Some of Our Work - Extensions Galore and Draw Write Now

Big Bro and Little Bro have both been very into building lately.
Ever since Big Bro and Little Bro tried out the extensions with the knobless cylinders and the pink tower and brown / broad stairs, they have been wanting to get these works out again to do additional extensions.

First, Big Bro wanted to rebuild the tower he had made a few days earlier using the mini pink tower and the broad stairs, only instead of starting with the broad stairs at the base, he wanted to try building it with the pink tower as the first piece.
He called this tower "Pink first, just to see what happens"...
Since the end pieces tended to fall off fairly easily, as they are so tiny, he then thought that perhaps if he alternated how he stacked them by twisting them that maybe that would help to make the tower more stable.

He referred to this tower as "Diamonds of Pink and Black"

Big Bro then made several other structures, including:
"The Ostrich"

"The Chichen Itza Boys" ("It's two boys playing with a little replica of the Mexican pyramid, Chichen Itza.")

"The Royal Black...an Arabian castle"

As Big Bro was working on his Pink Tower / Broad Stairs Extensions, at first, Big Bro enlisted the help of Little Bro to be his assistant. This way,  Big Bro was able to stay on the chair while he was building.
Little Bro loved being Big Bro's assistant for the two biggest towers.

Then, when Big Bro switched and did lower-to-the-ground extensions, Little Bro went back to the work he had selected, the knobless cylinders.
He started doing a variety of new extensions as well, first stacking up the red, green and yellow pieces into a tower, and then, adding a few blue pieces to the top.

Little Bro called his tower "B's Tower of Piza"

Big Bro took a few minutes out of his building to come check on Little Bro's progress. The two of them then briefly decided to create something together with the knobless cylinders, an extension they called "The Coral Reef".

Big Bro then went back to his pink tower and brown / broad stairs work and Little Bro went on to do some additional extensions..."Bubbles"

Treasure Hunt...X Marks the Spot"

He then got into trying other extensions...

Little Bro loved doing his take on extensions with the knobless cylinders.
He was completely absorbed in his work.

Big Bro finished out his work period by starting to do some pages from Draw Write Now.

Since Big Bro has expressed an interest in drawing and wanting to learn more about animals, he has started in with book eight, as it features animals of the desert, his current interest...he chose to do the pages about the coyotes and thorny lizards and had a great time learning how to draw the animals, as well as writing some facts about them.
All in all, it was a very busy day here.

 We wrapped things up by spending time at the pool and then, we came home and made some chocolate chip cookie dough...hopefully, we will do some baking tomorrow.

Photo Friday - Knobless Cylinders and Pink Tower / Broad Stairs Extensions

Yesterday, I was finally getting caught up on reading some of the blogs that I just love...

Enjoyed so many of the posts about various works  and projects that people have done this week...

As I was reading the post from Mi Escuelita Montessori, Little Bro happened to be standing over my shoulder and happened to see the awesome photos of the children working on their work...some Knobless Cylinder extensions and a Broad Stairs extension. He was so excited that he got out his work last night at 7 pm for this morning...

When he got up this morning, he got to work and made the Knobless Cylinder extnesions...he got a bit frustrated at first, because it took him a little more time and a little more steady handedness to get them to stack as he wanted them to do.

He first tried to stack them with a rug underneath and then, gave up on that and tried it with just our carpeting. and then, he decided to flip the cylinder storage boxes upside down and stacked them on top. that seemed to work best for him.

As he was working, Big Bro was just finishing up his morning work and decided to get into the action.

He asked Little Bro if he could please borrow the Broad Stairs as he wanted to make a skyscraper using the broad stairs and the pink tower.

They used our mini versions of the Broad Stairs and The Pink Tower for this, by the way, but it still stood nearly six feet tall!!!

Hope that you will enjoy these photos...happy Friday!

Making Memories Monday & Montessori Monday

My newest bloggy friend, Jennifer, over at Adventures in McQuill Land, has decided to start Making Memories Monday, where folks will link up and share a fond memory.

Now, my dear bloggy buddy, Jody, over at Mommy Moment, does a Montessori Monday, and that also sounds neat, especially since we use mostly Montessori materials in our homeschool.

Jody is such an amazing person and friend.
Since she knows what she is doing when it comes to blogging and came up with the idea of having a different themed day, I thought that it would be nice to be able to do the same sort of thing and to follow her lead and try to also do the Montessori Monday idea...

So, what is a girl to do who wants to participate in both?

Making Memories Monday and Montessori Monday altogether?!?
Why, yes!
How?
That's easy...
Each week, I will tell you about something that hopefully everyone will enjoy reading...a memory that has a bit of a Montessori-ish quality to it...

Kind of like a peanut butter cup...two great tastes all together or in this case, two great themes...

So, here goes:
When I was a child, the whole concept of following the child, one of the central themes in Montessori, was for the most part, in my upbringing, non-existent...grown ups by and large did not follow their children, as children were expected to be obedient...pretty much to do what their parents and other adults told them to do without ever questioning or proposing something different.
I luckily had very kind, loving parents, but they still expected me and my siblings to pretty much do what we were told to do because they said so...no questions asked.

There were a few exceptions to this, and one of them was when we got to be toy testers for a company called Marx Toys.

I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Marx toys were made there, as well as in West Virginia.
It was awesome, let me tell you!
Children were invited to the factory several times a year to test toys.
We would go to a big room and would test all of the various toys they were planning to put out in production.
The toys we tested included various prototypes for different riding toys, including the Green Machine, action toys like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, and various play sets and trains.
Many of the toys seemed to be more for boys than girls as far as themes, but it did not matter, as it was still so much fun to get to go and to try out new toys.

