Montessori at its best is full of discovery. After over a year of working with this, Koko made the connection between the pink stairs and brown stairs for the very first time. Totally self-led. Oh, and why is the rug so dirty? The wonderful nutcracker...
Another day, I did pose a question: Which one is taller?
She was thrilled to realize that they are the same height/width.------------------------
After plunking coins in a bank, Cheeky outlines a chair's border.
After working with golden rods, Koko makes stars.-----------------
For a Montessori homeschooler, there are limitations with the equipment. Sometimes I need to hide everything before little friends come. I know I am going to have difficulties with the baby when he starts toddling. And to be frank, sometimes I see the chips and dents in the sensorial equipment and wish I just bought a bunch of various quality building blocks instead.
There's also more freedom with being a homeschooler. I do allow my children to "play" with the equipment as well. Though I moved all unit building blocks to the living room and bought a lot of wooden peg people so that my children wouldn't be so tempted to make vast buildings with all the sensorial equipment in the school room. But even that, I wonder if I should just allow. My logic that I explained to Koko is that she's old enough to know the difference between working with the equipment for it's proper purpose and then to just to play with it, but Cheeky who just turned three doesn't understand so we need to be good models and only build with the sensorial equipment sometimes, not all the time.What do you think?
7 comments:
I love all the inventive creations! Lining up the chair with coins is experimenting perimeters. The stars are my favorite. If I had to choose between using Montessori toys for work or play, then I would choose play but the best is when both work and play come together!
It's a tough question. I let Beeper get creative with the Montessori tools, but I give him some ground rules to avoid abuse (like: red rods are not for hitting together; they are not drumsticks). He's more intersted in the regular blocks these days, though, and he hardly ever pulls out the montessori ones. Maybe when I finally get that shelf and can have them displayed better?
Thanks for the link to the downloads! It has wonderful other downloads I look forward to using!
How are you doing these days?
Yes! The base tens blocks are pretty much the same as the Montessori toys but they are cheaper because they are not made with wood. I would love the wooden set but too pricey for us. And I discovered the beads aren't cheap either and too time consuming.
I tend to have separate materials for play and then we have "work" materials for montessori time. I say do whatever works best for you and to keep your sanity....especially with a toddler around :)
I followed the directions here for the resurrection eggs.
http://www.rainbowcastle.org/resurrectioneggs.html
as for the objects, they were anything I could find. I cut a small thorn branch from our rose bush, made a cross using two small twigs wrapped in funwire, cut a piece of cork for bread, used the end of a kebab stick for spear, purple felt for cloth, etc. Let me know if there is anything specific in mind. I gave away the resurrection eggs to our church since the kids enjoyed them.
Hi Becky,
I met a homeschooling mom recently who has three children with the youngest who is about 18 months old. She told me she spends most of the time teaching them to get along. I wish we lived nearby so I can go over and help out. Take it easy on yourself. Don't try to do too much. All the teaching stuff can wait. Enjoy the little ones because before you know it, they'll be teaching themselves! I only have one and I look at her wistfully as i feel like she's growing up too fast! I miss the baby face!
If the weather is nice, perhaps, they can play outside while you look after the baby? Do you have a yard or a park nearby? Is there a student helper who can help play with the kids?
((Hugs)) to you and the kids,
min
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