tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63448548895944425062024-03-13T10:29:45.593-07:00Raising IanSandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-84386358643847129922010-09-05T12:35:00.000-07:002010-09-05T12:35:17.226-07:00Back to homeWell, this is my last post at Raisin Ian. <br />
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I was taking too much time doing blog-related activities and I think it is time to move my focus back to my family and my home!<br />
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Writing in "Raising Ian" was a great experience. I am so thankful for the opportunity it gave me to meet and receive such great inspiration from all of you! It was a journey full of learning and I am so happy I have these priceless memories recorded. I will print all the posts and make a beautiful diary. <br />
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Ian and I will continue our Montessori journey and I will keep reading about the wonderful things you're doing. <br />
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Happy blogging to all!!Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-84583576786310220932010-08-29T16:32:00.000-07:002010-08-29T16:34:40.648-07:00Back to BasicsThis was a short week for homeschooling. Ian got sick with tonsillitis, had fever and received injections of antibiotics, too much stress for him. Fortunately, he recovered quickly, but shortly after, I got sick. The story of our lives, we always fall ill together. <br />
Those facts, obliged me to take a rest from homeschooling. I added some activities during the week but kept the ones from the last week. This is the first time I did that. We do not have much space to have many activities put away, so I rotate activities every week. Another reason to do that is the short attention span of Ian with the activities. <br />
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On the other hand, after my camera broke, I had a "aha moment" and I saw myself treating Ian's homeschooling as a race. Naturally, this week, I reduced my anxiety to have Ian working everyday. Before that, although my level of frustration had decreased enormously, I had kept suggesting to Ian that he should do the activities. I've learned to respect him when he says "no" and, a great advance for me, do so without feeling upset. This week I went further and, after making a short demonstration of the new activities, I left him to choose whichever he liked. It was very rewarding when while I was busy around the house, I heard some sounds (like garbanzos falling into the pitchers) that announced that Ian was doing some of his activities. Another gratifying thing was that Ian not only picked new activities but some of the "old" ones too. <br />
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In the absence of my digital camera, I used Daddy's Blackberry and a disposable camera to take photos, just like when I started this blog. Back then I used to enjoy writing this journal as part of my personal learning process and to be a gift for me in the future. No matter how dreadful the quality of the photos, I felt that my reports were "impressive", and that is the way I feel again. <br />
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Another task I have now is to make a record of all the activities that my little super cute student has done so far. There are many activities Ian has not yet mastered and I want to put those ones out again. <br />
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Now, let's picture our week.<br />
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<strong>Practical Life</strong><br />
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<strong>Dry Pouring Pitcher to Pitcher.</strong> This is the first Montessori exercise Ian did <a href="http://raisingian.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-practical-activities-mas.html">6 months ago</a> (this is a great memory for me). As part of my attempt to go back to the Montessori basic activities and reinforce them, I set it up again and observed that Ian still has the habit of not holding the spout correctly to prevent spilling. However, he is supporting the pitcher of beans with his non-dominant hand more often now, as well as paying more attention to these control errors: spillage of beans and remaining beans in pitcher. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAO5fjhZvzyq-F_AuPG4DbSBLYxRUsmTSw05wDLpkmj8ObsejviyNRpmsQOI1hQe1C39LsLhhgP9aDzqebLthF2GNtPzHukiz7aNeqHaAynsJAO7wx3wM7rm5v2VltqJoH3LvXIl9brYOZ/s1600/42870006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAO5fjhZvzyq-F_AuPG4DbSBLYxRUsmTSw05wDLpkmj8ObsejviyNRpmsQOI1hQe1C39LsLhhgP9aDzqebLthF2GNtPzHukiz7aNeqHaAynsJAO7wx3wM7rm5v2VltqJoH3LvXIl9brYOZ/s320/42870006.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Vaseando solidos (garbanzos esta vez) jarra a jarra</span></div><br />
<strong>Tweezers. </strong>Ian still can't use tweezers properly. I could not find small beads and the pom-poms I was using for <a href="http://raisingian.blogspot.com/2010/08/spirited-boy-at-work.html">this activity</a> seemed to be too big. This week I changed them for pom-poms made for me. Actually, my goal was to make black pom-poms for Ian to use when we read the counting book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Black-Dots-Donald-Crews/dp/0688135749">Ten Black Dots</a>, but what a mistake I made! :-) .. no even close to the pom-poms Mary-Ann at <a href="http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/">Counting Coconuts </a> made (I follow <a href="http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2010/07/august-sensory-tub-playdough-ice-cream.html">her tutorial</a> :-). I changed my mind and made more pom-poms for Ian to attempt to transfer with the tweezers. The colors of the yarn were the same as the lids of the empty tempera tray Ian likes to unscrew, so I used it to set up the new tweezer activity. It seems to be easier but not simple yet, he still needs several attempts until he gets all the pom-poms.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLQCUqwTN_IW0G7A2JN_yftXv5oBHw0RFDe6tmezAwb_7iIj-g8y2CvDGY-tLlLiQzEWcNG4jx3cAuaFqKou-g4yiTUJEPMLfCUcAzR-Qi5ncPHreQYr21MbTdtF_iX40P5rAFVVfxIQY/s1600/42870003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLQCUqwTN_IW0G7A2JN_yftXv5oBHw0RFDe6tmezAwb_7iIj-g8y2CvDGY-tLlLiQzEWcNG4jx3cAuaFqKou-g4yiTUJEPMLfCUcAzR-Qi5ncPHreQYr21MbTdtF_iX40P5rAFVVfxIQY/s320/42870003.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Usando una pinza para transferir pompones a una </span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">bandeja de temperas. Ian desenrosca las tapas al empezar </span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">y, una vez transferidos todos los pompones, enrosca </span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">las tapas de acuerdo al color.</span></div><br />
<strong>Sensorial</strong><br />
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<strong>Sorting paper clips. </strong>Finally Ian is interested in sorting activities. I just need to find the objects that captures his attention and paper clips are just right. As with the activity above I am combining the activity I want to engage Ian, with another I know he likes. For this one, I used an old little box Ian used some time ago to <a href="http://raisingian.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-we-did-last-week-lo-que-hicimos-la.html">match keys</a>. I put the clips in a bowl, on the left side of the hook box, but Ian insisted on placing the clips inside the box, just like we did in the keys activity. Well, he follows the same order as always, first he gathers all the hand-shape clips, then the foot-shape clips and finally the star-shape clips. That's right, he is discriminating the shape of the objects but, I need to remember not to mix the clips on the hooks. Certainly, the hooks set up a requirement for extra concentration as the clips were a bit tricky to hang.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYNdjplYFKB0M8tXQBAjbWBhSreKMfeGEmqqhATyRGDZoJHkNd6XfMXqO__UJAYphp_dZl2eLxdCmrEJn_TVtIMErM4CO6T61-eihFmZFOuXPZclaaaA_fOnuO4YOu6WMEa9N5p7x8hMVF/s1600/IMG00221-20100824-2037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYNdjplYFKB0M8tXQBAjbWBhSreKMfeGEmqqhATyRGDZoJHkNd6XfMXqO__UJAYphp_dZl2eLxdCmrEJn_TVtIMErM4CO6T61-eihFmZFOuXPZclaaaA_fOnuO4YOu6WMEa9N5p7x8hMVF/s320/IMG00221-20100824-2037.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Clasificando clips por su forma y colgandolos en ganchitos.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ejercitando sus sentidos y su motricidad fina.</span></div><br />
Here you can see a bit of how the activities are set up around the dinning table. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk9ra7XDBZJhwxK4UqPTZ2W0BXjniuJfU1GJZdCa40OWwZJRI3THIHJVPwzqcT_6yon7D01c9CyG5HvFj2PgEu6-GeLP_oO7POfJTVyh4RbreYDr1TzeTXRewJRAUvc19uEl8V5zA2SPLG/s1600/42870014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk9ra7XDBZJhwxK4UqPTZ2W0BXjniuJfU1GJZdCa40OWwZJRI3THIHJVPwzqcT_6yon7D01c9CyG5HvFj2PgEu6-GeLP_oO7POfJTVyh4RbreYDr1TzeTXRewJRAUvc19uEl8V5zA2SPLG/s320/42870014.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Aqui se puede ver como estan dispuestas sus actividades </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">alrededor </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">de la mesa del comedor</span></div><br />
<strong>Language</strong><br />
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<strong>Preparation for Reading and Writing</strong><br />
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<strong>Figure Pattern Card. </strong>This activity reinforces the ability to follow a pattern from left to right. We have a figure control card and a basket with figure cards (which are duplicated on the control card). Ian had to follow the sequence of the control card, find the matching cards and place them on top of the control card. At the beginning he tended to take the pictures from the basket and looked for a match in the control card; so, we've been working together on it and he's been catching on to the idea. By the way, I used the cute figures of Sarah Kay, I love them ... Daddy asked me if this activity was for me (lol).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRaQfaRo1tuz9KCx3RgjcAoapLEhT1tzEhu687MM-v1L-19xpfnv8JB9LJDWvN1V76cYAArzGj280txMdAsIQXGESShMJOLdTaGn8BybuFwCLKM6ZZ9BcLOAis8p7s1aUg3Vrm_sxxuQLu/s1600/IMG00233-20100828-1328.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRaQfaRo1tuz9KCx3RgjcAoapLEhT1tzEhu687MM-v1L-19xpfnv8JB9LJDWvN1V76cYAArzGj280txMdAsIQXGESShMJOLdTaGn8BybuFwCLKM6ZZ9BcLOAis8p7s1aUg3Vrm_sxxuQLu/s320/IMG00233-20100828-1328.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Emparejando las figuritas de la tarjeta de control (con fondo </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">verde aqui) </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">con las de la canastita. Ejercitando la habilidad</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">para </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">seguir un patron de izquiera a derecha y mejorar </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">coordinacion ojo-mano.</span><br />
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</div><strong>Pasting. </strong>Six months ago he disliked any activity that could dirty his hands. I've been setting up a pasting activity every so often, but he never got interested until this week. The tray I set up contains: a small bottle of white glue, a brush, a small bowl of collage scraps of paper and a sponge. This tray is placed on the table he has in his bedroom, along with paper. He learnt the steps quickly and enjoys all the process, but it is not yet an independent activity for him. I cut figures from gift wrappers for the collage pieces. When Ian is pasting he does not pay much attention to the figures, but he does when he has finished, he takes his time to admire his job (I love this part) and names the figures. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOMVVJ_uBT5JoTo8Ey-Lv_2x_ap8UDm6J8tqlnw2m0BqT_cGZHcRwsbf8vS8JmFO43fnH4Kc3QAsTFujIulVbn0LIiYegE3_BS5tDz8sUj-Wa8QvaLbsczZcHe_-IUoSeXmpkYRm4OFtI/s1600/42870008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOMVVJ_uBT5JoTo8Ey-Lv_2x_ap8UDm6J8tqlnw2m0BqT_cGZHcRwsbf8vS8JmFO43fnH4Kc3QAsTFujIulVbn0LIiYegE3_BS5tDz8sUj-Wa8QvaLbsczZcHe_-IUoSeXmpkYRm4OFtI/s320/42870008.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Pegando recortes de papel de regalo. Ian usa un pincel </span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">para aplicar la goma en el recorte antes de pegarlo y </span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">una esponjita para limpiar</span></div><strong>Math</strong><br />
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<strong>Sequence/Patterns Puzzles. </strong>When I saw <a href="http://impressyourkids.org/fathers-day-craft/">this craft</a> I thought It would be perfect for Ian to practice putting the numbers in order. I made two of them, one with a picture of two clownfish (his favorite fish) and another with a picture of us. I numbered each of the craft sticks and made a control frame with the outline of the sticks and its numbers. I thought it would be easier as Ian is able to recognize the numbers, but this activity requieres other abilities Ian has not mastered yet, like following a pattern from left to right. So, for now, I put the sticks in the tray always in order to let Ian just transfer them one by one in order to the frame. At first he needed a reminder to do it sequentially, but after a few practices he is doing it pretty well.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjk1KY9W-0GRkTcLR6H0IuQtdOXcutZtm0HoJVr_qj4jANr_Eb5pOt9myR9T6xlrUuCgufJwPC1Bwqi7GfMqN-YU-8w5x_bHxQuyxUaMzzDAAIOz2nj7E6LQbJ_TQ9Jm_X2-CGxVvO8N_/s1600/42870012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjk1KY9W-0GRkTcLR6H0IuQtdOXcutZtm0HoJVr_qj4jANr_Eb5pOt9myR9T6xlrUuCgufJwPC1Bwqi7GfMqN-YU-8w5x_bHxQuyxUaMzzDAAIOz2nj7E6LQbJ_TQ9Jm_X2-CGxVvO8N_/s320/42870012.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Armando <a href="http://impressyourkids.org/fathers-day-craft/">rompecabezas hecho con palitos</a>. Para facilitar la </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">tarea, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">hice un marco donde marque la silueta de los palitos.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Estos y los del rompecabezas estan numerados.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hice dos versiones: una con una foto de un par de peces </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">payaso (favoritos de Ian) y una foto de ambos.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihsal5c9gtpHjw1MElxqtv2v3TTVHWz8E2r0avUls7NryYDq9qCnjCDSyoOGiz-AW6XiqwR9qC2PgqKawL9oXqnWkOqZXAiNPSgAmLnvzssePVy8ihGjWrnroLWp-5oxc-ceK9DcxntbcW/s1600/IMG00224-20100824-2040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihsal5c9gtpHjw1MElxqtv2v3TTVHWz8E2r0avUls7NryYDq9qCnjCDSyoOGiz-AW6XiqwR9qC2PgqKawL9oXqnWkOqZXAiNPSgAmLnvzssePVy8ihGjWrnroLWp-5oxc-ceK9DcxntbcW/s320/IMG00224-20100824-2040.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ejercitando la habilidad para reconocer numeros, seguir un </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">patron </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">de izquiera a derecha, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">mejorar coordinacion ojo-mano</span></div><br />
<strong>Counting puzzles. </strong>Ian is not able to associate quatities of objects with numbers yet. He does it sometimes, but I guess it is by rote, as we count things aloud all the time. This week I put out a foam puzzle to associate quantities with numbers. I did not expect Ian to do it but instead practice number recognition and visualize how different quantities look. He loves to disassemble and assemble the puzzle while I count out each piece he takes out and puts in. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWwj8n563cX8I5D0hir24u5gKxKmEEZjaSiBARWtJBHGZVBCbFvsHPXNo7bpryfMtZCUkkI_W2348dTZT56-ONt_kIVW5q_H9XhUjZF3aK48A3WAJUDef7chss1_zUA5AV5ymZeEnadQtE/s1600/42870009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWwj8n563cX8I5D0hir24u5gKxKmEEZjaSiBARWtJBHGZVBCbFvsHPXNo7bpryfMtZCUkkI_W2348dTZT56-ONt_kIVW5q_H9XhUjZF3aK48A3WAJUDef7chss1_zUA5AV5ymZeEnadQtE/s320/42870009.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0wHTU5aYIlNlfG-7YNPiAgy14J3W6CK6EPCvFr8q1nxFxt3TbP0cGFCO7n6s7CksRi0fDT9ZUmPkCygzayibndV1sPdGbynzLybA6Mei6tA3I8M5e7hGCisZKY079Wt3gt0ZWF69RvtU/s1600/IMG00212-20100824-1942.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0wHTU5aYIlNlfG-7YNPiAgy14J3W6CK6EPCvFr8q1nxFxt3TbP0cGFCO7n6s7CksRi0fDT9ZUmPkCygzayibndV1sPdGbynzLybA6Mei6tA3I8M5e7hGCisZKY079Wt3gt0ZWF69RvtU/s320/IMG00212-20100824-1942.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>I am sharing this post on <a href="http://www.onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a> where you can see other toddlers learning according to the Montessori Method.Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-40889111176892610112010-08-22T15:33:00.000-07:002010-08-22T18:04:45.600-07:00Play and Work in our Montessori HomeschoolIan is a challenge in homeschooling: he hardly engages with an "work" activity. However, it gets easier whever the activity has a "play" component. <br />
