A Lovely Visit to the North Pole

Or at least what sweet bee called the North Pole, which was actually North Carolina. This was her first real experience with snow, and I think it was much crunchier than she expected. As soon as she stepped on it she shouted, "It's frozen!" in complete shock.

Beach sensory tub

The best thing about living in Florida is the year round sunshine and ability to spend days at the beach in February! The constant sunshine and warmth is easy to take for granted, and today was one of those days. We have been enjoying such beautiful weather lately that I woke up this morning ready for a beach trip with my sweet bee only to be greeted by thunderstorms upon leaving our home. Should have checked the weather channel!

Luckily, I have some rainy day activities stored in my bookmarks folder and was able to bring the beach to us - and you can, too! I have been meaning to try this wonderful "cloud dough" recipe for quite some time and the dreary weather gave us the perfect excuse.

Sweet hands agree - this stuff is completely fabulous! I used wheat flour to give it a more sandy color, and the texture was absolutely perfect. It feels and behaves exactly like wet beach sand! It can be scooped, poured, molded, and made into sand castles! There could not have been a better way to spend a rainy day.

               

               

Sensorial sorting

'Since feeling is first...'

Sorting games can be a wonderfully engaging sensorial task for children who are developing their desire to create order. Maria Montessori believed that sensorial experiences begin at birth, and designed exercise groups to classify the eight different types of sensory work. These classifications are visual, tactile, baric, thermic, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and stereognostic. You can read more explanation about these groups and their importance in child development here.

Beyond incorporating almost all of these sensory exercise groups, this sorting game also serves as an introduction to basic math concepts like numerical grouping and sets!

Here, I have selected three items which vary in size, shape, weight, color, and texture. These happened to be bottlecaps, sea shells, and floral beads. You can use almost anything, though, including bigger items for the children who like to explore with their mouth! I placed these items into separate jars and sat back while I watched her work.

First, she enjoyed taking the items out of each jar and moving them into the other jars. Eventually she became frustrated at the jars being too deep for her hand to easily reach into, so I helped her empty each one - that's when the real fun began!

She loved picking up the items and putting them in the jar. She focused intently on the different sounds they each made when dropped in, and really seemed to enjoy the differences in texture.

These smooth, blue floral beads were definitely her favorite. They were cool to the touch, heavier than the bottle caps and shells, and made the loudest noise when dropped into a jar. 

This is the face of an individual who is completely absorbed in her work - I love it! 

Our Montessori Home

In my last entry I discussed our efforts in creating a safe environment for Bee to investigate without disruption. One of the biggest changes we've made to our living room was upgrading from our old sectional sofa, which took up two entire walls in our tiny apartment, to a regular sized sofa with a cozy side chair. We have so much more room now to ensure that Bee is a welcome part of this space. When revising the room to fit our needs, we very much tried to keep Montessori principles in mind. Montessori is an educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori. It's focus is an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child's natural development.

Children learn by doing, and this requires freedom of movement and spontaneous investigation - so a safe, baby proofed space is essential. Other core components of a Montessori room include low shelves, child sized furniture, natural materials where possible, and a strong emphasis on keeping the area beautiful and organized. In our room, we created three separate areas which we loosely modeled after prepared environments found in a Montessori classroom. As Bee grows past infancy, these prepared environments will evolve to incorporate more specific themes, such as language arts, geography, everyday living, music, art, and more. For now, I believe we're off to a great start!

We've called this first area our Creative Learning station. This station is the area that we took the most liberty with and is much more loosely modeled after a prepared environment than the next. Here's a closer look:

One key aspect of any Montessori room is beautiful artwork hung at the child's eye level which is changed frequently. I was able to find these wonderful hanging frames at the dollar tree for only $1.00. They hold six 5x7 photos and are the perfect size for hanging at child level!

One of my favorite items on this shelf is this felt basket which holds several different fabrics. These fabrics are a great sensory experience for Bee's sweet little hands and a fabulous way to draw her attention to things like weight, size, color, shape, and texture. I gathered these on the cheap from a clearance bin of leftover remnants at a fabric store. All together, everything seen here, including the felt basket, was less than $2.00. 

Coming in at another $2.00, these brightly colored pipe cleaners and red pasta strainer were both more dollar tree finds and quickly became one of Bee's favorite things! In addition to being a fabulous introduction to counting, this activity is fantastic for developing coordination skills. The pipe cleaners can be bent, mouthed, thrown, pulled, pushed, curled, and re-threaded back into the strainer.

In this bucket I keep a few soft books which I change out regularly to keep Bee's interest. While I am using baskets and other storage containers on this shelf it's important to note that there are only a few objects in each basket. Every object can easily be seen when pulling the basket off of the shelf. Organization is very important in a Montessori space, and each item should be visible to the child so that they are free to choose without becoming overwhelmed.

I created this engaging "toy" by reusing an old baby wipes container and filling it with more fabric store remnants. I folded the pieces of fabric in such a way that every time Bee pulls one out, the next one pops up. The prints, colors, and textures of the fabrics vary and she's always quite impressed with her ability to remove each of them from the box!

This second area is our math and science station. While the name may sound like it places an intimidating amount of attention on infant academics, these toys are all age appropriate and all serve as an early introduction to mathematical concepts like geometric shapes, counting, and sorting!

From a closer look at the bottom shelf, you can see these terrific blocks which Bee takes great delight in knocking over once I stack them for her. The middle basket contains some interesting shapes that she loves to examine.

Aside from developing coordination, this bead maze is laying the foundation for counting and numbers!

Each of these balls offers a different tactile experience, and Bee enjoys examining each one, taking time to return to her favorites!

While Bee doesn't stack these cups quite yet, she is certainly able to deconstruct them, and so fascinated when they come apart! 

 And what better way to learn about an object than by mouthing it?!

I bought his great wooden pathfinder from a local swap group. What an excellent way to boost coordination, fine tune small motor skills, and develop a sense of direction!

Finally, the beginnings of our reading station. After all of that exploration this comfortable arm chair provides a cozy retreat where I can grab a book and a soft blanket for story time before nursing sweet Bee to sleep. As she grows into toddlerhood we plan to provide her a child sized arm chair of her own where she can sit next to me while we each read our books.