MWEI

I'm off to do the MWEI Foundation Theory Workshop tomorrow! Shall tell you all about it next week. Have a happy weekend :)

Montessori work cycle: Thursday July 30th

What's up doc?

At the end of last term Hug told me that he would like to start taking a lunch bag to school instead of his basket, & while I love the baskets I do understand ;) So it was agreed that he could have one for the return to school. I saw some really nice ones but at $35 each (of course - Lovely wants one too! So, make that $70 in total) I just couldn't justify it.

Then, I remembered that they'd been given a pair of insulated lunch bags for Christmas but the Police theming wasn't going to fly at school...

So, after much consideration Hug chose a new theme - the Easter Bunny! I'd let slip a few days earlier that it was only 8 weeks until his birthday & he said that he wanted an Easter Bunny Party?! Too funny - I'm sure it's just because he thinks it's the only way to ensure that there will be chocolate at the party:) Lovely wasn't so subtle & actually asked for a Chocolate Party for his last birthday!

And here is the 'new' lunch bag. He loves it :)

I wish I hadn't used blanket stitching around the edges because it is a little rough & ready but otherwise I'm happy. I got the pattern from here.

Hello :)

And a carrot zipper.

Beach soccer

Everyone enjoyed playing beach soccer on the weekend but I was particularly impressed with Hug :) I hope you're enjoying your first day back at school sweetheart.

Montessori work cycle: Tuesday July 28th

Howdeee! Well, it's been almost 3 weeks since we had our last work cycle - the school holidays proved very busy & fun but today was Hug's first day back so Lovely & I decided to start back also :)

We're still in the week for 'Parts of the Body' in the NCM guides. Today is feet! We sang a variation on 'Open, Shut Them' (using our legs & clapping our feet) and did a Flamingo Yoga Pose - standing on one foot. Then I showed Lovely how we could use body-lotion to massage our feet.

He *really* enjoyed using the pump on the lotion & rubbed an amazing amount all over his feet but didn't exactly get the idea of massage - but that will be fun to work on in the future!

After our songs and games (and foot rubbing - we put our socks back on & washed our hands) we officially start the work cycle with the ringing of these Tibetan Hand Chimes. In our variation on The Silence Game Lovely closes his eyes when I sound the chimes & keeps them closed until the reverberating sound has completely finished. That's when he goes & opens the doors to our Montessori cupboard.

The first thing he spied was the hand cards pouch! Yippee! He was very excited & I was happy that putting that extra effort into presenting them well really sparked his enthusiasm in the work.

Matching the words. I was unsure how this would go with cursive but he was really observant & with some effort got them all matched up correctly. That's pretty amazing when you try to consider doing the same type of activity in a language that you can't actually read yet.

Packing the cards back into the pouch was another highlight.

I had made him a new blindfold over the holidays (which I'll post about later) & here he's trying it out with the Mystery Bag.

While the blindfold was out I took these cylinder blocks off the shelf, mixed the pieces up in a pile & showed him how I could sort them by size back into the wooden tray (with the blindfold on). He thought I was so silly for not being able to match them by colour too! So I asked him if he wanted a turn, which he did. This was his end result & he was shocked when he took the blindfold off! I think this will be a great challenge & lots of fun for him :)

The blindfold was quickly discarded so he could put it back together correctly!

Hammering has become using-our-finger-to-push-the-tacks-in but I think that's probably great for his fingers too. Here is a boat with a sail.

I presented him with the the 'r' and 'a' Sandpaper Letters (following My Montessori Journey's sequence of letter introduction) & the salt box. He was interested in the letters...

But he was in *love* with the salt box! It was lucky that I'd asked him to get a tray to put it on because there was quite a bit spilt ;)

Using the mini dustpan & brush to clean up the salt.

While looking for the dustpan he found his water spray bottle & wanted to spray so I showed him which plants might be thirsty.

This one needs extra love! Watch out doggy-B ;)

The enthusiasm for spraying took him out into the yard so I presumed our work cycle was over.

But he did come back in for one last look at an activity I'd left out: Parts of a Paintbrush (NCM). Check out that paintbrush! I know we have some nice ones in the shed but when I put this together last night I had to settle for what I could find it the house! Lovely was a bit startled by the brush & kept saying it should go away because it would get paint on things! It was completely dry, of course. To make this work I just traced the paintbrush & printed some labels. Easy-peasy :)

Our beach-y camping holiday!