely open it. So when you finally do open it you have to make sure nothing is sticking up in the wrong manner before you close it which would forever prevent you from opening it again?! Well, I came across our Pickle Pincher. That is the name it is marketed under! It is of course, for getting pickles out of jars and it works really well but we don't eat enough pickles for it to have a coveted place in the utensil drawer. I thought I'd try it out as a motor skill transferring activity. You have to press the red button plunger on the end of the pincher which causes 3 little metal prongs to protrude outwards. You then have to line up the prongs around the object and depress the plunger to grasp the object. I wasn't too sure if it would be too challenging but she did it without too much difficulty.

She preferred to place the object from the first basket onto the table with her fingers and than to "pinch" it with the pickle pincher to transfer it.

Aa. was into it for the first go around but it has sat on the shelf since. I have realized that I'm failing in the area of re-demonstrating activities.

I'm thinking of making a chart of all of the activities we have on the shelves and then marking when they are used so I can keep track of what is being accomplished (or not) and what I need to do to facilitate or extend the activity. Does anyone have a chart like this? If so I'd be interested to know how you set it up . If you don't have a chart how do you keep track of what's being used, learned, mastered etc.? Please share!

Love is Everywhere...

2009-07-24T09:34:00.001-07:00

On our vacation Aa.-girl and I were as I see it, blessed by the universe with gifts of symbols of love wherever we went. The first one was courtesy of a log in our campsite. I saw it and thought "wow, that's pretty cool" Love Log is what we dubbed it.

Then we came across this rock on the path of our long day hike. Coincidence? I for one don't believe in coincidence. Being 2 years old and pure of heart Aa. of course just took it all in stride. Of course all is love Mommy!

The third made itself known in the grass outside a little community artisans store. My non-coincidence belief was strengthened.

This next one was dug up by Aa.-girl in a public sandbox outside the artisans store. Some people might think that this is getting a little weird by now. I however was delighted and awe-inspired.

This last one was found at Grandma and Grandpa T's house when we arrived back from our camping trip. What better way to end a camping trip than to be reminded that Love is Everywhere by the love nut!

Crafty Camping Day 2

2009-07-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

Camping day 2 involved a challenging hike to the top of Yeoward Mountain in Beautiful British Columbia, one craft activity when we limped back into camp and then going to bed at the same time as Aa.-girl. Worn out indeed!

We were up at 6am to try to beat the heat on our long hike. This was a change from the last 2 weeks as Aa. has been sleeping in to ~8am (so wonderful after the 5:30-6am awakenings before that) (I can't complain too much though because Aa.-girls Mama lives upstairs and more often than not she'll just go straight up and wake up Mama for breakfast) Love Mama! So either Aa. is in Vacation Mode or she's having a growth spurt.

We started the hike at 8am and promptly became separated from the group due to some mis-communication. So with 30 lbs of hiking pack and 2 year old on my back I was plodding as fast as I could to try to catch up with most of the people I figured were ahead of us. Some backtracking and attempt to use tracking skills from watching "Mantracker" on the National Geographic channel occurred. It was quite frustrating and a little unnerving not knowing which paths to follow. Some ground would not give up it's secrets as to wether any hiking boots had tread upon it. I became reserved to just hike alone with Aa.-girl and find our own way to the top. (There was some two finger loud whistling and some yelling at the top of lungs but to no avail) At last we came around a corner and there was Grandma and some of her women friends taking a break! Yay, yay yay!! We had gone the correct way! We then had a well deserved break and Aa. hiked for about 20 minutes on her own two legs which was a welcome rest for me. I felt as light as a feather after lugging her around up the mountain for an hour at top speed.

A couple of hours later found us in an alpine meadow teeming with beautiful flowers. So wonderful! The picture doesn't really do it justice.

Epic Sky

After a well earned lunch atop some lichen covered rocks, we made our way ever upwards, Aa. hiking on her own again. She became inspired to frolic in the flowers.

