Summing up 19 month practical life

This is my last 19 month post so I thought I'd just sum up all of the things L can now do so I can look back on them as each month passes.

• Using the potty. Yeah only a few accidents in the last week and she will go to the bathroom by herself a lot of the time.
• learning to pull her underwear down on her own
• brushes own teeth and washes hands (needs help with the taps)
• puts her dirty clothes in the washing basket
• puts the laundry into the washing machine
• finds rubbish and puts it in the bin
• waters the plants
• sweeps with broom, dust pan and brush (doesn't quite understand the whole concept yet)
• eats all snacks and meals (except diner) at her table
• sets and clears her own table (with some reminding)
• pours own water from a jug and drinks from a glass (still messing about with the water)
• pushes her chair in (needs reminding most of the time)
• wipes table and chairs with sponge (not all the time)
• puts her own clean dishes away in the cupboard

Wow when I look at it all written out it seems like a lot. I'm proud of my little munchkin!

Some things I would like to work on next month are:

• helping to put her clean clothes away
• helping to match the socks (I've tried this before and she's not at all interested)
• cleaning the window in the living room
• starting to dress herself ( she can partially put on her pants and underwear and sometimes her shoes if she feels like it)
• dusting (she does like to do this but of course I also have to actually dust to show her how to do it which may be a problem!)

If anyone has any other suggestions of things they've done with their 20 month olds I would love to hear them. I'd also love to hear any stories on how they've overcome the challenge of a toddler's "will" : )

Cardboard is my new best friend...

Sometimes I think I should rename this blog "Cheap and Cheerful". As anyone who has read my posts will have realised I don't have any budget at all for Montessori activities. Therefore I have to try and be creative with the materials we have and we seem to have a lot of cardboard! I just came up with this little ditty when I saw a package of straws on sale at the supermarket. Just an old shoe box with small holes punched in the top. She has to match the color and also try to get the straw into the small hole. I thought this would be challenging for her but the first time she put them all in, with the correct colors no problem. Then she started exploring with the straws a bit (they're the bendy ones) and put them in bendy side down. She is also learning that she has to put one hand on the lid in order to take the straws out with the other and then take off the lid to store the staws inside.

I also found this excellent shape and colors game at the boot fair today for 50p. Bargain. L doesn't have much trouble with it but she loves it. It also comes with two dice that have the colors and the shapes on them which we'll try out a bit later.

More practical life

L seems to have hit her stride when it comes to cleaning. She is really into sweeping and wiping with her sponge at the moment. It's a sad reflection when your kid cleans more than you do ; ) Maybe she's trying to tell me something!

She cleaned the whole hallway like this.

I found this cool cutlery set from Ikea the other day. It's supposed to be for play but it's safe for food so we're going to use it. First we started with a sorting activity and then we put it into her cupboard.

I decided about a month ago to dedicate a cupboard for L's meal things. It was quite a sacrifice as we're very space challenged in this house. Now all of the pots are crammed into the other side of the cupboard and keep creeping back over. Anyway this is the finished result. I've also just started using a small picture and glass with her. It's taken us so long because every time I've tried before she just completely messes about with the water even though she knows how to drink it properly. I've decided to try and have a bit more patience this time and keep with it for a bit.

Airplane spotting, practical life and rhythmic gymnastics?

Today L was particularly interested in helping around the house and outside. I think it was in part because her dad was home this morning and she loves to copy "help" him. First they did some sweeping together and then they watered the flowers. It was great to see them working together and it's also good for her to get a break from me. Lately she has gotten out her broom, dust pan and brush quite a bit. Although she loves to sweep she hasn't really grasped the concept yet. I'm happy that she is showing an interest though.

Another thing that we love to do several times a week is get out the instruments and play and dance. Each time I put on different types of music from around the world and we get our "groove" on. The other day we were listening to Capriccio espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakov. We'd abandoned the instruments and were into full on dancing when I had a flash back from my childhood of waving a stick around with a long ribbon attached. So two minutes later L and I both had our sticks with ribbons attached waving them around vigorously to the music. Thankfully no pictures as I was too busy dancing!