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In this respect, NAMC blog posted an interesting article about "<a href="http://montessoritraining.blogspot.com/2009/05/play-and-work-in-montessori-education.html">Play and Work in Montessori Education</a>". Here is an extract: <br />
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<blockquote>Maria Montessori recognized that imagination or play was not the same as work, but she also appreciated that learning is most effective when play and work are united in a single activity ... Although we tend to think of work and play as in opposition to one another, they are most effective when they are brought together. Therein lies the genius of the Montessori materials. Form boards, for example, bring together both play and work. The child must mentally transform the form board, and the pieces to be placed within it, into a problem to be solved, the play component. Positioning the pieces into their proper places is the adaptation to reality, the work component. By bringing together learning tasks which unite work and play Montessori was able to mobilize the child’s personal motivation for the purpose of social learning. As Montessori’s curriculum materials make clear, a less misleading aphorism might be, “Play is the motivation for the child’s work.”</blockquote>Last week I noticed Ian was very motivated peeling and sticking band-aids (let's say, the work component) of the "Toy Story" movie figures (let's say, the play component). He had fun and, at the same time, he improved his fine motor skills and space awarness as he was not arranging them mindlessly. I think the key is to determine if he is really engaged in a "purposeful activity" and I think he was. <br />
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I've been reluctant to mix play with work because I was confused about fantasy vs. Montessori, but after I saw how much Ian enjoyed that band-aid activity, I was thinking about that and asked <a href="http://www.amontessorimarketplace.com/teachertraining.html">Karen Tyler</a>, about her take on it. She explained it to me:<br />
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<blockquote>During the time that Maria Montessori lived and in the country where she lived, fantasy consisted of fairy tales and the purpose for telling your children Fairy Tales was to scare them.....and they were scarey! Just think about Hansel and Gretel being put into an oven by a witch for trespassing and you get the picture. Well, we don't live during the time that Maria did...we live in 2010. We live in a place and at a time when cartoons and fantasy are all over the place and children are exposed to them from birth.....there are many wonderful fantasy figures and even the ones that aren't can be used to teach a lesson ... Real life includes being able to think original thoughts and in order to develop this skill a child needs to daydream and have exposure to good fantasy.</blockquote>On the other hand, Colleen at <a href="http://sunriselearninglab.blogspot.com/">Sunrise Learning Lab</a> gave me some great advice concerning Ian's fantasy interests, in order to: <br />
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<blockquote>... do things like have him work on topics that are related to his imaginary play, such as real space info if he likes Buzz Lightyear, or real information on cowboys and horses if he is a fan of Woody.</blockquote>I think I must wait for Ian to get a bit older to introduce themes like that, but that is the direction I want to take in the future. For now, here is what I am doing : I am finding out what Ian absolutely LOVES, following my child and using his interests to create works. At this moment, he is drawn to the fantasy figures from books and movies then, this week I included objects related with the movies "Nemo", "Cars", "Toy Story" and "Thomas the Tank Engine" to create activities and, Ian could not resist them! I think Ian knows what is real and what isn't, that the characters are pretend and he is just having fun with them.<br />
<br />
Before presenting the activities Ian did this week, I want to confess something: my camara broke in the middle of the week and at first I felt depressed. I've been taking photos to Ian since he was born, but since I started blogging, photographing him has become such a "must" to illustrate my posts. Ian seems to be used to it and I thought I was not disturbing him while he was working; but, just now since I don't have a camera I've noticed he enjoys it more when I observe and support him. I have had time to observe him and it really makes a great difference. This week I gave Ian complete freedom to decide when and what work to do and we both enjoyed it. Great sign! Great lesson!<br />
<br />
Having said that, let's check out what Ian did at homeschool this week.<br />
<br />
<strong>Practical Life</strong> <br />
<br />
<strong>Slotted spoon. </strong>As using a sifter was difficult for Ian, I got him to attempt using a slotted spoon to separate flat marbles from a bowl filled with rice and then transfer them to another bowl. I put the flat marbles on the top of the rice to ease Ian's work. It took some time for Ian to catch the right motion and finally he learnt to spoon superficially the rice because if he spooned too much rice, the spoon became heavy and more difficult to shake. I liked how he understood the purpose of the activity. He was very observant to be sure that no rice grains fell into the bowl with the flat marbles or on the tray. When that occurred he grasped the grains and put back into the rice bowl. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2h_5qGl3VOzN7Gval_nnwnlazrRTEtFLQZM4ON-OKvYTxML5kuyQviua81F2d-kcrLzYdkX76WbZYpBzp-hz7SL87j35it_n_hHrTlDfZbw56kPcqt3wAe_Yy9xqZCZv284h97hwNPMH7/s1600/29+meses17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2h_5qGl3VOzN7Gval_nnwnlazrRTEtFLQZM4ON-OKvYTxML5kuyQviua81F2d-kcrLzYdkX76WbZYpBzp-hz7SL87j35it_n_hHrTlDfZbw56kPcqt3wAe_Yy9xqZCZv284h97hwNPMH7/s320/29+meses17.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Usando una espumadera para separar canicas </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">planas y arroz</span></div><br />
<strong>Cutting and sticking paper with adhesive tape. </strong>Lately he's been focused on cutting the tape from the dispenser by himself. We have tape strips stuck everywhere in our house. I printed and cut diverse figures of animals to teach Ian how to stick paper using the tape, but he did not get the idea of where to place the tape to adhere the figure to the paper and lost interest quickly. This week I printed and cut figures from the "Toy Story" movie and I got him so focused that he did cut the tape from the dispenser and placed the tape through the figures ... well, he placed too many strips but it was good practice. Look how proud he was admiring his work. Now we have the figures stuck on the wall :-)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX-2btuQJd8B-8atP6LEQ4REudwuf0qhZsqLkXtt22uKtzoWYSm2SwVknox830ZEPZssdpk-svYK1cZF4qhyEgWpDM_E4UCnNMTig4nC2H5XoCetifxlts5bi85ECFf22K_pSxTX5TA2vF/s1600/29+meses18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX-2btuQJd8B-8atP6LEQ4REudwuf0qhZsqLkXtt22uKtzoWYSm2SwVknox830ZEPZssdpk-svYK1cZF4qhyEgWpDM_E4UCnNMTig4nC2H5XoCetifxlts5bi85ECFf22K_pSxTX5TA2vF/s320/29+meses18.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Cortando cinta scotch del porta cinta y pegando figuritas</div><br />
<strong>Spooning. </strong>Spooning was never a task that Ian enjoyed. To give him spooning practice at mealtime I put the food in bowls and provided him with different kinds of spoons to let him serve it on his plate. Honestly, I thought that after that practice, he would not need to do spooning activities. In order to prove it, I set up the first spooning activity, it is from bowl to bowl, but again he was not interested. So, I changed one bowl for a ice-cube tray and got Ian's attention. I could see the broader purpose of the activity (as all the Montessori activities). It is not just to get the ability to transfer objects with a spoon, but to develop eye hand coordination, concentration and order. I could see that Ian's gotten better at this but needs more work. Well, although it is not a favorite activity he does it once a day. He is learning not to use his non-dominant hand to make the task easier. At first he did not care about where and how many marbles he put on the tray; now he is very attentive looking for one empty space (he does not do it sequentially yet) and when one marble falls into a filled space he spoons it and moves to an empty one. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZg3Z_wEt_dTE8-gg1b_LvZwz4w7DQve4KqF4VItScM_wdXLrVx-MihyMQo0I56a4I8AjySBN9iWRc6C9xIoqUqr78vD6utYKmSd8K8glA2M-Vqu8ddEQOZ1tVGaEiGPwpZN0HgXRPu9l/s1600/DSC06785.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZg3Z_wEt_dTE8-gg1b_LvZwz4w7DQve4KqF4VItScM_wdXLrVx-MihyMQo0I56a4I8AjySBN9iWRc6C9xIoqUqr78vD6utYKmSd8K8glA2M-Vqu8ddEQOZ1tVGaEiGPwpZN0HgXRPu9l/s320/DSC06785.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Usando una cuchara para transferir canicas planas <br />
a una cubetera de hielo, una por una</div><br />
<strong>Sensorial</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Sorting erasers. </strong>Sorting is another activity Ian hardly has interest in. I've been looking for real-life objects that could be attractive for Ian and finally I found erasers with figures from the movie "Cars" (that Ian's never seen). I bought four sets of four figures and set up a tray with four dot stickers to guide Ian where to place each group. He got the idea very quickly and completed the full cycle of the activity (he rarely reverses the process) and starts over and over again. As part of the activity, he must also pile the eraser of each group and he was very careful to get them perfectly aligned. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtieQCra9GoyNfFwqaMgI9whh9boDvbeiwVmX1w9z8ZGkP9eDlNxT8Zcv5rCKqAsak1afcP0wptgPesoBU_i6vXbnJhDZUzBR5BE13Af34ozJCmKoxWhSoPrc_zTa0TZi8zSrSX5URJth/s1600/DSC06745.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtieQCra9GoyNfFwqaMgI9whh9boDvbeiwVmX1w9z8ZGkP9eDlNxT8Zcv5rCKqAsak1afcP0wptgPesoBU_i6vXbnJhDZUzBR5BE13Af34ozJCmKoxWhSoPrc_zTa0TZi8zSrSX5URJth/s320/DSC06745.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Clasificando y apilando borradores con figuritas de </div><div style="text-align: center;">la pelicula "Cars"</div><br />
<strong>Size discrimination. </strong>We have the Pink Tower, but Ian does not work very often with it. So, I am trying convensional methods to help Ian develop his visual discrimination of size, through the manipulation of pairs of objects with different sizes. As he is still enjoying the <a href="http://raisingian.blogspot.com/2010/08/spirited-boy-at-work.html">magnet tray</a> I set up for him two weeks ago, I just placed the objects in the tray for Ian to gather them with the magnet and match it with the corresponding picture. At first, he paired the objects without considering the size of the picture, but now he seems more attentive to do this. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJTDGWIOkiQfytJ6ciuDV0VX0qtWZKtO5JemeoYDUlZVRzPS-ma71-WDNxwbM7U1oomV-T3rko9vASyuhoPTI5sGKo4pNXN1cLzo7xmip-vnsOr8cq8qhe-JnrBCrn3PU6Gaigy7_GGd6O/s1600/DSC06766.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJTDGWIOkiQfytJ6ciuDV0VX0qtWZKtO5JemeoYDUlZVRzPS-ma71-WDNxwbM7U1oomV-T3rko9vASyuhoPTI5sGKo4pNXN1cLzo7xmip-vnsOr8cq8qhe-JnrBCrn3PU6Gaigy7_GGd6O/s320/DSC06766.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Atrayendo objetos con un iman, discriminando forma <br />
y tamaño para emparejarlos con su correspondiente <br />
imagen</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><strong>Texture balloons. </strong>I saw this idea in <a href="http://chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/2009/03/squeeze-match.html">Chasing Cheerios</a> and waited for Ian to get interest in sensorial activities to put them out. I filled four balloons with different substances (chickpeas, lentils, flaxseeds and flour) and let Ian squeeze them to stimulate his tactile awareness of diverse grades of grain. Later, I will put out another set of balloons (filled with the same substances) for Ian to find the matching pairs.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipPyTxtD3G_SqEbsRiU4Nv9xTg0QSJRk1z7GGb86C2lDnadGLQ_8Zi_ol6SZkCtvvkoIiY3hkdchAWSVa5N2ihU-djh1NTJHa7bv0HyXG_7lELD0I0yueOhsr4bWw7-B84Kt1rYwNUz6mE/s1600/DSC06784.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipPyTxtD3G_SqEbsRiU4Nv9xTg0QSJRk1z7GGb86C2lDnadGLQ_8Zi_ol6SZkCtvvkoIiY3hkdchAWSVa5N2ihU-djh1NTJHa7bv0HyXG_7lELD0I0yueOhsr4bWw7-B84Kt1rYwNUz6mE/s320/DSC06784.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Explorando granularidad a travez del tacto con globos</div><div style="text-align: center;">rellenos con garbanzos, lentejas, linaza y harina</div><br />
<strong>Matching picture-objects. </strong>I found a set of 12 plastic tropical reef fish and I knew Ian would love them, especially because they include a clownfish (like "Nemo"). The fish came in a plastic box with 12 compartments, perfect for exercises of transferring objects one at a time and one-to-one correspondence. I thought that Ian would examine the details of each fish, so I printed images of them (scanning the fish was easier than getting pictures off the Internet) and put them in the compartments. I thought that 12 fish might be too much for Ian, but he definitely has periods where he is attentive to "small details" and he enjoys checking each detail of the fish and looking for its place.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO15ejikxcYxB_A9wINKluAtNDGfa5e1ZLlTt4l75WVn0OOYO6ncaOORvm8GlMQt6ljne82WF83fZJzh0g7nZ96a-xObdQC-jYtMoSk455IkNNb6_K8vmIjdmsFP0dh9l8PIpkDnUF3D1b/s320/IMG00200-20100819-1805.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Emparejando peces tropicales con su imagen</div><br />
<strong>Math</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>One-to-one correspondence. </strong>I stuck a long strip of tape on the floor, wrote numbers 1-to-10 and got Ian to park each of his trains sequentially in each numbered spot. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_w4z2Ue-qgqAfNbyv5oebCs5I97ImtrqVReUpy3LappCdFl9XenhR01RmDO0oEGWaJl0A9sVN8Dptk2U5skqSA81_ygaUOwN-qQAeO97QN5pXyzlnCDe5JHGO7Ui_sVr4bCakRWTI8HT/s1600/DSC06758.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_w4z2Ue-qgqAfNbyv5oebCs5I97ImtrqVReUpy3LappCdFl9XenhR01RmDO0oEGWaJl0A9sVN8Dptk2U5skqSA81_ygaUOwN-qQAeO97QN5pXyzlnCDe5JHGO7Ui_sVr4bCakRWTI8HT/s320/DSC06758.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Correspondencia uno-a-uno: estacionando cada uno <br />
de sus trencitos en un estacionamiento (numerado) <br />
exclusivo</div><br />
<strong>Language</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Emotions. </strong>I want Ian to learn how to identify and communicate his emotions and our first approach was know the different ways he can feel. He likes the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Way-I-Feel-Janan-Cain/dp/1884734715?ie=UTF8&tag=raiian-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Way I Feel</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raiian-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1884734715" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px! important; padding-left: 0px! important; padding-right: 0px! important; padding-top: 0px! important;" width="1" />, the emotions presented in words and pictures include: silly, scared, disappointed, happy, sad, angry, thankful, frustrated, shy, bored, excited, jealous, and proud. He is not very interested in the text so much, but in the pictures and names of the feelings and especially in making faces to represent each of them. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTEjAlUSFxSLE1NE0RtzU4yQRmXsm4ncJ2TWmTdffeH8RuZWhYIZ55AsTBWhevdjY-m-l2O4O-R6a5bD57iOIc11xkmVMYv1aWHtOG8VDxjV9p1FURcyxrYOo3LjDGQgFVmmB1WWs27GWa/s1600/DSC06643.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTEjAlUSFxSLE1NE0RtzU4yQRmXsm4ncJ2TWmTdffeH8RuZWhYIZ55AsTBWhevdjY-m-l2O4O-R6a5bD57iOIc11xkmVMYv1aWHtOG8VDxjV9p1FURcyxrYOo3LjDGQgFVmmB1WWs27GWa/s320/DSC06643.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Representando y nombrando distintos sentimientos</div><div style="text-align: center;"> ilustrados en el libro <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Way-I-Feel-Janan-Cain/dp/1884734715?ie=UTF8&tag=raiian-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Way I Feel</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raiian-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1884734715" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px! important; padding-left: 0px! important; padding-right: 0px! important; padding-top: 0px! important;" width="1" /></div><br />
