Montessori Time

Well the girls used the Montessori materials sporadically this week. The one that held their attention the longest was the heart picks:

Sorry the pictures are a bit dark.

Here they are using the spooning with cotton balls. The cotton balls were what we used at the Montessori I worked at, with the toddlers.

Yes, she tended to use her hands to put the cotton balls on the spoon.

Tabitha seemed to enjoy working with tonging with the hearts. Unfortunately, the tongs came up missing and Amelia tore some of the mini cupcake liners off. Without being able to find the tongs I didn't worry about replacing the papers. Here are a couple of pictures from when it did get used.

She also seemed to enjoy the matching heart shapes activity I found at Carissa's site.

Tabitha also decided to try some tracing, all on her own. I looked over and she had taken one of the foam hearts and was tracing it.

For more Montessori activities head over to One Hook Wonder

Our Qq lessons

Well, I managed to incorporate hearts/Valentines Day into our lessons this week. We only had one Qq activity. I had a few more ideas, but frankly I was lazy this week. Hoping next week will be better. I think I will break this week into 2 or 3 separate posts. This post is dedicated to the Qq lessons (which also includes the hearts).

Anyhow, we started on Monday with our lesson after dinner because I had a doctor's appointment in the morning. We made quilts for the letter books.

(I made a grid on the paper and cut out 1 1/2 inch squares for the girls to glue on.)

On Tuesday we had playgroup. We made valentines for the girls to hand out. For this activity I actually tried my first Art Box. I filled it with scrap scrapbooking papers, stickers, foam heart stickers and crayons. Then I let the girls make them however they wanted to. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of all the finished products. Tabitha has this "thing" for 3-D projects lately. Even on her collages she has been bending paper to make it more 3-D. On one of the cards she kept stacking one foam sticker on top of the other.

And for a funny change of pace, I guess I will share Tabitha's other art canvas:

Our poem for the week has been The Queen of Hearts. Which is why it seemed perfect that Valentine's Day fell on the same week we were focusing on Qq. We made queen crowns:

(Yes Tabitha's crown had to have the 3-D effect, though you can't tell from the picture real well)

And, as they were Queens of Hearts, we had to make tarts:

I found the recipe for these yummy mini strawberry tarts at allrecipes.com. I ended up finishing them after the children went to bed. They are delicious. And conveniently our library was having a bake sale, sooo... perfect timing again.

I even made up a poem:

The Queens of Hearts, they made some tarts

All on a winter's day

The family of hearts, they loved those tarts

And ate them clean away.

(I know, not real original)

Today we made Valentines cards for daddy. He didn't have to wait until Sunday to get them though, because Tabitha told him all about them when he woke up for work.

(Tabitha crumbled up some of her tissue paper into balls. There's that 3-D again)

I hope to be able to get a couple more posts out. For now, we will call this one our Preschool Corner and Tot School Post. To see what others are doing with their preschoolers and toddlers head on over to Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1.

Linking this up to the Virtual Valentine's Party

The Homeschool Hop#1

I discovered this carnival over at Children Live, Children Explore, Children Learn. She found it at Our Worldwide Classroom where it is hosted by Kylie. I love the idea of being able to link up to be able to share our homeschool journey, ideas, etc. I am looking forward to finding other's blogs with more ideas. Here is the description of the first post:

Our first theme is all about getting to know you, just you. Not your children or anyone else. It’s time to share a little about yourself, oh please include a photo, we’d really love to see one if you can.

So here it goes:

I will start with a picture I had Tabitha take today so I could have a recent one. As I am usually the one taking the pictures, I don't have many of myself.

I am so happy to be a mother again, after my divorce 10 years ago I thought I would never have anymore children, and now here I am with two little ones and one on the way (okay, I mentioned the kids, but that is who I am, their mom). I always thought I was creative, and I love coming up with crafts for the girls to do. I have always wanted to be a teacher and for years I was upset that I wouldn't be able to get my degree in teaching. Now that we have decided to homeschool I realize I am teaching. I did work at a Montessori for several years, as an assistant group supervisor and then as the director for half a year. But now I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom.

I thought about homeschooling after becoming a Christian 13 years ago, because almost everyone in the small Mennonite church I belonged to was homeschooling. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to. In hind sight, that was probably a good thing. I have matured quite a bit and learned quite a bit by going to college, raising my 3 older children and working at the Montessori. I feel I am much more prepared to homeschool now.

I love to read, right now I am thoroughly obsessed with the Twilight series. When I am not absorbed in those books I am usually reading books on homeschooling subjects such as teaching reading, sign language, or Montessori.

I grew up in NYC, but ended up in rural Pa when my ex decided we needed to move here. Have been here ever since and I could NEVER live in the city again.

I spend too much time on the computer, and I am really trying to cut back. Silly forums and blogger. Fortunately, I have gotten over my SuperPoke Pets! obsession of the summer.

Let's see, what else is there? Well, I guess in relation to my love of books, I am on the library board here in town and I am the church librarian. I love scrapbooking, though I never have time. I wish I had more time though. Pictures and scrapbooking are important to me because of the memories being made. I was always accused of taking excessive pictures. Now, with my digital camera, I am able to take pictures to my heart's content. One of these days I would love to be able to afford a really good camera and learn professional photography.

When it comes to favorite foods I can't say I really have any. While pregnant, as I am now, I don't usually have cravings, just aversions, like hamburger. This pregnancy is extremely bad when it comes to heartburn/acid reflux, it is the first time I ever needed the doctor to prescribe medication. I do have a favorite drink though. When we make it to the "local" Sheetz (1/2 hour away) we usually get Frozen Mochas (my favorite being caramel). And my favorite ice cream flavor is Chocolate Panda Paws or Chocolate Moose Tracks (chocolate flavored ice cream, with thick fudge swirls and mini peanut butter cups).

That is all I can think of, hope it's not too rambling (I tend to ramble, sorry).

Montessori: Valentines

I decided to share my new Montessori activities early on in the week, as I have seen others have done. We have started the letter Qq and our nursery rhyme this week is "The Queen of Hearts." I thought this fit nicely with Valentines day, so I changed out our old activities with new ones with hearts.

I thought this heart tray would look cute with the mini cupcake papers because it reminded me of tarts. Those are just conversation hearts the girls need to tong (using my little bamboo tongs I forgot I had) one by one into the papers.

I had seen others mention the following activity, but it was so many and I really don't remember who. I had actually given up finding the heart picks in our rural area. We have a Family Dollar and a Dollar General and neither had them. Finally found them at a Dollar Tree an hour away.

I found these foam beads while we were shopping the other day and Tabitha couldn't wait to use them. She has used them, thinks it is fun to stack them on the needle that comes with the beads. (The needle has a rounded end to make it safe)

In order to make a nice activity out of it, I decided to

make some pattern cards.

And, though we are focusing on Qq and hearts this week, I changed up the spooning a little differently:

(Figured they look like snowballs, which will be, according to the weather forecast, appropriate this week.

This small shelf is all I have right now to put the materials on, so I do have to change up quite a bit.

I realize it is now Tuesday (I fell asleep on the couch last night before being able to post) but here is the link for One Hook Wonder and the Montessori Monday so you can take a look at what others are doing.

  And I am also linking up to Patricia's Boxes Ideas over at Welcome! My Tot Learning Time.