12 new Montessori-inspired works...and other thoughts.

After a productive trip to Hobby Lobby over the weekend (and a nice long nap by Tyler that allowed me to really get my Montessori-inspired juices flowing), I have twelve new works to share! Many haven't even been introduced to Ty yet and some of the photos I did take are pretty blurry, so I apologize for the lack of the usual in-action shots. Things are about to get a little hectic around here and I wanted to get this larger post out while I could! The activities are pretty simple and self-explanatory anyhow.

This is a ceramic bank and a bowl of pennies for Tyler to feed through the slot. He then removes the cork to dump them out. I like that the slot is on the side so that he has to hold the penny in a different way than many of his works, which usually require him to simply drop from the top.

This is a simple 1:1 correspondence work (i.e beginning math) with marbles and an ice cube tray. There are twelve marbles for him to work with so there are no extra, a Montessori-must.

I've had these cardboard suitcases around for a while, and after seeing how much he enjoys opening and closing one in his open/close basket, as well as how much he likes to nest things, I decided to let him have these to work with. He's somewhat into them. I am wondering if they are a bit too large.

I found these small wooden cubes at Hobby Lobby and have used them here for color sorting into glass ice cream cups. Tyler instantly had other ideas though, which I'll get to in a moment...

Glass gems aren't generally something that Montessori uses to practice pouring, but I got rid of his activity with these gems due to boredom and still wanted to find a way to use his little treasures. This has been on his table for several days now and not once has he tried to dump them all over the floor the way he started to do with the beans. He loves his gems and has shown respect for them!

He isn't quite using the handle to pour yet, but does well getting the gems in the bowl.

So...back to those little wooden blocks. When I tried to introduce the color sorting activity, Tyler instantly took off with the blocks and brought them here to use to pour. To him this made total sense for one reason or another and he's done well with it, so I've put away the color sorting activity for now. I am not a Montessori purist and love that he used a bit of creativity here!

I found these fun little creatures in the VBS clearance section at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them until I realized that I had the exact shades of these in cups. A color matching activity was born!

More 1:1 correspondence. This container used to hold his unit blocks, but since his stacking interest has passed for now, I've found they hold his squishy/squeaky blocks quite nicely.

Another parmesan cheese container work! These fun and colorful stirrers were again found in the clearance section of Hobby Lobby. Ty had to realize that only one end would fit in the container, which was the biggest challenge at first.

These little containers were found near the unfinished wood area and I've used them here for shape/lid matching. I know Ty could do this, but he wants absolutely nothing to do with them for some reason. I tried to place a few interesting items inside with no avail. I'll try again in a few weeks!

This is a baking sheet with salt used in Montessori to practice writing. You can also use sand. I don't expect Tyler to practice his letters here, it's just a fun (and relaxing!) way to draw. I can't help myself from doing it myself from time to time!

Yesterday he also decided to use his feet to draw with which I was okay with, especially as a kid with sensory quirks. He surprised me as well by learning to shake the sheet back and forth to erase his picture and start again so I didn't need to guess when he wanted me to do this for him.

This activity was created quickly one evening when I was making dinner and a newly-clingy Ty needed a distraction (and couldn't help with dinner unfortunately). Here he simply places a funnel into an old juice bottle and puts markers through it, then shakes the markers out.

We've used his ramp to do some line work, here using some of his smaller pretend play animals.

His Pink Tower isn't new, but I wanted to share here that I've taken away half of his blocks with this work (every other one) to let him have more success with it. He did it correctly once with all ten, but I really felt that I wanted to step it back. There's a fine line in Montessori between a bit too challenging and too easy and I felt through observation that this was the right thing to do. He has stacked these correctly several times now. Success!

Laying them horizontally, and correctly, has now become easier too, but not so easy that it isn't interesting.

I cut, glued and laminated animals to both sides of a large piece of paper when he was a baby, thinking that he'd enjoy looking at it. I was wrong about that, and it went to the back of a closet, forgotten about. Ty recently found it and dragged it out, then grabbed animals that he has to match them to the photos! Next step is certainly going to be making animal nomenclature cards for an object-to-card matching activity.

I just had to share this little moment... After Ty was finished with breakfast the other morning, Ty decided to put the Cheerios that he didn't eat back in the box! I may be wrong, but this just seems like such a Montessori-kid thing to do. Everything has its correct place!

Linking-up with One Hook Wonder and Tot School.