Monday, December 26, 2011

We Still Exist!

Just dropping in to say that we still exist.  We're "moved in" at my mom's until February.  So, school and blogging are on hold for a while.



Monday, December 5, 2011

Give Away over at "What DID we do all day?"

My Boys Teacher is hosting a giveaway from Alison's Montessori.  The prize looks pretty neat.

I think it would be a neat thing to have, and the concept sounds good.  I always wonder about things which are sold from a Montessori store, but are not classic Montessori equipment.  It'd be interesting to hear some thoughts from a Montessori teacher.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Working Unattended :)

I wasn't the most observant Montessori Instructor today :)  I was using the computer, which is in the school room and Link was doing his own thing.  At first he was just hanging out in the other room, but then I noticed him behind me, going through his new (and incomplete) /f/ box.

It's kinda funny how he progressed through his work today.  He found a piece of foam and thought it was like a sponge.  So, naturally, he thought it should go with some kind of water activity and put it with the whisking activity.  Then, he wanted to whisk, so I told him I'd find him a sponge.  Again, I wasn't paying a lot of attention to him at this point; he's pretty good at doing it by himself.  The next thing I knew, he was in the bathroom cleaning the toilet.  He was so enthusiastic about it, I had to be too!  Afterwards I cleaned his sponge and he went back to whisking.  Next thing I knew, he was cleaning the toilet again :)

It's very difficult for him to walk with the bowl full of water when he puts too much in it.  So, after I helped him clean all the water up, he surprised me by choosing the geometric solids!  I added the bases about a week ago, but haven't been able to give him a presentation on it.  I was about to jump in and ask if he wanted one, when he picked them up and started matching them up!  I decided that stopping his work to do a demonstration of something he obviously "got" would not be conductive to his continued use of the material.  So, I sat back and waited until he looked like he needed me.  Once he got out one of the stands, looked at it with confusion, and put it back, I asked if I could show him something neat.  So, I demonstrated how the ovoid wouldn't stand up on the tile by itself, but how it would on the stand.  Link was very into this.  He demonstrated for me how the others would either roll or fall over.  Then he spent a good bit of time building.  Since he wasn't hurting anything and was putting things together and experimenting, I just let him go at it.