P and J take some photos

Easter Chicks

Last year, I knitted some lovely eggs for P and J for Easter, but this year I completely forgot that Easter was coming up at all (I know, I saw all the other posts on people's blogs, but it just didn't register).  So when I saw this post by Rosy-Posy, I thought it would be a great little project for P and J and I to do this Easter.

I've had some roving that DH's Nan gave me.  She used to spin, but has given it up (more because of time constraints than infirmity - this is the 80 year old who still skis!), so I thought this would be a great opportunity to try our hands at wet felting.  The first part of the process was to dye the roving (more on this next post).  

Because this was also the first time I'd tried to dye roving, I decided to make the chicks so that I only had to dye one colour.

We followed the process as outlined by Rosy Posy, although our chicks aren't quite as smooth as hers ended up.

I did most of the wrapping myself because it was tricky for P and J to wrap the roving around in a ball, but P did all the wet felting herself.  As this was the first time I'd wet felted anything, I was a little worried about the length of time it was taking for the balls to felt down.  But we stuck with it and ended up with some very cute little yellow balls.  I was really proud of how well P did (J was much less interested in the whole wet felting process).

Once they were completely dry (thanks to the hot water cupboard), I embroidered on a little orange beak, and used a permanent marker to make the little eyes (I don't have any black thread).

Cheep cheep

Steiner Toys

My project this week is to create some Steiner inspired toys.  I've blogged previously about Montessori style activities, and the girls have really enjoyed them.  But I've also previously blogged about how my philosophical style leans more to Steiner inspired preschool activities so I decided I would focus on these kinds of toys this week.

And its a really good time to mention that I won a giveaway! I won a tutorial to make a wonderful waldorf doll through the Rhythm of the Home blog.  I'm very excited about the opportunity to make such a wonderful doll, and it looks so easy (famous last words).

Winter Solstice

Mount Taranaki, isn't he majestic?

My project this week is to create some traditions around Winter Solstice.  This Wednesday is the shortest day of the year, and I've decided it might be nice to celebrate this festival with the girls.  There are some really nice ideas and thoughts in the Rhythm of the Home Winter editions.  I don't think I will go so far as fasting and staying up all night, but I will be trying to create a few winter celebration traditions with our family.

Fabric numbers

One of the Montessori activities I created this week were Fabric numbers.  This was another of the activities from Counting Coconuts.  The tutorial for these can be found here.

This was a great way to use up some of my fabric scraps.  I had a wonderful red glittery fabric that I didn't know what to do with, and it was perfect for this project.  However, I didn't really think about the fact that the back and fronts of the numbers would be important, so all but one of the numbers has the red sparkly fabric on the front.  Its the 9 that has the wrong front, and P insists that it should be the other way around so that it matches the rest of the numbers.  I'm sure she'll end up writing 9s back to front because of it.

The tutorial calls for cotton batting or interfacing to make the numbers a bit sturdier.  I didn't have any of these on hand, so I decided to stuff the numbers instead.  I made the numbers over the course of a day with much help from P and J, but if you didn't have any children around, it could easily be done in an evening.  Because I had stuffed the numbers, I didn't wash them to make them all raggedy (and also because P insisted on playing with them as soon as I had made them).

I had an "I wish I had done this when the girls were in bed" moment while sewing these, both P and J wanted to sit on my lap while I sewed, so we went and stuffed the letters together.  J had great fun using the stuffing to stuff her teapot, and P was very helpful in passing the stuffing to me.  She also created a snow storm of stuffing.  The girls had a fantastic time making these numbers, and I was glad that we had done it all together.  (We solved the sitting on the knee while sewing issue by letting P sit on a chair right next to me, while J sat on the knee furtherest away from the sewing machine).

Montessori activities

I started my project this week by tidying P's room.  DH finally removed the desk from her room, and we rearranged the space to make it more play friendly.  It got quite messy.

But the finished product was worth the mess.  

I bought the shelves from the Hospice Shop for $5 and the baskets were 'fill a bag for $1', also from the Hospice Shop.  But once I got all the baskets, I got a bit lost.  After all there are so many different kinds of activities that I could include.  I really liked the idea of doing a 'theme' but then I realised that this would require rotating some baskets around, and I decided to leave this until P is a bit older, and might have more definite topic preferences.  I found this facebook note from Counting Coconuts, and I focussed on the areas she suggested there.

Practical Life - Threading

This is a mixture of cut up straws and penne pasta pieces, with some string.  The idea is for P to thread the pasta and straws onto the string.  I painted the ends of the string with nail polish to make it a bit easier for her to manage, and to stop the string from fraying.

