North America Continent Box: Mexico

We are currently on a trip through North America.  Last month, we stopped in Canada.  This week, we are heading through Mexico.  Yes, we skipped the US-we will be back!

Here are all the new items that I added to the North America Continent Box.

We will start off with a Sombrero that I found in the party section of Hobby Lobby.  Yes, it's a little small, but it fits in the box!

This dress was a gift a friend brought back from Mexico for me when I was 5 years old!  It's still such a beautiful dress.  Fits Mini Cooper pretty well, too!

The little Pinata was also from the Hobby Lobby party section.

The silver and tuquoise bracelet was a gift from my sister when she when on a mission's trip years ago.  It was hand-made by Mexican women.  The chili pepper is an old salt shaker from my kitchen.  The Temple of Inscriptions is part of the World Landmark's Toob (Hobby Lobby).  And, the mustaches were also from the Hobby Lobby party isle.  Lots of fun with those!!

The donkey Pinata transporting a chili pepper, Temple of Inscriptions, and the Canadian Cowboy, LOL!!

Checking out all the stairs on the Temple of Inscriptions.

No clue what was going on here, but it was funny.

One evening, I played a bunch of Mexican music including Viva Mexico, the national anthem.

We had a ton of fun dancing around to the music!

However, the mustaches have been the favorite by far!  We've also been reading a ton of books, which will get their own post.

So glad you stopped by!  Gracias and God Bless!

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North America Continent Box: First Stop Canada

We are finally taking off on our around the world tour.  We started with North America.  For the most part, we will be just touching on each of the countries, but since I used to live in Canada I wanted to spend a little extra time visiting.

Here are the few items so far in the continent box.  For now, we've just got one box.  I'm leaning towards making bags like Mariann on Counting Coconuts, and then just putting them in one box.  But, for now we only have North America so I don't need to worry just yet.

Our small offerings include some photos pulled from a National Geographic (really just fillers until I have more objects), a mug from my childhood home, a cowboy that reminds me of the Calgary Stampede, and my birth coins.

The really nice thing about the coins of Canada, is that (like many countries) they have pictures of important Canadian things.  There is a picture of the Queen, a picture of a beaver, a caribou, the Canadian coat of arms, the maple leaf, etc, so we were able to talk about the symbols of Canada without having one of every single item.  As I find more things to put in the box, I will add them.  I lived there before loonies and toonies so I don't have any of those :).

I found out our library had a very SAD selection of books on Canada.  I have ordered more, but we just got our card and I didn't realize that it takes at least 4-6 weeks to get a book.  One thing I do miss about big city living :(.  These were the best I could find given the criteria I was working with.

Paddle to the Sea has been our night time read aloud.  It is a GREAT book!  Absolutely love following Paddle's trip down the river and to the sea.  We are about 1/2 way through and we are all enjoying it.  Recommend this one!!

Z is for Zamboni was a fun way to talk about the favorite sport of hockey.  My children have not really watched any hockey, so it was interesting to talk about how you play the sport.

Ulaq and the Northern Lights was cute.  Not terribly moving, but a nice way to introduce the legends of the Northern Lights.  Afterwards we watched this National Geographic video of the lights.

Canada Lynx was okay, but the pictures were great!  The kids really enjoyed thinking of what a huge cat would look like.  They wanted one for a pet.  After reading the story, we checked out the Canadian Kid's National Geographic page and explored the many animals in Canada.

And, how can we study Canada without hearing the national anthem?

I hope you enjoyed your first stop on our tour. Thanks for stopping by!!

God Bless,

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Montessori Monday: Geography and Landforms

First off, I hope you all had a great Easter week!  Mustang spent the last week in an art camp and I carted her 1/2 each way back and forth all week.  Then Mini Cooper got sick, and we ended the week with our yearly gymnastics night with our Homeschool Co-op, so I'm sorry for not doing much blogging lately! 

Our Montessori road has been going pretty well, IMO.  I'm still working on trying to figure out how much is too much to expect in a day, and which works to present to whom when, but I think those are good problems to have. 

Here's what we have been up to in our group lessons over the last couple weeks:

Sandpaper globe.  Supposed to teach how the land is water (smooth blue) and land (sandpaper).  They were mostly interested in how it spins around...  BTW, I purchased this globe from an eBay seller.  The quality is crummy.  I would recommend going through Allison's.

Landforms have been SO MUCH FUN!!!

 

We did them together at our kitchen table.  I still am not okay with much water in the school room, maybe someday.  

I poured in our blue water, and then they looked at them.

But of course, swimming is much more fun!

We did a set a day for 7 different days.

One warm day, we took the landforms outside.

They took turns with the sets, and I game them each a small pitcher of water.  I started out letting them add the blue food coloring, until Mini Cooper decided to color her hair when I ran inside for more water.  Then I just added it myself.

They really like to flood their landforms.

Pouring the water back into his jug.

We also explored waterscapes and properties of water thanks to our recent review book What On Earth?.  You can read about it here.

Mustang worked on the three part cards and definitions.

Charger worked on just the 3-part cards.  

The cards really helped in trying to remember what the landforms are actually called.

