Montessori Monday November 22, 2011

 

Yes, I realize I still have a blog post list a mile long to catch up on.  But, like most of you, this time of year is extremely busy.  As you know, we just got home from Washington DC a few weeks ago.  This weekend, we were in Kentucky visiting family, and later this week, we’ll be up near Cleveland visiting more family.  Then a couple weeks after that, we’ll be out of the country, and shortly after we return, we’ll be in Michigan visiting another set of family.  When we are home, homeschooling and the 15+ hours a week of autism therapies take over, leaving very little blogging time.  So, while part 1 of Jedi’s cake is baking in the oven (he turns 8 years old on Wednesday!), I am attempting to chip away at the ever-growing blogging list. 🙂

Here is a review of some of the things Bug and Monkey have done in the Montessori room.  Most of it is Thanksgiving themed. 🙂

Monkey and Bug gluing feathers onto a turkey

 

The finished product!

 

Matching colored buttons to turkeys of different colors

 

This work is good for both naming colors and fine motor--each colored feather has a space on the turkey.

 

I made this felt cornucopia last year and brought it back out. The girls still love taking all of the foods out and stuffing them back in!

 

Bug working on the 3 part sequencing cards

Bug and Monkey hammering with the cork & shapes work

 

And just like any other meal, Thanksgiving dinner can easily involve kids of all ages in the prepwork. Here, Bug (age 2) and Jedi (age 7) are using knives (butter knives) to cut bread cubes for stuffing.

 

This was Bug's favorite job--mashing the sweet potatoes! She loved doing this work and was very disappointed when it was time to stop smashing and start cooking them!

Around the World–Australia September 6, 2011

 

 

 

This week, we finished our unit on Australia.  The first week of our 2 week unit is usually our “academic” week and the 2nd week of each unit is usually our “fun” unit.  So, this week was the fun week!

 

All of the kids watched several short videos on the Great Barrier Reef. They enjoyed taking a virtual tour and learning all about the different animals that can be found in the reef. They also watched a documentary about life in Australia.

 

Monkey washing potatoes for our Australian meal--meat pie!

 

Jedi scrubbing and peeling carrots for the pie

 

Monkey mixing the pie crust

 

Jedi cutting potatoes

 

Bug helping out!

 

Here is what the meat pie looked like before we put on the top crust.

 

Jedi's painting--he learned about the traditional Aborigine style for painting, using a lot of dots and lines surrounding the items in the picture. Then he attempted to replicate the style.

Stone Soup July 3, 2011

I have quite a few posts to update on, including Jedi’s week in review, 2 field trips, and some family fun…hopefully I can get them all updated within the next day or two. 🙂  The first post is about our unit on Stone Soup.

During the girls’ school time a couple weeks back, we read the story of Stone Soup, where two hungry travelers go door to door in a village and ask if anyone could spare some food.  After no one offers any to share, the travelers decide to make a healthy soup out of a stone and some water, if the villagers could help with the secret ingredient…

My children were all very interested in the story, and all three of them asked if we could make stone soup ourselves.  And of course, since Stone Soup is actually vegetable soup, it isn’t hard to imagine we said yes. 😉  Besides, it would be a great Montessori activity…deciding on the vegetables to go in it, cutting & peeling vegetables, and all coming together to make one meal.  The kids loved making Stone Soup (although they were nervous about the idea of using a stone from outside, so we used a small whole potato. 🙂 )  And more importantly, they actually ate it…lots and lots of veggies in one shot!

The veggies that were chosen for Stone Soup...carrots, potatoes, peas, broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic scapes, celery, onions, mushrooms, corn, green onions, etc. And the best part was that, with the exception of a few things, these were all either grown in our own garden, or locally grown here in central Ohio!

Bug was excited to shell the peas. However, I'm pretty sure most of them ended up in her mouth instead of the bowl. 😉

Jedi cutting cherry tomatoes and Monkey cutting the mushrooms

The soup simmering on the stove. We added a ton of fresh herbs from our garden as well!

 

 

Montessori Monday April 4, 2011

Monkey is 4 years 2 months old

This week, we decided to try something new.  For the past year, we’ve been using Karen Tyler’s Montessori albums.  However, with the addition of having to homeschool for 2nd grade too starting in the summer, I wanted to try something with a little more structure to it, so that I had things laid out for me daily.  I started using New Child Montessori, or rather, using it as a basis, but continuing with the Karen Tyler stuff (and just adding in my own personal touch as well).  I do love the New Child curriculum so far…it’s more of “Montessori-inspired unit studies” than pure Montessori, and for us, that’s fine.  It’s not like homeschooling is pure Montessori anyhow…LOL!

This past week, the focus was on reptiles of our home state, as well as the world.  We mainly concentrated on Ohio snakes and turtles, but we touched on crocodiles and komodo dragons as well. 🙂  Even Bitty Bug got into the lessons this week!  She loved the snakes!

One of the things I really like about our new curriculum (other than having the entire sequence laid out for me. LOL!) is the addition of a “circle time” and “yoga time”.  While we don’t follow the New Child schedule exactly (because it’s laid out like a traditional school day, which is just not necessary when you only have 2 children in the room!), we do add in the circle time date, weather, and story stuff, as well as the yoga time.  The yoga helps focus the girls, and the circle time gives me a chance to give the lessons before things get too crazy.  So, I’m really liking this program so far!

Here are some pictures from our week (Jedi was home on spring break this week as well!)

Using the metal insets

Big brother helping out!

Some of the books in the reading basket last week

More books in the reading basket

Snake shedding skin sequencing cards

Snakes of Ohio 3 part cards

Closeup of snake cards

Using a snake stencil

Decorating the spring tree (a branch we found on the ground outside, decorated in paper leaves and tissue paper blossoms)

The final product!

Matching and folding socks

Bitty Bug dressed for baking!

All three kids helping to make cupcakes

One of the best parts...licking the spoons!

I found these darling little silicone baking cups in the shape of flower pots, and we filled them with chocolate batter

And of course, we added green "grass" frosting and a gummy worm!