Photo Recap: Some of Our Days

We have been busy here doing a variety of works, both old and new.

Here is a recap in photos of some of what we have been doing lately...working hard at having fun and learning at the same time...

Big Bro doing some math and logic work with Cuisenaire rods.
Not exactly Montessori, but ties in nicely with Montessori math work...

Little Bro doing some sensorial and math work with Snap Cubes.

Little Bro doing math and logic work with Cuisenaire rods.

Little Bro working with Montessori wooden math counters, comparing sets.

Big Bro taught Little Bro how to use some acorn counters to do a math work on Greater than / Less Than...

Big Bro and Little Bro holding their glow-in-the-dark balloons.  They had an absolute blast playing with these balloons! We took some awesome special effects photos with Dear Hubby's photos that I will post in the future... Got this idea from a great blog...if it is your idea from your blog post or if you have read about this idea and know the name of the blog, please let me know...the mommy blogger had said that her hubby had loads of glow sticks and balloons from a work party so she got the idea to add them into the balloons. I tried to go back to search where this was from and cannot find it and want to give a huge shout out to you! We did this twice after I had read about this...the boys loved it, so if this was your idea, please let me know...

Caz and her family did some cool activities with "moon balloons" and other glow projects. Here is a link to her nice post on her cool blog, A Little Learning for Two.

Little Bro lining up picture sound cards to upper case fabric alphabet.

Big Bro doing some farm themed writing practice from an awesome product that I will be sharing a review about this week by Laughing Star Montessori.

Little Bro doing farm themed writing practice. Both boys love this work. Will share a full review of the great pdfs from Laughing Star Montessori that this work goes with this week.

Little Bro having fun doing bathroom pipe construction at the Glazer Children's Museum.

Both boys love this exhibit...so fun to connect the plumbing pipes.

Big Bro proud of his building job.

Big Bro balancing to get the pieces to fit...

Little Bro putting on a hard hat at the construction exhibit at the Glazer Children's Museum.

Little Bro's building construction made with foam blocks...

Driving the fire truck...

Little Bro taking care of a pet at the Vet Clinic exhibit...

Big Bro making felt pizzas at the pizza exhibit...

Both boys cutting pieces of our palm tree with saws on our lanai.

Big Bro's building a contraption at G Wiz Science Museum.

Big Bro is connecting wires and learning about circuits at G Wiz...

Little Bro is having fun hiding in the park...what fun!

Big Bro having fun with a fallen frond.

Big Bro trying to blend in with the plants.

Big Bro resting after climbing a tree. He just loves to climb trees!

This post is linked up to We Play at Childhood 101.

This post is also linked up with One Hook Wonder's Montessori Monday links.

Also, please be sure to check out Adventures in McQuill-land and Mommy Moment.

I usually link up to these two blogs on Mondays, but they are both doing different things for this week...

Jennifer has done some great book reviews and Jody has given an update on her home renovation project. She also has a great Christmas Gifts Galore thing going on over at her blog, so please be sure to pop by and see what she is giving away during this holiday season.

Fabulous Finds Friday!

Talk about Fabulous Finds, 

Target has quite a selection of educational items in their dollar section...and they are literally one dollar each...

The items of interest include:

Personal pocket charts

Flashcards and corresponding activity books for every possible theme  / concept...
Insects, Dinosaurs, Space, U.S. Animals, World Animals, World Landmarks, Time, Same and Different, Numbers, Alphabet, Rhyming Words, U.S. Presidents, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Flags of the World, Phonics I, Phonics II, Colors and Shapes...

Some of these flashcards could work well in continents boxes...
Namely,  U.S. Animals, World Animals, World Landmarks, and Flags of the World.

The Insects, Dinosaurs, Space, U.S. Animals, World Animals, and U.S. Presidents cards could all be easily converted into three part cards if you buy two sets of the cards or if you buy single sets, scan them, and make your own second sets for control of error...

The Phonics II  cards are all blends and digraphs, so if you are needing work for your children that cover blends and digraphs, here you go!

The Numbers cards feature numbers and blue dots so they could work well as an extension after a child has done their Montessori inspired work using their wooden numbers and circle counters...

Even if you are not normally a big fan of workbooks, if you have to travel or go to a doctor's appointment, these activity books could come in handy, especially the ones like Space, Animals, or Dinosaurs...
If you are a homeschool family who uses Sue Patrick's Workbox System, these activity books might work very well for your family...
In addition to the themed activity books, they also have a few made by Crayola...one activity book in particular allows for open ended creativity called Squiggles and Doodles...
In this book, a child is given a squiggle or a doodle and has to finish it and make their own picture integrating the squiggle or doodle. Could really see a child doing this as they are sitting on a plane or waiting for their turn at the dentist's office...

