Saturday, March 27, 2010
Week 8, day 3: Just a few minutes
This doesn't really even count as a day, but Nugget grabbed some time in the room while I got ready for the morning and DH got ready for bed (he works night shifts). She chose to do the counting activity and then pulled out the Sandpaper Letters for the first time in a while! She told DH what their sounds were and traced them (I wasn't hovering, so I don't know if she traced them correctly). I didn't really think kids would choose the Sandpaper Letters just to trace them, but... there you go!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Week 8, day 2: Super-Mom
We got into the room today, but I can't say I'm on top of my game. I've been having mild to moderate contractions for a few days now because Sprout's head is tilted to one side. So I'm trying to pay attention to Nugget's Montessori, do the positioning exercises the midwives recommended, and encourage/work through the contractions.
Nugget's been interested in counting, so I added the 0-5 Sandpaper Numbers to her Small Number Rods. I'm not sure I love the idea behind the Number Rods, and Nugget didn't seem to be making the connection. I know she can count, I just don't think the idea of the Rods resonates with her. So I set out counters to associate with the numbers. This interested her a lot more, but she wasn't able to set the numbers out in the correct order when she worked with them on her own.
My solution was a sheet of paper with the 0-5 numbers written on it. As a control of error in this introductory phase, I put dots for her to place the counters onto.
She enjoyed this a lot and did it multiple times in a row.
The other stuff she did today is a bit fuzzy. They were brief stops; I think the puzzles, I Spy book, marbles, flower arranging, Sandpaper Globe, Sound Bottles, and Smelling Bottles. I could have stretched out her interactions with each of these except for the afore-mentioned distractions.
Nugget's been interested in counting, so I added the 0-5 Sandpaper Numbers to her Small Number Rods. I'm not sure I love the idea behind the Number Rods, and Nugget didn't seem to be making the connection. I know she can count, I just don't think the idea of the Rods resonates with her. So I set out counters to associate with the numbers. This interested her a lot more, but she wasn't able to set the numbers out in the correct order when she worked with them on her own.
My solution was a sheet of paper with the 0-5 numbers written on it. As a control of error in this introductory phase, I put dots for her to place the counters onto.
She enjoyed this a lot and did it multiple times in a row.
The other stuff she did today is a bit fuzzy. They were brief stops; I think the puzzles, I Spy book, marbles, flower arranging, Sandpaper Globe, Sound Bottles, and Smelling Bottles. I could have stretched out her interactions with each of these except for the afore-mentioned distractions.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Week 8: Her choice
As I mentioned before, I haven't pushed or even suggested going into the Montessori room lately. Nugget has just been too scattered and I've been too wiped to spend my evenings making new materials (39 weeks, 3 days today!). She's been spending lots of time playing on our bed lately, usually being a worm or a snake or a bird or serving up picnics. Our Montessori materials are in our master bedroom, so she's been seeing the materials; she just hasn't chosen to use them.
This morning, I left Nugget playing on my husband and I's bed while I took a shower . When I came out, she had settled at the little table in the Montessori area and was doing puzzles. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see if she wanted to do some work. So I removed the turtle pin punching and put out a Stegosaurus suction shape with marbles. I've wanted to have one of these out for Practical Life for ages, but I've had no luck finding the shapes at a store! I was finally able to pick up a set of 3 from the Montessori Swap Yahoo group. I just put out the marbles for Nugget to place with her fingers; I'll have to see if I can dig up an appropriately sized set of tongs or some such later today. As I expected, Nugget got a kick out of the silliness of "decorating" her Stegosaurus.
While she did the marbles, I unrolled a rug and worked on changing her food chain activity a bit. Setting out the entire chain in order to sort the herbivore/carnivore/omnivore cards was too much for her to manage on her own, so I put out three pieces of construction paper -- one with a leaf, one with a drumstick, and one with both. I showed her how to lay out the sorting areas and then place each card in its appropriate spot. She did perfectly on this, and still really enjoys seeing what each animal eats.
