From the airplane

Although I've tried to wipe the memory from my mind : ) I thought I'd post about some of the things we did to keep busy on the 10 hour airplane journey. I actually managed to take a lot of pictures (nothing else to do!). Thank you so much to everyone who left comments about activities. I used a lot of your advice. Here are some of the things we did.

Sewing a button snake. I think this was originally on What Did we do all day? but I saw it on Counting Coconuts. I made one ribbon for each of us and this kept us busy for quite a while. I just kept all of the bits in a pencil case which kept the whole thing contained.

Shape matching. I just bent some pipe cleaners into different shapes and cut out some shape pictures from the Amazing Sticker Book. I also brought this lid from a shoe box to keep everything contained and we didn't drop or loose anything!

I got a great suggestion from Montessori Moments to bring some small presents to unwrap. My awesome aunt gave L a whole bunch and I brought them out at different times during the trip. They were all a huge hit. Here is a cool sticker activity with different farm scenes.

We also did some counting but by this point she was really tired so it didn't last too long.

The super cool Farm in a Tube. Thanks Auntie S.

We also did coloring, reading books, a really hard 3D magnetic puzzle and had tons of snacks. She also took a 2 1/2 hour nap which was the best part of the trip! he he

All in all she did really well and the cabin crew actually commented that she was the best behaved child they'd had on a long journey. We survived but it's not something that my husband or I want to repeat any time soon!

We did it!!

Okay we've officially been here a week now and the haze is beginning to lift. It was absolute chaos trying to get over the jet lag and acclimatize with a 2 year old but things are looking a bit better now.
I have many things to post about but we realised when we got here that we forgot a plug converter for our camera charger. That is today's mission along with buying a car.
L is now settling in nicely and I have her Montessori shelves set up. She is doing a lot of new practical life things which is great. Will post as soon as I can retrieve my pics.

Not Long Now!!

Thanks everyone for the great advice. In the little spare time I have I've been making some projects up for the trip. I will take my camera and see if I can get any pics along the way. We're leaving on Thursday and still have TONS to do. My next post will probably be from Canada! Yippee!!
Poor L. The other day she was doing some baking with Granny and went to get her dustpan and broom to clean up a spill. Of course it wasn't there and she said "Oh no! It's already in Canada!"

Help! Need advice please!!

Okay it looks like all of our years of hard work are about to pay off as we are hoping to book our flights to Canada for next week. (If all goes well!) It's really exciting and there is a lot to do but at one point I realised that we were going to be stuck on a plane with a 2 year old for at least 9 hours! YIKES!!!!!!!

So I'm begging for any suggestions anyone has to keep a toddler busy in a confined space. We also don't have a lot of carry on space.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. : )

Back to Montessori

Okay, sadly Halloween is over but we had a blast. Here are some activities L has been doing over the past couple of weeks.

Years ago I made a board game and made tiny pieces for it out of Fimo. Sadly it's too heavy to take with us so I thought I'd get some use out of it before I we leave. First L sorted the pieces into colors and then by object. Okay yes we did use the left over Halloween plates. (Helps with the withdrawal symptoms). I find it interesting how she mostly sorts all of one thing before moving on to the next.
Ages ago my mom made L this awesome button board out of felt and a cheap frame from Ikea. I just re-introduced it to L a couple of weeks ago and she can now open and close the buttons.

Okay I think my girl is a bit unusual with her obsession with puzzles! She got this small 30 piece puzzle in a Birthday card and after about three goes with help she can now do it all on her own. She does this puzzle almost every day and sometimes a couple times a day. I can't keep up with her! This is also the first puzzle that she's used the picture for a guide.

So I knew this gift from Granny would be a great hit and it was. I first saw Mighty Minds over at Aayla do! Montessori and asked my mom to get it for L. What a success. The other day she worked straight for 45 minutes and did 14 of the cards! I sit with her and only help if she gets frustrated and then will put maybe one piece in to guide her. She also finds them a bit slippery and sometimes has a hard time lining them up so I will help her by holding one of the pieces.

