Putting It All Together

We are poised to move into our new rental in a few days and my research is coming to a close as I am ready to put everything into action.  I am in the process of planning what I am going to do in my Montessori-esk Tot School.  I am working on a general "lesson plan" as I think it will keep me focused and motivated.  I don't expect anything of Bug, just that I, as his mom and teacher, am creating the opporutnity and exposure for him to learn when he is ready.  Below are the different fields of Montessori learning, the aspects of Tot School I envision and how I hope they will come together.

Language

Letters
I plan to work on one letter for two weeks and have most if not all activites centered around that letter. I am more than aware that Bug will not 'learn' each letter fully the first time around, so I am prepared for repatition. 

I LOVE the letter boxes that  Kristina of Mommy's Monkeys creates each week so I am going to combine that with printables similar to those created for Tot School on the blog, 1+1+1=1.  I want to create my own printables that cater specifically to Bug's interest and current verbal skills but will use the Tot School's until I have the time.  Carisa (of 1+1+1=1) also references in her Raising Rock Stars Preschool introduction, the Kumon method of introducing letters based on which letters are easiest to write.  I like this concept and plan to teach the letters in the sequence suggested.  When I find our local learning store, I plan to purchase a few Kumon books to guide me in their method.

The sequence is: Ll, Tt, Hh, Ii, Ff, Ee, Xx, Vv, Yy, Nn, Zz, Aa, Kk, Mm, Ww, Dd, Pp, Bb, Rr, Jj, Uu, Cc, Gg, Ss, Oo, Qq

Reading
Bug is not much for reading but I am not exactly ready to give up on him.  I am picturing one morning a week that we truck to the local library for storytime and pick out five books that plays with our theme or color of the month or letter of the week.  I know he is not going to go for books on the theme I pick out but will go for what interest him so as long as we leave with 5 books that we read (1 a day) then I will be happy.

Sensorial

Colors
I will introduce a new color every four weeks (1 month).  The color will represent a theme for that month.  For example, red for February as it is the month we celebrate Valentine's Day.  All other activites (letter printables, sensory bins, PL snack creations, etc) will be in some way associated with this color.

Sensory Tub
Bug loves exploring and I think he will get hours of enjoyment and learning from a Sensory Tub.  I plan to create 1-2 sensory bins each month based on the month's theme or another theme generated from 1) letter of the week 2) his interest and 3) color of the month.  For example, he is transfixed with trains, buses, cars, trucks and airplanes, which would make an awesome theme for the letter Tt (ie. transportation).  A sensory tub can be used for a variety of exercises such as sorting, matching, threading, transfers and texture play so ours will be doing double duty.

Playdoh
One of the first "tools" Bug's speech therapist used was Playdoh.  She would "roll" it and "squish" it then make the sounds as he copied her tactile movements.  He now rolls and squishes EVERYTHING. Sometimes much to my disappointment it's food onto my floors... but the whole time he is happily chanting "roll, roll, roll, SQUISH!"  Seeing how this medium has helped him make leaps and bounds thus far, I will continue using it.  My thought is that I can get a few cookie cutters that correspond with our themes each week or month for him to use in addition to encouraging him to use it to make each week's letter (gotta love more double duty materials).

Mathematics
I realize that Bug is a bit young for this branch of Montessori learning but I can't imagine that introducing some early pre-math work could hurt.

Numbers and Shapes
I plan to introduce a number every two weeks (ie. it will change with the letter of the week).  I am very leary of how to do this and will probably do more research as I don't want to misconstru values to him.  While I do this, I will focus mostly on sorting, threading, transfers and shape identification.  As it is, he understands "just one treat."  Given time, this will develop as we play.... opps, I mean learn.

Practical Life
Oh practicle life, how you boggle my mind!  It's not that I don't know how to do/ set up practical life exercises, it's that I just don't know where to start.  There is so much I want Bug to learn and do, and right now he seems to be in a sensative period for this type of work.  I hear daily, "I do it" or "I did it."  So where to start?!  My plan is to have one day dedicated to practical life work; this will be Monday (ie. Montessori Monday).  We will focus only on PL activites such as vachuming, mopping, cleaning windows, making a special themed snack, laundry, etc.  He will have PL exercises daily (see routines below) that will reinforce some of the tactile learning I hope to achieve by including PL exercises into our learning time.