Weather charts

Cut outs - Weather and Holidays
The cut outs could work well if you need things for your children to do Montessori inspired push pin work.

Foam clocks in different colors
If you are working on time and want an extension to go with time, these clocks could work for you.

Dry erase charts
Again, either for variety or if you have to spend some time waiting to go somewhere, these could come in handy.
Print
Cursive
Spanish
Addition

Classic books for read-alouds / bedtime stories, or for independent reading for older children...

Small balls - would be great for young children to use at the park...

Math manipulatives:
Foam cubes*

*The foam cube math manipulatives come in a plastic bag...I just transferred them to a nice wicker basket...


Straws - to use for counting by tens

Alphabet stickers
Alphabet rubber stamps - the alphabet stamps are very tiny and easily fit onto a tray, along with some paper for a simple stamping work. they are great for developing the pincer grip, as they are so tiny that the only way to hold them is to use a pincer grip.
Would imagine that an older child might enjoy using these, too, as they are tiny and the font is not as babyish as with some stamps...
Could see with an older child, say 6-9, using them to stamp out a sentence to go along with a book they have written or a cartoon that they have drawn.
Would also be a cool tie in if you discuss the history of printmaking, as they are similar to what would have been used as stamps to print headlines for a newspaper years ago.

Magnetic letters and numbers
Ribbons - great for tying or braiding work.

Lined boards for printing practice

Simple easy readers on the following themes:

Big Cats
Scorpions
U.S.  - 50 Great States
U.S. Presidents
Polar Animals
Sea Life

Board books:
All about Me
Pets

Small socks for matching / sorting work or for children to use to clothespin to a small clothesline
Pom poms in rainbow colors and different sizes for dry transfer work, as well as sorting, counting, matching work.

Also, a huge selection of Dr. Seuss items, most notably:
Neat little bags that tie in with the following books: Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Cat in the Hat, and Horton Hears a Who.
The bags are cute, colorful, and seemed quite durable and washable. If you are trying to reduce / reuse /  recycle, these bags could really come in handy...
They could work well as lunch sacks for when you are on the go.
These bags could also work well to carry library books, or even as a small overnight bag or children's carry-on bag.
If your family enjoys reading Dr. Seuss, you might enjoy some of the additional Dr. Seuss items they had in stock, such as the stickers, small notebooks, or the pins.
 
We did not need all of the items I have listed, but we did need a few...so even if you need just a few of these items, it is worth the trip to Target to check out the dollar section.

Great Games that Get Kids to Think - Games 2-14: Dominoes Around the World

Continuing with the topic of Great Games that Get Kids to Think...

Well, the next is not one game, but a collection of games from around the world.
The games all appear in a well written picture book for children called Dominoes Around the World written by Mary D. Lankford and illustrated by Karen Dugan.

This book will be enjoyed by all who read it and play the games in the book.
The games are clearly explained and the illustrations are wonderful...each page features realistic illustrations of children playing dominoes in their native country.

Dominoes are played in many countries and continents around the globe.
This neat book lists a collection of traditional dominoes games from Cuba, France, Malta, The Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine, United States, and Vietnam, along with modern takes on dominoes.

Dominoes Around the World also gives a great multicultural perspective, as well as a bit of a historical perspective.

What also is nice is that it includes a bibliography. Then, if your child becomes totally engrossed in dominoes and wants to learn more about them, you will have some great ideas for additional resources on dominoes. 


This book gets children to not only think about different ways to play dominoes, and the logic and math involved in playing dominoes, it also gets them to think about the various countries of origin of the dominoes games. 


Dominoes Around the World does not come with dominoes, so you will have to get your own set or sets, depending on if you want to play all of the games in the book.  
The dominoes games from this great book would also be fun to do for a family game night. 
You could also add some flair by serving some dinner from the country of origin for the particular dominoes game you plan to try for that night...
So maybe you could make some neat grilled Cuban sandwiches and then, play the Cuban Dominoes game or make some Crepes Suzette or Quiche Lorraine and then, try out the French Draw dominoes game. 

We love playing dominoes here, especially Big Bro.
Many times, he comes up with his own sort of version of dominoes.
 