A little further up and we came to a patch of snow! Aa. was so excited and didn't want to leave the snow to finish the hike. We inticed her by suggesting that there may be more snow patches up higher on the mountain... and there was! At the very top was another patch which was special because it was watermellon snow. This is snow that has a pink tinge from an algae that grows on it in alpine regions and smells like fresh watermellon. I'd always wanted to see it and there it was. It smelled wonderful and made me wish for some watermellon to eat. When we pointed out to Aa. that the snow was pink and smelled like watermellon she exclaimed her patented "YEEEAAAAHHH!!!"

The view from a few hundred meters from the top.

We marked our accomplishment with an inukshuk.

We made! 3.5 hours and 2130Meters up! Now we have to go back down! I'm quite proud to say I carried 30lbs of kid all the way up the mountain. Many people asked if I wanted help but I was headstrong and determined to do it. (Boy did I pay for it later... and the next day and the next day and....)

Gorgeous Alpine flowers

The most precious thing about having Aa-girl with me on the hike was that; unlike me who has my eye on the goal ahead, she never forgets to stop and smell the flowers...

Once I limped back to the campsite (literally) we decided to do an easy and fun craft again from the book "Camp Out" while dinner was being prepared. It is called "Fern Smash T-Shirt". One plain shirt, a piece of cardboard the width and length of the body of the shirt to slip inside of it, a few choice leaves, a piece of paper and a blunt rock for smashing and you're ready to go.

You just slip the cardboard in the shirt to prevent the back of the shirt from being printed, lay some fresh leaves in a nice arrangement on the front of the shirt, lay a piece or paper over the leaves and start smashing the leaves with the rock while making sure to smash each part of the leaves while keeping them from moving around.

We were surprised at how well it turned out. I neglected to suggest to Aa.-girl that she wear her art smock while doing our camping art activities and she got paints from the leaf printing onto the shirt. It turned out to not be very water soluble paint so now she has a fern smash t-shirt with some leaf print paint dabs. It will be a fun reminder of a wonderful camping trip!

Crafty Camping with Aliens, Day 1 and my sweet 2 year old can swear (even in context) Oh no...

2009-07-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Camping with Aa.-girl was amazing! I came prepared with lots of activities in mind (thanks to a wonderful book by the name of "Camp Out" and it paid off huge. When we arrived at the site we scouted around to see what was in the vicinity. A lovely river was spied right away.

It was right after the river sighting that we had the alien sighting! I noticed what looked like many eyes peering up from the ground. On closer inspection it seems to be some kind of dense and hard (Grandma touched it!) fungal growth with weeping dewy droplets. What the heck is that?

After that excitement it was off to collect leaves, stones and twigs to make "insects". A little glue and some found natural materials and we were "bugging" out.

We ended up making 2 each and then we placed them around the campsite. Perhaps some future campers will find our "insects" and become inspired?!

This is the one Aa.-girl spent most of her attention on.

A while later we decided to do the leaf printing activity. I purchased a scrap book, tempera paints, and 3 sponges which I cut in half to make 6 small ones. We also had a bowl of water for cleaning the paintbrush and a rag for cleanup. We went scouting for some beautiful leaves and then the fun began.

I had Aa. "paint" some paint onto a sponge so that it was mostly covered. She then chose a leaf and put it vein side up on the left hand page of her scrapbook. Achieving good coverage of paint on the leaf required some help from Mommy. She then picked up her leaf and turned it over onto the right hand page and pressed with her palms (I helped a bit here too) The result was some halo sillouettes on the left page and the prints on the right.

Beautiful!

Overall it was a wonderful day but we did have a right of passage event so to speak. We were camping with 9 other people; Grandma and Grandpa T and 7 of their friends. Conversations were lively and I noticed a few off color words used but didn't worrry too much about it. After dinner Aa. started shouting a little more frowned upon version of "Darn-it"! I didn't really know what to do. Something in me said that I shouldn't make too big a deal about it or I might be sorry. So I just calmly but firmly told her that she shouldn't say those things, and that they weren't nice to say. She wouldn't stop so I asked her where she heard them, thinkin that it may have been just that day. She informed me that it was Daddy that she heard it from and then I remembered that one day in frustration he lost his temper and had said just that. Whoah... That event was a good 2 weeks previous so we have now been reminded what those sweet little absorbent minds can do; take it in and show it to you later to teach you a lesson to control yourself. I now wonder what gems will pop out of her mouth down the road a few weeks after our camping trip!

