Interactive Montessori-Inspired Christmas Display!

In our home, the day after Thanksgiving is traditionally spent decorating the house for Christmas and it's also one of my favorite days of the year! Since having Tyler, the day is even more magical. Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a young child is a beautiful thing!

I created a Christmas-themed display last year as well, and though there are similarities, the activities have certainly grown with Tyler! The only thing this display is missing is a matching snow scene outdoors. Back home in upstate New York they've already had some of the white stuff, and though it's odd to decorate for Christmas when it's 65 degrees outside, I can't say I miss it yet!

Christmas Display 2011! There are other pieces of it around the living room that I'll show as well.

This is one of the works in the display which uses large fill-able ornaments and jingle bells. Ty adores the moose, and "moose" is his new word thing to say! He could care less about the snow man.

He unzips the back of the ornament, puts the jingle bells in, then zips it back up.

Then it's time to shake the moose and make lots of festive noise! Afterwards, he removes the bells and puts them back in the box. Sometimes moose heads back into the basket, but more often Ty plays with it and carries it around with him.

Ty's little Christmas tree is decorated with ornaments which he practices taking off carefully. After it tipped over a few times due to his rough pulling I can say he truly learned to be gentle! He also has a box with puff balls in it for putting in his tree. It's much easier than hanging the ornaments with their difficult little strings. I believe I got that idea from another blogger last year but can't remember who (if it's you let me know!) 

Tyler helped take everything out of the Christmas boxes and enjoyed exploring all of his "new" stuff. He especially adored this felt doll ornament. Precious.

This is a bin of his Christmas and winter-themed books. Our favorites are

The Mitten by Jan Brett

That's Not My Snowman by Usbourne Touchy Feely Books  

Little Tree by Chris Raschka (with poem by e.e. cummings)

The 12 Days of Christmas illustrated by Hilary Knight

Merry Christmas Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer   

Caldecot Winner, Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

  

On a side note, "Owl Moon" is really special as it's autographed and dedicated to Tyler by the author. The author is a friend of our writer friend, Kate Messner! Kate is the (award winning) author of seven outstanding, well-reviewed children's books with two more on the way. I can't wait to add her new picture book "Over and Under The Snow" to our collection! It's a New York Times notable! Excuse the tangent but her books are well worth checking out!

 These classic Christmas toys were gifts from my parents last year and are such a lovely addition to the display!

Ty didn't care to try turning the jack in the box handle by himself last year, and I have to say it's a little tricky for him as he prefers his left hand, but this morning he mastered it!

His genuine look of surprise when Tigger pops up is priceless!

Getting Tigger back in is more difficult as you have to be willing to close your hand in the door a bit, but he almost has that down today as well. He is almost completely done with having to come ask us for help with this which I can tell feels good to him!

He is doing great with the top as well, though he has had that in and out of rotation all year as he loves it so much!

I added a basket of pine cones to the display this morning. We'll likely be doing projects with these soon.

Ty really enjoys watching the lights I wrapped all around the window! Luckily he hasn't tried pulling them down. He didn't last year, so here's to hoping he will keep with that trend!

This little work was created while we were emptying Christmas boxes. Tyler really enjoys tonging anything he can! Here he tongs little glittery ornaments into a Christmas tin. This now sits on his shelf.  

Removing and hanging small stockings from these holders is another work that Tyler enjoys!

He soon discovered an easier way to "hang" the stockings as well. He was quite thrilled with himself as you can see in the photo!

He also enjoys putting the stockings on his hands like mittens. More practical life, right?!

I hung a Christmas scene (dollar store window clings) on the dining room window for him to look at. We worked on labeling the pictures for vocabulary building and I'm sure he'll figure out how to remove them from the window and replace them as he sees fit, which will be great! I'd show him how to now but these things only stay sticky for so long...I hope they'll last through Christmas.

I also added a Santa hat to his dress up. Instant hit!

Ty has really enjoys the display and Christmas works created so far. He spends a lot of time playing in his display. The morning after we made it he must have forgotten about it because he came around the corner after breakfast and ran to it saying "Yeah! Yeah!". You would have thought it was already Christmas morning!

Linking-up with some fabulous blogs with many more great ideas!: Living Montessori Now, 1+1+1=1, http://onehookwonder.blogspot.com/ and Living Life Intentionally!

