Montessori for Me!

I discovered the Montessori method when my daughter was about 12 months.  The more research I did the more Maria Montessori's words resonated with me.  I guess you could say I became pretty obsessed.
I'd like to say that this was all for the sake of my daughter and now my son as well but being completely honest it is also A LOT for me.   I LOVE MONTESSORI!  Yup there I said it.  I find the philosophy fascinating, the materials intriguing and basically all things Montessori just make sense to me.

Soooo as I wrote on my blog a few years ago I made some serious sacrifices and took the AMI Montessori Assistants training course in Vancouver.  Those were two of the best weeks of my life.  Yes my mind was blown over and over again and the course took me so much deeper into the real nuts and bolts of the philosophy.

However, I was never really able to put all of my research and training into practice.  Ok I was able to observe my daughters class and was even lucky enough to substitute a few times but it never really gave me the full Montessori experience I was looking for.

Until now that is.  Last week I started at my daughters school in one of the primary classes as a real Montessori Assistant!!  and ohh what a learning experience it has already been.  I am so completely blessed and lucky to have the epitome of a Montessori guide to teach me and guide me on the real ways of the Montessori philosophy in the classroom.

I have two months with this amazing woman in her class before I head off to another classroom in September and I am going to try and soak in as much as I can in that time.  To say I am in blissful heaven is an understatement.

So yes now it is time for Montessori for me!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Stones

We had such a great time with the Brown Bear story stones I made that when I saw these Very Hungry Caterpillar stones at Thrive 360 Living I knew they had to be my next project.

I made a small version for a birthday boy who was turning two.  They were such a success and LJ was so interested in them that I made a larger version for him.

I bought a wooden box from the Dollar store to keep them in.  At first I was going to paint a caterpillar on the outside of the box but then I realized I'm too cheap and would rather recycle the box for something else once we're done with these!

We love the Very Hungry Caterpillar book by Eric Carle so LJ was really into reenacting the story.

The front of the stones make up the green caterpillar and if you put them in order you can turn each one over as you tell the story to see what he eats.  Sooo much fun!

When the kids start getting owly.....

When the kids start getting owly.....give them an owl craft!

It's spring break for us here so L is home.  Yippee!  For two days last week I was also looking after two other children.  A 3 year old girl and a 6 year old boy both from L's school.

It was so much fun and I'd planned many crafts for them to do.

One of them was this owl craft.  I found the idea on Pintrest but can't seem to find the original link.

This is so simple to do and once I showed L (6) how to do it she could whip them off all by herself in no time.

What you need is some air drying clay.

Roll some into a small ball and flatten it into a pancake.

We did ours on wax paper.

Then take the top of a marker or straw and use it to make half circles on the bottom half of your clay pancake.

Then fold over both sides of the pancake for the wings.

Fold the top of the pancake over for the head and pinch the tips if you want more pointy ears.

Use the marker lid again to make two eyes.  We used the inside part of a pen for the smaller inner circles.  We used a knife to make the triangle nose.

There you have it the easiest, adorable little owls.

We let them dry over night and then the children painted them.  Even LJ painted my prototype!

Once the paint was dry I covered them in a layer of Modge Podge and glued magnets on the backs.

Perfectly adorable additions to our fridge!

LJ at 21 months-activities and practical life

LJ is turning into quite the little person.  He is a major chatterbox just like his sister and has to be part of every conversation!  

He is also a total jokester.  His favourite joke is to change the words of songs.  One of our favourite songs to sing is Mama mama I want a Mango.  At the end the song goes kiwi, kiwi, kiwi, kiwi, quince.  Well he thinks it's the greatest joke going when he sings kiwi, kiwi, kiwi, banana!! or apple or any other type of fruit!  We also are big into the potty humour.  Everything has either chicken poo or pee or panda poo on it!??

I'm also pretty positive he knows most of his colours but  if you ask him he will deliberately tell you a different colour!  If he chooses to name them he does it correctly.  Seriously cheeky little monkey!

We have been doing a few works but mostly practical life activities.

Here are a few activities LJ had on his shelves.

Magnetic and non magnetic.  LJ really enjoyed experimenting with which objects stuck to the magnet and which ones didn't.  At this point this was just an activity of experimentation and discovery.

Tonging.

I wasn't sure if LJ would get the hang of this but after a few tries he did get it and enjoyed moving the objects back and forth.

Placing beads onto a bath fish thingy.  Yup those little fingers are somehow always wet and sticky and they were just too wet and sticky to release those little beads so it ended up being a bit frustrating.  He did stick with it for a while but I had to help him get the beads off his fingers sometimes!

I seriously love this age because they are SOO enthusiastic about housework!!  I really wish it would stay.  L has seemed to have lost that lovin' feeling!

While L was vacuuming the house LJ was desperate to help so I got out the dust buster for him and he loved being able to vacuum along side his sister.

 I needed to do some serious cleaning in the kitchen so I set LJ up with a scrub brush and a small container of soapy water.  He was super serious about this job and scrubbed down his chair for over HALF AN HOUR!!  My guy loves to wipe and scrub!
L didn't want to be left out so she got out her own scrub brush and water and scrubbed down the rest of the chairs.

Thanks to some Itty Bitty Love inspiration LJ is also now very successfully pouring his water at every meal.  I also find it very surprising that he doesn't just pour the whole jug into the glass but pours a little bit at a time and drinks it and then pours in some more!

GIVEAWAY TIME!!

Hi all.  I'm doing a giveaway right now on my Jen's Felted Jems Facebook Page.  Please head on over to enter to win a custom made Owl, Fairy, Mermaid of Forest Family!!

https://www.facebook.com/#!/jensfeltedjems?hc_location=timeline

 

Good Luck!

Jen's Felted Jems

 

I am so excited to introduce you to my latest project which has been taking up quite a bit of my time lately.  I fell in love with needle felting several years ago and loved to make things for the children.  I had so many people ask if I sold them that I decided to try my hand at opening up my own Etsy shop.

So here it is

Jen's Felted Jems

As some of you may have already discovered you can visit the shop by going to the Etsy button on the right sidebar of my blog or you can go directly to https://www.etsy.com/shop/JensFeltedJems

 

You can also find more pics and information on my Jen's Felted Jems Facebook Page.

 

 

Giveaway coming soon!!

20 months Practical Life