First week of school. Part 2

As a way to illustrate what we did on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I'll wave my magic wand and upload some pics. Again, they are photos I take with my cell phone so the quality is not the best but you can see we are still enjoying color related activities. I hope you can forgive my lack of words.

First thing in the morning before combing, breakfast or any other thing

Pros of suggesting an environment: there you see; second use found to the set of  chopsticks and beads

The next day I changed the beads for more difficult ones to add challenge.

I know, I know: are the colored pens for the mother or for the daughter?

Well, I guess we can share them!!

First week of Tot school. Days 1-3

MONDAY

The idea was to throw a party to celebrate the beginning of our school, but we haven't had time to arrange everything in the way we want, plus many friends were still away on vacation. So, today tot school has started without any previous event.
By "home or tot school" I mean all the activities M and me do in the morning. Activities I have scheduled for our first trimester, that is the next 16 weeks, or until the baby is born.
Having around 16 topics in mind, I will set up the environment for M to learn as much as she wants. I try to plan inviting set-ups where she decides what she wants to do in a way that is connected with the topic that is displayed that week. I won't push her to do anything, just support her in what she decides to do, observe her and let her be.
This first morning, for instance, after getting up and having breakfast, she's been toying around with the first items that were displayed on her shelves:
After some minutes, she has realized the weather was a bit cool and we have headed for the bathroom to get dressed and groomed. Curiously, she has decided to wear a red jumper, just like the bottle she was playing with a second ago. "Red" is the color she knows best. Then comes "blue". And as for "yellow"she gets a bit mixed up sometimes, saying "purple" instead or not saying anything. We did enough activities in the past so that I can ask her now "what color is this?" Of course, here I mean only the three basic colors, although some weeks ago, when I made her rock crayons I was surprised to see that she was able to correctly associate each of the six colors we had.

Already dressed, she has headed for the kitchen on her own account and has come back with a pot of yellow finger paint. I guess something has made her associate the bottles activity with the paint. Although we often draw and paint with a variety of supplies, we have only used those pots of finger paint three times. I have set up a table and brush, glass with water and cardboard outside, and this is what she's made.
Then, we've gone downstairs to load a washing machine; activity she often wants to do all by herself. We've had a snack and we intended to go to the library to get some color related books. M was very excited about the idea of library books but since she has not been willing to seat in her car seat, we've come back home.
Quick lunch and before 12 she was napping.
Today is also my first day of work -ehem- I will be working around 5 hours a week as of now so I don't know if I should call it "work". Anyway, since I am teaching this afternoon, today we're done with school activities.
As you can guess, this week will be devoted to "colors" and I intend to display secondary colors and see how we get along. If you are interested, be sure to check back with us soon.

TUESDAY 
Notice how empty our notice board and working table look at the beginning of the week:

This is a very easy activity that took me just five minutes to put together. The wooden blocks belong to the box you can see on the right in the pic above. I took three red blocks and three blue ones from the set and placed them in the tiny basket. Then, I painted the equivalent shapes with markers, and voilà. 

 M found the activity on her table and set to work straight away. I actually didn't notice because I was in the kitchen but she had done it right and I noticed it was very easy for her. I regretted not having included yellow and green as I had first intended, but the yellow was too pale for the cardboard and when I prepare things close to midnight I am too tired to look for solutions... She liked it anyway and wanted to play while waiting for lunch.

 In the meantime, as well, I took the opportunity she was so concentrated and interested to introduce "light blue". We toyed with some light blue items and then filled in a bottle with light blue glitter and water. Wonderful activity to foster practical skills such as using a funnel. It's a pity I forgot to take a picture of our new blue light bottle.

WEDNESDAY

However sick and hopeless I felt yesterday, I guess you would call today a "very successful day". Well, M has dropped her nap, but for the rest she has been fine. I had prepared three activities but she has only had time to explore one, which is fine, since the rest will be there ready for her to use if she chooses to tomorrow.

As you already know, if you have been reading this Tot school journal of ours, this week we are exploring colors and doing color activities. It might be an obsession with my profession, but I was a bit worried we don't own any books about colors, so a visit to the local library was a must this week. I really wanted to make one of those books where vegetables, fruits and other items are grouped by color but I haven't had time at all.

We attempted to go to the library on Monday but M didn't want to get into the car. We were far too busy yesterday, and I wasn't feeling well, so we have attempted it again today and it's been a great hit. Both car rides were fine; among the six ore seven color related books we've borrowed three which are quite beautiful; M has enjoyed the kid's space, painted a bit, given her painting to the librarian, gotten her library card, played with the colored cushions.