Spring Display

Weeks before it started to show signs of spring outdoors, I planned our spring display and purchased everything we needed at my newest favorite store, Hobby Lobby. I was desperate to take down our dismal winter display and was growing quite impatient! A few weeks ago, Tyler and I finally noticed buds appearing, the temps were climbing and I couldn't get it this up fast enough! The display has brought a lot of cheer to the focal point of our living room and Tyler has enjoyed every bit of it.

Once I saw unfinished wooden flowers in the store, I knew that I wanted to paint them and for Tyler to practice putting them into small vases, but I struggled with figuring out how I would keep them from constantly falling over and frustrating him. This basket was perfect! There's a place for each vase and a large, long area to store the flowers. He enjoys this activity quite a bit and I've noticed him playing switch-a-roo with vase placements lately as well.

I wasn't sure how well the Montessori Flower Arranging activity would go over with Tyler, but it has been a huge hit! He truly enjoys taking the flowers out, examining them, and returning them to the vase. I bought several different types and colors of fake flowers so we could work on naming and color recognition. A few colorful butterflies grace the bottom of the tray as well. I imagined creating a long tray for line work with these, but that hasn't yet happened!

Tyler's favorite part of the display for certain is his basket of spring-related books. Many of them are from the library and happened to be lift-the-flap books which I've found that he, as a peek-a-boo lover, just adores! He spends quite a bit of time looking at these with me as well as independently.

Bird watching has been a peaceful, soothing activity for all of us lately. Our wonderful next-door neighbor has several bird feeders hanging off of a wire strung between trees in his backyard, and they are perfectly visible to us through the dining room window as we eat our meals. Ty also enjoys getting onto his step stool and watching them throughout the day. The feeders are quite popular with our neighborhood bird population and we are able to watch and name a wide variety of birds for Tyler. These little birds and nests were an unexpected find that he likes to look at and take in and of their nests. I expected the birds to be in pieces by now, but he's been surprisingly gentle with them!

I also hung a few pieces of spring and floral inspired art from the calendar used for our Art Display in the area. I have another activity idea that is more geared towards Easter, but it made the space too cluttered, so I'll soon place it on the work shelves instead.
How have you brought the excitement of spring in your home? Feel free to share a blog link if you'd like!

Seasonal Displays

I feel so lucky to have, what I consider, a perfect space for our seasonal centers. A large bay window, low enough for Tyler to climb and sit in, even when he was just a little bitty crawler, has been a lovely location. We have moved from a lifetime in Upstate NY (a place with definite seasons!) to a much more southern state this year, and I'm not sure how well what is seen outside will match some of the displays (snow?), but we'll certainly find out!

Our fall display consisted of many gourds that Tyler enjoyed looking at (and throwing!), a jack o' lantern full of pine cones found on a neighborhood walk, pumpkin and Halloween books, a small pumpkin, perfect for carrying around the house, an enlarged photograph of a fall scene that I took a few years ago, and fall leaves we collected and placed between wax paper (then ironed). Early in the fall, we cut open a small pumpkin to allow Tyler to discover what the insides are like. Tyler became quite obsessed with pumpkins and though we've recently taken down the autumn display, several items have found new homes around the house.

    The winter display replaced the autumn center on Thanksgiving, and has more of a Christmas feel to it for now. I'm sure that I'll be changing and adding to it within the next couple weeks, as I found I did with the autumn scene. For now, it includes a Christmas tree with toddler friendly ornaments for Tyler to practice removing, replacing, and arranging as he'd like. He is especially fond of the jingle bells, which he shakes furiously! I've placed Christmas and winter books in a basket. I found a small stocking which I'll be placing an item or two in soon for him to practice removing and replacing. Two Christmas-style boxes with lids to practice with also each hold a ceramic figure; Santa's workshop holds a Santa figure and the gold present box holds an angel. A miscellaneous box holds pine cones, several jingle bell ornaments (that were too small to hang by themselves for fear of choking) which I strung to serve as a sort of instrument, as well as a few long pieces of garland to play with. So far he's enjoying it very much, especially the tree!

Wouldn't you know the next morning, after a nearly 70 degree Thanksgiving Day, we woke to snow on the ground?! It was a lovely backdrop to the display before it melted soon after. Our cat Tomas sure seems to think so too!