I am sharing this post on <a href="http://onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a> where you can see other toddlers learning according to the Montessori Method.Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-44333196220688535772010-08-15T16:29:00.000-07:002010-08-15T17:09:35.698-07:00To infinity and beyond!!!I’d love to say that this week Ian's kept the explosive enthusiasm for Montessori activities he displayed last week, but he didn't. One day he liked activities, the next day he didn’t. I think it almost sums up his development. I must remember that he is on the border of being ready to absorb all that is around him and I must wait and observe … I must, but I cannot :-) I'm still struggling with my expectations, every time a bit less but still struggling. <br />
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At the moment he is very busy playing imaginary games. He has moved from acting the stories from his books to acting his favorite movie “Toy Story 1”. The character "Buzz Light Year" has became his best friend :-) and all the "great activities" I set up for him cannot compete with him! Unbelievable!!! :-) Well, at least we invite him to participate. See the next collage of photos; Ian was so concentrated with band aids of his friends…I know, fantasy characters are not Montessori-ish at all, but peeling and sticking are. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyZ9i1KFZcs4NYvhFX5-Kpqr3hYS_AWOo0Bij8ybL2a_cq92PzUN8gLfYg-DDgNoPFmXEwinWy5YDNfX3WUu0YLd9-grIeahQT3CnNVyVZgdDLD5xT8GY0TaTf3krnQqrC8zAgqL9XVgi/s1600/29+meses16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyZ9i1KFZcs4NYvhFX5-Kpqr3hYS_AWOo0Bij8ybL2a_cq92PzUN8gLfYg-DDgNoPFmXEwinWy5YDNfX3WUu0YLd9-grIeahQT3CnNVyVZgdDLD5xT8GY0TaTf3krnQqrC8zAgqL9XVgi/s320/29+meses16.jpg" /></a></div><br />
And take a look at this contrast. I better laugh at myself :-)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5wh18KTV8i66bcRzH8fqbanFfxxQ27jjQqNWU04eMO3bGllxVeN-w641AUWtAfOU96j3f4iRvgJPtjDb0v1fifPCAD52DIjhs-TgK4nAiPPAf3kfXwy22jyQwPiEfLouhFZZjloYlGi9P/s1600/DSC06372.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5wh18KTV8i66bcRzH8fqbanFfxxQ27jjQqNWU04eMO3bGllxVeN-w641AUWtAfOU96j3f4iRvgJPtjDb0v1fifPCAD52DIjhs-TgK4nAiPPAf3kfXwy22jyQwPiEfLouhFZZjloYlGi9P/s320/DSC06372.JPG" /></a></div><strong><br />
</strong><br />
<strong></strong>Between those extremes, there were other activities that were appealing to him, especially those related with discovering how objects work: the magnet tray still captures his interest (that is a historic record! ) and this week he discovered what is inside the flashlight. On the other hand, his interest, revealed last week, in exploring his tactile sense, has persisted, and this time was the turn to feel flour.<br />
<br />
The details follow.<br />
<br />
<strong>Practical Life</strong> <br />
<br />
I did not prepare Practical Life "lessons" this week, except for using the sifter. The rest arose naturally in the kitchen, as usual.<br />
<br />
<strong>Using a slotted spoon. </strong>I put cooked broccoli in a bowl with ice cubes and water to stop the cooking and Ian helped me by passing the broccoli florets using a slotted spoon. The best part of it came when he used his hands to take the broccoli florets out of the bowl with water and took the ice cubes off to another bowl; he really enjoyed experiencing the different temperatures of the ice, the water and the broccoli: frozen, cold and warm. The sensorial experience is becoming more and more interesting to him. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkRw2Ec_Xl0aTZFUX6TPFccvRSwr5AyBZMWCsmwFojkyD4IvoyTUNJcv4-BadEbmBG36qNlCqaeDmtp76ylCDbirtT6pHMCVlMEZ1ozCTS6SsczDVYrFIMjgvKNQZpRIYkFIpzN_BsDJx3/s1600/DSC06364.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkRw2Ec_Xl0aTZFUX6TPFccvRSwr5AyBZMWCsmwFojkyD4IvoyTUNJcv4-BadEbmBG36qNlCqaeDmtp76ylCDbirtT6pHMCVlMEZ1ozCTS6SsczDVYrFIMjgvKNQZpRIYkFIpzN_BsDJx3/s320/DSC06364.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Using a Sifter. </strong>This activity was more difficult than I thought. It requires lot of skill to shake the sifter hard enough to sift the flour but not so hard such that the flour falls off. Ian tried hard and sometimes he got it . He animated himself saying "shake,shake!!!" :-). Soon, it got very messy and Ian got confused when he had to scoop the flour into the sifter, he seemed to be wondering: which hand should I use to grasp the sifter? and which one for the spoon? from which bowl should I spoon the flour? ... etc. too much complicated for my toddler. I should have started with a simpler exercise using just one bowl and a slotted spoon.<br />
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Even though sifting was not that easy for Ian, he insisted to try it again and again...well, he just wanted to see and feel how the flour fell delicately. Look at his adorable face! <br />
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Later, he was amazed to see the outline of our hands on the table after we put them on it and sifted flour over. "high five!" he called out while raising his hand :-)<br />
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<strong>Rolling</strong>. Ian had gotten some practice rolling his floor mat, bamboo placemats and a fabric mat. He does it pretty well when it comes down to big things as he can use whole hands. This week he did a great job rolling the herbs in paper towels (see the firm supervision of "Buzz" :-)) ; but, when he tried to prepare his jam rolls he could only make thick ones, because he can't coordinate his fingers to make thinner rolls yet.<br />
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<strong>Pouring.</strong> My boys (I mean, Daddy and Ian) have been resisting my encouragement to became vegetarians. I am attempting to get Ian to drink veggie juices and every time I prepare one for me I give Ian a portion to try. He pours the juice, pretends he tastes it looking at me very playful :-) and keeps pouring from the pitcher to the glass and viceversa, over and over again. I guess he likes the different colors and densities of the juices. <br />
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<strong>Sensorial</strong><br />
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<strong>Transferring and sorting by color using a tong. </strong>This is our third activity with tongs (see the first one <a href="http://raisingian.blogspot.com/2010/05/enjoyable-activities-for-this-week-lo.html">here</a> and the second one <a href="http://raisingian.blogspot.com/2010/06/learning-to-respect-his-personal-space.html">here</a>). The extension for this week involved transferring and sorting four different colors of cotton balls. Ian likes this activity enough to practice it almost every day. Sometimes he asks me for help and I just show him my hand doing the squeeze-realease movement and remind him of the sound effect "clack, clack" :-) after that he is excited enough to try again. <br />
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<strong>Button outline matching. </strong>As Ian has been enjoying visual matching activities I set up this one for him (besides the one above with the split butterflies that Ian did not pay attention to at all) and Ian completed it successfully; he enjoyed identifying the figures of the buttons and looking for the outline; but, lost his interest completely within the next few days. I think it was too easy for him and the buttons look boring to him. <br />
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<strong>Science</strong><br />
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<strong>Flashlight.</strong> After all the blackouts we've had lately, Ian has mastered switching on and off the flashlight<strong> </strong>and I wanted to show him more about its workings. <br />
The flashlight we have comes apart at one end only and that is enough to begin. I looked for a transparent flashlight but I could not find one. <br />
I drew around each piece on a paper to guide Ian where to place them as the flashlight is disassembled, but he took the flashlight apart and set the pieces in any order. In spite of that, he remembered perflectly how to reassemble the flashlight. He only asked me for help to screw the bulb piece because it requires a bit of pressure before screwing it down. <br />
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Then he went on to test his job switching on the flashlight. At first, it often did not work because he put the batteries in backwards, and he rejected my help to show him the error. We resolved it just placing the batteries vertically instead of on their side, ready to insert in the flashligh correctly.<br />
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As my "guide" was completely ignored by the novice scientist, I replaced it with a three-part tray where Ian could place each piece separately. <br />
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Great experiment for a curious boy. Great lesson to learn about how many parts make a whole.<br />
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I almost forgot to tell you the most important challenge we started this week: potty training. I've been postponing it for a long time because Ian's been experiencing many changes lately, but changes are and will be part of our lives for a while, so I decide to undertake potty training.<br />
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I am sharing this post in <a href="http://www.onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a> where you can see other toddlers learning according to the Montessori Method.Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-8124950151880669342010-08-13T07:12:00.000-07:002010-08-13T07:12:36.079-07:00Blue, blue, blue ... !!!Ian likes to explore painting with a variety of objects, everything except brushes. He enjoys seeing the design that objects print on the paper and especially the sound effects of printing :-) <br />
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This week we used two kitchen utensils: a potato masher and an ice-cube tray. He enjoyed both activities and, even though he does not care too much about the finished work, I love them! <br />
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<strong>Using a potato masher:</strong> He liked the design the potato masher produced, especially when the colors started to blend. He was curious about the design of the masher and not only made prints on the paper, but on his face (and mine); he liked the cold feel of the metal in his face. <br />
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Don't they look gorgeous?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>He also likes to pour the paints. Now he knows how to screw lids, there’s always a danger that he’ll waste the paint :-) . The only color he can pronounce by name is “blue”, so he refers to any color as "blue" ... every so often he asked for more "blue, blue, blue..." <br />
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By the way, I did use styrofoam plates which I stuck to the table with adhesive tape, but the potato masher kept adhering to the plate and when Ian pulled it, he lifted the plate as well. I should have used some flat heavy dishes.<br />
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<strong>Using an ice-cube tray.</strong> I thought Ian would like painting the ice-cube tray with a paint roller and, I was not wrong (actually he spent most of his time doing so); however, it complicated the printing process as Ian had to learn how to turn over the tray, before pressing it onto the paper. Again, pouring paint is a bonus! "blue, blue, blue..." :-)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzFItjtNDc_pH6CLpnjP7kup5T7C9CKnDW2rdYXfnbYyxp590O1TlJZRj55ioRdZZ1Dr0NmuSSQOPVOTU-qSqPZ_tsJpYlsCCK6sBaFPJhP2xjXNdFDATd2Dz7CTBkpgBGTu5CZpWBZs6T/s1600/29+meses14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzFItjtNDc_pH6CLpnjP7kup5T7C9CKnDW2rdYXfnbYyxp590O1TlJZRj55ioRdZZ1Dr0NmuSSQOPVOTU-qSqPZ_tsJpYlsCCK6sBaFPJhP2xjXNdFDATd2Dz7CTBkpgBGTu5CZpWBZs6T/s320/29+meses14.jpg" /></a></div><br />
And here is the bright masterpiece:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebzOg1RwTpgP-gsb61G7vewt9r1TQfvk2uZP01grIbmhtrOrajWdWGPx2R-91N9IZHEcvMvIbEGrhP38sZRnkLb4NsY9MyL0iPJwD0ufl9dhDHwxwb_QWNg-HcnrDl7xsEyyYgGJDGxkA/s1600/image0-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebzOg1RwTpgP-gsb61G7vewt9r1TQfvk2uZP01grIbmhtrOrajWdWGPx2R-91N9IZHEcvMvIbEGrhP38sZRnkLb4NsY9MyL0iPJwD0ufl9dhDHwxwb_QWNg-HcnrDl7xsEyyYgGJDGxkA/s320/image0-1.jpg" /></a></div>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-40977061569927567282010-08-08T19:19:00.000-07:002010-08-08T19:19:48.201-07:00A spirited boy at workIan is revealing to us his spirited personality. He is very sprightly when he plays. He is very much into jumping, climbing, rolling. He is challenging his body and …. his luck also. He’s had some accidents recently: his face is full of bruises, his lips are cut and a big toe lacks of nail, but it does not seem to matter to him. He just keeps going nuts and driving us crazy. <br />
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Fortunately, that naughty boy of two weeks ago received the attention he was begging for and, even when he is very resolute when he is playing riskily, he is not behaving aggressively anymore and this week he was very enthusiastic at work. He was very animated with most of the activities I set up for him. And he finally found a place where he feels comfortable to work: the dining table. There he has his materials all around the table.<br />
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Well, here is what we did:<br />
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<strong>Practical Life</strong> <br />
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<strong>Using a hammer. </strong>I'd put out this activity a number of times and it never enthused Ian until this week. The hammer was one of the objects included in a matching activity (see below) and the most attractive for him. He gets very excited when he finds something whose name he can pronounce (even incorrectly). I was happily obliged to gather together the hammering activity again and this time Ian was ready to do it and enjoy it. His motor skills were quite good to hammer the golf tees until they were completely nailed into the styrofoam. Another thing he liked was to push down the golf tees with his fingers. I was so happy Daddy was at home to share with Ian, what a lovely picture they presented me. Ian, of course, tried to interchange his hammer with Daddy's :-) but he didn't have luck this time :-)<br />
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<strong>Making bubbles with a whisk. </strong><a href="http://www.theworkplan.blogspot.com/">The Work Plan</a> reminded me I was waiting for Ian to get some skills with the grater to set up this activity. He enjoyed every step of the activity: grating the soap bar (a wet one to make his job easier), feeling the texture and smell of the grated soap, observing how it submerged in the water, beating the water with the whisk and watching the bubbles. He needs more practice with the whisk, he did not move it in small circles in the water, but moved it in and out :-) I helped him to make the bubbles.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9HJqGpQxo2aCNPgv26AiBww1x7u7dnpS5vIDUbHKM87MnwYFT5cSqMnbNN6QqLfBEakvejPPSxnAVFk4OpPcwVdww9Iu7l4zafo4ynStXsd1C7_rtX4zOyYEA9gq4VSDxqNk9iIvUbK7Z/s1600/29+meses3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9HJqGpQxo2aCNPgv26AiBww1x7u7dnpS5vIDUbHKM87MnwYFT5cSqMnbNN6QqLfBEakvejPPSxnAVFk4OpPcwVdww9Iu7l4zafo4ynStXsd1C7_rtX4zOyYEA9gq4VSDxqNk9iIvUbK7Z/s320/29+meses3.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Tweezer. </strong>The tweezer was a thing that was in the science activity of the week (see below) and he grabbed it with thumb and fingers and started to clamp his toes with it :-) I took that as a sign he was probably ready to transfer objects with the tweezer. He did it, he transferred pom-poms! ... but, the next time he attempted to grasp it in a different way (maybe looking for a easier way) and it did not work, he gave up the activity. As he is very obstinate I decided to rotate this activity for later. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs5mjkqw1vbIhEQFeVpE6petVb34SNA2U4peEBPwcYhkMwS9a5na-ISJXyESBpM1Ci9c0tP6Nf5BzvYd0EBoBn7N3pEzsdjIjmJhLcF9woc9h-Eh5x4Xq0-NRpIpx2gu7wDn5Z-B9ch0lq/s1600/29+meses4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs5mjkqw1vbIhEQFeVpE6petVb34SNA2U4peEBPwcYhkMwS9a5na-ISJXyESBpM1Ci9c0tP6Nf5BzvYd0EBoBn7N3pEzsdjIjmJhLcF9woc9h-Eh5x4Xq0-NRpIpx2gu7wDn5Z-B9ch0lq/s320/29+meses4.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Buttoning.</strong> This is another old activity that captured Ian's interest for the first time. When I made this mat Ian had not developed visual discrimination skills yet and he just pulled the pieces of felt off the buttons and threw the mat away. This time, as usually, he did not let me present the activity and went directly to what he thought the activity is about: matching colors :-) He did it perfectly. I helped him to button, but he was so focused on matching and unbuttoning that he did not pay attention to my demonstration. Once more, I have to step back and wait for his own due time to start buttoning.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVod3LbUa6D1qWGwOVVZOGxct1wMylchJkWUVRM4vlp6XMVT_JnZYUhYXfkpJJV1WeO3yTgKSG4BpgvWV6lmSCrr-J-SIQzbG1gYVlkCcRs6D3bj7AqqQvqEpV8qjPtb4co9ZEd_dZbmL/s1600/29+meses8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVod3LbUa6D1qWGwOVVZOGxct1wMylchJkWUVRM4vlp6XMVT_JnZYUhYXfkpJJV1WeO3yTgKSG4BpgvWV6lmSCrr-J-SIQzbG1gYVlkCcRs6D3bj7AqqQvqEpV8qjPtb4co9ZEd_dZbmL/s320/29+meses8.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Language</strong><br />