We also use dominoes in conjunction with our Montessori bead material as a work / extension of sorts. 


To use Dominoes Around the World as a Montessori inspired work for your homeschool or classroom, place the following items on a tray or in a nice basket: the book, Dominoes Around the World, a map that has the various countries where these games originated, a few sets of dominoes, as well as individual pictorial charts  (for your control of error) to go with each game listed in the book. 
This way, children will be able to see if they have set up the game correctly as they play. 
You could also add some pin map work for them to locate the countries of origin for each of the games.


In another box when the card says to "Work with Mom", you could do a work together activity of looking up the countries and possibly making a snack to tie in with a particular domino playing country. 
The book and the additional items are small enough that it will easily fit into a plastic workbox, if you prefer this system for your homeschooling. For your workbox label, you could simply take a photo of a domino that has the same number of dots as the  number you assign to the workbox.



Dominoes Around the World  is one of several "Around the World' themed books that Mary D. Lankford has written. Some of her other books include:
Hopscotch Around the World, Jacks Around the World, Mazes Around the World, Christmas Around the World, Birthdays Around the World, and others.

Her books are available through Amazon, as well as other online booksellers. 

Making Memories & Montessori Monday: Buttons, Buttons, Who's Gotta Button?

Peanut butter cup time...a memory and a Montessori tie - in!

Memories of Playing with Buttons:
When I was a little girl, we used to go to my grandparents' home and would get to play with the big jar of buttons she kept in her dining room hutch, which she referred to as "the buffet."
My grandmother, known affectionately as "Gramma Mickey" by her grandchildren, had a rather huge stash of buttons. It was a massive jar with a screw top lid.
She kept her buttons in one of the lower drawers of her buffet. Not something you would normally expect to find in a dining room hutch, but that is where they were kept.
Well, it was always like a treasure trove...truly one of my very favorite things to play with, as I would open up the buffet, carefully carry the over sized jar to the floor, unscrew the lid, and then, would put my hand into the jar and carefully and neatly start scooping out the buttons.
Would count them, sort them, think about where they had been prior to ending up in my Gramma Mickey's button jar, and then, would think of what the buttons would look neat if they were sewn onto, such as on a skirt, a shirt, or a sweater.
It was such a simple thing that kept us grandchildren entertained, but yet, was so fun for us...and not just for me, but for my cousins, who were a bit older.
My cousins had lived in Germany, as my uncle was in the US military...
They would spend time with my grandmother, a.k.a. Gramma Mickey, on and off, in between times spent overseas.
The one big difference though was that they did not seem to know the unwritten, unspoken rules about playing with these buttons, such as:
You have to ask if you may open the buffet to get them out...
You need to treat them with great care...
You may play with them on the floor...
You may take out handfuls at a time, but under no circumstances are you to just pour out the entire jar at one time.
You need to treat each and every button as if it were made of gold...
Then, when you are done, you are to put all of the buttons carefully back into the jar and very neatly place the jar back in the exact spot where you found it.
Under no circumstances are you to pocket the buttons for yourself, as they are for others to enjoy and for Gramma Mickey to use to sew onto clothes.
If Gramma Mickey has a button that you may have, she will give it to you...you don't ask for a button...
You just wait, play nicely, and she will come over and offer you one to take home...
Or she will let you pick out a few to go on something she is making for you...
I was maybe four or five but I knew these rules...
They were never expressly spoken to me, just demonstrated to me by Gramma Mickey.
My older cousins had bopped all over the globe, mostly in Germany, but then, they would pop back to Pennsylvania and stay there while my Uncle was in Vietnam.
His first tour was before I was born, and my one older cousin was actually born while he was over there...so he did not get to know his dad or bond with him until he was a toddler.
My uncle's second tour in Vietnam was when I was little.
I do not remember anything about it, except from what I have been told, but it impacted his children immensely, as when he went over for the second time, they were a bit older and the reality set in that they would not see him for years.

Having a dad off at war does not make for happy children...or confident children...
Well, back to playing with Gramma Mickey's buttons...
When my cousins would come over, they did not play by her unwritten rules...
They would spill the buttons all over the floor, throw them, pocket some, not put them back to where they were supposed to go in the buffet and so forth.
They were having fun, at least on the surface, but just made a huge mess.  And then, inevitably, they would get caught...caught making a mess, caught stuffing buttons into their pockets, caught not putting the jar back in its proper place or all of the above...
It really frustrated my grandmother.
She would generally mutter something half under her breath like "That is what happens when your dad is out of the picture...no discipline...no rules...no respect."
Sometimes, she would try to be a little more direct in trying to show them how to take care of the buttons, but sometimes, she would lose her patience and all of the buttons would be confiscated and the fun would be over...for a few days at least...
Flash forward to becoming a teacher...over the years, there were children who did not seem to know the underling rules of how something is supposed to be treated, whether it was how to treat a friend, how to use a material, or how to do a particular work. There were also children who acted act as they were frustrated about something tied in with their lives outside of the school day.