My daughter manifests cats! Oh and we've been treasure hunting.

2009-07-16T23:51:00.001-07:00

Treasure hunt #1 The first day we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa T.'s we decided to go to a local park to look for a geocache. For those not in the know, it's a high-tech version of hide-and-seek. Geocachers seek out hidden treasures utilizing GPS coordinates posted on the Internet by those hiding the cache. Unfortunately all of the pictures from this adventure were lost due to a power outage that has somehow fouled up the computer. ;o( It's so much fun, but the point was kind of lost on Aa.-girl as of course her 2 year old intellect did not understand the GPS unit. She did however enjoy choosing a treasure from the cache to keep and leaving a new one in the cache!

Treasure hunt #2 A few days later and we were (as previously mentioned) coloring rice. Following in Jen's footsteps again, we made a treasure bottle. If you haven't seen one, it contains the colored rice and any little "treasures" you wish to put in. An accompanying picture chart of what treasures are in the bottle helps in knowing when you've found them all.

Aa. wasn't as interested in it as I was but I think it's growing on her. I however am hooked as I have spent about 30 minutes with the darn thing and have yet to find the illusive dime. I'm beginning to believe it's vanished into the ether!

Treasure hunt #3 (here's where it gets interesting...) I made up 2 picture lists of "treasures" for Aa. girl to find around the house. One indoors and one outdoors. Aa. chose to do the outdoor hunt. We have yet to do the indoor hunt. I gave her the list sheet and a little pad of sticky notes. When a treasure was found (touched by Aa.-girl) she would put a sticky note on the corresponding treasure picture to indicate that it had been found.

This activity required a little prompting by me to make it fun and to keep Aa. focused on what she was looking for. A lot of language was used to lead her in the right direction. I will hype it up a little better next time, reduce the number of objects and discuss where we might find each object along the way.

At one point we had managed to find all but two of the treasures. The last two were animals so of course they could be unpredictable or unfindable. It was such a hot day so I thought that maybe all animals would be hiding in the shade. We decided to sit on the front porch for a bit to see what might "happen along" Now I must say that it was hot, a stinking hot 42deg. C (107deg F)!and I had absolutely no hope of a cat or even a crow appearing. I asked Aa. "would you like to go inside and do the indoor treasure hunt or would you like to stay here a while longer to see what comes along"? To my surprise and disappointment ( I wanted the air-conditioning by now) she wanted to stay to see what would happen. It wasn't 2 seconds after the words left her mouth that she joyfully exclaimed "A cat!!!" I couldn't believe my eyes. I was enchanted. the first thing I thought was "My daughter just manifested a cat, she can manifest cats" It was a magical moment, one of those ones that I simply won't forget.

Out on the range and making rainbows

2009-07-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

We're on our visiting spree which may sound hurried and whirlwind, but we are definitely stopping to smell the roses (and the sagebrush)! Aa.'s Grandpa J's girlfriend needed to collect some sage to decorate the front porch of the General Store on the ranch where she works.

Aa.-girls first foray onto the rangeland. We were enveloped in a warm fragrant wind and accompanied by cattle dog Ricky. It doesn't get any better than that!

After a few days on the ranch which were predominantly spent outdoors, we made it to Grandma and Grandpa T's. Being in a town (and having access to a computer that wasn't on dialup internet; the ranch is wonderful but it has it's downsides too) meant I could go to the dollar store and create some activities. We colored some rice (highly recommended by Jen from Montessori beginnings so we had to try it out!) using primary colors only. This was Aa.-girl's first (I think) (maybe she has done something similar at preschool?) exposure to what color components make up different colors. I made up a chart of the three primary colors and then the combining of the primary colors to produce the secondary colors as well as the order of the rainbow colors. We ended up with 6 colors of the rainbow (we didn't make magenta) and then followed in Jen's footsteps (we do that alot!) and made a rainbow bottle by layering the rice. I extended the activity later by giving Aa. playdough balls of the three primary colors of playdoug and getting her to match them up to the chart I had made.

