Play and Work in our Montessori Homeschool

Ian is a challenge in homeschooling: he hardly engages with an "work" activity. However, it gets easier whever the activity has a "play" component.

In this respect, NAMC blog  posted an interesting article about "Play and Work in Montessori Education". Here is an extract:

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.”

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.

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 Karen Tyler, about her take on it. She explained it to me:

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.

On the other hand, Colleen  at Sunrise Learning Lab gave me some great advice concerning Ian's fantasy interests, in order to:

... 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.

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.

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!

Having said that, let's check out what Ian did at homeschool this week.

Practical Life

Slotted spoon. 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.

Usando una espumadera para separar canicas
planas y arroz

Cutting and sticking paper with adhesive tape. 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 :-)

Cortando cinta scotch del porta cinta y pegando figuritas

Spooning. 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.

Usando una cuchara para transferir canicas planas
a una cubetera de hielo, una por una

Sensorial

Sorting erasers. 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.

Clasificando y apilando borradores con figuritas de

la pelicula "Cars"

Size discrimination. 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 magnet tray 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.

Atrayendo objetos con un iman, discriminando forma
y tamaño para emparejarlos con su correspondiente
imagen

Texture balloons.  I saw this idea in Chasing Cheerios 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.

Explorando granularidad a travez del tacto con globos

rellenos con garbanzos, lentejas, linaza y harina

Matching picture-objects. 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.

Emparejando peces tropicales con su imagen

Math

One-to-one correspondence. 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.

Correspondencia uno-a-uno: estacionando cada uno
de sus trencitos en un estacionamiento (numerado)
exclusivo

Language

Emotions.  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  The Way I Feel, 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.

Representando y nombrando distintos sentimientos

 ilustrados en el libro The Way I Feel

I am sharing this post on One Hook Wonder where you can see other toddlers learning according to the Montessori Method.

Diversifying activities

Ian 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.

Here is the review of the activities:

Practical Life:

Arranging Eggs. 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.

Preparing mashed potato. 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.

Sweeping into a dustpan. 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.

Hair barrettes and headbands. I had seen this activity in My Montessori Journey. 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!!!
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.

Pre-Reading Skills

Matching picture to object. 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.

Sensorial (and more fine motor skills)

Color matching with dot stickers.  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.

Pipe cleaner and beads.  The original version of this activity come from Itty Bitty Love. 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.

Art

Spice Collage. 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.
What I loved about this activity was how it encouraged Ian to touch, smell, see, and even taste.
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.
Another thing that I liked about it was that it is easy to clean up. This reminds me of the experience of Nicole at One Hook Wonder with glitter :-)

Finally, I love the exquisite aroma of the picture!!!

Pre-math skill

Introducing Pattern. 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.

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.

So, I prepared a playful  activity to start talking about patterns. I printed two sets of this Hungry Caterpillar Cut and Paste worksheet, 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.

I am sharing this post in One Hook Wonder where you can see other toddlers learning according the Montessori Method.

Fruit! / Fruta!

One of the first morning activities of Ian is “greet” the plants at the garden. He has seen his Auntie Kathy giving reiki to the plants and tries to do the same touching every plant carefully, saying something to them that I cannot understand yet. He also likes watering the flowers after his morning swinging. I am surprised how skilful he is using the hose and watering can. At the beginning, he used them just to play and watered everywhere, but now, he focus on watering specifically the shrubs and flowers. He can recognize which plants needs water, which are dry or wet, so he does not water the plants more than once.

Una de las primeras actividades que realiza Ian en la mañana es saludar a las plantas en el jardín. Él ha visto a su tía Kathy darles reiki a las plantas y trata de hacer lo mismo, él tocar cada planta cuidadosamente, diciéndoles algo que no puedo entender todavía. También le gusta regar las plantas después de columpiarse. Estoy sorprendida la habilidad que tiene para utilizar la manguera y la regadera. Al principio, él sólo jugaba con el agua y mojaba por lados, pero ahora, se concentra en regar específicamente los arbustos y flores. Él puede reconocer que plantas necesitan agua, cuales están secas o mojadas, por lo que sólo las riega cuando lo necesitan.

I supposed to talk about the fruits but I got excited talking about his cute activities at the garden. Let’s start again…

Se supone que iba a hablar de las frutas, pero me emocione mucho hablando sobre las tiernas actividades de mi chanchito en el jardín. Empecemos de nuevo...

