18 months- On the shelves

Okay I have to admit I've been totally slacking the last about 5 weeks.  We got out of our great routine and I kind of lost enthusiasm on making up activities.  In fairness though I have been working on another exciting project which I will blog more about after Christmas.

Poor LJ he actually asks me for work and says "roll,roll, roll".  Then I feel all guilty because he is desperate to do things.

These are some of the things he has been doing.

 

Matching.

This is great for vocabulary and matching.  I hold all the cards in my hand and give him one at a time.  He says what it is and then (hopefully) places it on the table.  Once all the cards are laid out I hand him the matching one which he has to find.  This is very easy for him now.  They are kept in a little wooden box and he loves to take them out and put them back in as well.

 

Simply posting little hearts through a slot.  Always fun.

 

Color tablet box one.  I made these out of paint samples using the three primary colors to start.  Once again the box is a big hit!  It's funny when I did this activity with L years ago she was so gentle with the cards.  LJs cards are all bent and twisted : )  I present a color and name it and then give it to LJ to place on the mat and say the name.  Once they are down I give him the other one to match.

 Sorting colored beads.  Once again only using the primary colors. 

 I filled this glass money jar with water and put a shot glass at the bottom.  Together we took turns putting coins into the slot and watching them sink to the bottom.  I also enjoyed trying to get them into the shot glass, however I don't think LJ even realised it was in there. 

 

 Thanks to Itty Bitty Love inspiration I sucked it up and got out the lentils to scoop and funnel.  I have to say I was way more enthusiastic about this one than LJ was.  Maybe we'll try it again in a month or so.

 

...and one of my all time favourite works.  First drop fluffy pipe cleaners into a maple syrup bottle.

 

 Then try to fish them out.  Very carefully!

 Oooh the concentration!!!

 

LJ just can't get enough of doing his work and I am the only one that is holding him back at this point.  In the new year I am going to try to get back into that good routine we had going in the fall.

Little J 14 months

Summer is such a wonderful time to be 1!  Little J is taking full advantage of the beautiful weather and exploring and experiencing the world around him with tremendous enthusiasm and joy.

 

Every Day Life

He loves to be one of the big kids and just jumps right in to join in the action.

Little J adores the water just like his sister.

Checking out the baby piglets at the petting zoo.

 

Practical Life

 Little J is at the age where he is understanding so much and is able to follow simple directions.  He likes to take books out of the book basket for me to read and then will return them.  Now that he can walk confidently and can carry things at the same time we have started "putting things back"  We will start to put the stacking boxes back into each other and I can ask him to go and find the missing ones in the kitchen. 

We keep his shoes on a shelf in his bedroom and if I tell him we are going out and ask him to get his shoes he will get them and bring them to the living room and start trying to put them on.

 

Little J likes to help to unload the dishwasher and will pull out the plates and cutlery from the bottom drawer and hand them to you.  He also enjoys pulling the clean diapers out of the bag and handing them to me as well as the laundry.

This guy is a born cleaner.  If he sees a sponge or cloth he will get to work wiping.  He is also obsessed with the broom and will sweep the deck and kitchen any chance he gets.

He is using the watering can to water the bushes and flower pots on the deck as well.

 

We've come to the conclusion that Little J has a shoe fetish : )  Any shoes he sees he will try on and if successful will try to walk around in them.  He also loves to dress himself.

 

On the shelf-activities

 

I have introduced a mat to Little J.  I have two activities that are on a higher shelf which we do on a mat now.  He cannot access these himself and we have been so busy that we haven't done them much but I think this is the way we will go with the mat until Sweetpea returns.

Putting pieces of spaghetti into a sugar container.  I like this activity because it not only works on fine motor control but also has a great control of error.  If he is not very gentle the stick will break.  Little J enjoys putting in one stick and then taking it out again until it breaks small enough to drop into the container.

Lacing chopsticks.  I wasn't sure if I was going to be too early in introducing this one but he got it right away.  

Brings me back. It seems like yesterday that L was doing the same activity.

 

Little J has always enjoyed this activity but he surprised me today when has showed me he was able to put the pieces back on the right pegs.  So he can either sort by color or shape now.  I'm guessing a bit of both.  This has inspired me to add more sorting activities to the shelves.

 

Language

 

Little J has always been super vocal and loves the sound of his own voice no matter how loud! He is a great communicator and can now say several words:

mama, dada, door, uma(for Granny), ya, eye, keys, doll(for ball), da(for bath),clo(for clock),dog,go(for goat) DO DO DO!!! for bird with a vigorous pointy finger and car.

However the most amazing word that has totally opened up his little word is more!  He has realised he can ask for more and also point to things he wants and say more to get them.  Yes he has also realised that this word can be totally abused!

Car rides are also hilarious as our conversation every time we get in the car goes like this

LJ: mama

Me: Yes LJ

LJ: car

ME: yes there's a car

LJ: mam

Me: yes

LJ: car

This goes on for most of the journey unless he sees a dog, deer or bird.