I thought, since there were no more new materials, that Nugget might disengage at this point. But she pulled out the texture balloons and we played with those for a while. Then she wanted to do the Mystery Bag, which she's gotten so much better at! She uses it appropriately and always finds the right object.
I decided to put out one more new activity -- the Small Number Rods. I just put out 1-5, and showed Nugget how to arrange them from smallest at the top to biggest at the bottom. In a few days I'll pull out the Sandpaper Letters and start associating the rods with the numbers. She's into a counting phase these days, so I think this might be a good time to introduce this.
After the Number Rods, she did the marbles again and some more puzzles. Then she went to the animal beginning sounds activity and ran through that with no problem at all (expect needing to be reminded of the names of a couple of the more unfamiliar animals).
She now wanted to pretend to be a duck in a pond (our blue striped rug often is her pond; the brown striped one is a mud puddle). I suggested we pull out the Knobbed Cylinders and do all 4 so that when they were done, she could jump into the middle and pretend it was her pond. I was shocked that she thought that was a great idea! She brought out the Cylinder Blocks (counting each one as she did so) and we disassembled and reassembled them (I made a show of helping, but she really did nearly all of it herself). Then she jumped into the middle, jumped out, and removed all the cylinders AGAIN! My husband was really getting a kick out of listening to this because she pretends each cylinder is a baby looking for its home or its mommy. I think he said Maria Montessori would be spinning in her grave. :) But I'm happy, because Nugget was doing the activity on her own and enjoying it!
The last item she chose was tonging Easter eggs, and she did that quite a few times. We finally finished up about 90 minutes after we started! We had a great time in the room, and I'm feeling so much more positive about the whole thing. I'm so glad that she chose to start working on her own. I might even have a bit more motivation to get a few more materials made before Sprout comes.
This morning, I left Nugget playing on my husband and I's bed while I took a shower . When I came out, she had settled at the little table in the Montessori area and was doing puzzles. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see if she wanted to do some work. So I removed the turtle pin punching and put out a Stegosaurus suction shape with marbles. I've wanted to have one of these out for Practical Life for ages, but I've had no luck finding the shapes at a store! I was finally able to pick up a set of 3 from the Montessori Swap Yahoo group. I just put out the marbles for Nugget to place with her fingers; I'll have to see if I can dig up an appropriately sized set of tongs or some such later today. As I expected, Nugget got a kick out of the silliness of "decorating" her Stegosaurus.
While she did the marbles, I unrolled a rug and worked on changing her food chain activity a bit. Setting out the entire chain in order to sort the herbivore/carnivore/omnivore cards was too much for her to manage on her own, so I put out three pieces of construction paper -- one with a leaf, one with a drumstick, and one with both. I showed her how to lay out the sorting areas and then place each card in its appropriate spot. She did perfectly on this, and still really enjoys seeing what each animal eats.
I thought, since there were no more new materials, that Nugget might disengage at this point. But she pulled out the texture balloons and we played with those for a while. Then she wanted to do the Mystery Bag, which she's gotten so much better at! She uses it appropriately and always finds the right object.
I decided to put out one more new activity -- the Small Number Rods. I just put out 1-5, and showed Nugget how to arrange them from smallest at the top to biggest at the bottom. In a few days I'll pull out the Sandpaper Letters and start associating the rods with the numbers. She's into a counting phase these days, so I think this might be a good time to introduce this.
After the Number Rods, she did the marbles again and some more puzzles. Then she went to the animal beginning sounds activity and ran through that with no problem at all (expect needing to be reminded of the names of a couple of the more unfamiliar animals).
She now wanted to pretend to be a duck in a pond (our blue striped rug often is her pond; the brown striped one is a mud puddle). I suggested we pull out the Knobbed Cylinders and do all 4 so that when they were done, she could jump into the middle and pretend it was her pond. I was shocked that she thought that was a great idea! She brought out the Cylinder Blocks (counting each one as she did so) and we disassembled and reassembled them (I made a show of helping, but she really did nearly all of it herself). Then she jumped into the middle, jumped out, and removed all the cylinders AGAIN! My husband was really getting a kick out of listening to this because she pretends each cylinder is a baby looking for its home or its mommy. I think he said Maria Montessori would be spinning in her grave. :) But I'm happy, because Nugget was doing the activity on her own and enjoying it!
