Montessori Madness ~ Montessori in a Caravan

Posted on 09/03/2015 by Momma Jo

One of my readers asked me to share ideas on how to Montessori in a caravan. Though I have yet to find any information dedicated directly to the subject, I have written a post on Montessori Space at Home before and I have found a few great resources on how to Montessori in a tiny space.

How to Set Up a Montessori Space at Home from Living Montessori Now.

Setting up a Montessori space at home is something any parent can do – because it can be designed to fit any home and any family. A Montessori space is especially helpful for toddlers and preschoolers, but it’s helpful at the elementary level as well.

Setting Up a Small Montessori Space
For many families and grandparents, a small Montessori space will be ideal. I know that’s my plan for when I have grandkids. The two essentials for me would be a child-sized table and chair(s) and a low shelving unit for materials. I would also save a low kitchen cupboard for a child’s food-preparation utensils and dishes.

Small Space Montessori Setup: Introduction and Entryway from Trillium Montessori

Montessori Setup in a Small Space
The Montessori Method is versatile in so many beautiful ways. The world is the classroom and even a small space can be used to engage young learners. I would love to show you some of the ways we have our small space Montessori setup with Montessori At Home Mondays five part series. Check back each Monday in the month of September where I will give you a tour of our small space Montessori setup.

Small Space Montessori Setup: Kitchen and Wrap Up from Trillium Montessori

When doing Montessori homeschool setup in a small space everything you have gets used in multiple ways. Often I perched on a stool next to this table to be with the kids are their level. They had so much pride in being able to complete tasks with ease because of the smaller size materials. I would encourage you to make a table a priority in your setup.

Small Space Montessori Setup: Kitchen and Wrap Up from How We Montessori

Getting his materials from a kitchen drawer. He also has the drawer above this one for his other/baking materials. While we were travelling we really missed him having access to his own kitchen materials and food. I think I heard a million times ‘I’m hungry’ ‘I’m thirsty’. We rarely hear this at home as he can fix these things for himself.

Small Space Montessori Setup: Kitchen and Wrap Up from How We Montessori

This space is a great example of order. Notice how there aren’t too many things in the drawer, it’s not overcrowded, every item can be found with a quick look and there is a specific place for everything. I also love the towel taped on the bottom of the drawer…

Montessori Home Spaces: Tips Room by Room from Racheous Lovable Learning

For those just starting out with Montessori at home, I thought I would share some advice for organising their environment. There are several things to think about each space and room in the home. I hope I can share how to best set up your home to facilitate independence. This is primarily applicable to the younger years.

Camping items that are usefull for storage and practical life activities

Camp cover spice rack

These spice racks are perfect for storing your small items, such as tongs, tweezers, small bottles, ziplock bags with pompoms, etc.

Whitmor clip and drip hanger with 26 clips

Pixie has one of these that she uses when she is helping me hang up the laundry outside. They are perfect for small cloths, socks, etc.
Natural Instincts 3 tier deluxe cupboard

These canvas cupboards are easy to assemble and fold away when they are not in use. There are 3 shelves that can house your little one’s trays. On the side is a small pouch perfect for storing small items that can be used with the trays. The top can house a bigger items that do not fit on the shelves.

Natural Instincts 4 Shelf Folding Cupboard

These canvas cupboards are easy to assemble and fold away when they are not in use. There are 4 shelves that can house your little one’s trays. The top can house several bigger items that do not fit on the shelves.

Many of these items are available for sale at online classifieds such as Gumtree.co.za and Gumtree Australia.

12 Months of Montessori Learning ~ February: Geography

Posted on 02/03/2015 by Momma Jo

The kids LOVE learning all about other countries and the different parts of the world. As part of our Pack Your Bags geography curriculum, I have added a few additional Montessori printables to add a little variety to our weekly lessons.

Instead of focussing on just the Country we are studying in the Pack Your Bags curriculum, we are focusing on the continent, the oceans and/or seas closest to that country.

I have found fantastic resources online that we will be using throughout the year, and in the future.

North American Flags – Pin Map Flags

North American Flags - Pin Map Flags
North American Flags (color-coded) – Printable Montessori Geography Materials
The 41 flags of North and Central America according to the continental regions and sub-regions as defined by the United Nations 12-16-2010.

Includes:
41 pin map flags: orange color-coding on back of flags and labeled
41 pin map flags: orange color-coding on back of flags and no labels
basic instructions on how to prepare the pin map flags

All pin map flags are approximately 1 x 1½” in size and color-coded with orange.

North America – Control Maps, Masters and Labels

North America - Control Maps, Masters and Labels
Includes the following Maps of North America:
1 black and white blank map
1 black and white labeled map
1 colored blank map
1 colored and labeled map
2 sets of map labels (1 set with orange borders, 1 set with no borders)*

Montessori Maps of North America for Montessori Learning at home and school.

World – Control Maps, Masters and Labels

World - Control Maps, Masters and Labels
World Control Maps, Master and Labels – Printable Montessori Geography Materials

Includes the following World Maps:
1 black and white blank map
1 black and white labeled map (includes oceans)
1 colored blank map
1 colored and labeled map (includes oceans)
1 colored blank map (includes blue water)
1 colored and labeled map (includes blue water and oceans)
1 set of black and white map labels*
1 set of color labels*

The World Map Control Maps – Printable Montessori Geography Learning Materials for home and school.
* map labels (continents and oceans) for large puzzle map or floor map

12 Months of Montessori Learning Posts:
January: Practical Life

Montessori Madness ~ Totschool ~ My Little Pony Trays

Posted on 23/02/2015 by Momma Jo

~Pixie is 42 months old~

Pixie LOVES My Little Pony, especially the new Equestria Girls. I couldn’t find any Equestria Girl resources for her so I went with the tried and trusted printables from 1+1+1=1 (see resource links below). Here are some of our trays for this week.