Photo used with permission.  Thank you, Lori. 
Copyrighted by  Lorimarsha, Refined Designs. Wear. Smile. Repeat. Eco-conscious Recycled Fashion
Reflections and how it relates to Montessori:
In the Montessori environment, there are more opportunities for children to learn from each other, but that does not always mean that a child will get it and do as they are supposed to...
As frustrating as it is, it is up to the adults in the situation to try to be patient and kind, as well as to redirect a child who is struggling with using a materials or treating a friend nicely.
My grandmother tried to be patient and tried to redirect them as she knew how, but it just seemed like an uphill battle with them. She had every right to be frustrated (it frustrated me and I was a preschooler!)
What did seem to work in the classroom with children who did not get it is when they were asked to demonstrate how to correctly do something, was to model and then, maybe have someone else model it yet again and again until they got it...maybe for several attempts at doing the work, a particular child might need to see the work done again and again, with different people demonstrating the work.
Also seems to help to have a child who is floundering to be encouraged to choose a work that they love and are proficient at doing so that they are made to feel more confident...
Kind of gently guided free choice...
Maybe if my grandmother would have been able to be more consistently patient or would have been able to sit with us and model step by step for them to follow...maybe that would have worked...not totally sure, but the thought has crossed my mind over the years when I have had students with difficult situations, including students living in a shelter, students with incarcerated parents, students with parents who travel overseas all or most of the time, students whose parents lived in different countries, as well as students with parents deployed in the theater in the US Military.
What is so nice about the Montessori environment is that it encourages older ones in the room to take on the role of being the model for the little ones...but it also works out that sometimes, little ones who get it can actually be helpful by working with an older one who does not seem to get it as well...
Montessori tie in:
Inspired works and work extensions using buttons

Photo used with permission. Thank you, Lori.  
Copyrighted by Lorimarsha, Refined Designs. Wear. Smile. Repeat. Eco-conscious Recycled Fashion
Practical Life:
Demonstrate how to button.
Introduce the button dressing frame to a young child.
Demonstrate how to sew a button on to a piece of cloth.
How to Sew a Button
To make it into a Montessori work, be sure to have all necessary items to sew a button onto cloth on a tray...A few pieces of cloth, thread, needle, scissors, tiny basket filled with buttons
Have a child string buttons onto a piece of yarn.
Have a child do a dry transfer work with buttons.
Try the work with a scoop, tongs, chopsticks, spoon, etc.
Have a work set up for a child to wash and dry plastic buttons. 
Sensorial:
Have a child sort the buttons to go with the color tablet boxes...

Use different sized buttons to make homemade sound cylinders.

Do as a work by making two of the exact same sound cylinder and have them match the two containers.
Math: 
Have works set up where a child can use the buttons to count, do patterns, etc.
Sorting, Counting Classifying Lesson 

Here, the buttons are being used with the Montessori wooden numbers.
Here are some lesson plans that correlate with the book, The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid. These lessons could be easily tweaked to work within a Montessori inspired home or a Montessori classroom...

Statistics Lesson
This lesson is by PBS.
Attributes
This lesson is from NCTM.  

Photo used with permission. Thank you, Lori. 

Copyrighted by Lorimarsha, Refined Designs. Wear. Smile. Repeat. Eco-conscious Recycled Fashion
Science:
Classify the buttons:
Magnetic  / nonmagnetic
Natural vs. man made materials
Culture:
Identify the region or the history of a particular button.

Classify buttons for particular holidays, such as pictured above, Christmas buttons. 
Language: 

Read The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid.

Use buttons as an extension with the grammar boxes
Use buttons with command cards
(Place the button in the basket...place the button behind the basket, etc. )
Art: 
Make a mobile with buttons hanging down from the mobile.

Make button imprints by pressing buttons into PlayDoh or clay.
Set up an art area to make a button multi-media collage or sculpture.
Have a variety of materials for a child to choose from to make a multi-media collage or sculpture.
Creative Writing:
Have a child select a button and then, write a story about where that button has been.
Perhaps it is a button that was on a uniform, or was part of a costume, or was on someone special's outfit. 

