Out on the range and making rainbows

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

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"

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

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?

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.

Cutting it up with the Juice Queen

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!