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<strong>Object-Silhouette Matching. </strong>Ian is very much into matching. He is not interested in matching objects to objects or pictures to pictures, but rather objects to pictures!!! This week we moved to matching objects with silhouettes and it was a hit. He loves to work with familiar objects and learn their names. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7pUH2OD07wYyo1buLBdkpQ8TdOoDVBN37CGhAxel3UklHIhLZwLnXUhlUIjF39XLPQ7kpxA1PqqWNp8u79MZdwpE6efuCUro80EVhu2E7BcRWo3BI9crulf-N3-udWrPP6kdpJisNQvpK/s1600/DSC06284.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7pUH2OD07wYyo1buLBdkpQ8TdOoDVBN37CGhAxel3UklHIhLZwLnXUhlUIjF39XLPQ7kpxA1PqqWNp8u79MZdwpE6efuCUro80EVhu2E7BcRWo3BI9crulf-N3-udWrPP6kdpJisNQvpK/s320/DSC06284.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Science</strong><br />
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<strong>Exploring with magnets.</strong> This was the winner activity of this week!!!<strong> </strong>Ian did it every day over and over again, so I had to set up some variations to satisfy his curiosity. <br />
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Well, Ian is not interested/ready for categorizing activities, but <a href="http://mommyme-thewonderyears.blogspot.com/2009/06/exploring-with-magnets.html">this version</a> seemed perfect for him. As Ian is enjoying matching I used pictures to help him know how many more objects are left to find in the oatmeal tray. I've never seen Ian so amazed and interested in something than the power of a magnet.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTitVH73wmGlmw6YHh1k8JXahuPaGQ-dYRUPzmyYmiJPkqyU7vr5zEoJmfVz6ha0bMlpql3xdbGsl2N-JOjpOF1XJto9EovkMYeah6Gukbd_kgkNd-3CzIKk4fXFecrPUW2WjyutlQjAN/s1600/29+meses6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTitVH73wmGlmw6YHh1k8JXahuPaGQ-dYRUPzmyYmiJPkqyU7vr5zEoJmfVz6ha0bMlpql3xdbGsl2N-JOjpOF1XJto9EovkMYeah6Gukbd_kgkNd-3CzIKk4fXFecrPUW2WjyutlQjAN/s320/29+meses6.jpg" /></a></div><br />
When Ian discovered that magnetism travels through objects, he spent a long time gathering everything together. I gave him a screwdriver for further experimentation. <br />
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</div>As he mantained his interest in this activiy I added objects to the tray and printed the corresponding pictures.<br />
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<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Sensorial</strong><br />
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<strong>Oats tub. </strong>I've seen lots of sensorial tubs over many blogs and doubted tha Ian would be engaged with them, besides I do not have any "interesting" things to put inside them. Well, I was wrong. The science tray not only captured Ian attention to accomplish the magnet experiment, but he enjoyed exploring it with his hands too. So, I put the rest of the otameal in a tub and he spent a fun time making mountains of oats with his hands (he did not want to use the scoop). When I showed him how to drop them, he was very excited doing it.<br />
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<strong>Big and Small.</strong> This is our official first activity (not counting the Pink Tower) to learn about big and small and it was not very appealling to Ian, at least not to discrimate size. Well, what is this activity about? I gave Ian farm-related stickers to stick the big ones in one column and then match and stick the small ones in the next column. I hoped that he would be interested in the contrasting size of the stickers, but he was loyal to his current interest in sticking, peeling, matching and naming the stickers. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKrJz-t13oW37p2pF0cyCk3xoXfFbltLKhP7nbSwsIfqVaRcJrnX0bbFstdFmJ3pMTV4MruF-B40WfGgGwCq1-lcPtB8KBPLb_10G-V2PqIPVDzkaihQL2ZlY22unXvETW-3fJf5im7SKi/s1600/29+meses9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKrJz-t13oW37p2pF0cyCk3xoXfFbltLKhP7nbSwsIfqVaRcJrnX0bbFstdFmJ3pMTV4MruF-B40WfGgGwCq1-lcPtB8KBPLb_10G-V2PqIPVDzkaihQL2ZlY22unXvETW-3fJf5im7SKi/s320/29+meses9.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Math</strong><br />
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<strong>One-to-one correspondence</strong>. Daddy and Ian usually read at bedtime. Lately, they've been counting together anything in the books while reading. Daddy asks Ian, "how many ... do you see? Let's count!" and Ian points one by one to all the things only once. It is a great advance. For now he lets Daddy count the numbers, even though he knows them.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU3GBbd-CajNIBrBgNDHz9Dv1IIVSO8XBd7qquffHnsZxHRDgPxLpiISdcJR0lhMg7_cjCL7NIP1cf0__CoW9PLPCX70dj0Gwf-zM0Z3YrRQLdW6YGyWpn1yfNSvUgY0hlqAQbxs4C25PS/s1600/DSC06339.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU3GBbd-CajNIBrBgNDHz9Dv1IIVSO8XBd7qquffHnsZxHRDgPxLpiISdcJR0lhMg7_cjCL7NIP1cf0__CoW9PLPCX70dj0Gwf-zM0Z3YrRQLdW6YGyWpn1yfNSvUgY0hlqAQbxs4C25PS/s320/DSC06339.JPG" /></a></div><br />
I am sharing this post in <a href="http://onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a> where you can see other toddlers learning according to the Montessori Method.Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-79977468539478433002010-08-01T16:15:00.000-07:002010-08-01T16:15:01.887-07:00Thank you! Thank you!Last week, I was honored to receive two awards!!! Coming from two Montessorians, I'm flattered! <br />
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The "Wild About Your Blog" award is from <a href="http://leptir-mojpribor.blogspot.com/">Leptir</a> <br />
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<div></div><div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb2-zcK5Cj7aAGx_EECw-IAC4bI1gKl0RVKI0hhXuHUUFSE8z96dC4EFjocHNyVxhHhUPxKaMM0c2E3a6YuqoBR85oC65c940hCTilkB119plV4eMW5N5EArH_mvBeBCS4mu5YAyg3wJtp/s1600/wildaboutyourblogbutton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb2-zcK5Cj7aAGx_EECw-IAC4bI1gKl0RVKI0hhXuHUUFSE8z96dC4EFjocHNyVxhHhUPxKaMM0c2E3a6YuqoBR85oC65c940hCTilkB119plV4eMW5N5EArH_mvBeBCS4mu5YAyg3wJtp/s200/wildaboutyourblogbutton.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
<div></div>I am an avid follower of her blog, so I am so happy that she nominated Raising Ian.<br />
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Maria at <a href="http://forskoleburken.blogspot.com/">Forskoleburken</a> passed me the "Versatile Blogger" award. She is a preschool teacher working in a Montessori school and sharing her experience in her blog. It is somewhat new to me, however, I am really enjoying it as well. Be sure to check out her blog, too.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt0tJYKr-MnHTGmiWndUnqehfAoUtj7ghuRxNv9MEGTx06cCkIwKjuYnMz39xLprYXlNOZACv6ebRuDRj2eCkHUeMTjNhLqucS9xpc8Knr_itHWWXBWqp_AuxHl-QIT1Ibj_d7QhjYGPJc/s1600/versatilebloggerawarddeliciousambigu%5B2%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt0tJYKr-MnHTGmiWndUnqehfAoUtj7ghuRxNv9MEGTx06cCkIwKjuYnMz39xLprYXlNOZACv6ebRuDRj2eCkHUeMTjNhLqucS9xpc8Knr_itHWWXBWqp_AuxHl-QIT1Ibj_d7QhjYGPJc/s320/versatilebloggerawarddeliciousambigu%5B2%5D.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div> </div>The Versatile Blogger has these rules: <br />
<div></div><strong>Rule Number 1</strong>. Thanks the person who gave you the award! Thank you, Thank you!!<br />
<strong>Rule Number 2</strong>. Share 7 things about you<br />
<ol><li>I am 38 years old</li>
<li>I am a very shy and introspective person. </li>
<li>When I met my husband, we both thought our relationship was "almost impossible" because I'd been living in Chile and he'd been living in Uruguay. One year and a half after, I moved to Uruguay to live with him. </li>
<li>I spent the two last months of my pregnancy in Chile while my husband was working in Uruguay. He arrived to Chile 6 hours before Ian's birth without knowing I had already gone into labor. How lucky we were!!!</li>
<li>Ian was born on the same date that my father died, 20 years ago. One reason more for naming my son "Ian", which means "Gift of God".</li>
<li>I just discovered "Raw Food" and I am very happy to eat such delicious and healthy food.</li>
<li>Today is the first day of an Online Teacher Training course, hosted by Karen Tyler who is the founder and instructor for <a href="http://www.amontessorimarketplace.com/teachertraining.html">Montessori Worldwide Album Class and runs A Montessori Marketplace</a>. I am very excited!!! </li>
</ol><strong>Rule Number 3</strong>. Pass the award to 15 bloggers you've recently discovered and think are FABULOUS!<br />
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The thing number 8 of me is I am very bad following rules. I will pass the award to 10 blogs:<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://lapazfarm.homeschooljournal.net/">LaPaz Home Learning</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://homemade-homeschool.blogspot.com/">Homemade Homeschool</a></li>
<li><a href="http://montessorimum.blogspot.com/">Make of Montessori Mom</a></li>
<li><a href="http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/">The Magic Onions</a></li>
<li><a href="http://olivesandpickles.blogspot.com/">Olives and Pickles</a></li>
<li><a href="http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com/">Let the Children Play</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://montessoribeginnings.blogspot.com/">Montessori Beginning</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://ittybittylove.blogspot.com/">Itty Bitty Love</a></li>
<li><a href="http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/">Mama Jen</a></li>
<li><a href="http://educationofours.blogspot.com/">The Education of Ours</a></li>
</ul>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-26972110788173513762010-08-01T16:09:00.000-07:002010-08-02T08:03:13.825-07:00Diversifying activitiesIan is growing every day and his interests have been diversifying. We still spend the major amount of time doing practical life and visual discrimination activities, but I've been looking for other activities in areas like: science, sensorial, language and math that could capture Ian's interest. Last week we did a "float and sink" science activity and this week we explored smells, stressed in language while working in matching activities and introduced patterns.<br />
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Here is the review of the activities:<br />
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<strong>Practical Life</strong>:<br />
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<strong>Arranging Eggs</strong>. Ian is always ready to help with eggs. He usually helps me peeling and cracking them and this week he enjoyed transferring the eggs from the cardboard tray to refrigerator trays. He has learned to take the eggs carefully without breaking a single one. This activity has reinforced the concept of one-to-one correspondence.<br />
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<strong>Preparing mashed potato</strong>. Every time I cook I try to involve Ian as much as possible according to his skill level and this week I thought that he was ready to prepare mashed potato: he used the potato masher, pressed it down (he did not do a twist motion); shook salt and pepper shakers and said "too much!" :-) just as Daddy says to him every time Ian plays with the spice shakers; spooned the margarine and stirred it all up. <br />
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<strong>Sweeping into a dustpan</strong>. This is a house chore Ian wants to do by his own every time he sees me with the dustpan and brush. He has been sweeping rose petals and getting better at it.<br />
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<strong>Hair barrettes and headbands</strong>. I had seen this activity in <a href="http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/my_montessori_journey/2009/04/hairs-what-else-is-new-part-1.html">My Montessori Journey</a>. I am sure Daddy will say this is a girly activity :-), but I say it is a fun fine motor skills and sensorial activity ... and Ian likes it a lot!!!<br />
I got two pairs of barrettes and two pair of headbands of the same color and Ian had to unsnap every barrette and then snap it onto a matching color headband. Unsnapping and specially putting the headband inside the barrette and snapping it, challenged Ian's concentration and fine motor skills. <br />
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<strong>Pre-Reading Skills</strong><br />
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<strong>Matching picture to object</strong>. We've been working with matching pictures to silhouettes and I recently realized I should start with matching objects and gradually move to more abstract matching activities such as the silhouette ones. Well, while I was looking for pairs of objects to match, I set up two picture-to-object matching activities. The first set contained objects we found around the house (actually it was aimed at attracting Ian's interest) and the second one contained vegetables and fruits. I know for this activity I should use picture cards and teach Ian how to order the cards one by one from left to right, horizontally, before doing the matching, but for now the less formal the "lesson" the most likely that Ian will be engaged with it. Well, Ian enjoyed both activities and did them pretty well. <br />
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<strong>Sensorial (and more fine motor skills)</strong><br />
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<strong>Color matching with dot stickers</strong>. I was using color dots stickers to prepare material to introduce patterns, when Ian started sticking the stickers everywhere. So, I improvised a simple worksheet with color dots to give him something more interesting to do.<br />
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<strong>Pipe cleaner and beads</strong>. The original version of this activity come from <a href="http://ittybittylove.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-love-blog-world-part-2.html">Itty Bitty Love</a>. I changed it a bit and got Ian busy pushing pipe cleaners (of primary colors) into the holes of a shaker and then stringing same-color beads onto the pipe cleaners.<br />
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<strong>Art</strong><br />
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<strong>Spice Collage. </strong>As I told you in previous posts, Ian likes to mix chopped vegetables before I put the saucepan on the stove. Lately, I also let him spice the mix and I've noticed that Ian likes to smell the spice bottles and somethimes he ventures to taste the spices. Since then, I have been thinking of Montessori smelling bottles, but I think that Ian is not ready yet to pair or classify the smells, so I preferred to set up an art activity where Ian can explore multiples smells. All we needed for this activity was paper, spice bottles and glue and maybe a paintbrush. Ian dribbled glue on the paper (he was not interested in using the paintbrush to spread the glue on the paper), then he took his time to open each spice bottle, smell it, shake it if it had a hole top or otherwise pincer grip the spices and sprinkle them over the paper. <br />
What I loved about this activity was how it encouraged Ian to touch, smell, see, and even taste. <br />
It also is a great opportunity to get further practice with lids. Fortunatelly, I have different spice bottles, some require to be screwed and others lifted. Ian almost forgot what he was doing when he discovered the paprika can, he spent a lot of time opening and closing the three different tops.<br />