1.

In this tray I have a sorting and gluing activity. I didn’t include the glue until after she brought the tray out to work on. glue can be very messy if left unsupervised.

2.

I added different scissors to this tray after the photo was taken. These particular pair of scissors didn’t work as advertised, much to Pixie’s disgust. Once I swapped the scissors to a decent pair, she loved this tray.

3.

My Little Pony Non-clementure cards. What better way to learn the names of the Ponies than to play with these!

4.

My Little Pony number sequence puzzle.

5.

Do-a-Dot printables are always a HUGE hit. We have the Imaginarium Creations set from Toys-R-Us as the original Do-a-Dot markers aren’t available in South Africa.

6.

My Little Pony Playdough Mat. I’m not sure how Pixie is going to do with this one as its the first time she’ll be working on one. The playdough was purchased through a friend who makes it from home. You can find a recipe for homemade playdough here.

7.

My Little Pony I am.. printable is a great resource for reviewing all the names of the Ponies learned during the Non-clementure cards activity.

8.

My Little Pony colour match activity.

9. These are books she loves to page through (you can find the link of our favourite books here). It’s not all of the books she loves, mind you (there just isn’t enough space on this shelf).

10. I bought the mats at Mr Price Home for R50 each. They are the perfect size. We have them in the size 50×80 and in white, green and blue.

Resources
My Little Pony Printables by 1+1+1=1

Montessori Madness: Valentines Day Trays

Posted on 09/02/2015 by Momma Jo

February is the Month of Love and what better way to celebrate than to have Valentines Day themed Montessori Trays!

1.

Heart shape puzzles. These are super cute! Pixie is going to L.O.V.E. these!

2.

I bought this adorable heart silicone mould a few years ago. I added some pink aquarium stones in a little basket with tweezers.

3.

Many coloured hearts book with pencils.

4.

I pushed golf tees into a glitter covered styrofoam heart and have red marbles in another little basket. The marbles balance on the golf tees. I initially had it all on the green heart tray, but it wasn’t perfectly flat, so the marbles kept falling off.

5.

Heart colour matching cards

6.

Achy Breaky Hearts Matching Game file folder game that I modified for Fifi years ago.

7. These are books she loves to page through (you can find the link of our favourite books here). It’s not all of the books she loves, mind you (there just isn’t enough space on this shelf).

8. I bought the mats at Mr Price Home for R50 each. They are the perfect size. We have them in the size 50×80 and in white, green and blue.

Resources
Love tot pack from 1+1+1=1
Achy Breaky Hearts Matching Game

12 Months of Montessori Learning ~ January: Practical Life

Posted on 02/02/2015 by Momma Jo

I will be following along with Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool this year in their 12 Months of Montessori Learning series. What a fun way to document the different aspects of the Montessori Method on a monthly basis!

January’s theme was Practical Life. This is, most probably, my favourite activity for the kidlets.

This month, Pixie learned to paint her own finger nails, cut an apple with a apple slicer and grate soap on a cheese grater. My sister in law gave each of the girls a bottle of nail polish (a favourite activity that the girls and I love doing together) and Pixie decoded to decorate her own nails. I purchased the inexpensive apple slicer and grater at the Crazy store. The apple slicer and grater are also available on Amazon.

Fifi baked cupcakes for our joint birthday party. She used the Pillsbury Traditional Cake Mix. I measured out all the wet ingredients and supervised the mixing. She didn’t want to try putting it in the oven, so I did that for her. She then proceeded to decorate them all by herself with the Pillsbury ready mix frosting in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. I spooned the frosting into a cupcake decorating bottles to minimise the mess.

Koko is a Cub Scout and what better way to earn you cooking badge than to bake his favourite chocolate chip cookies, cook us dinner, braai (BBQ) for the family and make tea for Momma. I measured out all the wet ingredients and supervised the mixing. He does this all on his own following the recipe. We make the cookies in cupcake liners to keep them all in a uniform shape.

Montessori Madness ~ Monster Montessori trays for this week

Posted on 19/01/2015 by Momma Jo

~Pixie is 41 months old~

We have been back at the school proverbial grindstone since last Wednesday and the kids are loving their new curriculum. Pixie is still busy with tot/preschool and will continue to work using the Montessori method. Here are her Monster Montessori trays for this week.

1

Do a dot monster painting. Pixie loves working with the dot paints. I have a stack of different pages printed for her. She asks for them often.

2

Monster Dots matching. Match the pattern to the monster, or visa versa.

3

4 park monster puzzles.

4

Monster Shadow Matching.

5

Monster Shape Matching. Each monster has a shape on the belly and a corresponding card.

6

Monster Size Sequencing. These are great for teaching sizes. Pixie loves to name each monster by size, the big one is Daddy, the next one is Momma, then Noo, Koko, Fifi and Pixie.

7

Monster Clothes Peg Number Cards. I decided not to use clothes pegs for this activity. She will be using stones to put on the correct number. This is the first time I’ve had an activity for her like this.

8

Shape Monster matching cards. Each monster is made up of a certain shape and has a corresponding card with a single shape, ie a heart, that matches the monster.

I bought the mats at Mr Price Home for R50 each. They are the perfect size. We have them in the size 50×80 and in white, green and blue.

Resources
Happy Monsters by 1+1+1=1
Not-So-Scary Monsters Preschool Pack by Little Monkey Printables on Teachers Notebook