Montessori Monday

Here's a collection of some random (mostly) Montessori-inspired things that we've been up to this week! You can find links to our other activities from this week at the bottom of this post.

Sorting wooden cubes by color with tongs

Playing "Memory" together with six (nomenclature) cards down. Not only is Tyler working on his memory skills exercising important executive function skills by taking turns and resisting turning more than two cards over at a time to find a match.

He received this wooden caterpillar puzzle from my parents, at Christmas, made by a man at a craft fair in Houston. He started showing interest a week and a half ago and loves it! Though this week I made a guide for him and backed it with cardboard so he could use this puzzle independently, he rarely uses it and is very close to doing it on his own now! 

While he seems to be remembering what order the numbers go in with the above puzzle, I'm not sure familiar with quantities he is past three. I brought out the Sandpaper Numerals work I created, using 3-5 for the first time. The important thing for him to learn isn't the name of numbers (though it's neat!), its quantity. You can see him tracing the numbers as well as placing the pegs above.

Ty continues to love stickers and is very interested in using scissors! He continues to improve slowly, certainly needing help getting his fingers placed in the scissors properly.

He continues to enjoy drawing as well, but loves to scribble everything out after he makes it. You can see a happy face in the bottom right here...

He told me this was a bear, and I can see it. I had drawn a bear for him the night before. He pays careful attention when I draw so I'm trying to remember to do a lot more drawing for him!

Ty has enjoyed hand tracing as well, something my husband thought of one night. He still needs a lot of practice but he likes to work on it. I love his ambition!

He also wanted to work with the square stencils. These have naturally been easier than circles. 

He markered on damp paper which made the lines and colors bleed a bit. As I figured though, he wasn't so gentle after a while, even with hints that the paper will rip otherwise, but it was still interesting for him.

Ty has really become a kid who doesn't mind cleaning up his messes, whether it be marker on the table, mess from an activity, or meals. He seems to enjoy the result!  

Cooking anything, big or small, means that Tyler must be involved these days. I love it! If he sees us working in the kitchen or if we announce that we're going to make a meal, Ty often pulls a chair up to the counter and waits for instructions!

As a new gross motor activity, we're jumping off of chairs onto the couch. Tyler approved for sure!

If you missed our other posts this week, you may be interested in:

Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiments

Sorting By Temperature

Practical Life: Water Jug

Linking-up with Living Montessori Now and 1+1+1=1