And then we went on to the continents globe (a good one from Allison's).  But, that's for another day!

Thanks for stopping by!!  God Bless!!

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Montessori Monday

We've been going through some big changes over the last few weeks.  We changed school rooms, added new materials to our shelves and have changed the pace of our learning time.  We've also been decluttering the house to improve our overall environment.

After reading the scope and sequence at Our Montessori Story, I have been trying to present the materials in that order.  We are starting in period one.  I know that it is below Mustang for sure and mostly below Charger, too, but the activities teach things that build on each other.  I want to be sure that Mustang and Charger at least have a chance to try each thing and not just assume they know them. I also want to make sure that they don't miss out in case there is something intrinsic that they wouldn't have otherwise learned.  It is already very obvious that most of the activities are 'below' Mustang as she will try them once and then move on.  Mini Cooper, on the other hand, will sit and try things over and over again.  It's very interesting to watch.  There have, and will be, some exceptions to this since I am trying to move along for Mustang in math.

These are the presentations made over the last 2 weeks.

Practical Life:

Rolling, unrolling, and carrying a mat.

Pouring beans between two jugs.  I found this lovely set at, of all places, Walmart!  I was pleasantly surprised.

Lifting, carrying, and setting down a chair.  Also, sitting down quietly.

Folding.

Opening and closing tray.  Mini Cooper and Charger, especially, tried this a lot.

I kept having to add more things so that Mini Cooper had items she could successfully open.  I've since added a few additional items as well.  I left the harder ones (contact cases, lotion bottle) there for her to try.

Spooning between two bowls.  Currently, we are using lentils.  Spooning isn't on the Gettman list, but it is on the list from My Montessori Journey.  I will be using both.

On Valentines, Mustang set the table without being asked to surprise me :).

Sensorial:

Pink Tower  (Mini Cooper).  She built it perfectly more then once one day, but hasn't done it correctly since.

Brown stair (Mustang and Charger).  

Which turned IMMEDIATELY into brown stair/pink tower extensions.

There has been a LOT of building around here.

Mustang saw me printing out extension cards and couldn't wait to try them.

You can find them at Walk Beside Me.

I also presented the red rods to Mustang and Charger.  I don't have any photos of the initial presentation, but I showed Mustang how to make the maze later.  She really enjoys it.  Charger tries but simply isn't there yet. That's okay.  

She was in the designing mood.  

Language:

Mustang  is working through All About Reading, Level 1 (review coming soon) and First Start Reading (read review here).  They are not Montessori, but I plan to stick with what's working since I don't yet have my footing with the Montessori language.  Plus, we REALLY like both of these programs and they seem to go well with each other, too.  Mustang is just about ready to finish book A of First Start Reading and move to book B.

Charger has been working on 3-part cards-these are for the short U sound.

He has also been doing sequencing cards.

I found a workbook at the Dollar Tree that had tons of beginning sequencing worksheets.  Instead of using them as worksheets, I cut them out and made cards out of them.  He loves putting them in order and then telling me the story of what is happening.

He's also been playing a lot of parking lot games.  And, I mean A LOT.  I first saw this back on My Montessori Journey  and had even played it with Mustang a couple years ago.  But, I had no idea how much he would like it.  I played with him one day, and the next day he came down to the school room-10 cars in hand and asked if he could please have his language lessons right away.  I will probably do a post just on this, because I don't want you to miss this idea if you have a 4 year old boy :).

Mini Cooper and I have been exploring our alphabet boxes.  I have since taken away the letters since I haven't introduced her to the sandpaper letters, yet.  We are just learning vocabulary.  She has speech issues, so it's good to have lots of words to practice.

We have also been doing 2 of 3 part cards.

And matching objects to pictures.  I think this is language?  The cards are from Montessori For Everyone.

Mathematics:

I introduced Mustang and Charger to the number rods, which I have no photos of (forgot to charge my batteries that day).  Mustang got it right away.  Charger certainly understood it, and did well, but it was so fun to watch him figure it out.  He would count one rod and then another to choose the right one.  When he put them away, he didn't count, he was estimating length and that was really neat to watch.  I love watching my kids figure it out rather then just repeating things back to me!

One morning, Mustang noticed that the rods 'matched.'  I suggested she try matching them.  

I had her use 2 mats and bring the red rods to the blue and red.  Took a little effort, but she got it.

Culture:

We have started Geography lessons using Karen Tyler's album.  I really like it so far.  You can get it free if you sign up for the Living Montessori Now newsletter.

Charger exploring the Geography tray.

Mustang making a map in the sand.

As you can see, it's been a busy couple weeks.  This week will be a bit slower school-wise with lots of family coming to visit.  But, we got a box of new materials today so I'm looking forward to working again.  

We have been working on our environment, too.  You may notice a new laminate floor and work rugs in the photos.  But, you wont notice the 5 trash bags and one box of items that went off to the thrift store (not from the school room itself).  The changes have been minimal for now, but we have big plans and I am looking forward to the result. As I mentioned in my post in becoming a Montessori home, I am working to change not only our lessons, but our entire home environment so I'll be documenting that, too.

Hope your week was fun and full of learning.  Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless :)

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