We then squooshed and squished the dough colors together to make green, orange and purple. She then matched them up to the chart as well.

We finished by lining up the colors according to the rainbow.

Both the "colored rice activity" and the "making playdough colors activity" were great as they required all aspects of Montessori philosophy: sensorial (looking at the different colors), motor (mixing and squishing), cognitive (understanding how colors are made as well as matching up colors) practical life (clean-up was extensive with the rice; I shook a rice bag too vigorously and made a mess! That's OK Aa. loves to sweep!) Language (naming the colors) social (we had to work together to create our colors) We loved these activities and we're looking forward to making more colored rice to use in craft projects.

A few more days here at Grandma and Grandpa T.'s and we'll be off camping. First time putting Aa.-girl in a real heavy-duty hiking carrier. I can't wait to be surrounded by the calming energy of the forest trees while we hike along together. Every day with Aa. is better than the next. Her language skills are blowing me away and we have extensive conversations now. Bedtime gets longer and longer because that is when we have our most intimate chats. It used to be that I'd want the routine to be fairly quick so I could get everything done so that I could move on to finishing household chores and then relax with my husband. I now soak up every precious moment while Aa. recaps with delight what we did that day and who she is grateful for. Sigh... my little love!

Blending and Bicycling

2009-07-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

Today Aa.-girl and I made some raw vegan caesar salad dressing. I laid out the ingredients in the order to be put into the blender and she followed my instructions perfectly. I was pleasantly surprised. Verbal instructions are becoming easier for her to follow. I couldn't demonstrate the activity or I'd have to have 2 batches of dressing. I guess in hindsight that wouldn't have been so bad as it's so yummy!

Here's Aa. on her balance bike, otherwise known as a running bike. If you have yet to hear about them you're in for a treat in my opinion. They are very small, two wheeled bicycles without pedals. Toddlers as young as 18mo. can learn how to balance and glide along on the bike. No need for training wheels which essentially hinder the child from learning to balance. I think Maria Montessori would have approved! Aa. ha a Strider Bike. The videos of the kids riding is adorable and impressive. So far Aa. isn't too interested in hers even though she's had it since she was 18mo. old. She can walk with it between her legs by herself but hasn't developed the confidence to sit on the seat and push along yet. I'm sure it will come soon. We first bought her a wooden German made balance bike but we found it to be too heavy for our slight little girl to handle and the turning radius of the front wheel was designed to be very large so riding it in small spaces was not doable. I highly recommend these bikes instead of tricycles. Much more fun and is pretty much an open ended learning tool.

We are going on a visiting spree for 2 weeks starting today. First to Grandpa J.'s then to Grandma and Grandpa T.'s and we'll go camping and to see 3 great grandma's! I probably won't be posting much until after the trip but I'm sure we'll have so much to share when we get back! I hope I come up with some new ways to keep a 2 year old happy in the car for extended periods of time. Will share if I do!

Update 1 on the "Pee Pee Protest"

2009-07-01T17:27:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned last Sunday, Aa. had been having a pee pee in her pants day and Mommy has to be near me day. I had surmised that it might have stemmed from having her routine interrupted by the whole family being together and not doing many formal activities . I also posed the question, could it have something to do with Daddy? It may be a bit of the former, but it seems to be shaping up to be more of the latter. Poor Daddy! He made it home in time Tuesday night to put her in bed. If he's here he gets her ready for bed and does the whole bedtime routine with her. As soon as he arrived home she peed in her pants! Then later when they were saying good-night and came to talking about what she was grateful for that day she made a point of telling him she wasn't grateful for him. He asked her if she was mad at him and she affirmed Yes. He asked me to come and talk with her about it but she would not elaborate with either of us. I discussed it with my friend Jen from MontessoriBeginnings and she suggested that maybe she is upset at not receiving as much attention from me while my husband is home. Whatever it is, we've decided to dedicate one day per weekend as Daddy Day where they will spend exclusive time alone together without Mommy around. They can recapture some close moments like the one below. I'm now excited for them and for me as well! What will I do with my free time! What won't I do is a better question!