Another thing that I liked about it was that it is easy to clean up. This reminds me of the experience of Nicole at <a href="http://onehookwonder.blogspot.com/2010/07/im-pretty-sure-satan-invented-glitter.html">One Hook Wonder</a> with glitter :-) <br />
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Finally, I love the exquisite aroma of the picture!!!<br />
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<strong>Pre-math skill </strong><br />
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<strong>Introducing Pattern.</strong> In order to build math readiness skills, I've involved Ian in activities aimed at developing number recognition and one to one correspondence. Now, I want to introduce sequencing activities so that Ian begins to recognize, describe, reproduce, extend, create and compare repeating patterns. I am looking for fun activities to get Ian into it, but first I wanted to know what is our starting point using this homemade material.<br />
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I noticed that even when Ian put the ring on the correct pin (according to the color) he did not do it sequentially. And when I put the pattern card in the tray, he did not follow it at all, he put the rings on any pin.<br />
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</div>So, I prepared a playful activity to start talking about patterns. I printed two sets of this <a href="http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/HungryCaterpillarCutandPaste.htm">Hungry Caterpillar Cut and Paste worksheet</a>, colored both, used one to build the pattern and give the pieces of the other to Ian and I was surprised that he could alternate the blue and green pieces mostly well. <br />
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I am sharing this post in <a href="http://onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a> where you can see other toddlers learning according the Montessori Method.Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-12508497899867663652010-07-28T16:09:00.000-07:002010-07-28T16:09:29.792-07:00Paint roller, sidewalk paint and marbles mesh bagsOur <a href="http://raisingian.blogspot.com/2010/07/sensory-play-with-goop.html">sensorial play with goop</a> was a hit. It was fun, messy and a great learning experience; just as art activities can be. With this in mind, I've been trying to get myself organised with at least one art/sensorial activity per week. <br />
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Here are three activities we've done recently:<br />
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Painting outside with a paint roller provided Ian an olfactory and tactile experience while he was preparing the paint with water, shampo and temperas (blue and yellow) and, all the movements to dip the sleeve into the paint and then, apply it, were a great large motor work. And do not forget the excitement of watching the wall getting color as it is painted.<br />
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</div>Sidewalk paint made with cornstarch, water and coloring food was a fun way to spend an afternoon outdoors. Ian enjoyed swirling the drops of paint with the paintbrush and looking how colors blend to get a marbleized aspect.<br />
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Painting outside is our favorite choise at this moment, but it is raining a lot these days ... Never mind, a rainy day is an excellent excuse to get messy and noisy, painting with a marbles mesh bag.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZtbkktuVjz_sLZqNMqr4jnZSQBJqVkicxHd_DVWseIuE9ued6uJYhO3RDjjiDnIMXPya0bjw77l9cbYhdiws25tGcFSnFWoI3Tgfc-FcU9sz1GOIy5PDrKvm-zp0K7OglKcHQuih2T30/s1600/image0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZtbkktuVjz_sLZqNMqr4jnZSQBJqVkicxHd_DVWseIuE9ued6uJYhO3RDjjiDnIMXPya0bjw77l9cbYhdiws25tGcFSnFWoI3Tgfc-FcU9sz1GOIy5PDrKvm-zp0K7OglKcHQuih2T30/s320/image0.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-1675256372178913192010-07-27T18:03:00.000-07:002010-08-06T11:32:29.388-07:00Learning to honor Ian’s emotionsI think our move has affected Ian more than usual. Usually changes impact Ian’s sleep (or better said, worsen it, because he is a bad sleeper). This time our moving has made him quite bad tempered. Ian is an active child but now he seems hyperactively. His attention span has decreased, he’s been disobedient, reacting very badly when I call him to order: throwing things, kicking and hitting. I don’t know if it’s just the “terrible two’s” or if our relocation has exacerbated it.<br />
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At times I forget that he does not have an appropriate vehicle of self-expression and I was punishing him with time-outs, getting caught up in power struggles. Even when those punishments made Ian calmer, they made me feel sad. So, I’ve been trying to identify and acknowledge the feeling behind Ian’s behavior and I came to the conclusion that he is very upset because with the move he has not received much attention from all us and of course we are imposing too many changes in a short time. <br />
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Now I am trying to be more empathetic to Ian’s feelings. It is taking lots of self-control from myself and I know I will need much more along with experimentation and practice. I also decided to slow down arranging our stuff in the house to spend more and better time with him. That made Ian peaceful and more willing to do some learning activities. Here is a review of them:<br />
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<strong>Cookie cutter silhouette matching. </strong>I traced the silhouette of some cookie cutters in a paper to let Ian match them with the cutters. This activity was an easy one for him and he enjoyed more sticking adhesive tape along the border of the paper. He is very much into cutting the tape by himself and sometimes he gets it. <br />
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<strong>Sorting the cutlery.</strong> As a first exercise I gave Ian spoons and forks to sort and he had no problem. Later, I let him try the spoons, forks and knives (no sharp ones of course). He sorted them pretty well. For both exercises we used two sizes of forks and spoons, but I didn’t show Ian how to separate the sizes and he didn’t discriminate between them. Next time, I will ask him to attempt to sort them by size. <br />
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<strong>Sorting flowers by color in spice bottles.</strong> The first time I set up this activity was six weeks ago and Ian was unable to do it, he was not interested in trying more. Now, the sorting is the easier part and he needs more concentration to insert the stems into the holes of the spice bottles. Once more, everything in its time. <br />
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<strong>Puzzles.</strong> Ian has been working with these four-pieces puzzles for long time and each time he needs less help from me to complete them. When he finishes, he likes to put them in a row, admires his work and calls out the names of the figures. <br />
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<strong>Floats and sink.</strong> Ian has been playing a lot with water lately and one of the things that catches his attention is putting different objects into water, pushing them down and observing what happens. He did this by himself. So I decided to prepare some extensions.<strong> </strong><br />
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For the first experiment we used leaves and very small pebbles. Ian floated a leaf and tried to put as many pebbles on as possible until the leaf sinks under the weight.<br />
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He worked patiently putting the pebbles on the leaves for a while. Then he decided to rush the experiment and dropped all the pebbles from the container. <br />
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And here is a photo showing how our science session finished (lol) <br />
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For our second experiment I prepared two “boats”, one with cork and the other with a piece of Styrofoam; for both I made the sail with a leaf on a pin. I put the “boats” on the water with the idea of just letting it float for a while and then show Ian how to blow it with his mouth. But Ian wanted to continue the previous experiment and in one second flat he disarmed my boats. So I gave him different objects for a free experience. <br />
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By the way, the first time I attempted this activity was when we just started Montessori at home and I still thought Ian would follow the lesson. I took my time to prepare everything including the cards with labels “sink” and “float” following strictly the instructions of an album. I invited my little piggy for an “exciting activity” :-) and as soon as he saw the materials, he put all the objects in the bowl with water including the cards :-) ; he didn’t even observe his “work” and left the room immediately. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry … but, I laughed heartily. <br />
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<strong>Peeling beans.</strong> Ian loves to peel shells and I love to observe him while he does this. He is very focused and ordered. Well, last week, he peeled beans. I broke a bit of the outer pod and he split it open and extracted the individual beans. When he finished, he was not done yet! He also peeled the skin off the beans. If you like beans, I recommend let your children try this activity. It is an excellent exercise to improve fine motor skills, concentration and order. <br />
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Ian also loves to separate and wash the florets of broccoli. I did some superficial cuts to make it easier for Ian who has to use a bit of strengh to get the florets.<br />
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The last things that we moved to our new home were the flowerpots and Ian was so happy to have them again because he really enjoys taking care of the plants. <br />
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And challenging his balance<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc9uJeVaeiVEMBtAouHD2VAe_njbG0_qPGcCM1-oqWlT8kCc871xpckw0X1LF_KhA83agIzHOU34JzYdgQVH4nKGH08stGbNn9TY4iiQEQUzr4DaC1WfbdEVoFTz2BAx-nyHSopcwLoMMe/s1600/DSC05693.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc9uJeVaeiVEMBtAouHD2VAe_njbG0_qPGcCM1-oqWlT8kCc871xpckw0X1LF_KhA83agIzHOU34JzYdgQVH4nKGH08stGbNn9TY4iiQEQUzr4DaC1WfbdEVoFTz2BAx-nyHSopcwLoMMe/s320/DSC05693.JPG" /></a></div>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-13314076484338422392010-07-22T14:12:00.000-07:002010-07-22T14:23:45.304-07:00Prepared environment in the kitchenChildren's independence is a continuous process and a Prepared Environment together with Practical Life activities, are essential to this. <br />
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Now that we have more certainty that we wont move to another country in the short term and have a green light to make physical changes to this house, we have again taken up our impulse to create an environment that supports Ian to “do for himself”. <br />
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We are planning ways to involve Ian in daily life activities while discovering what is suitable for our family. To that end, we have incorporated child-size furniture in the kitchen, the living-dining room and Ian’s bedroom. He is still getting used to all the changes and at the moment he’s only confortable with the prepared environment in the kitchen.<br />
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This is what we have done in the kitchen so far:<br />
<ul><li>Made room in our kitchen for a child-sized table for eating snacks and cooking.</li>
<li>Allocate the bottom shelf in our refrigerator for Ian. Here we store his milk, yogurt and cheese. </li>
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<div></div><ul><li>Mount a low shelf for all the items necessary for Ian to set his table and prepare his own snacks: fruits, cereal, crackers, glasses, pitcher, plates, napkins, forks, spoons, knife, a cutting board and a sponge to clean the spills. </li>
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Here are some pictures of Ian in the business of making his snacks. <br />
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Serving his yogurt and cereal <br />
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<div></div>Cutting cheese<br />
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<div></div>Serving his milk. Oop! :-)<br />
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<div></div>Getting water<br />
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<div></div>Setting his table. This is something we are working on. I have to remind Ian what things to put on his table and mostly I have to help him to complete this task. Actually, he is not very interested in it yet.<br />
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<div></div>Preparing a cup of coffee :-) just for fun and a good practice of spooning, measuring milk powder, sugar and decaffeinated coffee, stirring, tasting every ingredient and observing how color and flavor changes. A bit of practical life, sensorial, science and math ;-) <br />
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<div></div>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-22364220047805331162010-07-22T12:28:00.000-07:002010-07-22T12:29:28.176-07:00A BIG thank youMy blog was recently given a special award and I just wanted to say a belated but BIG thank you. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPh_G-n0Jt203s-7fcv9PPLGJzeJiD-LzQSaHE6TTkShWFwY8djb0dX_kCJ7CsVb2sK0Y057xlTmd6ddcvqaOYlSHggAu8EauJp5v1DbjPlvoui6rpVBKFPWXIi3_ccb_cT1HpY0eaDy0o/s1600/blog_award%5B1%5D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPh_G-n0Jt203s-7fcv9PPLGJzeJiD-LzQSaHE6TTkShWFwY8djb0dX_kCJ7CsVb2sK0Y057xlTmd6ddcvqaOYlSHggAu8EauJp5v1DbjPlvoui6rpVBKFPWXIi3_ccb_cT1HpY0eaDy0o/s320/blog_award%5B1%5D.png" /></a></div> <br />
Here are the rules of the award: <br />
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<strong>Rule number 1: </strong>Thank the blogger who awarded it to you.<br />
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A huge thank you goes out to <a href="http://olivesandpickles.blogspot.com/">Olives and Pickles</a>. It makes me feel so good to know that you are appreciating what I do. <br />
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<strong>Rule number 2:</strong> Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five words. <br />
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"RECORD and SHARE our JOY of LEARNING TOGETHER"<br />
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<strong>Rule number 3:</strong> Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.<br />
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It is the hard part. <a href="http://olivesandpickles.blogspot.com/">Olives and Pickles</a> have passed the award to six of my favorites blogs. So, I just will give it to four:<br />
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<a href="http://theworkplan.blogspot.com/">The Work Plan</a><br />
<a href="http://leptir-mojpribor.blogspot.com/">Leptir</a><br />
<a href="http://montessori-genzaemon.blogspot.com/">Montessori+Genzaemon</a><br />
<a href="http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/">My Montessori Journey</a>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-15419932966458528632010-07-19T19:41:00.000-07:002010-07-20T09:29:30.908-07:00Discovering our new houseLast week we moved to another house - at least we didn't move to another country :-). This is our third move this year. Although moving is part of our lives, I always get stressed and so does Ian of course. <br />
As you can imagine, I could not prepare any material for Ian. I trusted him (or begged him, to tell the true) to find something interesting to do just exploring the house. <br />
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We have a big outdoor area, there are trees of mangos, avocados, coconuts and lychees. He found the lychees interesting and that gave us a great opportunity to have fun and learn.<br />
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We picked up lychees and put them in a glass basket. Ian carried it gracefully - even when he was descending stairs - to the border of a tree that he chose as his “work bench”. There, he peeled all the lychees. I broke a bit of the shell of them first. He put the shells in a fun car-basket and the fruit core in a bowl. Then he enjoyed discovering the new flavor of the lychees - and so did I. <br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdo5_iiQTZ8WOVq6Y5LQ2GkL_16EkPUjxeXvn1wObzai34KXtqVhyphenhyphenGpqgPNp98Zb7nlVK7OdU-PqwwDr0TkWC-3AfxTtNZRBB8AgQ6LTlZTKirMNF8DTS2gb0OValCocTEPs4ZR2qWozZc/s1600/28+meses1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdo5_iiQTZ8WOVq6Y5LQ2GkL_16EkPUjxeXvn1wObzai34KXtqVhyphenhyphenGpqgPNp98Zb7nlVK7OdU-PqwwDr0TkWC-3AfxTtNZRBB8AgQ6LTlZTKirMNF8DTS2gb0OValCocTEPs4ZR2qWozZc/s320/28+meses1.jpg" /></a> </div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