Photo used with permission. Thank you, Beau!
Photo copyrighted by Beau Bergman of  Down Under Antiques. 

All in all, buttons can be quite fun...just be sure to demonstrate for a child how to use the buttons properly and if for some reason, they are off task, very gently redirect them and model and have others model how to use them correctly.


Please be sure to check out:
Jennifer's Making Memories Monday link-ups,
Jody's Montessori Monday at Mommy Moment link-ups,
and Nicole's Montessori Monday link-ups.








Happy Monday, everyone!

Ways to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Plastic Caps & Giveaway Reminder

Well, if your family is anything like ours, you probably drink lots of milk and juice.

We go through so many containers and always have a plethora of caps / lids from the various drink containers.

Well, in the spirit of upcoming Earth Day, I thought that I would throw out some great ways to do your part by doing one of the three R's for the Earth, so here is my top ten list for plastic caps:

1. Use them for game pieces for checkers, tic tac toe, or board games.

To do this, sort and see how many caps you have of a particular color.

Make sure that you have enough caps of a color to use for the game pieces.

So, for checkers or tic tac toe, you would need enough of two colors.

For board games, you might only need one cap in four colors.

2. Use the lids for a simple, Montessori style moveable alphabet.
To do this, count out your caps.
You need to have enough of two colors to have one color for vowels and one for consonants.
Add small letter stickers to each cap, 1 letter per cap.

3. Use the white or lighter colored lids as water magnifiers..
To do this, have your child place a very tiny item inside the cap.
Then, cover the cap with a glass slide from a microscope.
Put a couple of drops of water onto the slide. Then, have your child look through the water covered slide at the object below...easy, instant magnification!

4. Use the caps to make three dimensional art collages.
To do this, sort out colors by color family.
Then, draw a simple outline for your work and cover each section of your work with the correct color cap.

5. Use the caps for math manipulatives.
To do this, decide on how many caps you need to represent the math concepts you plan to have your child do, maybe you might need 10 caps, or 20, or 100...
The caps can be used for patterning, sorting, counting, placing into sets, attributes work, ordinal numbers, positive and negative numbers, etc.

6. Use the caps for parts of speech...for example, use red caps for verbs and black caps for nouns. Goes along with the Montessori inspired grammar symbols work.

7. Use as an extension to command cards...
To do this, simply write the command inside the cap with a permanent marker, or you could type out the command and then, glue the commands into the lids.
So, maybe one cap might say to touch your head or to hop on one foot, etc.

8. Use for riddles...
To do this, print out riddles and the answers to the riddles.
Place the riddle on one side and then, the answer on the other side.

9. Use for vocabulary words.
Print out the definition and place on the one side and then, place the vocabulary word on the other.

10. Use the caps for story starters.
Print out story starters and glue them to the insides of the caps.
So, maybe a cap would say:
When I went to the grocery store, I...

Well, there are many other uses for caps and lids...these are just some of the possibilities.



Remember, the drawing for my giveaway for the UBP Earth Day Prize Pack is today, so if you leave a comment about this post, please let me know that you want to enter the giveaway. 

I just need your name, your blog address, and your email address.

The drawing is today.

Below are some photos of what is in the prize pack, in case you are curious...

Prize pack includes:
Planet Earth Coloring and Activity Book
Child sized garden gloves
Child sized garden tools
Recycled paper Earth Day notebook for kid's nature journal
Recycled paper sticky notes
Earth Day themed iron on patches
Alphabet stickers and plastic lids to make recycled moveable alphabet
Earth Day Get Your Green On magnetic notepad for your fridge
In the Garden three part cards
Earth Day magnets
Recycling three part cards
Labels & gift tags for Spa Favors: Organic Chocolate Moisturizing Mask, Organic Sugar Scrub
Idea sheet for reusing plastic lids and coffee filters
Mini Grow Your Own Tree Kit...

Please Note: The Mini Grow Your Own Tree Kit is only available in some states, so if you live outside where I can ship the mini tree kit, this will not be included.

But hey, it is a neat prize pack even without the little mini tree kit, right?

I will post the winner's name tonight by 9 pm Eastern time. 

Remember, the giveaway is open to everyone, with only some restrictions regarding the seeds for the little tree.

The winner will have until Sunday at 4 pm to claim their prize.