In the afternoon, after no nap--- we've gone to our favorite park, where we had a date with M's two friends, and both car rides have been fine, which is incredibly good, given the state M can be in after a whole day of activity, no nap and her absolute dislike of cars.
(Sorry for the quality of the shots. For practical reasons, I only use my cell phone.)

A busy morning

When our computer broke down two months ago most of our documents and pictures were irreversibly lost and the thought of this was truly painful. Apart from the obvious feeling of loss I could not bring myself to post about our activities because I needed to illustrate them with pictures, pictures that were gone forever. I am afraid that period will remain undocumented. In the meantime, though, I have been taking some shots, mostly of our inside activities. When we do something outside is often a water or messy activity that requires either special attention or the use of the hands. Hence, the camera is absent there. And, oh did I ever mention I am the worst photographer ever?
Today, I would like to share a glimpse into one of those "summerish" days when M was adjusting to her new schedule and got up at 6.30. By mid morning that day, we had already done three more or less messy activities.
The first one, and my first attempt at making play dough, went this way:
We set out the ingredients we were going to use. No cream of tartar or tartar powder at hand so we just gathered all-purpose flour, salt, warm water, and oil. It was just an attempt and above all a suggested scenario full of practical life activities for M. In the image you can see her using the ladle to add salt to the water. She, later, added the flour, poured a glass of oil and we stirred the mixture.
The resulting play dough was malleable and nice but since it didn't contain tartar powder or the like, it only lasted for half a week. Afterwards it got hard as if we had been using bread dough. Never mind, M enjoyed the process but didn't pay much attention to the play dough.

The following scenario that same morning suggested painting. The normal kind. I set out an old sheet, cardboard paper, brushes, and red finger paint and there came M. 

After some strokes, she wanted to go outside. It was really sunny so I thought we could give ice block painting a try. We had prepared ice blocks with a little bit of red finger paint stirred in them the afternoon before.

There she is enjoying the iced painting while sitting on the potty...

What activities have you been doing outside as of late?

What's new: latest creations, acquisitions, and activities

After M turned 15 months at the end of March, I thought it appropriate to start introducing the concept of setting a table and I found the placemat was a simple way to do it. On my wishlist there was a beautiful cloth placemat but having realized M could perfectly be 3 by the time I learned how to sew and made my ideal mat, I have asked my mum to make it for us. This means we won't have it immediately. In the meantime, we are using a provisional one, I made by tracing plate and cutlery with a permanent marker, as you can see here.

Another of M's grandma's creations is this cute woolen satchel. M likes it and is almost able to get her arms through the straps on her own. It has proved to be useful and been a great hit among relatives and friends.

 

In order to welcome spring, which seems to have gone away for the past two or three weeks, we made a Spring felt board. It's really simple to make and makes a beautiful open-ended activity. M seems to like it, although she waits for me to make up the picture. 

Last week we gave sorting by color a shot. It didn't really engage M, but there it was suggested.

One of the things on my to-do list is homemade painting... I have several recipes and have been wanting to try one for a long time. In the meantime, we decided to paint the balcony and this is how M helped:

Some words must be added to the growing list of vocabulary. As it couldn't be otherwise, due to the amount of time we seem to be spending handling cutlery and dinner sets, one of the new acquisitions is "po" for "fork". Others are "pedra" (stone), which you say amazingly clear; "boo" for "ball", and "bó" for "sabó" (soap); "teeth", "knee", "chair", and the star of the week: up, up, up. Seeing you tell yourself "up" when you fall down cheers my soul up.

One more week, I am linking up to Melissa's Vibrant Wanderings.

Materiales (pro-)Montessori (post in Spanish)

El viernes pasado tuve el placer de dar una charla sobre materiales Montessori -o inspirados en la filosofía de M. Montessori- en el grupo Mamás graciosas, que se reúne los viernes en el barrio de Gracia. El post que escribo a continuación es una transcripción del texto que me escribí a modo de orientación.

