Tot School

 Sensorial:

 J-jo will not leave the brown stair alone, even though he can't do it without some scaffolding from me.  All he wants is his "stair" to walk on.  If I were a Montessori purist, he would not be allowed to do this (especially the walking on it part); however, I have to follow my child's interest when it occurs.  I've noticed in many instances with Bear and the Montessori materials that they need to be introduced younger than stated in the manuals otherwise I miss the sensitive stage when they are most interested in it (the knobbed cylinders are one such example with Bear).  If I were to wait until he is 2 and a half to introduce the brown stair as recommended in all the manuals, he might not be interested, yet his interest is high now. I've shown him what to do and helped him a few times with it this week.  Next week I will let him try on his own and see how he manages.  I figure he will notice if it is wrong when he tries to walk up the stair.

 I colored water in small water bottles to do more matching work with our rainbow arches and peg people.

 

 Practical Life:

We're working a lot on pouring.  Bear helps a lot with this teaching. 

J-jo loves to cut pear.  I am also starting to show him how to cut with a knife after rereading

Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three by Paula Lillard.  He cut the strawberries on the right with my help.

 Discoveries/Language:

He loves to line up his wooden cars at the top of the slide and watch them race down.

 The farm captivates his interest a lot.  I photographed all our farm animals and made him cards with the photo and name under it for him to match to the animals.  He loves to do this.  He loves the car ramps I mentioned before and is getting better at putting the cars so they don't get stuck.  Bear's rabbit puzzle is good to teach him different emotions like sad, happy, scared.  He likes to find the sad face and make the sign for sad/cry.

 We have a bunch of plastic bugs in a little drawstring bag and he is always pulling them out and looking at them.  He can match the ones that go together.

Linked up to Tot School at 1+1+1=1