The first time he saw the fruit trees he was so excited for his discovery, said very loudly Fruit! Fruit!, reaped some and put them into the fruit dish. I was really surprised Ian could recognize the fruits because they were entirely green. Since then, he visits the fruit trees every morning but now, he understands the fruit is not ripe yet.

La primera vez que Ian vio los árboles frutales estaba tan emocionado por su descubrimiento que gritaba Fuit! Fuit! cosechó algunas y las puso en la frutera. Estuve realmente sorprendida que Ian pudiera reconocer las frutas ya que estaban totalmente verdes. Desde entonces, él visita los árboles frutales todas las mañanas, pero ahora el entiende que las frutas aun no están maduras.

Currently, he is very interested on fruit names and he has learned some fruit names listening The Wiggles’ song “Fruit Salad”. In order to support his interest, I’ve made a placemat with photos of fruits and vegetables. He likes it, and asks us to name the pictures. When he thinks we are not near, he tries to pronounce the names of the pictures (he is shy … until he gets the pronunciation correct).

Actualmente, él esta muy interesado en aprender los nombres de las frutas y ha aprendido algunos escuchando la canción Fruit Salad de The Wiggles. A fin de apoyar su interés he hecho un individual con fotos de frutas y vegetales. A el le encanta y siempre nos pregunta por los nombres. Cuando el piensa que esta solito, trata de pronunciar los nombres (él es tímido … hasta que logra la pronunciación perfecta).

Red color recognition/ Reconocimiento del color rojo

In recent days we have done several activities using color red.

Durante los últimos días hemos hecho varias actividades usando el color rojo

Stamps and recognize shapes. To make these stamps I cut sponges and plastic bottles in the shapes that we are working with (circle, triangle and square); then I used silicone to glue each piece of sponge to its corresponding plastic piece; finally I glued, also with silicone, bottle caps in order to easily manipulate the stamps.

Estampar y reconocer figuras. Para hacer los sellos recorte esponjas y botellas plásticas en las formas que estamos trabajando (círculo, triangulo y cuadrado); luego use silicona para pegar cada pieza de esponja a su correspondiente pieza plástica; finalmente pegue, también con silicona, tapas de botellas para facilitar la manipulación.

Playdough and recognize numbers. I had tried several homemade recipes for playdough, but I never achieved a consistency appropriate for Ian. The one we use now is a commercial one, it is soft, its texture is pleasant and it has a delicious smell of cinnamon. Ian loves it and he is always tempted to eat it.

Jugar con plastilina y reconocer números. He intentado varias recetas caseras para hacer plastilina, pero nunca he logrado una de consistencia apropiada para Ian. La que usamos ahora es comercial, es suave, su textura es agradable y además tiene un delicioso olor a canela. A Ian le encanta olerla y siempre está tentado a comérsela.

Scribble, count and recognize numbers. When Ian was about 18 months old he loved to scribble with crayons, markers or crayons. Today it is not one of his favorite activities, but I am including it for the benefits it has for children, namely:

• It helps develop independent thinking in children, since a scribbling child gets to think without bounds and without help from anyone.
• It helps develop greater finger control in children, enabling them to be fast and efficient with activities such as writing or brushing.
• It introduces children to the power of writing—through the process of scribbling, your child learns that a lot can be achieved by writing on a blank space.
• It allows children to express their thoughts and feelings without any inhibitions. This can be a very good way of letting out both negative and positive emotions in a pleasant and subtle way.

I give him a numbered coloring page. Before he starts scribbling I name the objects, count them and name the number. He seems to be noting the differences between using color pencils, crayons and markers.

Colorear, contar y reconocer números. Cuando Ian tenía alrededor de 18 meses le encantaba garabatear con lápices, marcadores y crayones. Hoy no es una de sus actividades favoritas, pero la estoy incluyendo por los beneficios que tiene para los niños, digamos:

• Les ayuda a desarrollar un pensamiento independiente , ya que un niño que garabatea llega a pensar sin límites y sin la ayuda de nadie más
• Les ayuda a desarrollar el control de sus dedos, permitiéndoles ser rápidos y eficientes en actividades como escribir y cepillar
• Les muestra el poder de la escritura –a través del proceso de garabatear, el niño aprende lo mucho que puede lograr escribiendo en un espacio en blanco
• Les permite expresar sus pensamientos y sentimientos sin inhibiciones. Esto puede ser una buena manera de sacar emociones tanto positivas como negativas en una manera placentera y sutil

Para trabajar le doy una hoja para colorear números. Al empezar nombro los objetos, los cuento y nombro el número. Ahora el parece estar observando la diferencia entre usar lápices de colores, crayones y marcadores.

