I've been obsessing since spring on what big Montessori purchases I should buy next. Money is a little tight and as a result, I've given up on the binomial cube, any more map purchases, (we only have a homemade World and a North America map from Adena) the weight cylinders, constructive triangles, and the pressure cylinders. Plus hold off on the stamp game until next year. Sniff. Though I think Shannon came up with the brilliant idea of putting pennies inside film canisters to make homemade weight cylinders. If you have a family member who fishes, I heard that fishing weights are also good. There are even lead-free ones...
I've pretty much made up my mind that I really, really want that bead cabinet material from Alison's. But I am going to try to have the husband make a make-shift bead cabinet with a huge peg board and pegged shelves. Or worse comes to worse, Shannon did point me to a mother who just keeps all her bead material in boxes so that her one-year-old couldn't have access to them.
So, now my dilemma is do I make the zillions of arrows for the bead cabinet myself with these arrows or do I go the lazy route and just purchase them for $50 at Alison's? I did notice that their arrows come in clear plastic boxes and that I would have to purchase the colored boxes separately. Are the colored boxes worth it for homeschooling use, too?
I am also planning on buying the multiplication board and I am also hoping to just buy one black and white bead stair because I heard that I could still do the addition snake game with one set of the black and white bead stair, 2 sets of the colored bead stair that I already have, and the bunch of golden rods that I also own. I am also debating whether to buy this Three Part Cards Tray which is a lot cheaper than Montessori Services ($10 versus $30)or make a construction paper version of this 3-part-card pouch. Or I could do something like this with reconstructed shoe boxes.
I plan on eventually making the addition and subtraction strips and I was also going to make the 100 board myself and bought some ceramic mosaic tiles for that purpose, but I just realized that if I bought the same size tiles as the control board Alison's offers, it might be even more practical. I hope my kids didn't shred the receipt! Yes, we're hiding our wallets because our kids are such enthusiastic shredders.
Finally, a Montessori-related purchase is a standard globe at a reasonable price. I am going to skip all the sandpaper globes (I've shown them the sandpaper ones at our trips to Montessori schools) but we sing these continent songs that mention how "Earth is a great big ball" and my kids want an actual globe! At one time, I heard that Target had globes for cheap. If anyone sees a sale on globes, give me a shout!
5 comments:
I saw a globe today at the goodwill on 29th street. It was one with the darker blue ocean but it seemed pretty. I did not check the price, but how much could it be?
Hi - You might want to consider purchasing the peg board instead of the multiplication board as it can be used in the same way and also for addition, subtraction, division. Also, I used card stock in my printer and made the arrows by hand. It wasn't all that time consuming in the end. However, I used small plastic bags for holders and it isn't as attractive as the plastic boxes! I may look for some boxes at the dollar store sometime.
Also, I bought some of the puzzle maps and then bought the labeled control maps for the other continents. They are very inexpensive and the kids can use them for tracing, etc. in some of the same ways as the map puzzle. That said, my girls do use the map puzzles a huge amount.
One last thought - if you have a Mill store or something like that where you can buy inexpensive unfinished trays - or even any basic tray, you can glue strips of wood down to create sorting/three part trays.
Have fun and enjoy your classroom! Judith
Judith,
What great ideas! It's too bad that I already purchased the multiplication board, but I am going to look into the peg board.
I am also curious if you bought the bead cabinet itself or if you just hammered some shelves and hooks in a wall.
Oh, couldn't you just go mad buying stuff! My 'want to buy' list and my 'want hubby to make' list is always growing and having things crossed off as i try to maximise what I can buy. And then the disappointment when you buy somehting they don't love ... I love some of the suggestions from your other commenters. (just found your blog by the way - hi!)
Adena has the beads and cabinet at a really great price right now $289! I just ordered one (of course, at this price its on backorder until Dec/Jan).
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