After our delicious snack, we used the lychee shells to learn how to transfer water using a ladle and how to pass the shells using a small sieve and a big sieve. <br />
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First, we filled a bowl with water and Ian carried it very slowly watching not to spill the water. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0FPLG8wQF7u-jr7j4IlDqiuIATJOpP-kyA8ah326HxfGI-SFsaDH8yUxXSRhD00U9xkuM3KZAleYJPZ_w_4VgX30l6E1U9eaBM4RskCyQShNJLFZSr9Odm4t_E8EsLAUjOtRNUSjStpH/s1600/28+meses3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0FPLG8wQF7u-jr7j4IlDqiuIATJOpP-kyA8ah326HxfGI-SFsaDH8yUxXSRhD00U9xkuM3KZAleYJPZ_w_4VgX30l6E1U9eaBM4RskCyQShNJLFZSr9Odm4t_E8EsLAUjOtRNUSjStpH/s320/28+meses3.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Then Ian poured the shells into the bowl and we were ready for the lesson. I have to say that I was very happy because I’d been looking for something that floats to set up this activity for a long time.<br />
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Although the ladle was not child-size, Ian grasped it correctly and twisted his wrist to pour the water on the sieve. Well, he did so until he discovered it was easier if he used both hands to twist the ladle. I tried to correct him but he just said “chau” (bye in Spanish) that means “let me do it by myself”. I got the message and left him to have fun. After he got the sieve full he poured the shells and the water back to other bowl and started again.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISQ5Y4kUk4R0vSjlfqSs5KnEEquDDgS9hHo12fcUMpA8pw98265uWLneG6Iax87nhhfFgRBAQq0xOafUBPUpmAFBfZi8d08AOQvTUmiZg3zaj7ePPgsfRK5efPZLyFKknTjDrG7cX0h4e/s1600/28+meses4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISQ5Y4kUk4R0vSjlfqSs5KnEEquDDgS9hHo12fcUMpA8pw98265uWLneG6Iax87nhhfFgRBAQq0xOafUBPUpmAFBfZi8d08AOQvTUmiZg3zaj7ePPgsfRK5efPZLyFKknTjDrG7cX0h4e/s320/28+meses4.jpg" /></a></div><br />
When he got bored I gave him a bigger sieve and he had to pour the water from the bowl. As it was big and a bit heavy he had to control his movements so as not to spill the water. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAb9ZD2DfMKqccln6d7h4lxX2dCcMYjjLbaLkGYmdbePU3nxDqswuqZFXrp54ieF4bb0qxZMvADG_M987mFB299QFYGHgY-r1vr21EYYAetZmHo9aIJhgWcCuMxHAl2fcmtOjKX2e_t1d/s1600/28+meses5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAb9ZD2DfMKqccln6d7h4lxX2dCcMYjjLbaLkGYmdbePU3nxDqswuqZFXrp54ieF4bb0qxZMvADG_M987mFB299QFYGHgY-r1vr21EYYAetZmHo9aIJhgWcCuMxHAl2fcmtOjKX2e_t1d/s320/28+meses5.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Next day we gathered some flowers, leaves, mangos, avocados and rocks (there were geologist living here before, so we have plenty of rocks everywhere). He had fun arranging his natural stuff on a table. Wow! That reminded me of some natural tables I saw in many blogs and didn't pay attention to them at the time. Again, my son is more advanced than me; I better follow him. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWpCc1yFw9XCIOxJNvZ86AZ7GOaWzTe3SFARcZBZ8KQFCqXQezkaXKGJCLylveMWMeXrQGZFTbB2KLUPb6TqyqXiZXNrua35EHNH1KOZ10B2E7kK-eiVWRM6OB6IxFS1KafIxbqGkiyie4/s1600/DSC05641.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWpCc1yFw9XCIOxJNvZ86AZ7GOaWzTe3SFARcZBZ8KQFCqXQezkaXKGJCLylveMWMeXrQGZFTbB2KLUPb6TqyqXiZXNrua35EHNH1KOZ10B2E7kK-eiVWRM6OB6IxFS1KafIxbqGkiyie4/s320/DSC05641.JPG" /></a></div><br />
Next day Ian found a water dispenser in the house (of the former tenants), carried it to his play zone and asked me for water. He seems to be more creative than his mom :-) then, I followed him and ran for bowls, glasses, jars and food coloring for more pouring activities. <br />
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I poured a bit of food coloring in the dispenser and Ian filled the dispenser after various trips. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKnTJyNmksPnJ3B6feBFqdQyoeUkHUR-pAvGrLrcOxanX6b04Szdzkzv-c_RBEC-mWQOmjMZ1QdqZSufYBL1saEmaLBkINpPT3iz8iMKb6ymXjPH4R-b9I1KWoqEnxotYbwQ933Amolf5w/s1600/28+meses6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKnTJyNmksPnJ3B6feBFqdQyoeUkHUR-pAvGrLrcOxanX6b04Szdzkzv-c_RBEC-mWQOmjMZ1QdqZSufYBL1saEmaLBkINpPT3iz8iMKb6ymXjPH4R-b9I1KWoqEnxotYbwQ933Amolf5w/s320/28+meses6.jpg" /></a></div><br />
When the dispenser was full, Ian filled a pitcher from it and poured the water into various glasses and jars. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrDAhxYP-9T7s4tCssP7gLRMxeK74upSf0LFled5haTr9ieAEornSVQRcpONE6tmQ_J8XcDtfRJ51Wk59IvC2fy8dF7HnR6R_yD2K_ffrayE5_BcBmdFpO8ELlY9VINg4CZCdD5bqXN483/s1600/28+meses7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrDAhxYP-9T7s4tCssP7gLRMxeK74upSf0LFled5haTr9ieAEornSVQRcpONE6tmQ_J8XcDtfRJ51Wk59IvC2fy8dF7HnR6R_yD2K_ffrayE5_BcBmdFpO8ELlY9VINg4CZCdD5bqXN483/s320/28+meses7.jpg" /></a></div><br />
And finally, he decided to sink all the things in the dispenser. I saw the opportuniy to talk about things that float and things that sink, but who knows if he was paying attention to my lesson :-)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdyfWIRNjGdAcyBDsk-lB8CE5QdyukFj2IT8_ChsYwz8QGr1Yi32Hlh-HpbNTn4YMrvtFOxdGCS_6shyX5A3Q9ORtNr0i5C_9PVNLcjVE4CTL9IKBk7Xp4b1Sxv0r5wzTOaXKDD6ayR7os/s1600/28+meses9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdyfWIRNjGdAcyBDsk-lB8CE5QdyukFj2IT8_ChsYwz8QGr1Yi32Hlh-HpbNTn4YMrvtFOxdGCS_6shyX5A3Q9ORtNr0i5C_9PVNLcjVE4CTL9IKBk7Xp4b1Sxv0r5wzTOaXKDD6ayR7os/s320/28+meses9.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Next day Ian had some practice filling a glass to a line (I used a rubber band to mark the line). It was easier using the dispenser than the pitcher. Actually the pitcher is a little big and Ian could hardly control his movements. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw6FkUNxDciCJEPN7mvBgnVH7rv1rNP6ZgQVvXofMLGzkzGHS5pM7FU4SFoCvp7WPvXVT2Jq9lJrjsQsPf-B1XTJfSnx1SLDIDBk5nedT3fyPLSkf4Kk7mfKR4sioHt7zaCQZEwPUMe7bF/s1600/28+meses8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw6FkUNxDciCJEPN7mvBgnVH7rv1rNP6ZgQVvXofMLGzkzGHS5pM7FU4SFoCvp7WPvXVT2Jq9lJrjsQsPf-B1XTJfSnx1SLDIDBk5nedT3fyPLSkf4Kk7mfKR4sioHt7zaCQZEwPUMe7bF/s320/28+meses8.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I know this house has made a great difference for Ian. He is always ready to go outside to play and, for now, that is the way he is learing more. Certainly, I love to see other toddlers in a classroom doing the activities by themselves (see <a href="http://www.theworkplan.blogspot.com/">The Work Plan</a>) and I would like to think that Ian is willing to take formal lessons and work independently, but for now I am very happy to see him growing and becoming more independent.<br />
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I am sharing this post in <a href="http://onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a> where you can see other toddlers learning according the Montessori Method.Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-80388815035363185212010-07-18T19:30:00.000-07:002010-07-18T19:33:39.186-07:00Outstanding Blogger Award<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmE5SlfofgY6gou6mWEcqS_Sjwsk9DpCDIAP5AWCS2nr2Qjh1LD8VjkQ-OPilAb6zoGTA8PAA_y_pEWXy0VJEEsgqMkoSQD3cF5IrCZhonPDqvbO8OaL0fuOvxAMCizw07-6fdN_pTB6xX/s1600/award.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmE5SlfofgY6gou6mWEcqS_Sjwsk9DpCDIAP5AWCS2nr2Qjh1LD8VjkQ-OPilAb6zoGTA8PAA_y_pEWXy0VJEEsgqMkoSQD3cF5IrCZhonPDqvbO8OaL0fuOvxAMCizw07-6fdN_pTB6xX/s320/award.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div></div>Many thanks to Discovering Montessori over at <a href="http://theworkplan.blogspot.com/">The Work Plan</a> for giving me the "Outstanding Blogger Award". I love your blog and you are so nice at leaving comments. Check out her blog if you haven't already done so. She is a childcare group home provider using the Montessori Method and you can learn a lot following her observations and the activities she has set up for her children. <br />
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The rules to accept the award are:<br />
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<ol><li>Say thanks to the person who gave me this award.</li>
<li>Share seven things about myself</li>
<li>Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who I have recently discovered and think are fantastic!</li>
</ol>Here are seven things about me:<br />
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<ol><li>I am Peruvian, my husband is Australian and my son is Chilean</li>
<li>I have a Masters Degree in Computer Science based in Artificial Intelligence and Databases</li>
<li>I have a twin sister living in Chile and she looks a lot like me</li>
<li>I just speak a little English, so my husband sometimes helps me with the translations</li>
<li>I really enjoy being a housewife and not going to work - raising my child is the most demanding and rewarding experience of my life</li>
<li>I enjoy trying to live "better" - refraining from eating meat, growing our own fruit and vegetables, and developing myself spiritually</li>
<li>I like keeping fit through yoga, martial arts and weight training</li>
</ol>I want to pass the award to the following blogs:<br />
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<ul><li><a href="http://lapetiteecoledelina.blogspot.com/">La petite école d'Elina</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bebeliv.blogspot.com/">Le journal de Liv et Émy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://totschool.shannons.org/">Shannon's Tot School</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://thehomeschoolden.blogspot.com/">The Homeschool Dem</a></li>
<li><a href="http://themontessorichildathome.blogspot.com/">The Montessori Child at Home</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://montessoriegitimi.blogspot.com/">Montessori Egitimi</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://theattachedmama.blogspot.com/">The Attached Mama</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://learningdevelopmentactivities.blogspot.com/">Children's Learning Activities</a></li>
<li><a href="http://little-blossoms-childminding.blogspot.com/">Little Blossoms</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.reallifemontessori.com/">Real Life Montessori</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://musicalmama08.blogspot.com/">A Munchkin's World</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://littlehandsbigwork.blogspot.com/">Little Hands, Big Work</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://littlefingersbigdreams.blogspot.com/">Little Fingers Big Dreams</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://traininghappyhearts.blogspot.com/">Training Happy Hearts</a> </li>
</ul>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-8286940742730590042010-07-14T16:19:00.000-07:002010-07-14T17:13:06.839-07:003-Minute Chocolate Cake in a CupIan is enjoying cooking. Even when it is really a messy activity for him, I like it because it’s not only fun, but it's also an activity that teaches practical skills, introduces new sensorial experiences, vocabulary and mathematical concepts. <br />
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I’ve been looking for easy to make recipes and yesterday I found this “Chocolate Cake in a Cup” recipe. Ian is fan of chocolate so we tried out it. <br />
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I gathered all the necessary ingredients: flour, sugar, chocolate powder, milk, egg and vegetable oil. I also gathered all the cooking utensils, including measuring spoons, spatulas and mixing bowls. But I didn’t put all the ingredients within Ian reach at the beginning because surely he would have poured everything without following my instructions. <br />
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I always give Ian the ingredients measured, ready to pour and stir. But yesterday, I wanted him to measure at least the dry ingredients. First I gave him the flour bag and the measuring spoon. I hadn’t started explaining the measuring before he began to pour the flour directly from the bag. When I tried to stop him he got very angry and poured flour from the bowl. <br />
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It took me a couple of minutes and some tickles to convince Ian that it would be fun to follow my instructions. Here is a photo of us in the middle of the negotiation :-) <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihOwM79BIxYMPTRTuyp147ywIQDh899n6jcaWX4DN26aDdaTJ2irgiPKRC-8U551_WtJWPxJK5JYiE5EikUqkmXSp-H30zW7v67D7zsgv2pHTJw8mM2UxDs9rA8MGmWJGDiUbBtRguyi_S/s1600/DSC05556.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihOwM79BIxYMPTRTuyp147ywIQDh899n6jcaWX4DN26aDdaTJ2irgiPKRC-8U551_WtJWPxJK5JYiE5EikUqkmXSp-H30zW7v67D7zsgv2pHTJw8mM2UxDs9rA8MGmWJGDiUbBtRguyi_S/s320/DSC05556.JPG" /></a></div><br />
Well, Ian spooned the dry ingredients into a bowl, while I counted, and stirred them up. Then he learnt to hit the egg softly to break the shell and how to pour the egg. I measured the milk and oil and let him mix it. We stirred the dry ingredients separately from the wet ones in order to show Ian the difference of stirring wet and dry ingredients. <br />
Then he mixed both and poured it into two cups. (I sprayed the mugs with cooking spray first.) Then into the microwave to bake for 3 minutes and enjoy!<br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH-DJns1nTFY0Wh-47LyDWsHjZLj95wzOvHxdCd_xGRUhyphenhyphenHGe_mDnmnHABV18v2_tCI0xHQXiAf5FCtYXluS1j1gRPy5J9xAHfQbm5Sp_xAh8PIq1zFErFFihBf0ah9aCR4TEtxvZQneoG/s1600/28+meses.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH-DJns1nTFY0Wh-47LyDWsHjZLj95wzOvHxdCd_xGRUhyphenhyphenHGe_mDnmnHABV18v2_tCI0xHQXiAf5FCtYXluS1j1gRPy5J9xAHfQbm5Sp_xAh8PIq1zFErFFihBf0ah9aCR4TEtxvZQneoG/s320/28+meses.jpg" /></a> </div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"></a></div><br />
You can get the recipe <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_4553352_minute-chocolate-mug-cake.html">here</a>.Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-13153023209067005592010-07-12T10:36:00.000-07:002010-07-12T10:40:32.745-07:00Making activities out of things from around the houseIt seems this journey is boosting my capacity to observe our environment (as well as Ian's interests and skill levels) and quicker catch opportunities to create fun/learning materials for Ian. Of course, it has been possible because I ‘ve been taking my time to read as much as I can about the Montessori Method and, in general, about teaching a toddler at home. I can remember that when I started doing homeschooling, everything looked very overwhelming for me. Now, after four months, I feel more comfortable and I have started to enjoy this journey. <br />
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Next are the activities I set up for Ian last week following him and taking advantage of the stuff we have at hand.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><strong>Screwing/unscrewing color s</strong><strong>orter</strong></div><br />
This was Ian’s favorite activity last week and was set up completely following him. As soon as he saw the empty tempera tray, he wanted to unscrew each lid and then put them back in the container. That gave me an idea for a screwing/unscrewing and matching color activity. I put an object of the same color of the lid inside each bottle and let Ian to follow his interests. He unscrewed the lids, took off the objects, turned the lids with the top-side up, placed the objects into them matching the colors, returned the objects to the container and put the lids with the color corresponding to the objects. He just pushed down the lids. Actually, he is able to screw the lids of bigger jars, but when come down to small bottlenecks he just push down the lids. <br />
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<strong>Replacing marker caps</strong><br />
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Lately, my material storage has been very messy. Last week, I decided to order a little and one of the things I found was markers. When Ian was about 18 months he loved scribbling with them (and also with color pens and crayons) but, since I read that markers do not contribute to building up the muscles in children hand (like using a pencil), I put away the markers. <br />