 

 

L has been able to sound out cvc words for a while now but this past month she has completely exploded in her interest and ability to read and also to sound out words.

She is really interested in what letter sounds are in words and is constantly breaking up words to figure out the sounds.

This is the first word she spelled out after one of our walks.

Something that has been immensely helpful has been these word family game cards.  I saw this brilliant idea on The Snail's Trail using paint chips ages ago and bookmarked it for when we were ready.  I couldn't find the right kind of paint chips so I just used colorful paper. 

These totally helped L to hear and see how different words can change just by changing one letter.  After using these cards she is constantly thinking up different groups of words that rhyme.

 Usually after school when we are sitting down for lunch our conversation(lead by L)consists of sounding out different words and her friends names and figuring out who has L's in their names.  She is bored of sounding out cvc words and wants to do things like watermelon!  How do you tell a kid that we need to walk before we can run!!

I made up this activity for her where she picks an object out of the mystery bag and then she finds the letters to spell it.  She sometimes needs help putting them in the correct order as she likes to find the beginning and ending sounds first.

We also did an activity that I thought would be ages away where I wrote action words like "jump", "clap", "run" and "sit".  I would show them to L and she had to read them and then do the action.  She ripped them off no problem and loves them.

She is totally in a self led sensitive period for reading and sounding out words and I'm trying to keep up with her.  In a way it's difficult doing phonics because most of the words she tries to read in everyday life aren't phonetic!  Very frustrating for her and me.

I ordered the first series of the Bob Books and L really enjoys these. 

A warning to parents who teach their children the letter sounds at an early age.  They might just want to use them!!!

Fantastic Printable Materials

We've been trying out these printable materials from Montessori for Learning and L is really enjoying them.  The website is a fantastic resource.  Along with having a membership area it also has tons of great free printable materials. 

Here L is doing the singular/plural activity. 

After putting the pictures in their correct columns she decided to match all of the pictures saying "one ant, three ants"

We also enjoyed learning about the names of the fingers.  We talked about the different names and then placed them on the hand together.  She then did the activity with the control card.

To help with learning we sang a cute little song with actions.

(put hand up in a fist)

Little thumb, little thumb

Where are you?

(pop your thumb up and wiggle)

Here I am, here I am

How do you do?

(close hand into a fist again)

Index finger, index finger

Where are you?

(pop up index finger and wiggle)

Here I am, here I am

How do you do?

continue on for all fingers.

then finish with

(both hands in fists)

Fingers all, fingers all

Where are you?

(open both hands and wiggle fingers)

Here we are, here we are

How do you do?

L absolutely adored singing this song and after a few times she matched the labels to her own fingers.

Mystery words.  Sooo much fun.  You have to use a mirror to read these secret words. 

These are just a few of the many great activities we've been trying from Montessori for Learning.

Games

L has reached an age where she really enjoys playing games.  Here are a few that have been keeping her entertained.

Digging for objects I've hidden in some sand in her pail and then matching them with the correct word.  (yes I accidentally put hen down twice!) I got the idea for this one from Montessori for Learning.

 Counting the garden.  Always fun.  I drew small pictures of different things in our garden and then we went around together.  L counted and I wrote down the number beside the picture.

 The rhyming game.  I saw this on The Activity Mom and knew I could quickly whip up one of my own.  I used pictures, words that L can read and larger words that I had to read.  The object of the game is when you get a card that rhymes you put a penny on the happy face.  When it doesn't rhyme you put one on the sad face.  We play until all of the faces are covered.  At first L didn't really get this but by the second time she was understanding and enjoying!

 Go Fish.  We just started playing this last week and L can't get enough of it.  She always asks "can we play goldfish?"  I used the number cards from a game we have called Phase 10.  At the moment we are using four cards of each number from one to seven and each player gets five cards to start.   You get rid of any pairs and then ask another player if they have a card that matches one of yours.  If they don't they say "go fish" and you have to pick a card from the ones in the middle.  The first player to get rid of all of their cards wins.  This game is so fantastic for number recognition and I could imagine making up your own number cards in the shape of fish!

What I like best about all of these games is you can whip them up in very little time and they cost virtually nothing to make!

Activities

The last little while L has been mostly playing outside and we have been enjoying the summer.  We have managed to fit in some activities along the way.

L is still sounding out simple words.  This is a game we play where I write the word on a piece of Post It note and L has to decode it and the stick it onto the animal it belongs to.  Of course the part L enjoys most is the sticking part.

L also enjoys doing these cvc eggs .  A lot of them she doesn't  bother to read the whole word and just guesses by the first letter sound.  Of course this only works for her until she has two words that start with the same letter.  Once she starts this activity she always wants to go through all of the colors of eggs.

Another exciting way to read is to pull the words out of an egg and match them to drawings that Mummy made.

L has also been experimenting with writing letters on her chalkboard.  We take out a few of her sandpaper letters and she first traces them with her fingers and then tries to write them.  She was so proud when she first wrote her name.

