Montessori Monday

Following Shannon's lead, I am going to attempt to post something Montessori-related every some Monday. We'll see how it goes.
Koko is presently into building numbers with beads described here. I used small cups for containers, but I think something more like a prescription bottle lid or even a kimchee jar lid would be better because the child can see it better.

The simplicity of this activity is amazing. Instead of teaching children the concept of 10, 20, 30, etc. he/she is taught, "one tens, two tens" and with the tactile and visual aid of the golden rods and the concept clicks almost instantly. Koko made a long horizontal line, but I had to divide the long line into two pictures. Notice that I don't have the hundreds or thousands. I need to stock up on more Montessori equipment soon.

In the meantime, Cheeky is currently working with the knobbed cylinders and sorting colored felt pom poms by color. I don't think she knows her colors that well yet, but she just has fun plunking the pom poms in a container.

It's funny to see Cheeky assisting Koko on her new creations made of the pink tower, brown stair, and unknobbed cylinders. I don't know if this is standard Montessori practice, but I just do it. Edited: My Montessori teacher friend confirmed that the knobless cylinders are not meant to go with the pink tower and brown stair, though the pink tower and brown stair are complimentary. And apparently, I built the numbers the wrong direction! It's supposed to go from right to left...oops.

Here's Koko making a Montessori-inspired tower with my tupperware. It was taller but it fell down before I could take a shot.