3-C's: Cleaning, Cutting and Concrete

2009-06-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

It was a 3 C day. Aa. started out very intent on cleaning. She has access at all times to a drawer of facecloths and a drawer of cleaning rags. The inspiration hit her and Aa-girl started by wiping down her rocking horse. She then moved on to her push cart (great for learning to walk by the way!) and it went on from there. As you can see her purple ball even received a good buffing.

At breakfast time Aa. prepared her own fruit. I have been meaning to purchase her a special "knife" which has a handle on the top and a wavy blade on the bottom. If anyone has read the book "Montessori From The Start" by Paula Plk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen then you may have seen the photos of the most adorable little 18mo. old guy cutting apples with something similar. Turned out that Aa.-girl's Mama (my mother-in-law) had this handy device. Very similar except that the handle is at the back. It worked so well that I now need to see if I can borrow it for a very long time!

Well, it was the last day of school yesterday so we wanted to make Aa.'s wonderful Montessori "Teachers" ( I put teachers in question marks because as those well educated about Montessori philosophy know, the adults that guide children in a Montessori fashion do not actually teach, the child teaches himself!) All the previous day I was trying to figure out what we could make that would be both meaningful, useful and decorative. Late in the afternoon an image of a stepping stone popped into my head. We quickly headed out to the dollar store so that Aa. could pick out some decorations for it and to the hardware store to lug a 50lb bag of quick dry cement home and set to work.

Here's a pic of the main items we used: a plastic pot tray as a mold, the screen from a dollar store splatter screen, quick dry cement, old measuring cups (one for water, one for cement), wooden spoon, ice cream pail to mix cement and water in, water source.

Fearing the caustic nature of cement, I did the measuring and pouring of cement and water, Aa. did a small amount of mixing.

I spooned half of the mix into the mold, placed the splatter screen on top and then Aa. spooned the rest of the cement on top to fill the mold. The splatter screen acts to reinforce the stone.

Now for the really fun stuff: Decorating!

The only problem we had was that I had purchased quick dry cement and while we were decorating it became increasingly hard to push the decorative items into the top of the stepping stone because it was hardening so fast! I'm wondering if some of the gems and stones will stay put for very long?! Aa. had so much fun and the look on her face when she gave her gift to Miss Kathy and Mr. Aaron was a heart melter.

A Pee Pee Protest?

2009-06-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

It's 11:00 pm and I'm exhausted! It's a weekend and when Aa.'s daddy is home on weekends the familiar schedule with it's comforting and orderly activities gets tossed out the window. I'm beginning to see how this change within the week affects Aa. more now that she's increasingly exerting her 2 year old will.

A. has been out of diapers in her waking hours and consistently using the potty or toilet for the last 8 months. She attends a montessori preschool for 3 hours 2 mornings a week. At school she goes to the bathroom by herself which includes pulling down her pants and underwear, using the potty, wiping, pulling her clothes back on, turning on the taps, washing her hands with soap, rinsing her hands, turning off the taps, and drying her hands. At home I was still under the impression that she needed help with a few of these steps due to Aa.'s frustration level when attempting or not attempting them. Once I found out about her independence at school I decided to take a little harder line on giving her independence in the bathroom so I've been encouraging her to do it all by herself for the last week. All was going quite well until this weekend; 10 pairs of wet underwear and pants today alone, countless screams of "NO" and tantrums relating to mommy not being right beside her in the bathroom. I guess at school she wants to be like everyone else and at home to be our loved little baby girl. Or, does it have something to do with daddy? She rarely sees him during the week so maybe it's a protest when he's around. Time will tell and we'll get through this hurdle.

Walking on Water and Mentioning the Unmentionables!

