Saturday, October 10, 2009

Can you make the grade?

Our Friday plans were cancelled because of fever from one of our friends who was supposed to come over, and I immediately tried to start to plan where we could go. To the Y? To the library for a puppet show? To run errands? To the zoo? And then, I just decided that we needed to just stay home and play. . . by ourselves. . . all day. We are always on the go - with school, playgroups, story time, the Y, constant errands, yadda yadda. Does anyone else feel this way? Would life really slow down if we lived in the country? Or would we just be on the road more? I don't know the answer, but we sure did enjoy ourselves outside (for a LONG time) on Friday. (see Sister's fascination with her belly button? :)
Lawton got excited because we found some signs of fall! Our maple tree is starting to drop a few gorgeous red leaves, and he excitedly started gathering the goods.
Carolina got in on the action, too!
When we came back inside, I thought we could do a quick and easy Momtessori activity (since obviously we have been too busy to update the blog - sorry!)
Here's what you need: anything that can be graded - i.e. like objects in increasing sizes. Pine cones, rocks, leaves, shells, cups and blocks are a few examples. You can have as few as three and increase as much as you want depending on the age and ability of your child.
Here's why you should do it: Grading objects helps in visual discrimination and spatial recognition/concepts.

Here's how you do it:
Spread out the objects in a random pile.
Search for the smallest leaf and place to the left of your workspace.
Keep looking for the smallest object in the pile until all objects are graded.

Yippee for fall!!

2 comments:

  1. Hi, I found your blog off of Counting Coconuts. I agree, we are also always on the go. Sometimes it's nice to just play at home and not be stressed out about getting somewhere by a certain time. My son is 23 months, so I don't think he really cares if we go on an outing everyday. I do try to get him out once or twice a week around other kids though. We are in a great Mommy & Me class once a week that he loves.
    I've been thinking ahead for when he starts preschool and I'm considering a Montessori school for him.

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