Routines
I have never really focused on a routine with Bug because he always just did what we did when we did it.  A few months before Peanut's arrival, we started noticing Bug creating his own schedule (sleep, eat, play, nap, etc.) so we went with it.  Now I find myself trying to create routines for him to complete his schedule.  SO without further ado, we will be implimenting routines into Bug's life.  My thoughts are that we will have a routine for each major point in our day (morning, breakfast, lunch, nap, dinner and bedtime).  Each routine will have "routine cards," which are pictures of each step of the routine.  For example, the morning routine will consist of the following cards: 1) go potty, 2) brush teeth, 3) wash face, 4) take off jammies, 5) put on day clothes, 6) drop jammies in laundry room on way downstairs.  I need to spend some time making these but first, I must try out the routines when we are in the house to see how they will work for us.  I envision these routines as practical life self-care learning exercises.

Meals
I generally haven't involved Bug in meal preparation, however most recently he's wanted to cut, salt (or sugar) or butter his food.  I see this as a sign that he's willing to try the task at hand as opposed to flinging said food onto the walls.  I plan to have him do one part of his meal preparation such as cut a banana or butter toast while I do the bulk of the meal making.  As he gains greater control and exhibits desire, I will let him join in on more.  I also plan to make one themed "special" snack a week as part of our learning that will be a PL activity just for him such as jello jigglers.

I have purchased a placemat and kid sized dishes, which we will begin using once we are in the new rental.  I think he will enjoy that his eating tools are his size.  My hope is that I can teach him to set his place at the table by modeling my place setting; he will then have the placemat as a reminder until it's stored into his long-term learning banks. 

I would also like to give him the opporutnity to learn to clean the table and his dishes.  This may take some better planning and doesn't have to happen tomorrow but it will come soon.  I plan to build a washing table similar to the ones seen at Montessori schools.

One note here... I don't agree with the Montessori idea that he should have his own table (kid sized) to eat at.  Family meal time together is very important for me as I didn't have it growing up so Bug and Peanut will eat at the adult table with my husband and I.

Additional PL activities
Our learning area will have other PL activities such as a pouring, transfers, painting, threading, dressing frames and the like.  It will take me some time to set up (make) these activites as I am not able to purchase real Montessori materials.  I will introduce something new each week or so until I have been able to create all the materials I desire.  Bug will not be without something to do in the meantime.

Wordless Weekend part 2

Vasona Lake County Park

Los Gatos, California

Wordless Weekend

Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose

Secrets of Circles

Bubbles

           

Water Ways

The Wonder Cabinet








Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration at
The Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose
"Year of the Dragon"

"The Paper Dolls" performed by
Achieve Dance Arts Academy

"Three Beautiful Girls" performed by
Achieve Dance Arts Academy

California Youth Chinese Symphony

Greetings from California

The 'Ski' family has landed in California! We had a pretty uneventful/eventful trip across country. I say uneventful because we arrived safe, sound and with very little problems along the way. Both kids dealt with a bit of vomiting from the lovely cold they contracted just before we left but other than that, it was almost cake. The eventful part was all of the wonderful places we got to explore.

Day 1: We stopped for the night in Joplin, Missouri to meet some old friends from our Kansas days. We drove through the tornado ravaged town in awe of how destructive nature could be but also in the strength of the local people who were rebuilding (see photo at right).

Day 2: Booked it across Oklahoma and part of Texas without really stopping much because we wanted to have time to see the GOOD stuff.

Petroglyph National Monument

Day 3: Drove through New Mexico and all the nothingness was so beautiful. Then stopped at the Petroglyph National Monument where we did a easy hike in search of Petroglyphs. Bug LOVED this and enjoyed "doing it himself."

Petrified Forest National Park

Day 4: We visited the Petrified Forest National Park where Bug really enjoyed walking/running the concrete path but occasionally became interested in exploring these amazing feats of nature.

Meteor Crater

Then off to Meteor Crater. I honestly never knew this existed until my husband brought it up the day before. We toured the museum and then a quick jaunt out to look at the crater and back into the car.

Grand Canyon National Park

We made it to the Grand Canyon National Park just before dusk. Wow, what an amazing site. At this point, Bug was much to tired to enjoy the park but we plan to return this summer or next. Throughout today's drive, we also stopped at a number of cheesy Historic Route 66 attractions . We made it all the way to Las Vegas, NV for the night and enjoyed all the lights (from the Interstate).





Day 5: Made it to California and stayed the night in Morgan Hill, where we hope to rent a house so we could tour the area both at night and in the daytime.
Day 6: Landed in a temporary housing situation (hotel) until we find our new home.

We had a number of wonderful learning opportunities on this trip with geography, science, history and so forth... it's too bad that both Bug and Peanut are too young to benefit from it. I look forward to the days when they will be old enough to participate in the NPS Junior Rangers Program. All I can say, is they better like National Parks because we are going to be dragging them to everyone within driving distance of our new home.

 

 

 

And now I can say to you, "Greetings from California."