Since going on holiday to visit my husband's family in Macedonia about a month ago L has been obsessed with airplanes. I'd never realised just how many of them flew over our house until I had them all pointed out to me with great enthusiasm. I'd been toying with the idea of her being able to keep track of the number of planes she saw each day and finally came up with this.

First we painted the sky with a sponge and some really watered down acrylic paint. Then we glued on some cotton baton clouds.

I found a picture of an airplane from the Internet and copied it 12 times. Then glued them to some cardboard cut them out and taped them onto her magnetic letters that she's not using. Now every time she sees an airplane either out the back window or in the back garden she goes to the fridge and puts one on. My intention was to count them all up at the end of the day but we haven't gotten around to that bit yet.

When it rains it pours...

Well it's been a week of potty training and what a week it's been. The old saying "when it rains it pours" could be applied in many different contexts. First of all I never knew a small child could have so much liquid inside them!!! Let's just say day one and seven pees in the first hour(none in the potty).Thankfully that trend did not continue.
Secondly, of course one always hopes for a quiet week when beginning something so important but instead of rain we seemed to be in the path of a meteor shower. All distractions decided to come at once in the form of major family concerns back home, problems with my husband's visa application, family colds and especially one very sick little girl. But we're soldiering on and all in all things haven't been too bad on that front. I just have to remind myself that washing a few extra loads of clothes has got to be cheaper than buying nappies.

I've realised a few things that can really help:

1. Make sure you drink lots of water. This way you will be constantly in the bathroom and you can bring them along too. Much less chance of accidents.

2. Try to pay as much attention as possible. This was a really hard one for us this week with everything that has been going on.

3. Don't take no for an answer! I think this is the most important one and I've learned it hard way.

I do have a really cute potty picture that I wanted to post but I think I'll save L the future humiliation.

And when the going gets real tough I just have to remember this...

Lovin' the Double Doodle

We just tried out the Double Doodle Brain Gym activity from Making of a Montessori Mum. It was so much fun for both of us. L enjoyed the freedom of it and I found it strangely relaxing. I could see it being something to do when I'm really stressed. We'll just both double doodle for a while!!

I also finally found the best medium for the black card that I had. Chalk. I know obvious. Sometimes it takes me a while : ) I like chalk because it's not as messy as other things like paint. The colors turned out so vibrant. At first I just let L go to it but she quickly got bored and just started putting the chalk in and out of the bag. Then I realised that how is she supposed to know what to do if I don't show her. So I sat down beside her and got my own card and went to it. She quickly got the idea and got really into it. L's is on the left and mine is on the right.

Pita pizzas

A few weeks ago we picked up some wildflowers and leaves on one of our walks. When we got home we put them in the phone book to press and ......I totally forgot about them until yesterday! Needless to say they were nicely pressed. We glued them on to some black card stock that I’d originally gotten for finger painting but it ended up being to porous. First I started by putting the glue on the back of the flowers and letting L put them on but they mostly just got stuck to her fingers. So then I put a dab of glue directly onto the page and she stuck them onto that which worked much better. We then hung the finished product up by her table.

L started eating all her meals and snacks (except dinner) at her table about three weeks ago. I set up a small table in the kitchen for her to pick up her food and to clear her dishes to. It seems to be working quiet well now although she sometimes doesn’t want to clear the table! I have to entice her by reminding her that she can clean it with the sponge once she’s cleared it. Last night was the first time we used the table for food preparation. We made her favourite pita pizzas and I put all the ingredients out for her. She loved it and after we’d put the pizzas in the oven she cleaned it with a sponge and we both swept up the bits on the floor. It was such a success that I’m going to try and incorporate the little table into much more food preparation in the future.