Tal vez os habéis preguntado porqué juguetes Montessori, qué los diferencia del resto, o a qué nos referimos con este nombre. En realidad, más que "juguetes" habría que referirse a ellos como "materiales" que ayudan a la formación del niñ@ como persona, que lo preparan para la actividad humana.
Observando a vuestros hijos e hijas, habréis seguramente notado cuánto les interesan nuestras cosas. Podemos darles un montón de juguetes y fácilmente descubrir que los ignoran porque prefieren jugar por ejemplo con los cajones de un armario, con una cuchara, etc...
Uno de los problemas de nuestra sociedad es que muchas veces se quita a los niños la oportunidad de relacionarse con objetos de nuestra vida cotidiana. Otro es que se hace abuso del "no", prohibiendo muchas cosas que si bien para los pequeños resultarían útiles para su desarrollo, obligan a los adultos a estar más pendientes de ellos. Entre estas prohibiciones podemos contar por ejemplo la falta de acceso a cosas pequeñas por miedo a que los bebés se atraganten. La manipulación de objetos pequeños potencia el desarrollo del aparato motor fino, además de la concentración.
Maria Montessori observó que entre los 0 y los 6 años, los pequeños están centrados en sí mismos, están centrados en su propio desarrollo y pasan por periodos bien definidos de interés en ciertas áreas de su desarrollo. Estas etapas las llamó "periodos sensitivos". Durante estos periodos la repetición es fundamental para que los pequeños consigan dominar una abilidad determinada. En esta franja de edad, la mente de los pequeños es como una esponja que obsorbe todo lo que haya a su alrededor. De ahí la importancia del ambiente.

Los materiales de los que vamos a hablar son maneras de potenciar las áreas de interés que observamos en nuestr@s niñ@s, y por consiguiente favorecer a su desarrollo. A pesar de que gran parte de los materiales Montessori tiene traducción en juguetes que encontramos en tiendas de juguetes, la mayoría de los materiales a los que me voy a referir son caseros. La ventaja de los materiales hechos por nosotros, a parte del ahorro económico, es que para hacerlos hemos tenido que estar atentos a las necesidades específicas de nuestr@s niñ@s y hemos tenido que poner nuestra creatividad en práctica para crear una actividad particular que satisfazga esas necesidades. Este proceso, por otra parte, potencia el apego.
Para acotar el tema, de momento hablaremos de materiales que podemos ofrecer a bebés desde las dos semanas y hasta alrededor de los 18 meses. La edad debe servir como mera orientación ya que la idea de base es ofrecer una actividad que resulte adecuada para un determinado bebé en un momento determinado.
En la edad en que el bebé todavía no mueve las manos, se le pueden ofrecer móbiles que potencian la concentración. La colocación del móbil debería ser tan cercana al bebé como sea posible.
A las dos semanas un móbil interesante es el llamado Munari, de figuras en blanco y negro.

Más adelante otros móbiles son el Octaedron y el Gobbi. El primero consta de tres octaedros hechos en los tres colores primarios. El segundo consta de cinco bolas colocadas de forma ascendente con matices de color que van de más oscuro (más abajo) a más claro (más arriba).

Móbil Gobbi. Photo credit: At Home with Montessori

Cuando el bebé empiece a mover las manos, algunas ideas para potenciar su desarrollo pueden ser un cascabel o un aro de madera atados de una cinta. De entre los móbiles Montessori, se encuentra el de colores primarios, que consta de tres bolas de madera con resortes para agarrarlas en los tres colores primarios.

Photo credit: Kylie D'Alton at How we Montessori

Llegado el momento en que el bebé ya agarra y manipula cosas, se le pueden ofrecer una pelota puzzle, discos de madera que se encajan, sonajeros hechos de materiales naturales, cestos de tesoros.

Photo credit: Kylie D'Alton at How we Montessori

Una idea para un primer cesto de tesoros sería colocar en un cesto de mimbre un pañuelo de seda, un cepillo de madera y una pelota de lana. La exploración permitirá al bebé concentrarse y descubrir mediante los sentidos diferentes texturas, materiales, colores y temperaturas.
Hacia los seis meses, cuando el agarre está consolidado, ofrecer al bebé cereales de pequeño tamaño permitirán que desarrolle concentración y psicomotricidad fina a la vez que autonomía para alimentarse a sí mismo.
De ahí en adelante algunas ideas de actividades pueden ser: botellas de colores, una caja de permanencia, huevo de madera y base para meterlo, dos aros de madera y una base en la que colocarlos, muñecas rusas, el juguete llamado Skish, una caja con tapadera con mango (preferiblemente de madera), puzzle de figuras geométricas (preferiblemente empezar con una sola figura, el círculo), bloques de tela, cesto de instrumentos, cesto con diferentes pelotas, cesto de ropa, gorros, etc.

Un espejo resulta también una herramienta importante que potencia el auto conocimiento y la auto estima.
A partir del año de edad, actividades con animales de granja, con colores básicos, juegos en la arena y actividades con agua, para potenciar la psicomotricidad fina actividades con pegatinas, organizar por colores, por formas, por material, correspondencias objeto real-objeto fotografiado...
Las actividades de la vida práctica adoptan una importancia especial hacia los 15 meses, edad en que la mayoría de bebés ya camina. Entonces se pueden proponer actividades que vayan encaminadas a la autonomía en el vestirse, ayudar a cocinar, limpiar, etc.