Sensorial - Felt Shapes

These are some felt shapes that can be made into a house.

Sensorial - Colour basket

This activity is really for J rather than P.  A blue scoop, a teddy bear, two different pieces of material, and some blue yarn.  I chose blue because it is the largest teddy that I have, and J is sure to want to put it in her mouth.

Language - 'P' basket

This has a selection of objects that start with the sound 'p'.  A present, a peg, a pizza, a purple pair of pants, and a picture of P.  I've covered the pictures with some duraseal to help them last.  You can find some ideas about an Alphabet box here.

I thought really carefully about including the letter 'P', but I decided against it.  Partly because Montessori teaches phonics as the primary way to learn language, and I don't think this is the best way to learn a language like English, which is not very phonetical.  But the main reason I didn't include the letters is because I don't actually want to teach P to read.  In this respect I fall quite firmly into the Steiner ideas about learning to read.  I just don't think its necessary for her at this age.

Practical Life - Button snake

You can find how to make this here.  Buttoning is something that P has trouble with so this was a great activity to help her with it.

I filled all the baskets with things that I already had at home.  I was very surprised with how easy and quick everything was to make.  With the exception of the fabric numbers (which I will post about separately) all the baskets were pretty much 5 minute jobs.  Doesn't it look fantastic?

Montessori

I’ve been toying with the idea of having a Montessori structured environment at home for P and J for a little while now.  I follow a couple of Montessori  blogs, Chasing Cheerios and Counting Coconuts, and I am very drawn to the activities that these Mums post about.  However, after some very careful consideration, I have decided that Montessori style ECE (or Early Childhood Education) is not for me.

I thought I would set out my reasoning for you all to see.  There is a great comparison between Montessori, Steiner and Playcentre NZ styles of ECE here, and a short consideration of their differences here, and these really helped me to make up my mind.

PROs

•  I really like the kinds of activities that Montessori provides
•   I like the idea of using a whole lot of different senses and skills to teach a common theme
•   I like that it would extend P and J’s learning
•    P enjoys the Montessori style activities that I have so far provided

CONs

•  The general idea of getting the girls to do one activity and then put it away is not something that comes naturally to me
•  And even more significantly, that skill is not one that I value highly (don’t misunderstand, I like my house to be tidy, but I don’t really think being methodical and doing one thing at a time is all that important)
•  It would make me really stressed out trying to ensure that all my thematic stuff was in the right place etc

The factors above would have been fatal to me wholeheartedly embracing Montessori on their own – because there is no point me starting something that I cannot do easily.  But more importantly than the above factors, I am philosophically in opposition to some of the fundamental tenants of Montessori ECE.

I firmly believe in letting children be children, letting them run around when they want to, and to a large extent do what they want.  I am also very interested in letting P and J exercise their imaginations, and I’m keen to encourage them to extend themselves in this way.

So ultimately, despite reading and enjoying several Montessori style blogs, its just not for me or my family.  I am, however, going to create some activity shelves and have some baskets for P and J to use, because there is value in some of these things.  So my project this week is to set these activity shelves up (I got there in the end, even if it was a bit long winded).

Chasing cheerios

I have rediscovered this blog recently, and it is so inspiring.  The activities that she has for her two children are really interesting and clever.  Her youngest is almost the same age as J, so its great to see the kinds of activities she's into.

Kitchen sand

DH got a book before P was born with all sorts of activities for babies, and one of them was kitchen sand.  Essentially its a sandpit in a dish.  The book suggested using cornmeal, but that is really expensive so I thought I would be able to substitute wheat semolina, which is much cheaper.

It was such a nice day today that I took the sand outside and let P and J go wild with it.  It kept them busy for minutes, and it also kept them from digging up the garden.  The semolina worked really well, although it did get a bit gluggy when I tried to wash it out for J's hair (P quite happily admitted to pouring it onto her head in the first place).

 And sometimes when you leave a 2 year old alone, they impress you.

Mini books

My friend Kate shared this link with me.  Its a website where you can print out mini books for your kids.  I think this is an awesome idea.  I'm sure that P will love a couple of these little colouring in books for Christmas, as inexpensive stocking stuffers.

Kids crafts

I recently subscribed to this website. It looks great, and really how could I resist a weekly themed activity? If you click on newsletters, you can see all the fun ideas grouped by a common theme. I can't wait to do them with P (and possibly J, although I think her contribution is more likely to be in the eating/smooshing department).