Montessori Monday with Charger

Charger has been completely in to language the last week or two.  He stops me in the middle of playing a game to say B!  Ball starts with B!  Or how to spell a word.  One night, as he was going to sleep, he yelled down asking how to spell moon.  It's pretty fun to watch.

It started when I brought out the sandpaper letters.  

He has been doing sound sorts over the last few weeks.  

M is for music box :).

So, today I pulled out the Moveable Alphabet to see what he would do.  His first word was 'jet.' 

Dog was next.

Followed by duck.  He was spelling the animals from Word World, lol.  Now, he didn't know that duck ended in -ck.  At first he had duc because those are the sounds he heard.  But, having seen duck written he knew that it was missing a letter.  He tried l because he knew it was a taller letter.  Finally, I just told him.

Then he ran out of words that he could think of (he was very excited and having a hard time concentrating), so I grabbed some CVC objects and he used those.  Sun and bib.

Pan is on top, ant he came up with on his own.  I did have to help him 'hear' the sounds, but he figured them out on his own.  I was very proud of him and he was so excited!!  We have been spelling words all night, I'll have to come up with more for tomorrow!

Other things that Charger has been up to:

Practical Life:

Lacing people beads.

Lacing transportation sewing cards.

Lacing shape beads (are you seeing a theme?)

Cutting food. 

Dry pouring!  He never chooses pouring, but apparently this little set attracted him.

Mathematics:

Number rods

And extensions.

He really gets into his work.

And is very excited when he completes it.  I am so thankful for the Montessori Method because I can tell you he would NOT sit still and learn these concepts with worksheets!

Table top rods.

Introduction to addition.

Spindle boxes.

He also worked on cards and counters, but I don't have a photo of that.  I am not sure if we will move forward yet or not.  He CAN count to 10, but he gets bored or distracted and just starts quickly placing his counters or spindles.  This usually results in boxes 8, 9, and or 10 having the incorrect number of counters.  We may keep working on it, but for now all he wants to do is spell anyways :).

Sensorial:

Geometric presentation tray blindfolded.  

One day, we tried the experiment of rolling a marble down the brown stairs.  I wish I would have had my camera that day, because he LOVED it.  He liked the musical part, but just rolling the marbles kept his focus for a good 45 minutes!!  

So, those are some of the highlights (or at least the things I caught on camera).  I am very interested to see where the next few weeks take us!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

We're linked up:

Mini Coopers Montessori Tot School Wrap Up

Mini Cooper is 2 1/2 years.  She is at the very beginning of the Montessori Primary cycle.  It is an interesting age.  She is very eager to try the things that interest her, and to do them over and over.  She is also very interested in making messes with the work she uses, which tries my patience!  We are trying to find a middle ground :).

Some of the things she has worked on over the last few weeks:

Practical life:

Pouring beads between a jug and two votive holders 'cups.'  She was so pleased with herself.  

Lacing beads, or in her case sorting them.

Spooning lentils.

Sensorial:

Geometric presentation tray.

Showing off her completed pink tower.

Creating her own extensions.

Touch boards.  Her response to the rough side was 'ouch!'

Language:

Working on her pincher grasp to put marbles on a duck.

Matching pictures.

Sorting animals and things.

Another pincher grabber, moving little chicks from one crate to the other.  Next week this will be a practical life exercise when I add tongs :).

I found the little chicks at Hobby Lobby.

We have been having a lot of fun!  Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless!!

We are linked up:

 

Mustang's Weekly Wrap Up

So I started to write everyone up in one post again, and it was too long and confusing and I couldn't add any commentary.  I am going to do separate posts for each kiddo as I have a chance.  There will be some duplicates, and some not.  Hopefully, I wont bore you!

Mustang is age 6 1/2, she is still in Primary Montessori since we are really just starting.  She is on the fast track (pretty much as quickly as I can buy and present the materials), but we are starting with period 1, in all but Math and Language.

Some of her highlights from the last few weeks:

Practical Life:

Button frame (this was easy for her).  

She has been helping a lot in the kitchen.  She asks all the time if she can help me with the dishes.  I am trying more and more to let go.  I just ordered child size cleaning supplies, so hopefully she will enjoy using them.

Sensorial:

Geometry cabinet presentation tray, later blindfolded.

Touch Boards-she liked them the most of all my children.  She is really into her sense of touch at the moment.

Geometric solids.  I used a natural set I already had on hand and added in the Platonic solids made of cardstock.  Mustang really wants to make her own nets-I told her she could soon!

Mathematics:

Our fast track has been taking us down a review of math as we go through the math materials.  She is ready (previous knowledge wise) to start the golden bead material.  But, I wanted to get there the correct way.  So, we have been using the materials ahead of it quickly.  She is almost there!!

Sandpaper letters.

Number rods.

And extensions.

Table top rods, intro to addition and subtraction.

Spindle boxes.

Cards and counters.  These are homemade using red floral gems.  This was very basic for her, but we had never discussed odd and even numbers.  So, it was fun for her to learn something new.

This cards and counters worksheet is from Wikisori.

Language:

Mustang is still going through her All About Reading and First Start Reading.  

She was excited when I downloaded books for her to read on the Kindle Fire!

Art:

Well kind of art.  She was observing Charger working on his math and drew this 10 rod.

 Then, she drew a barnyard scene-we have been reading Charlotte's Web.

Another day, she drew a spider web and a lot of spiders.  Unfortunately, all the drawings were on our dry erase board.  That's a large part of why I took the photos-this is my only way of preserving the drawing.  

Culture is kind of at a stand still.  I just received our sandpaper globe and landforms, so we should be moving forward next week.

Oh and we had one other unplanned Practical Life!  HAIR CUTTING!!!  Mustang thought that she would like to be like her aunt, so she cut Mini Cooper's hair!!!  Grrrr!!

Mini's hair on Tuesday.

Mini Cooper's hair on Wednesday!

Yep, over 6 inches.  It looks cute-after I fixed it-but I'm a little sad (now that I'm not angry).  I'm glad that hair cutting is not a normal part of the Montessori Primary education :).

To see what other kids around the blog world are doing check out Montessori Monday on Living Montessori Now!