Burning off some energy.  I wrote some numbers onto the stepping stones and then called them out for L to find and jump on.

and of course cleaning the toilet!

Montessori Monday

Last week we did more language activities. This is a picture of a rhyming activity we did. For example I would ask L if she could find the item that rhymed with "moon". This is the first time we have done an actual rhyming activity. I've said before oh cat rhymes with hat and then kept saying more words but she has never really participated. She did get this but is not 100% on it. It may have just been the time of day when we did it. Will have to try it again this week.



We also did an activity with objects on this tray like hen, dog, bed, hat and pig. I said to L I'm thinking of something on this tray and then wrote it down. I gave her the piece of paper and asked her if she could figure out what object I was thinking of. She sounded out the letters and I then I said them a bit closer together. She got most of them and we'll be doing a lot more of this.



L found this little tape measure my mom got from a material shop. I let her play with it and she had great fun as there is a little button on the top of it you can press that makes it detract. The next day I made up this activity( I think I originally saw it on Activity Mom) so she could see how to use the tape measure and also practice her numbers. She really enjoyed this and it was quite easy for her. How great to see her go from randomly playing with something to knowing it's purpose and using it appropriately!

Today L really helped out in the kitchen. This morning she helped daddy by whisking up her blueberry pancakes and at lunch time she whisked up her eggs.

She also grated her carrot for the first time. This took a LOT of restraint and trust on my part and my hands were hovering just out of view in case of need of quick assistance. She was a star though and also cut up her cucumber with a sharp knife.
Putting the bits in the compost. I realised today that L is much more co-operative and willing to help with everything if she is involved with making a meal from the very beginning. She never usually wants to set her table any more but at lunch she did all of it.

Language, letters and beginning reading

L is most definitely in a sensitive period for language and letters. Since she pretty much had all her lower case letter sounds down I introduced the upper case. We found this foam puzzle at the dollar store and the upper case letters were actually mine when I was a kid(way to go mom!)

We started off playing a game where I find the upper case and she finds the lower case. She can do them by herself now and can't get enough. She brings it out all the time and it's starting to drive me bonkers!


We've been playing stage four of the eye spy game so I finally made up some last letter sound sorts. All of the pictures start with the same letter to make it less complicated.

We also tried writing some letters in salt which was a big hit. First we tried easy ones like "o", "i" and "u" which were a great success. L was so excited and wanted to try them all which was of course disastrous! We just haven't worked enough on tracing the sandpaper letters yet for her to have any clue where to start writing them. It was fun but we'll do a lot more tracing work before trying to write more letters.

I was reading through some old posts from The Adventures of Bear(fantastic blog) and saw her poor mans version of the spinny speller. L came over and looked at the screen. She said c-a-f. So I pointed to the last letter and asked her what it was and she said t. Then she said cat. WHAT!? Okay so as soon she'd gone to bed I made my own version.

Today we tried it starting with "at" I said "a" and "t" each separately and then blended them. Then she said "at". We tried the first word cat and she got it. Then tried the rest. She got them so I added the pictures which she matched.

We moved on to her sounding out the words on these cards and matching them to the pictures. No problem! She wanted to do more but I didn't have anything else prepared. She is just exploding in her understanding in this area and I can't seem to keep up. I suppose tonight I'll have to make another "spinny speller" and find some more pictures.

I know with the Montessori Method the children learn to write the words first which I want to try but I don't have a movable alphabet. Soon I'll introduce step five of the eye spy game and while I'm doing that try and figure out how to make up my own version of the movable alphabet.

I'm starting to get out of my depth here and can't wait until she starts Montessori school in September!

Montessori Monday

This is what we've been up to this last week. Not sure that everything is "Montessori" per say but I'll link up to Montessori Monday over at One Hook Wonder anyway. If you'd like to see what others are doing just press the button on the sidebar.

Matching mothers and babies. I found all of the images on the Internet, printed and laminated them. I used some that are a bit tricky like caterpillar and butterfly and I found a picture of the smallest panda cub!! This activity was easy for L but we'll keep doing it together so she can learn the different names of the babies.

More first sound sorts. I found these next two printables over at PreKinders. For this one I put all of the letters in a bowl. L picked one out and looked for the correct picture. There were too many here I think for her and she lost interest after about six. I've since cut the paper in half which works much better.

L knows almost all of her lower case sounds so I'm starting to introduce the upper case. We used these cards first of all to find little "h" and big "H". They are written on the cards so it is easy for L to recognise them. She then put a penny on the picture with the correct beginning sound. L enjoyed this activity and I'm going to add some more cards this week.

I saw this super cool felt flower activity on Making of a Montessori Mum but it was originally on Montessori Mama.

You just cut out different sized pieces of felt and cut a small hole in the middle. Wrap a pipecleaner around a pompom and let your child thread the felt on. I just used up a bunch of felt scraps so the flowers are an interesting combination of colors.

L got this pair of beginner chopsticks from her friend Aa girl and really enjoyed sorting this tri-colored pasta.