Rubber Band Ball

Oooo ,just spotted this Rubber Band Ball activity on the Montessori Services website (sigh - I they have such fabulous stuff!) & it would so easy to make at home.

All that you need is a small 'starter' ball & a bag of rubber bands. I'm sure we have everything needed around the house already. Just start wrapping the bands around the ball (keeping them tight) until the ball is completely covered & the size you want & then ... bounce/throw/roll to your hearts content :)

This is, as the MS website says: A great activity to develop fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.

Wisdom

One of my latest-favourite bloggers, Mama-Om, has written yet another inspired post called The Path to Peace is Filled with Potholes (and I Lose My Way a Lot). Please read it if you have the time :)

{p.s. the image is my own, taken from a hot air balloon!}

The Art of Storytelling

I was just reading a post on GreenMama about reading & writing & I was thinking about how Hug just isn't very interested in either despite having learnt all of his letters years back in his Montessori preschool.

He started in Montessori at 3 and he's almost 6 now. And the truth of the matter is just that! He's just not *interested* in communicating that way yet. And that's cool :) This year has been full of amazing lessons for me... We guessed that Hug would enjoy the Waldorf Steiner kindergarten & I have written before how much he really does love it!

The beautiful thing is that despite the fact that he isn't interested in reading or writing at the moment (& despite knowing that he actually can) I am blissfully aware of how *full* of creative wonder & energy & enthusiasm & imagination he is! He creates elaborate 'puppet-shows' for us & will dictate well-structured stories for us to preserve for him. He "reads" (word-for-word by memory) favourite books to Lovely. We spend a lot of family time reading together & daddy T (who just so happens to be a children's author), in particular, has taken both boys on many exciting bed-time adventures this year, having graduated to classic chapter books. I am basking the joy that Hug experiences in the art of story-telling.

The time will come when he feels the desire to have private reading experiences & he will read for himself. The time will come when he has private thoughts & will want to write them down. I have no doubt that he will read & write. In fact I think that he will be rather prolific! Instead I am learning to peel back my own preconcieved ideas of when & how and embrace now.

GreenMama referenced a few articles (both Montessori & Waldorf) she was reading on the matter & my heart rose reading this one, entitled Why Waldorf Works, & I quote:

Working with a real knowledge of the developing child, Waldorf

teachers begin teaching reading by cultivating children's sense of

language and their inner capacities to form mental images. Vivid

verbal pictures and the use of rich language are constantly

employed in the classroom. Difficult vocabulary and complex

sentence structure are not held back in the telling of tales.

Children sing and recite a vast treasury of songs and poems that

many learn by heart. Children live into the world of imaginative

inner pictures, totally unaware that they are developing the most

important capacities needed for reading comprehension, for

reading with understanding. They learn naturally and joyfully.

Both of my boys are always bringing new stories & songs to our dinner table. Songs that they have learnt by heart at school, about the beauty of the world & the seasons. They tell me about wild adventures they have imagined & what their friends said in the playground & when I really listen they are also telling me who they *are*. The are both verbose (! ;) & wordy & articulate. My own more-Montessori instincts lean towards the intellectual (though I know that the heart of Montessori is about more than that) but my children show me a different type of intellect - that of spirit & heart & running in nature & awe & wonder.

We are all a work in progress & I have just as much to learn as they do :)

An early start / flowers

T had to leave at 6am this morning (he's away for another few days... bottom lip out) & Hug didn't want to miss him so he woke up at 4.30 am!

Thankfully, I didn't get up until 6 & after waving daddy T off we were into the breakfast routine. Hug started to stir up a bit of trouble (the *I'm looking for trouble* type that I'm sure any parent of siblings will recognise!) so I applied my new approach - which is: if you have time to sit around and cause trouble then you must need a job! Now, I don't know if this technique will work forever but it certainly did me well this morning :)

I explain that it isn't a 'punishment' - but he will have an extra job to do - and I quickly racked my brain for an appropriate task "Ummm... could you please empty the washing machine for me". Well, both the washer & dryer were full & he wanted to empty both so showed him where the dry clothes could go & then the basket would be free for the wet. "Thanks Hug :)" But, no, that wasn't enough - he also wanted to help me hang them out. Now, I don't usually hang out washing at 6.16 in the morning (!) but what the heck! It was lovely listening to the morning birds & Hug was strangely excited to be in charge of pairing & hangings socks.

Inside again, he said that he wanted to help with *more* extra jobs! I'm so loving this ;)

I insisted that they get themselves ready first (doing the jobs on their morning charts) & then they helped to make my bed (with just a few tears over how the covers should sit ;) & then Hug said he would like to vacuum. He vacuumed the lounge-room & the kitchen. Lovely wanted an special job too so he carried the recycling out to the bin for me.

So, by 7.30 we were out in the garden - all jobs done & both boys ready for school - & picking flowers. Well, I wasn't picking - I was photographing - obviously ;)

Then when one of the boys that goes to "school" with Lovely turned up unexpectedly, with his dad, so they had a run around in the yard while we drank tea. Phew! It's only 10.15am now & I'm sure it's gotta be time for bed ;)

Beach picnic :)

On Saturday morning, after a lazy start (ahhhhh, after having T away all week I so enjoyed a lazy start!) we headed to the beach for a family picnic in the sunshine.

The spread featuring a home-made layered focaccia.

I love bubbles!

A fruit salad of star-fruit, pink grapefruit, apple & strawberries.

Sparkling San Pellegrino.

A slice (to share :) of *raw* Avocado & Chocolate cake from the farmers market. Yum.

Hello :)

One happy dog.

Add water = bliss

Doggy B ran so much he hurt his hip the poor sausage... it's sad to think he's getting older :(

Sand!

And castles!

A family effort.

And, to finish off, a game of Bocce.

Ready...

Happy days :)

Sunflowers

Our newly thrifted Van Gogh print has found it's home down low in the cosy book corner :)