http://www.flickr.com/photos/jojoebi/collections/72157603022772523/
an artist/mom shares some of her montessori creations for free:
she has butterfly life cycle and vegetable cards,
continent cards, 4 elements cards (fire, water, air, earth),
living and non-living cards,
art cards (from da vinci to warhol),
fruit and dinosaur cards and
penguin counting cards.
she also has a tutorial on how to make sound cylinders.
working with sanaa and subtraction
has made me have to remember
one of the pillars of montessori:
freedom to do work.
i felt sanaa had been ready for subtraction for some time
but she was resistant.
i tried to encourage her,
but she just was not interested.
it was SO frustrating for me,
but then i had to remind myself
that she would get to the work when she was willing
and self-motivated.
alHamdullilah,
that moment came,
i think, from a conversation we had
that required subtraction.
that spark of inspiration and interest
lit a desire in her.
here she’s using the subtraction chart
to solve problems
starting with 18 down to 1.
she quickly understood the pattern
and decided she didn’t need the chart.
if something was wrong
i would ask her to check her work with the subtraction chart.
she has progressed to the blank subtraction chart,
and subtraction dice game
(not montessori, i don’t think),
and subtraction stamp game.
reminder to self:
it is much easier to work with a child
when she is self-motivated.
have the work available,
have patience,
and have belief that the desire will manifest itself.
and when it does…whoa nelly!
doing the 100 chain.
counting by 1s,
and then by 10s.
afterwards she closed her eyes
and counted by 10s to 100.
the first few times she peeked,
but i didn’t say anything. (smile)
aya is not old enough for montessori yet,
but i’ve got to manage her somehow.
we have circle time at the beginning of every homeschool day:
after our welcome song
we discuss the date,
any current events or holidays,
value of the month,
surah of the week,
and do a song, rhyme or poem.
aya takes part in
and enjoys these activities.
but then what to do with her for the rest of the time?
i tried getting her up early
so that she’d be sleepy by the time homeschool was up and running.
i tried placating her with chips
– her favorite snack.
now i’m giving her activities she can do with success
and minimize frustration.
the good ones
often keep her occupied for a good 10-20 minutes at a time
so that i can do some work with the older girls.
here she’s stringing beads,
developing concentration,
eye-hand coordination,
hand strength/flexibility and pincher skills.
here’s a few of my favorite activities
for extending the use of the hundred board:
web sources:
http://letsplaymath.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/things-to-do-hundred-chart/
100 board activities: http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/662.html
100 board pdf:
http://www.mathwire.com/100board/hbpuzzles.pdf
100 board generator (start from 0 or 1):
http://themathworksheetsite.com/h_chart.html
100 board puzzles (pdf):
http://www.mathwire.com/100board/hbpuzzles.pdf
March 3 is Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival or Girls’ Festival), when people pray for the happiness and healthy growth of girls. Families with young daughters mark this day by setting up a display of dolls inside the house. They offer rice crackers and other food to the dolls.
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/calendar/march/hinamatsuri.html
empress and emperor origami dolls
http://www.tammyyee.com/origamidoll.html
kimono doll bookmark
http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/kimono-doll-bookmark-coloring-page/
simple origami doll
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/origami/doll/
more intricate japanese origami doll
http://guidinguk.freeservers.com/japanesedoll.html
and in case you don’t have origami paper lying around the house,
printable origami paper
http://www.thekhans.me.uk/origami/paper.php#new
quick hina matsuri-inspired recipe:
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jshoaf/Jdolls/hinafood.html
while overseas
there are somethings that we just don’t have
either because
they are in storage
or they are not available locally.
when this happens
i tend to focus on practical life activities.
the girls help more around the house
by folding their own clothes,
loading the washer,
and hanging clothes on the line.
sanaa likes to use the squeegie to clean the bathroom.
all of them like to help cut the vegetables needed for dinner
and/or help prepare dinner.
once a week we make pizza
using the fresh bread delivered daily to our door.
they also help prepare breakfast
by cracking eggs, measuring (oatmeal, grits, water), and the like.
usually we make biscuits from scratch for breakfast once or twice a week.
from these experiences
they understand how to handle a knife,
sift and strain,
stir and knead,
load and unload the dishwasher, and etc.
it’s great fun for them,
i truly appreciate their help,
and we (parents) thank them for contributing to our family.
earth calendar is a “daybook of holidays
and celebrations around the world”.
use it as part of your culture studies
as well as happenings on the events board
to help children understand the distinction between past and present.
click a button to find out what’s happening today
or you can search for holidays around the world
by date, country or religion.
poetry, rhymes and songs are a part of montessori oral language lessons: “Children will gain a clarity in speech, a large expansion of vocabulary, a familiarity in various aspects of language such as correct usage of the language, artistic expression, a large range of language, awareness of the language structure, and most importantly an appreciation and enjoyment of language. Through all of the Exercises, the child is also being indirectly prepared for the written language work of creative writing and later, total reading.”
quote from infomontessori.com
i found this pretty comprehensive site
BusSongs.com
that features
“lyrics and words for children’s nursery rhymes and songs”.
along with the words there is music and sometimes even video
for many of the songs
with lots of categories to choose from:
activity songs, religious songs, to work songs.
ummSanaa,
Thank you for your butterfly soup blog. I know it’s a lot of work and dedication to write, but it’s interesting to read about your time in Turkey.
For you and your blog readers, MontessoriConcepts.com is happy to give away 3 free animal or botany puzzles. They normally sell for $7 each, but your bloggers would just need to pay for the shipping (which is $12). You can see all the puzzles here: http://www.montessoriconcepts.com/products.php?cat=Botany
This is important: They need to enter HOLIDAY into the coupon code section when they are checking out in order to get the puzzles for free.
Thanks and keep up the blogging!
- Johann
MontessoriConcepts.com
