Back to Basics

This 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.
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.

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.

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.

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.

Now, let's picture our week.

Practical Life

Dry Pouring Pitcher to Pitcher. This is the first Montessori exercise Ian did 6 months ago (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.

Vaseando solidos (garbanzos esta vez) jarra a jarra

Tweezers. Ian still can't use tweezers properly. I could not find small beads and the pom-poms I was using for this activity 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 Ten Black Dots, but what a mistake I made! :-) .. no even close to the pom-poms Mary-Ann at Counting Coconuts  made (I follow her tutorial :-). 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.

Usando una pinza para transferir pompones a una

bandeja de temperas. Ian desenrosca las tapas al empezar

y, una vez transferidos todos los pompones, enrosca

las tapas de acuerdo al color.

Sensorial

Sorting paper clips. 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 match keys. 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.

Clasificando clips por su forma y colgandolos en ganchitos.

Ejercitando sus sentidos y su motricidad fina.

Here you can see a bit of how the activities are set up around the dinning table.

Aqui se puede ver como estan dispuestas sus actividades
alrededor de la mesa del comedor

Language

Preparation for Reading and Writing

Figure Pattern Card. 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).

Emparejando las figuritas de la tarjeta de control (con fondo

verde aqui) con las de la canastita. Ejercitando la habilidad

para seguir un patron de izquiera a derecha y mejorar

coordinacion ojo-mano.

Pasting. 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.

Pegando recortes de papel de regalo. Ian usa un pincel

para aplicar la goma en el recorte antes de pegarlo y

una esponjita para limpiar

Math

Sequence/Patterns Puzzles. When I saw this craft 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.

Armando rompecabezas hecho con palitos. Para facilitar la

tarea, hice un marco donde marque la silueta de los palitos.

Estos y los del rompecabezas estan numerados.

Hice dos versiones: una con una foto de un par de peces

payaso (favoritos de Ian) y una foto de ambos.

Ejercitando la habilidad para reconocer numeros, seguir un

patron de izquiera a derecha, mejorar coordinacion ojo-mano

Counting puzzles. 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.

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

To 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.

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. 

And take a look at this contrast. I better laugh at myself :-)

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.

The details follow.
 
Practical Life

I did not prepare Practical Life "lessons" this week, except for using the sifter. The rest arose naturally in the kitchen, as usual.

Using a slotted spoon. 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.

Using a Sifter. 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.

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!

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 :-)

Rolling. 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.

Pouring. 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.

Sensorial

Transferring and sorting by color using a tong. This is our third activity with tongs (see the first one here and the second one here). 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.

Button outline matching. 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.

Science

Flashlight. After all the blackouts we've had lately, Ian has mastered switching on and off the flashlight and I wanted to show him more about its workings.
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.
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.

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.

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.

Great experiment for a curious boy. Great lesson to learn about how many parts make a whole.

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.

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

Making activities out of things from around the house

It 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.

Next are the activities I set up for Ian last week following him and taking advantage of the stuff we have at hand.

Screwing/unscrewing color sorter

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.

Replacing marker caps

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.

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.

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.

Matching stickers silhouette

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.

Playdoh numbers, spatula and matching numbers

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.

Buttons sorting board

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 post was the one that showed me this alternative.

Well, last week I felt inspired for this toy 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.

Matching vegetables and fruit silhouette

For this activity I download the printables from here. 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.

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

Getting interested in sensory activities

When 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.

Washing leaves. 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.

Sugar packs tearing and pouring. 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.

Preparing popsicles. 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.

Matching plastic containers and lids. 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.

Sorting fruits and vegetables. 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.

Pairing shoes. 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.

Matching color with clothes peg. 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.

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