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Ian is always attentive when I order his toys and materials, he seems to be looking for something interesting to do and, this time the markers captured his attention. As it has been a long time since he showed interest on scribbling, I let him to use them just to observe how much control Ian has over his hands muscles and if he moves the marker with a goal in mind. Well, he was able to take out the caps by himself; he grasped the marker properly (with thumb and fingers) and did mostly circular scribbles, that looks still like random scribbling. <br />
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When he finished, there were markers and caps all over the table, so I took advantage of it to teach him how to replace the caps, I told him to press the cap against the marker until he hears a “click” sound. He really enjoyed each time he heard the sound; it was his error control and the clue to celebrate his achievement. It was a sensorial exercise (visual and auditory) as well as a fine motor to strengthen the muscles of his hands. <br />
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<strong>Matching stickers silhouette</strong><br />
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If you have been following us lately, you would know Ian is having fun with stickers. I usually peel the excess sticker paper from around the stickers before giving them to Ian. I was doing it when I realized I can reuse this paper to create a silhouette worksheet for Ian to match the stickers. I stuck this paper on black construction paper, scanned and cut/pasted (digitally) the black silhouette in a worksheet. Probably it does not look that simple but fortunatelly I have some skills at the computer and can make that kind of things quickly. Certainly, when I got the idea I did not know if it will work but, the result was pretty good and even Ian needed a little help with the matching part, he enjoyed this activity very much.<br />
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<strong>Playdoh numbers, spatula and matching numbers</strong><br />
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I insist, play doh is a versatile learning tool. You can create a great variety of activities for your kids using play doh. One of the things Ian has been learning with play doh lately is number recognition. I had printed number cards in order to show Ian how to model play doh snakes along the numbers. As he' not been paying attention to it, we used the cards to mach them numbers prints made on play doh. That waswhat we did. First, I put four number card in a tray provide Ian with the corresponding four foam numbers. Then I gave Ian play doh balls, he flattened them and pressed and lift-off a foam number and used the spatula to transfer and put on its corresponding number card. When he transferred the four numbers I rotate the cards and foam numbers. He likes transferring things with the spatula and this activity was not an exception. As you can see, I like to take the most of each activity to reinforce multiples skills.<br />
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<strong>Buttons sorting board</strong><br />
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I want to remark that I am learning a lot from other blogger moms whom share their learning experiences not just their kids's. One of the things I've learned from they is to get inspiration from commercial toys to create homemade versions. This<a href="http://montessoribeginnings.blogspot.com/2009/07/color-matching.html"> post</a> was the one that showed me this alternative. <br />
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Well, last week I felt inspired for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Plan-Toy-Geometric-Sorting-Board/dp/B00000ITOY?ie=UTF8&tag=raiian-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">this toy</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raiian-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00000ITOY" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px! important; padding-left: 0px! important; padding-right: 0px! important; padding-top: 0px! important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raiian-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00000ITOY" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px! important; padding-left: 0px! important; padding-right: 0px! important; padding-top: 0px! important;" width="1" /> and made a easier version using Styrofoam, tooth sticks (I cut the ends) and three sets of buttons (bears, cars and trees). I had not finished preparing it when Ian wanted to attempt it. By the way, before this activity I had tried to get Ian to sort these buttons but it lacked of interest for him. Now, even Ian struggled to place the buttons he sorted the buttons very well.<br />
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<strong>Matching vegetables and fruit silhouette</strong><br />
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For this activity I download the printables from <a href="http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/2023/10195/index.html">here</a>. I previously tried to make matching activities in a floor mat, but as soon as I lie down the cards in the mat Ian runs away :-). As Ian has having fun playing with his “contact paper window board” :-) we used it for this activity. I rotate different set of cards each day. I cannot say Ian made the matching correctly because he sometimes did it and another times he stick the cards next to the wrong card, but he enjoyed calling out the names of the pictures and of course sticking and lifting out the cards.<br />
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I am sharing this post in <a href="http://www.onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a>where you can see other toddlers learning according the Montessori Method.Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-2607114888336352612010-07-12T09:39:00.000-07:002010-07-12T09:39:32.548-07:00A pizza for DaddyDaddy likes pizza, specially on Fridays, so, last Friday, I wanted Ian to surprise him preparing a pizza. This was the first time Ian participated that much preparing food. Even when he went away after finishing each step, he always came back for the next one. <br />
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He’s not mastered the use of the knife yet but did his best cutting the ham and the sausages and of course eating lot of the pieces :-)<br />
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He also helped spooning the olives from the jar. It was not easy as the jar neck was narrow, but he did not give up and got two olives that transferred to the tray where I was separating the ingredients. I did not have to point where to put them, he did it by himself.<br />
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He attempted to grate the cheese for first time. It seemed he liked it, so I will set up an activity to grate soap later.<br />
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Then he squeezed the baggies of tomato sauce all over the pizza dough and used a cheese knife (and his hands) to spread it. It was really a mess, there was tomato sauce everywhere including my camera.<br />
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Finally, he sprinkled the remaining ingredients over the sauce.<br />
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It was lots of fun!Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-77771650534037503472010-07-07T19:46:00.000-07:002010-07-07T19:46:13.360-07:00Sensory Play with GoopCorn starch goop was a big hit with Ian. It is very fun stuff, a great sensory experience. Corn starch mixed with water has wonderful and unique physical properties: this mixture will feel like liquid sometimes and sometimes it will feel solid. <br />
First, Ian poured the dry corn starch into a tub and I let him feel the powder between his fingers. <br />
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After experimenting with the dry corn starch, he added water to it and mixed it with his bare hands. This created an impressive substance that Ian enjoyed touching and squeezing in his hands.<br />
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</div>Next I added food coloring into the mixture and Ian mixed it with his hands. He liked watching how the colors swirled and blended in. <br />
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Then he decided to feel the texture with his bare feet. He had a lot of fun getting into and out of the tub. It was a great balancing exercise for him. <br />
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As Ian likes to make footprints on the floor every time he has wet feet, he attempted to run around the backyard but the goop was so slippery and we moved to the grass where he continued getting into and out of the tub until he fell and made me laugh :-) It got funnier because Ian loves to splash in puddles. <br />
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ut the fun was not finished yet. After that he poured clean water in the tub and sat there for a while and looked at his painted face in a mirror. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpDnc5dsX4Efm-ZJGHCSK7dWN2ckGFA6hmlEweBsY-h5nM4wXIghszdEUNDp31CKX2_KI7imyPnmH1yKMhw9bjjnvr6jVp05do4MpBHbcp3NS9t-Y6ZLRAmkzOsfSLpaKIWvtAHjAPrzW/s1600/DSC05420.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpDnc5dsX4Efm-ZJGHCSK7dWN2ckGFA6hmlEweBsY-h5nM4wXIghszdEUNDp31CKX2_KI7imyPnmH1yKMhw9bjjnvr6jVp05do4MpBHbcp3NS9t-Y6ZLRAmkzOsfSLpaKIWvtAHjAPrzW/s320/DSC05420.JPG" /></a></div>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-37390342895447334252010-07-07T08:46:00.000-07:002010-07-07T08:46:42.498-07:00Soda Bottle Flower PrintsAs soon as I saw this idea in <a href="http://www.teaching-tiny-tots.com/">Teaching Tiny Tots</a> I knew I had found something Ian will engaged with: making flower print with soda bottles. <br />
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In order to adapt the art activity and set up an simpler one, we used 500 ml soda bottles and Ian just had to press the bottom of soda bottle into paint and print; otherwise he would had to use the bottom and then the caps of the bottles to make the petals and the center of the flower. <br />
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See how bright and joyful look the flower prints. So much fun!<br />
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You can find out more about the original idea <a href="http://www.teaching-tiny-tots.com/toddler-activities-soda-bottle-flowers.html">here</a>.Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-61540444609726346652010-07-05T17:36:00.000-07:002010-07-05T17:39:41.032-07:00Getting interested in sensory activitiesWhen we began our Montessori journey, we mostly did practical life activities as Ian is willing to do by himself what his mom does. Recently, he has shown interest in sensory activities but for now just those which involve visual discrimination and that are related with practical life matters. Here is what Ian did last week.<br />
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<strong>Washing leaves</strong>. If you have a toddler I think this activity will be enjoyable for him/her since they love to do anything that involves water. If you want to try this you will need a small plant, a mist sprayer, cotton balls or cotton swabs, a child-sized sponge for spills and a bowl to put the dirty cotton balls. As Ian likes activities that involve plants I thought that this activity would capture his attention but, even he followed the sequence I taught him, he just washed two leaves each time. He sprayed water on the leaf, took it in his non-dominant hand and scrubbed with the dominant hand. It was a great delight to watch my little piggy treating the plant so gently.<br />
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<strong>Sugar packs tearing and pouring</strong>. The act of tearing paper is a really good exercise for strengthening the finger muscles. I tried to get Ian to tear tissue paper but he is not interested. At the moment, I have learned to take advantage of Ian’s interests to prepare activities which are fun and at the same time let him to improve his skills; I only have to remember that for toddlers playing and learning are the same thing. Well, each time we are at a cafe Ian likes to play with the sugar packs and emulate us pouring the sugar into our cups and stirring our coffee, so this gave the idea for a sugar tearing and pouring activity. This was set up with a tray containing a bowl with sugar packets, another bigger bowl for sugar pouring and a small bowl for empty packets. I clipped a starting point for Ian to tear. <br />
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</div><strong>Preparing popsicles</strong>. What a cool activity this was! ;-) A great opportunity to have fun and put into practice the skills of pouring liquids and putting on lids.<br />
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<strong>Matching plastic containers and lids</strong>. I provided Ian with two square containers and two rectangular containers of different sizes and their lids. Ian took his time to match size and shape and close the four sides of the lids. <br />
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<strong>Sorting fruits and vegetables</strong>. There are many opportunities for our children to learn while they help us with groceries. They may like to unpack them, wash, sort and put them in their place, while they extend their vocabulary. Here is a photo of Ian sorting lemons, tomatoes and guavas and learning where to place the fruit in the refrigerator. <br />
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</div><strong>Pairing shoes</strong>. I put all of Ian’s shoes in a box and asked him to pair and line them in his shoe corner. He is hardly ever interested in sorting objects, but sorting his own shoes made sense for him. That means that we need to find objects our children are most interested in, and use them for sorting. <br />
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<strong>Matching color with clothes peg</strong>. I pasted 6 pieces of paper of three different colors on a paper plate and set up a bowl with three pairs of clothes pegs for a matching and fine motor exercise. The tray was on the shelf since the beginning of the week but Ian just choose it at the end of the week and did it easily. I think Ian knew what the exercise was about as soon as I showed it to him and I guess he thought it was boring. Once again he showed me he prefers to put his skills into practice to perform a job with a real purpose. <br />
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<center><em>Click on the buttons to check out other ideas for your toddlers:</em></center><br />
<center><a href="http://onehookwonder.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj305/spaceopera2/TuesdayButton150.jpg" /></a></center><br />
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<center><a border="0" href="http://www.mydeliciousambiguity.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx63/deliciousambiguityblog/tot_tuesdays.jpg" /></a></center>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-26704958767172541132010-07-04T10:58:00.000-07:002010-07-04T11:01:10.067-07:00Getting ready for the blackoutsThe wet season has started and I understand it last for three to four months. The storms cause blackouts or partial blackouts as well as internet and telephone failures. We heard that every year the wet season starts on June 24th, Saint John’s Day, so Ian and I took some measures to prepare for the blackouts. <br />
Ian learnt how to use a flashlight. He really enjoys shining it here and there, and then follows the light. <br />
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Then we prepared some candles. We do not have a purpose-built candle-holder yet so we used different bottles, which made the task more challenging for Ian; some of them required several attempts and some strength to push the candles into the bottlenecks. <br />
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That reminded me that Ian likes the little candles I use for aromatherapy. I took off the base of these candles and had Ian attempt to place the candles in the bases. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih7XH9H09wipjIFxPidRplC39Tqj9Gs7FVCu5B_b2Lb0Z3wlE-kNjUbLQ8ce0TXiez63X2w9nF5W-lY11DRNpav9LetbX89nx8TzktPdZnkwuNoxkkxT3ugelfoNXgnM8hUYoeHlXQLxpL/s1600/DSC05294.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih7XH9H09wipjIFxPidRplC39Tqj9Gs7FVCu5B_b2Lb0Z3wlE-kNjUbLQ8ce0TXiez63X2w9nF5W-lY11DRNpav9LetbX89nx8TzktPdZnkwuNoxkkxT3ugelfoNXgnM8hUYoeHlXQLxpL/s320/DSC05294.JPG" /></a></div>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-39932171141462867302010-06-28T16:44:00.000-07:002010-06-28T16:44:25.899-07:00Art projects / Proyectos Artisticos<strong>Stamping Project</strong>. This is a project I’ve been rotating a lot lately. This week Ian was willing to attempt it. The materials I provided him were his art notebook, ink pad and a stamp. Once Ian learns how to stamp, I will put a different stamp out each week. <br />