My mom loved having us participate too, as she could drop us four oldest kids off at Marx, go do a few errands, and then come back a bit relaxed, as she had had a few minutes to herself to get things done without having so many children in tow.
My younger brothers and my younger sister  used to get to go there more than I did, as sometimes my mom would take me with her to do errands, but on the times when I got to stay and test out the toys, it was a blast!

What made the experience interesting is that all of the adults seemed to really care what we thought of the toys and any suggestions that we made about the toys.

So much freedom...
We were free to work with any of the variety of toys that they had in the room for as little or as long as the item held our interest.
We did not have to try any one toy, it was up to us to go around and choose what looked interesting or appealing to us.

What I remember most was the testing out the Green Machine riding toy.

Here is the link to the riding toys page at the Marx Toys Museum that shows the Green Machine
The Green Machine prototype initially seemed uncomfortable, as it hit us kids on the wrong part of our backs... it was not nearly as comfortable as the Big Wheel riding experience was for us.
They tweaked the design and had us try out the upgraded versions of the Green Machine and this one seemed to just fit us better, more ergonomically designed for a child.
It was so neat that they asked us for our opinions and that we were encouraged to be very open and frank about whether or not we liked the toys and why.

When I think back to this toy testing time in my life, it is with much fondness, as it was really great to have adults ask us for our opinions like this.
Am pretty sure that it made every child participant feel special.

Then, flash forward to learning about Montessori and the cornerstone of her philosophy...following the child.

When Dr. Montessori was given the huge task of educating a bunch of inner city orphan children, she took it seriously and really worked at developing materials that fit the needs of the child.
 She had children try the materials and through careful observation, and I would have to imagine some trial and error, she developed materials that really met the needs of the child.
She initially put out a box of more traditional type toys to see if children would choose those and instead, they all chose the lovely, handcrafted materials she had designed for them.

Here are some Montessori quotes that tie in with this...
(Both quotes and this photo are as they appear on  the American Montessori Society  pages on their website...not sure of the original source of this photo, but it appears to be public domain...)
The objects in our system are instead a help to the child himself, he chooses what he wants for his own use, and works with it according to his own needs, tendencies and special interests. In this way, the objects become a means of growth.
- Dr. Maria Montessori, Discovery of the Child 

There is only one basis for observation: the children must be able to express themselves and thus reveal those needs and attitudes which would otherwise remain hidden or repressed in an environment that did not permit them to act spontaneously. An observer obviously needs something to observe, and if he must be trained to be able to see and recognize objective truth, he must have at his disposal children placed in such an environment that they can manifest their natural traits.
- Dr. Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child 

Now, as a homeschool mom, I try hard to keep this Montessori cornerstone alive and well...to really follow my children when it comes to their learning...to really allow them to take the lead in their learning.
Following the child does not mean that they can do whatever they want without any restrictions..it has to be something that is within the scope of our homeschool classroom we have set up, or else some sort of hands on learning experience outside, say at the park, or in the yard, or even at the beach.

It can be a challenge at times, as sometimes, it would be so much easier to jump in and say, "This is exactly what you are doing and this is exactly how long I want you to do it", etc. but then, they would not feel nearly as respected as when I let them select their work.
I just have to work all that harder at having an excellent environment so that anything they choose to do as a work will be worth their time, and that it will tie in with what they are passionate about learning, not just some fluff to pass the time.

Well, hope that you liked my combo. Making Memories and Montessori Monday post...happy Monday to everyone!

Big Bro Working Hard

Big Bro completing the binomial cube, one of his favorite works at the moment.
Using skittles...trying to come up with an extension of his own, after he had already correctly completed this work...
Here is his pink tower / brown stairs extension, after correctly doing the pink Tower and Brown Stairs work.

Big Bro has mostly been focusing on making his world biomes book...will post photos of his completed book soon.

These are just some of the other works he has been doing in addition to the biomes...

Little Bro: All Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed at 4:30 a.m. Today

So, is it dinner yet???

I feel like it should be about time for dinner vs. lunch, as Little Bro got up at 4:30 a.m. today...FOR THE DAY!!!

He got up super early, as he really wanted to get to do the work that Big Bro had selected for his morning work (fraction skittles)...
Little Bro decided if he got up early and got going, he could do Big Bro's work before big Bro even got out of bed...and he was right...he did the skittles work and had it all back before Big Bro had even started to stir. I did not take photos of him doing Big Bro's work, as I did not want Big Bro to see that Little Bro had done this...

We have started to select our morning work the night before, so that the first work for the day is on the kitchen table, ready and waiting when we all wake up.
The boys start at the kitchen table and then, after eating breakfast, they progress into our playroom for the remaining work.

Now, I normally get up around this time every day, as Dear Hubby normally leaves for work early and our puppy has to go out with DH to do his duty...waking up when my hubby and the puppy are up is not as much of a challenge, as they are pretty quiet and do their own thing.

Little Bro was so excited to get cracking on his brother's work...he just beamed the whole time! He was so full of energy and so proud of himself that he got to big Bros work first.

After having a bit of fun with Big Bro's work, he then got right to his own work...he did the Pink Tower, then, the Broad / Brown Stairs, and then, a few of the extensions for these.

Little Bro then got out the spindles and did 0 to 9.

Then, he chose a new work, a wooden animal game called Who Lives Where? by Cadaco.
He just loved this work! I am sure that he will be bringing it off the shelves again and again!
I found it at a children's consignment store.
Pretty cool independent game, goes along nicely with what we have been doing, etc.
Following the game, Little Bro wanted to read with me. We read two books, which he loved.

Little Bro wrapped up his morning with matching 3D shapes to their cards.
He matched up both plastic and wooden shapes and then, sorted them back out before putting them away.

He finished off his morning by putting on a variety of costumes and playing with the dog.

All in all, a very productive morning...he is a very hardworking tike!