Montessori wrap up

I thought it would be a good idea, before posting about the new montessori activities I've created for the girls, to do a little recap of the ones that they already have.

The losers:

 P wasn't really interested in threading the pasta and straws, and they quickly disappeared through the house (I think I vacuumed them up in the end)

 I was a little disappointed that neither P or J were interested in the felt shapes, either as shapes, or as a house.  I thought this would be a really cool activity, but they just weren't interested.  Interestingly, P found a whole heap of felt scraps - random colours and shapes, and has been busily arranging these instead.

P was interested in her language basket, but only for a short space of time.  I think if I had a whole range of sounds that I could cycle through, this would work well.

The Winners:

 J spent a reasonable amount of time exploring all the elements of her blue basket, and seemed to enjoy herself.

Button snake was a huge hit, initially with P, who spent quite a lot of time putting the buttons on, and lately with J, who has been very keen to carry button snake around with the button holes and demand that someone put them on (or take them off).

But the undisputed King of the Heap is the fabric numbers.  P just adores her 'nummies'.  She takes them to bed, she matches them up with the numbers in her counting book, she brings them out and says "what this say?" as she pulls each of them out.  This activity has also had the happy consequence of giving DH something concrete to do with her.  He has been diligently teaching her to count using them, and they've both been having a great time.