Winning the Race

This week was what I call a slow and steady week. Each day it didn't seem like we accomplished very much but at the end of the week when I reflect on all we did it really was a productive week.

So here are a few things we did this week:

Lydia learning the difference between smooth and rough with two different grades of sandpaper. (Sensorial)


Delores practicing her small button frame (Practical life)


Spooning black eyed peas (Practical life)


Hopping on the line with a bucket (Circle time)


Grading shades of Red. She was very excited that after working with the color box 1 and 2, pink finally made an appearance. (Sensorial)


Setting a table for casual dinner. (Practical life)


Checking her work with a template I intended to use for Lydia, but she never got around to doing it



Using the triangle inset. (Pre-writing/art)



Washing and drying the chalkboard. (Practical life)
She said she loved doing this. Personally I never saw the fun in doing these practical life activities but kids get a kick out of it. I guess because to adults it is work but to children they are helping do grown up things like clean.

Those days when it seems like we get a lot of work done are nice but in the end it is more important to let them work at their own pace.

Our Easter Activity Day

At the end of every month I make a calendar for lessons or activities I would like to get accomplished for the upcoming month. It may change a lot depending on what the girls are interested in, what did or didn't work or the interruption of short notice appointments. I'm not a very spur-of-the-moment kind or person, which I am trying to change, so the calendar helps me to see a map of what they will be learning as well as what I need to buy in advance to make the lessons. Yes, I do make most of their lessons, but that is another post for another day.

So anyway, I've found the best place to find holiday themed activities is on Pinterest. Here are some things we did last Friday in celebration of Easter.

This first is a counting game. The object is the roll the die, which only has ones and twos on the side, and the child gets the corresponding number of Easter themed erasers. The first to count out 10 wins the game.

Checking out my homemade die.


Playing the easter themed counting game.


Lining up the easter erasers.

After Lydia won the game, Delores just wanted to line them all up and count them.

Counting the easter easers

After they had changed clothes, made their beds, brush their teeth and combed their hair they came back for trays I'd put out on the shelf the night before.


Tonging poms into an egg tray. I was tempted to use jelly beans, but this was the first time Delores had used any kind of tongs so I used the poms instead. It's a good thing too because she tried to tong a jelly bean and it was too hard and she became frustrated. Always trust your gut.


Using a "B is for Bunny," template I snagged from here: Making Learning Fun . I don't particularly care for templates but I thought it was cute and it was a holiday and we have been working on our "B" sounds in our beginning sound basket so I caved.

Switch!



And just for the heck of it, practicing the padlocks and keys.


After the mats were put away I set out the egg dying stuff. There was a lot of practical life and sensorial activities involve in this. For instance spooning the eggs into the colored water. Mixing primaries to make secondary colors. Washing the eggs. Straining the eggs. Drying the eggs. The intense look of concentration on their faces told it all.

Dying eggs



Peeling eggs


Washing peeled eggs. Like all toddlers Lydia loves to play in water. When I asked if she would like to wash the eggs her eyes lit up. Just one of the many things that keep me on the montessori path.

With the peeled eggs I took one and cut it in half for each of them to try for snack with a little salt. Lydia made it very known that she did not like it and Delores just liked the egg whites. With the remaining two I made egg salad which Lydia loved and Delores hated (oddly enough).

After naps they got to "trace" Easter themed clip art onto our back door. They didn't really trace but they had fun so, oh well. You may have seen on other websites that people use things like foam or shoe polish or window paint. All of that stuff has to scraped off with a razor blade. We used dry erase markers. They scribble, the rub it off if they want to do it again and it is easy clean up.


Easter themed window "tracing" pictures.

We had a great productive, fun filled day that I'm sure we will probably be repeating for years to come.