He learnt how to open the ink pad, take the stamp and place it on the ink pad then roll it with an up and down motion. But, as the stamp had the picture of the stamp on the other end, Ian was confused and turned the stamp upside down on the paper. And when he saw the ink on his fingers, he preferred to do fingerprints :-) Later, his Daddy showed him how to do footprints :-) <br />
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<blockquote><strong>Sellos</strong>. Este es un proyecto que estado rotando bastante ultimamente. La semana pasada Ian estuvo dispuesto a intentarlo. Los materiales que le di son: su cuaderno de arte, una almohadilla para sellos y un sello. Una vez que Ian aprenda a usarlos, pienso cambiar lo sellos cada semana. <br />
Ian aprendió a abrir la almohadilla de sellos, agarrar el sello, ponerlo en la almohadilla y presionarlo para impregnarlo con la tinta. Sin embargo, ya que el sello tiene una imagen de lo que se imprimira en el otro extremo, Ian se confundia y volteaba el sello y lo estampaba en el papel usando el lado incorrecto. Y cuando vió que tenía tinta en sus dedos, él prefirió imprimir sus huellas digitales en su cuaderno :-) Después, su Daddy le enseño a imprimir las huellas de sus piecitos :-) </blockquote><br />
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<strong>Creating a landscape in contact paper</strong>. Ian has been cutting flowers with his hole-puncher every day and I wanted he to use them in an art project. As he is not able to paste yet, he used contact paper to create a landscape with the flower, grass, sticks from our pine tree and some animal pictures. When I thought he had been finished the project, I put the contact paper to his window, but he must really like creating landscaped because he has been changing it every day. <br />
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<blockquote><strong>Creando paisajes sobre papel de contacto</strong>. Ian ha estado cortando florecitas de papel usando sus perforadora cada dia y quise que las usara en algún proyecto de arte. Ya que el no puede pegar con goma aún, uso papel de contacto para crear un paisaje con las flores, gras, palitos de nuestro pino y algunas figuritas de animales. Cuando crei que habia terminado su proyecto, pegué el papel de contacto en su ventana, pero a él debió gustarle mucho esta actividad porque siguió cambiando sus paisajes todos los días.</blockquote><br />
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<strong>Painting a rock</strong>. Rock painting is a fun and easy art activity, ideal to do alfresco on a hot-summer day (we did it in the backyard). This was the first time Ian painted something of three dimensions and it captured his attention. First we washed the rock; Ian wanted to scrub it with a scrubbing brush, he tried for a while but it was not easy as it looked, so he asked me to help him. Once the rock was ready, he sat to paint. He chose the colors of the paints he wanted to use and I poured them for him on a tray (otherwise he drops too much paint). He used paintbrushes and sponges to paint. At the end he asked for the scrubbing brush to wash the rock. <br />
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<blockquote><strong>Pintando una piedra</strong>. Esta es una actividad divertida y fácil de preparar, ideal para hacer al aire libre en un día de verano (nosotros lo hicimos en el patio). Esta fue la primera vez que Ian pintó un objeto de tres dimensiones. Primero, lavamos la piedra; Ian quiso escobillarla, trató por un rato pero resultó no ser tan fácil como parece así que me pidió ayuda. Una vez que la piedra estuvo limpia, él se sentó a pintar tranquilamente. Escogía los colores que quería usar y yo se los ponía en su bandeja (de otra manera el derrama demasiada pintura). Ian usó pinceles y esponjas para pintar. Al final me pidió la escobilla dar a su piedra un acabado final. </blockquote><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcbFC-tIFbvn8iNPTg_ukHZfxU-m3Cfaotj4lfOmS38DncMi7Jyh2lNqchAxRt0nqHAGZQ2bBecO6Nz33Er565mzgWAMsJW-H-RYHJsddgRF-H2uiDYq2hEE-8vwUqgmLQjQa4_TWW_L-A/s1600/DSC05135.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcbFC-tIFbvn8iNPTg_ukHZfxU-m3Cfaotj4lfOmS38DncMi7Jyh2lNqchAxRt0nqHAGZQ2bBecO6Nz33Er565mzgWAMsJW-H-RYHJsddgRF-H2uiDYq2hEE-8vwUqgmLQjQa4_TWW_L-A/s320/DSC05135.JPG" /></a></div>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-42517260667529189472010-06-28T16:28:00.000-07:002010-06-28T16:29:32.717-07:00Focused on Matching / Focalizados en emparejamientoMost of the activities we did last week were focused on fine motor skills and matching. Matching is one of the skills children need in order to help them to become a reader.When we read, part of what we do involves matching. Children learn to match colors, shapes, patterns, letters and, finally, words.<br />
Here you have some details about what we did.<br />
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<blockquote>La mayoría de las actividades que hicimos la semana pasada estuvieron focalizadas en motricidad fina y emparejamiento. Emparejar es una de las habilidades que los niños necesitan para ayudarles a leer. Cuando leemos, parte de lo que hacemos involucra emparejar. Los niños aprenden a emparejar colores, formas, patrones, letras y, finalmente, palabras. <br />
En este post estan los detalles de lo que nosotros hicimos.</blockquote><br />
<strong>Marbles on golf tees</strong>. I've seen this activity on lots of blogs and have always wanted to do it with Ian. I put some golf tees in a styrofoam block and Ian had to balance marbles on the tees. He did it very well and was able to match the color of the tees with the color of the marbles. <br />
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<blockquote><strong>Canicas y soportes de pelotas de golf</strong>. He visto esta actividad en varios blogs. Lo que hice fue poner algunos soportes de pelotas de golf en un bloque de tecnopor e Ian tuvo que colocar canicas en ellos. El lo hizo bastante bien y fue capaz de emparejar el color de las canicas con el de los soportes. </blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLsFaJJbSkKFuF8Nf7RxUKHaWpZkRAt-_abk05L9jWGUmNEaQfnMYns2G8b_DH2sYH6ESrdVqiuQ2gGO2nsrRtVGVCezwAP2_NE-M2IUp0rg4Aw_As-TUFGGBA3ruWSssC12ozbNV-hvlG/s1600/DSC05077.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLsFaJJbSkKFuF8Nf7RxUKHaWpZkRAt-_abk05L9jWGUmNEaQfnMYns2G8b_DH2sYH6ESrdVqiuQ2gGO2nsrRtVGVCezwAP2_NE-M2IUp0rg4Aw_As-TUFGGBA3ruWSssC12ozbNV-hvlG/s320/DSC05077.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Play dough and cocktail sticks.</strong> I made balls with different colors of play dough. Ian had to put every ball onto one cocktail stick which was the same color as the ball and then transfer it to a tray. In the beginning, pricking the balls with the sticks was not that easy, but soon Ian caught the technique and enjoyed it.<br />
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<blockquote><strong>Plastilina y palitos de coctel.</strong> Hice algunas bolitas con plastilina de diferentes colores. Ian tuvo que poner cada bolita en un palito de coctel que fuera del mismo color que la bolita y luego transferirlos a una bandeja. Al comienzo, pinchar las bolitas con los palitos no fue tan fácil para Ian, pero una vez que encontró la técnica se divirtió mucho.</blockquote><br />
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<strong>Picture-to-picture matching.</strong> At the moment, Ian is not interested in matching picture cards, so I devised a matching activity using butterfly stickers. I scanned the stickers and printed a two-column worksheet: the first column had the butterfly pictures and the other was empty for Ian to match the stickers with the pictures and stick them in the corresponding row. He really liked this activity and used the three sets of stickers we had. Later, I tried to get him to repeat the activity with bear stickers, but as yet he does not like the changes, so he won’t even let me remove the worksheet from the table.<br />
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<blockquote><strong>Emparejando imagenes</strong>. En este momento, Ian no está interesando en emparejar tarjetas de figuras, así que idee una actividad usando pegatinas de mariposas. Primero, escanee las pegatinas e imprimi una hoja de trabajo con dos columnas: en la primera columna inserté las figuras de las mariposas y la otra quedó vacia para que Ian colocara las pegatinas que hicieran pareja. Ian realmente disfrutó esta actividad y usó los tres grupos de pegatinas que tuvimos. Después, traté de que él repitiera la actividad usando pegatinas de osos, pero en este momento a él no le gustan los cambios, así que ni siquiera me dejó quitar la hoja de trabajo de la mesa. </blockquote><br />
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<strong>Number recognition.</strong> I printed three number strips and had Ian attempt to stick the matching number sticker in the corresponding cell. He had done a similar activity some weeks ago and at that time he was only focused on matching the numbers, I mean he did not care if he put some numbers upside down; this time he was very concerned to place the sticker just over the number printed on the sheet (by the way, it was the same with the butterflies, he lifts off the stickers and places them over and over again until he is happy with their position).<br />
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<blockquote><strong>Reconocimiento de números</strong>. Imprimí tres tiras de números y dejé que Ian pegara sobre cada número la pegatina de número correspondiente. El ha hecho una actividad similar hace unas semanas y en ese momento el solo se concentró en emparejar los números con las pegatinas, es decir, a él no le importó pegar las pegatinas al revés. Esta vez, él se preocupó de poner las pegatinas justo sobre el número impreso. Por cierto, sucedió lo mismo con las mariposas; el despego varia veces las pegatinas hasta que estuvo feliz con su posición).</blockquote><br />
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<strong>Silhouette vegetables matching puzzle.</strong> This puzzle has nine vegetable pieces and each of them are in a square wooden frame which is removable too, so we can change the order of the pieces. I have been rotating this puzzle for various weeks. In the beginning Ian just removed the pieces and squares of the puzzle, but this week he was able to match some silhouette squares with the corresponding vegetable piece.<br />
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<blockquote><strong>Rompecabezas de siluetas de vegetales</strong>. Este rompecabezas tiene nueve piezas de vegetales y cada uno encaja en un marco removible, de tal manera que podemos cambiar el orden de las piezas. He estado poniendo y sacando este rompecabezas durante las últimas semanas. Al principio Ian sólo sacaba las piezas y los marcos, pero esta semana pudo emparejar los marcos de las siluetas con la pieza del vegetal correspondiente.</blockquote><br />
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I will link this post in <a href="http://www.onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a> where you can see how other toddlers learned using the montessori method. <br />
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<blockquote>Voy a vincular este post en <a href="http://www.onehookwonder.blogspot.com/">One Hook Wonder</a> donde pueden ver como otros niños aprenden usando el Método Montessori.</blockquote>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-46012420489438934322010-06-23T14:55:00.000-07:002010-06-23T14:55:23.905-07:00Learning Body Parts / Aprendiendo las partes del cuerpoMusic and singing are a fun and effective way to help young children learn. We are pairing singing with movement and this is allowing Ian to not only hear the music, but also feel and move to the rhythms, express himself and learn new words. <br />
At this moment, he is learning his body parts just listening and dancing these songs: <br />
<ul><li>One Finger One Thumb Keep Moving </li>
<li>Head Shoulder Knees and toes </li>
<li>Doctor Knickerbocker, Knickerbocker, number nine </li>
<li>Dry Bones </li>
<li>Where is Thumbkin </li>
</ul>At bedtime he likes to rub cream and talcum powder on his body. He enjoys this sensorial activity as well as recognizing and naming the parts of his body. <br />
I am looking forward to having a whole body mirror. It will be very helpful for Ian to learn more about his body. <br />
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<blockquote>La música y el canto son una manera divertida y efectiva para ayudar a los niños pequeños a aprender. <br />
Con Ian combinamos el canto con el movimiento. Esto le permite no sólo escuchar la música, sentir y moverse al ritmo de ella sino también aprender nuevas palabras. En este momento, el está aprendiendo las partes de su cuerpo escuchando y bailando estas canciones:<br />
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<ul><li>One Finger One Thumb Keep Moving </li>
<li>Head Shoulder Knees and toes </li>
<li>Doctor Knickerbocker, Knickerbocker, number nine </li>
<li>Dry Bones </li>
<li>Where is Thumbkin </li>
</ul>Antes de acostarse a Ian le gusta echarse crema y talco a su cuerpo. El disfruta mucho esta actividad sensorial así como el poder reconocer y nombrar las partes de su cuerpo.<br />
Espero que pronto tengamos un espejo de cuerpo entero. Este será muy útil para que Ian siga aprendiendo sobre su cuerpo.</blockquote><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0gERhTFD0CBprNZaYHiKlSkyLVxKsFJh5v4cqMU8OkUJXvnIrWXbrbxA5o_b4G4D6fBY31Pmx016ZUWFkEewvPuvs1kxv8I2x_QQI42OYzOg4epIwYVH_2qwM2nkW-Jp7NqBLiPxlciQX/s1600/DSC04934.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0gERhTFD0CBprNZaYHiKlSkyLVxKsFJh5v4cqMU8OkUJXvnIrWXbrbxA5o_b4G4D6fBY31Pmx016ZUWFkEewvPuvs1kxv8I2x_QQI42OYzOg4epIwYVH_2qwM2nkW-Jp7NqBLiPxlciQX/s320/DSC04934.JPG" /></a></div>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6344854889594442506.post-90651751048375476112010-06-22T14:13:00.000-07:002010-06-22T15:02:59.216-07:00Let's Wiggle / BailemosAs I told you in the previous post, Ian is having so much fun dancing. He is exploring the ability and function of his own body. He suddenly has become very active, wanting to move around and explore whenever he get the opportunity. And dancing is doubtlessly advantageous, and for toddlers, it also helps them to learn more about how they can move their bodies and exercise different parts.<br />The music/song of the following video is part of the The Wiggles's CD <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Wiggle-Wiggles/dp/B0000C8AVW?ie=UTF8&tag=raiian-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Let's Wiggle</a><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px! important; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0px! important; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px! important; MARGIN: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0px! important; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height="1" alt="" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raiian-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0000C8AVW" width="1" border="0" />. Ian loves The Wiggles music. Their lyrics and choreographies are simple and very fun, which is perfect for young children.<br /><br /><blockquote><p>Como les conté en el post anterior, Ian se está divirtiendo muchísimo bailando. El está explorando las habilidades y funcionamiento de su propio cuerpo. De repente, el se ha vuelto muy activo, se mueve de un lado a otro constantemente, explorando cada vez que tiene una oportunidad. Y bailar es sin lugar a dudas beneficioso, y para los niños pequeños, esto también les ayuda a aprender sobre cómo pueden mover sus propios cuerpos y ejercitar las diferentes partes del mismo.<br />La musica del siguiente video es parte del CD <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Wiggle-Wiggles/dp/B0000C8AVW?ie=UTF8&tag=raiian-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Let's Wiggle </a><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px! important; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0px! important; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px! important; MARGIN: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0px! important; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height="1" alt="" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raiian-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0000C8AVW" width="1" border="0" />de The Wiggles. A Ian le encanta la musica de este grupo. Sus letras y coreografías son simples y muy divertidas, lo cual es perfecto para niños pequeños.</p></blockquote><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzsM-JCJVymBxbnym4GPJI_RZw0L4srM_K_e9Y-z0k3RoONKu0dpDhQbOkg-YpTVwgYS67ynvQOs3luxpR9Ow' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16922585926860797277noreply@blogger.com0