Increase vocabulary. Now that Ian has a strong desire to talk I am making some vocabulary cards again; he enjoys them very much.

Ampliar vocabulario – Ahora que Ian tiene un fuerte deseo de hablar he vuelto a hacer tarjetas de vocabulario y él las disfruta mucho.

Paying attention to words / Poniendo atención a las palabras

Lately Ian has been very focused on talking and, his books and music CDs are his best sources to learn new vocabulary. His favorite book at this time is Llama Llama Red Pajama("Sha Sha" for him)

Últimamente Ian está muy focalizado en hablar y los libros y sus CDs de música son sus mejores fuentes para aprender nuevas palabras. Su libro preferido en este momento es Llama Llama Red Pajama(Sha Sha para él)

The book addresses the fear that so many little children (such as Ian) feel when their moms leave their rooms at night. The story is narrated in rhyming fashion and the facial expressions of the illustrations are great.
Ian loves this book (I guess he understands the story very well) and he wants us to read it over and over again. His is more and more participating during reading: he is completing the phases increasingly (shyly, when he does not pronounce well the word and triumphantly when he thinks he has got the pronunciation correctly ), or, mimicking the behaviour of the little llama, which is so hilarious and cute (see the photo below where he's "wating wating for his mama...")

El libro aborda el miedo que tantos niñitos (como Ian) sienten cuando su mamá sale de su habitación en la noche. La historia está narrada en rima y las expresiones faciales de las ilustraciones son geniales.
A él le encanta la historia (supongo que entiende muy bien de que se trata) y quiere que la leamos una y otra vez. Su participación es cada vez más activa: completando las frases (tímidamente cuando es una palabra que aun no pronuncia bien y muy eufórico cuando cree que ha logrado la pronunciación correcta) o, dramatizando las emociones y las acciones, es tan divertido, como en la foto de abajo donde esta "esperando, esperando por su mama...".

His favorite music CD is Yummy Yummy of The Wiggles. It is not new, however, the manner in which Ian heard it now is new. When he wants to listen (several times a day) he says "to to" (for "Hot Potato", one of the songs) shaking his arms and head (so cute) and stays in his room, so concentrated that he forgets that I am not with him. When I observe him secretly, sometimes he is very quiet, surely trying to understand the lyrics, other times singing the words he knows, dancing at other times or playing his instruments.

Su CD de música favorito es Yummy Yummy de The Wiggles. No es nuevo, sin embargo la manera en que Ian lo escucha ahora es nueva. Cuando quiere escucharlo (varias veces al día) dice “to to” (por Hot Potato, una de las canciones) sacudiendo brazos y cabecita (tan lindo él) y permanece en su habitación, tan abstraído que olvida que yo no estoy con él. Para no cohibirlo suelo espiarlo y a veces lo encuentro muy quieto, parece estar tratando de entender las letras, “cantando” las palabras que conoce, bailando otras veces o tocando sus instrumentos.

Speaking of instruments, we use a can of coffee as a drum. I have not emptied its content because sometimes he opens the lid and enjoys the coffe smell, it is also a good practice for him to remove and put the lid of the tin. Today, while we was listening to The Wiggles, alone, I smelt a delicious coffee smell, when I went to his room, he was spreading the coffee all over his body, he appeared to enjoy the feel so I left him and only when he finished I gave him a spoon to scoop back the coffee to the can. A mess that became a source of learning.

Hablando de instrumentos, usamos una lata de café como tambor. No he vaseado su contenido porque a veces en la abre y disfruta de su olor (me dice “smell” y me acerca la lata), también es una buena práctica para el quitar y poner la tapa de la lata. Hoy día, mientras escuchaba a The Wiggles, solo, empecé a sentir un delicioso olor a café, cuando fui a espiarlo, estaba esparciendo el café sobre sus él, parecía disfrutar tanto la sensación que lo deje solo y cuando terminó le di una palita para que regresara el café a la lata. Un desorden que se convirtió en una fuente de aprendizaje.