(Trying to) Slow things down

Last week I talked about use getting out of the house more and socializing with other people, but this week I discovered that after all that busyness last week,and with the holiday weekend, we all felt like we needed to take it slow this week and just recover from all of it. Apparently the girls get just as worn out from going as I do. 

Pretending to nap on the couch. 

I still prepared activities and trays to put on the shelf but I let the girls decide when they wanted to work. I think we finally got to some on Thursday. Lydia wanted to do more than Delores but lessons still didn't last more than about 30 minutes. Here are some shots from this week. 

Musical sound bottles made from glass yoo-hoo bottles. 

They come 4 in a pack so they worked out perfectly and Josh and I got to enjoy a childhood favorite. :) Here she is playing only every other one on the musical scale. You can find information for how much water to put in for each scale on ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/how_5104489_make-music-water-glasses.html#page=0

Playing with the new fingerprint we got. Somehow she decided it would be a good idea to paint her body though. :)

Working with the nut and bolt board daddy made. 

She loved this. I even caught her standing beside her shelf and spinning the nuts on her shelf and then walking away. As a matter of fact she just came and got it off the shelf to work on as I am writing this. 

Realized she could wear the biggest one (5/8 of 1 in) like a ring.

Delores' turn

Working with sandpaper numbers mommy and daddy made.

She did well. She already knew 1 & 2, but did well with 3. Alas, she was done after a brief 3 period lesson.

Lydia's turn. She just had fun playing with these. 

Three period lessons don't work with her right now (very common for 2 year olds) so she just kind of did her own lesson.

*I'm going to try to do a separate post on both of the activities Josh and I made to go into more detail of how you can make your own.*

After that Lydia did some matching with paper clips and picture cards. 

Delores also did some name tracing with the new tracing paper we got. 

I made the name cards by typing their first and last names in Lucida Handwritiing font in the biggest size, cutting and pasteing their first and last name back to back on an index card, trimming down the index card and then laminated each side of the card using laminating contact paper you can buy by the roll where you find other contact paper and drawer liners (best purchase I ever made). 

Here's a close up

 

And her finished product. 

It feels like we didn't do much because we didn't spend much time in front of a mat, but when you look back through all the pictures we still did a good bit. This is really what montessori homeschooling is all about. For most of us having shelves everywhere and keeping all our materials out at one time just isn't practical nor do we have the space. When the principles are applied to everything in your life however, it doesn't really matter how much time you spend in front of a mat or how much money you spend or how much space you have the lessons still sneak themselves in somehow. I just love that.