I love this activity because the first 15 cards have places to put the shapes she needs before starting the puzzle. She now also puts them back after she has done each card. I think I'll have to take them out one night and try to figure out the harder puzzles before she gets to them so I'll know how they go! How embarrassing!

Thank You!

Many thanks to Karen over at Mi escuelita Montessori. Please check out her blog if you haven't already. She does some great activities and finds some wonderful materials.

Now, the rules to accept the award are simple:

1.) Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.

2.) Pass the award to 5 other blogs that you have recently discovered and think are great!

3.) Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Okay after a lot of thought. These are the blogs I'm going to pass this award on to. I think most of us Montessori blogger Moms follow the same group of blogs so there will probably be some repeats. I think it's just because there are so many fantastic blogs out there.

itty bitty love

Domesticallyblissed

Lotus Blossom

Montessori Free Fall

Adventures in Montessori

Thanks to these bloggers and all of the others I follow for continuously inspiring me and teaching me about Montessori, life and raising children.

L's Spooktacular Halloween/Birthday Party Part Two

Here is L's cake. I couldn't resist using the little tropical frogs. It was seriously experimental as I used blueberry jello for the pond and pistachio pudding for the grass. Yum yum.

I think one of my favorite bits of the party was after we sang Happy Birthday and L blew out her candles we started to sing Five Little Speckled Frogs. When we got to the jumped into the pool bit L took the blue frog and jumped it into the pool. Then all of the other children joined in and finally all of the frogs were in the pool. They loved it.

We had 17 adults at the party and we asked them to bring a carved pumpkin with them. We put them all around my uncle's back garden and the effect was breathtaking. A big thank you to Uncle Jason who took all of the night pictures.

Once it got dark we had a disco with sparklers and glow sticks and everyone danced the night away. It was totally fab! Now what am I going to do for next year.....

L's Spooktacular Halloween/Birthday Party Part One

I think I was truly blessed when my daughter was born so close to Halloween. Anyone who knows me knows I go a bit mad and absolutely LOVE Halloween parties. Since this would be L's last birthday in England I thought I would go all out. What fun!

We decided to have a night party and luckily the weather cooperated so we could have most of it outside. Here is L in her giraffe costume. The bizarre thing is that when I asked what she wanted to be she said "a giraffe" and I thought oh ya sure. Well the next day when I was talking to my mom she was so excited to tell me that she found a costume for L and yes wonder of wonders it was a giraffe. If only everything in life was so easy : )

We had lots of games set up outside. Here is the ghost skittle area.

A spooky center piece for the adults buffet table inspired by Chasing Cheerios.

and the piece de resistance.... the spider pinata. Here it is hung up inside

and here it is in action. The kids had a go and then we blindfolded the dads who all had a go. What fun.

Giveaway tip

Just to let everyone know that there is a fantastic miniature giveaway over at One Hook Wonder!!

You might be a Montessori mom if...

I saw this post over at Walk Beside Me and What Did we do all day? and wanted to add some of my own.

So here goes. You might be a Montessori mom if...

You look at your recycling bin and only see "materials"

When you see more than two of something you automatically think sorting activity!

You're constantly chanting the mantra "process not product"even when your child isn't around

You ask for a laminator for your birthday!(guilty)

You have all of your friends and relatives trained in Montessori gift giving.

and finally

You find you have no cupboard or shelf space left for regular household items!

Preparations for L's Spooktacular Halloween/Birthday Party

This past week has been a crazy rush to finish all of the preparations for L's Halloween/Birthday party. It's seriously time consuming when you decided to make all of the decorations and activities!

L's first time cleaning out a pumpkin. Yes she had to use a spoon as she wouldn't let any bit of the guts touch her fingers. Talk about taking after her daddy!

Decorating her pumpkin. A very serious business.

Way back I had the great idea to make a pinata. Last week I realised I must have been out of my mind! Here are the beginnings of a spider pinata filled with little trinkets, stuffed animals, stickers and raisin packets.

Gluing on little pieces of tissue paper. Yes I must be mad!

Stay tuned to see pictures of the finished product plus pics of the Spooktacular event.....