The last item she chose was tonging Easter eggs, and she did that quite a few times. We finally finished up about 90 minutes after we started! We had a great time in the room, and I'm feeling so much more positive about the whole thing. I'm so glad that she chose to start working on her own. I might even have a bit more motivation to get a few more materials made before Sprout comes.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Week 7 review
No, I haven't had the baby or dropped off the face of the earth. But I am 39 weeks today and have totally lost steam. My idea of a good morning with Nugget is being able to lay on her toddler bed with my eyes closed while she pretends to be a fish next to me.
So between the end-of-pregnancy blahs and Nugget being in a very imaginative, scattered phase, getting into the Montessori room requires more effort and energy than I have available.
I think, from now until things are settled after Sprout's arrival, I'm just going to let any time in the room happen on its own. Since I'll be spending some time in bed after he comes and the Montessori stuff is in that room, she may get into it more for a while.
On another note, have you seen Postcrossing? I think this is a great way to get some additions for our future continent boxes! So far I've just sent off my initial 5 postcards -- to England, France, Brazil, Russia, and China. I put in my profile that we were a homeschooling family looking for insight into daily life, and asked for day-in-the-life info or a favorite recipe. I'm excited to see what we get -- and from where!
So between the end-of-pregnancy blahs and Nugget being in a very imaginative, scattered phase, getting into the Montessori room requires more effort and energy than I have available.
I think, from now until things are settled after Sprout's arrival, I'm just going to let any time in the room happen on its own. Since I'll be spending some time in bed after he comes and the Montessori stuff is in that room, she may get into it more for a while.
On another note, have you seen Postcrossing? I think this is a great way to get some additions for our future continent boxes! So far I've just sent off my initial 5 postcards -- to England, France, Brazil, Russia, and China. I put in my profile that we were a homeschooling family looking for insight into daily life, and asked for day-in-the-life info or a favorite recipe. I'm excited to see what we get -- and from where!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Week 7, day 2: New animal cards
Well, Nugget and I worked with the new animal food cards today, but nothing else. I'd make these a few nights ago to compliment the food chain activity but hadn't pulled them out until now.
There are 4 cards for each herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore. The top picture is the animal; the bottom pictures are the sorts of foods the animal eats (I owe a great debt to Wikipedia).
We laid out the food chain, then worked to identify where each animal fit. Nugget is still working on terminology, but she really enjoys learning what the animals eat!
There are 4 cards for each herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore. The top picture is the animal; the bottom pictures are the sorts of foods the animal eats (I owe a great debt to Wikipedia).
We laid out the food chain, then worked to identify where each animal fit. Nugget is still working on terminology, but she really enjoys learning what the animals eat!
Spring break
We've ended up pretty much taking the week off -- not by any overarching plan, but just on the basis of how each day has gone. I'm thinking we might get into the room later this afternoon, but I'm going to play it by ear.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
I got nothin'
Today is a complete miss. My husband has come down with food poisoning or something like it, so he's been a mess all day. I'm having all kinds of (relatively) painless but annoying contractions that mean I'm moving slowly and awkwardly and not sleeping well. Nugget is fine, but spent the day in total imagination-land, jumping from one subject to another every 30 seconds.
It wasn't a good day to try to get into the room, so we didn't.
And it's a bit of a shame, because I worked for over 2 hours last night putting together some food chain cards -- a picture of an animal, and then 3-4 pictures of the type of foods it eats. I made 4 each of herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores, and was planning an activity for Nugget to determine which was which.
I have no idea what tomorrow holds.
It wasn't a good day to try to get into the room, so we didn't.
And it's a bit of a shame, because I worked for over 2 hours last night putting together some food chain cards -- a picture of an animal, and then 3-4 pictures of the type of foods it eats. I made 4 each of herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores, and was planning an activity for Nugget to determine which was which.
I have no idea what tomorrow holds.
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