2009-06-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today we started out by extending A.'s scissor cutting activity(Motor activity,S ensory). I added thicker pieces of paper, thin plastic squares, stiff ribbon, raffia and some yarn. When I was putting it all together I tested out all of the materials by attempting to cut them with her scissors myself. I tried to emulate what I thought her skill and technique would be like and found all of the objects to be cut quite easily. A. had a different experience however! She was getting very frustrated and started to tilt her scissors to the side and rip everything apart. The stiff ribbon , thick paper and raffia seemed to have just the right balance of being challenging but not to the point of frustration. Yarn and plastic were verging on tantrum level frustration so those will be saved for future use! Lesson learned: start off easier than you think they may be ready for because you can always increase the challenge. Now I may have alienated her from cutting with her scissors for a while because I made it too challenging. ;0(

I remembered that A. had lids with built in stamps from a paint set that had long ago been used up and discarded. (Sensory, Motor) We pulled them out and she created for a while. I watered down some paint and poured it into a sponge set on a plate. She learned to gently press the stamp onto the sponge to pick up a bit of paint and then leave her mark. Not bad for a first try. Next session I think I'll make two different colored sponge pads for a more dramatic effect!

Inspired by Jen at Montessori Beginnings, I made up A. a fishing hole. (Motor) So Cute! It consists of:

A plastic tablecloth cut out in a pond shape, sea creature finger puppets with paperclips slipped onto them, A dollar store fishing rod with a magnet "hook", Basket for the creatures, Tray

She caught them all in no time, probably helped immensely that she can walk on water!

I attempted to extend A.'s Sorting By Category activity (Cognitive) by adding another category. She now has pompoms, balls and clothespins. Well that was done in about 15 seconds so I think I'll either have to add about 3 more categories for a total of 6 or start doing a category matching activity such as match the baby animal to the mommy animal. It was interesting to see A.'s developing Order of Mind. She chose to pick out one category and put it in a bowl and then move on to the next category and the next after that. I wonder if this means she will start to finish one type of food on her plate and then eat the next one in succession. I myself like to sample a bit her and a bit there!

A couple of months ago I introduced lacing beads to A. (Motor)She seemed interested but grew frustrated easily. I think part of the problem is that I neglected to reintroduce it enough times. So I've backtracked to using a chopstick instead of the lace as suggested by my inspirational friend Jen. It was a great hit. Soon We'll get back to the laces and if I do it right I'll be hearing "A. did it!" instead of "It's too hard, it's too hard!!!" accompanied by wildly flapping arms.

This is not a practical life activity as endorsed my Maria Montessori! When I state that I'm going to go get dressed A. likes to race ahead and pull out my "unmentionables" and give them to me to put on. Today I neglected to tell her I was going to get dressed and she came in while I was half done. Not seeing how she could help, she proceeded to put on most of my underwear. She managed to get one on correctly and the rest ended up on her hips.

To understand the amount of underwear she managed to get on (18 to be exact) check out the wad on her backside in the mirror! My underwear never looked so cute. I also just noticed that it looks like her feet are disappearing into the carpet! wooooaaaahhhh.....

Cutting it up with the Juice Queen

2009-06-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

The day before yesterday was a beautiful day. Now don't get me wrong. Everyday is a beautiful day, however yesterday had that flow that happens when your child/children are happy, easygoing and self-motivated. Happy Happy day! We woke up and right away A. pulled her paper cutting activity (motor skills) down and set to work. I didn't have the heart or inclination to stop her so that she could get dressed and eat breakfast. If she wants to work on something and we don't have any pressing plans then she can go to it. (please pardon the low photo quality. Camera was out of batteries and this is what you get when you try to use your cheap webcam for photos!)

Little tummy soon realized it was hungry so still not dressed she had her fruit. I then asked her if she would like to glue the resulting small pieces of paper from cutting that we had been collecting in a container every time she did the paper cutting activity (motor skills, creativity). By this time it was overflowing. That sounded like a good idea to her so with gluestick in hand (we tried the squeeze bottle but it was almost too difficult for me to get the glue to come out) furious pasting ensued. And I'm not exagerating, it was a furious pace with quick gluestick strokes and paper slapping down onto the artwork. I guess creative inspiration took over for the methodical, thoughtfull approach.

yeah, batteries! Camera in fair working order. Here's the resulting masterpiece. It of course had to be put up on the fridge asap! ( In this collage I see a man rowing a boat, a chicken, and an old lady holding a machine gun. What does that say about me I wonder?) What do you see?

Later in the day, did I say it was a beautiful day? Sunny on the inside and sunny on the outside, we went out to do some gardening. After watering which A. is gloriously happy to do (haven't met a 2 year old who isn't) we decided to harvest some herbs.(motor skills, sensory, practical life) This required giving the oregano plant a good haircut and smelling it's scent for future identification. Aayla ran into the house and came back with her paper cutting scissors so this was all her idea. Way to go mom, why didn't you think of that?! This is actually a picture of her trimming the oregano plant the next day after the newly exposed underleaves had scorched in the sun. She wanted to clear the plant of it's damaged leaves so one by one with meticulous care this time she did just that.

Today, alas, it's a rainy day. Even so I keep hearing "Playground"?, "Go to the playground"? Wet playground equipment may need to be experienced to be a deterrent. However maybe she'll like it and then I'll be in trouble! As on most mornings A. makes her own "juice"(practical life, motor skills). It's a great activity which she is very exuberant about. She has her cup, a packet of powdered fizzy vitamin drink which I open for her, a shot glass with a liquid mineral supplement (raspberry flavor being the favorite), a shot glass with her liquid chlorophyl supplement and a shot glass with her liquid kinder vitamins, a small jug with water and a spoon. She pours everything into the cup and mixes it with the spoon to see the fizz. Drinking it may take place immediately or drag on throughout the day but most days I'm happy to say she gets her needed nutrients!!

Here's A. doing her Sorting By Category activity(cognitive skills). You initially choose 2 different categories such as "animals" or "office supplies" for example. The objects in a category are identical but vary by color so that the child won't try to sort by color. Each object is sorted according to category into 2 bowls. I've only given her 2 categories, each with 5 identical objects. I'm way behind on adding another 1 maybe even 2 categories to make it more challenging for her. As it stands she has 5 pencil erasers and 5 pompoms. Tonight I'll add another category and reintroduce it to her tomorrow. Until then... Happy Montessori mommying!

I'm Jumping In!

2009-06-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I've done it! I'm a blogger now. My now 2 year old daughter Aayla (pronounced Eye-luh) is well into the "Aayla do!" stage, wanting to do everything for herself. Well, I say "go for it Aayla!" I see my purpose as her mom is to create the environment and help her to cultivate the confidence to be as self-sufficient as she can which will help her to feel that she is a valued member of our family and the human family as a whole. Her and I have been incorporating the Montessori method from the moment she was born but I now find myself slacking off in my Montessorial duties. I haven't given her a new formal activity in about a month! I want her to develop to her highest potential so I feel very guilty. I've been inspired by my dear friend Jen from http://www.montessoribeginnings.blogspot.com to start a blog of my own. I am determined to use this blog as a kick in the pants so to speak; a motivational and inspirational journey documented so I can look back and reflect in order to increase my effectiveness as a Montessori mom. I hope "Aayla do!" Montessori blog can motivate and inspire others as well. Here we go!!!!

Some memories from the past

This is the first formal activity I introduced to Aayla at 4 months old. It was the first introduction of the work mat and basket as well as piqueing interest. What is that red thing?

Here's Aayla at 7 months old, half in and half out of of her floor bed. It took her a long time to try it (she has slept in her floor bed since 8 weeks old) but eventually she would venture out of the bed in the middle of the night and then be too tired to make it all the way back. We'd come into her room in the morning to find her in this position quite often!

Again at 7 months trying out her own dining table and chair for one of the first few times. She enjoyed it immensely and still does.

Fast forward 3 months and she's now drinking out of a little shot glass and attempting to pour water into it from her jug as well.

10 months: so many things can be green!

The Montessori method has been invaluable for my daughter, giving me a framework to follow so that I can be fairly confident that I'm not holding her back from developing her innate talents. This has given me great piece of mind and her the chance to blossom!