Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Nurturing the Years of Wonder
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Subject Topic: Let's Talk 3.5 yr olds Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Erin
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Posted: Feb 20 2008 at 7:59pm | IP Logged Quote Erin

Aren't girls so different to boys. I have a 3 and a half year old girl who is so eager to work. Every morning she sits for hours 'working in her books'. Basically I have just been giving her old workbooks to color in. But she takes such care and has amazing fine motor control and concentration I realize I really should be doing more than 'filling in time'.

Yesterday I gave her a huge pile of classification cards of animals and she had no trouble matching without any help. I find 3.5 a difficult age as it is a bit of a no mans land.

I am hoping for some help, I feel as if I have been searching through the archives for hours (actually its only been an hour )looking for ideas and links relevant for my three and half yr old daughter. But most of the articles are for toddlers or pre-schoolers, she is not quite either although she would be closer to the pre-school group.

I would love some links to free downloads etc. I realise that some people have done some amazing work but I have already spent a fair bit this year. I guess I'm needing lots of independent work as sad to say most of my time is taken up with the older ones. (A sad embarrassing fact of my life to admit ) You would think I'd know what to do by now but none of my others have been this keen this early.

Thank you all so much. I just told dd 3, Genevieve that I was asking the ladies for ideas for her and she was just beaming.



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montessori_lori
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Posted: Feb 20 2008 at 10:35pm | IP Logged Quote montessori_lori

I don't know if it's a boy/girl thing...my son, at this age, loved to work and my daughter fights it.

Anyway, there are hundreds of things for her to do. I printed my Comprehensive List the other day and started going through it, checking off things we've already done and finding new things. (Sorry, don't mean to be too self-promotional but I do use my own stuff!)

A few suggestions:

Any and all nomenclature cards (the kind with one picture, one label, and one picture/label together)

Math - if she knows 1-10, you can do teens and ten numbers and simple addition

Practical life - making snacks, using a spatula, blunt knife, measuring cup; folding, polishing, etc.

Geometry - geometry cabinet or nomenclature cards

Language - all the sandpaper letters/sounds, all pink series work, tracing and punching, cutting shapes and patterns

Kids this age should, hopefully, still be using as many hands-on materials as possible, not printed card materials. Of course if they've completed the 3-6 cycle of hands-on materials then they can do more printed stuff.

If you do have lots of stuff on hand that the older ones use to do, pull it out. What they were doing at 5 might be perfect for your daughter right now.
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wahoo92
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Posted: Feb 21 2008 at 6:56am | IP Logged Quote wahoo92

My 3.5 yo girl is extremely active and hard to settle down with table work like you are describing, but I will share something that she does love that you probably already have.

She absolutely loves playing with a lot of the big kid games like Blokus (she makes designs with the squares), Boggle (she "pretends" to make words), Scrabble (placing tiles in grid), Chinese Checkers (patterns) etc. I mention this because with my older girls I likely would have kept these things "hands off" for this age.

Lucy is not one to put everything in her mouth, but obviously, these are things that I only let her do when I am very close by.

Sarah


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Erin
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Posted: Feb 22 2008 at 3:37am | IP Logged Quote Erin

montessori_lori wrote:

Kids this age should, hopefully, still be using as many hands-on materials as possible, not printed card materials. Of course if they've completed the 3-6 cycle of hands-on materials then they can do more printed stuff.


Lori
This really struck me, you're right, I kind of forgot that.


Thanks for the other suggestions, I think I really need to sit down and plan more and not try to 'fly by my pants' so much.



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montessori_lori
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Posted: Feb 22 2008 at 9:45am | IP Logged Quote montessori_lori

You're right, if you have a child who will sit quietly doing workbooks, etc., it can be tempting to just let them do that. But it's so much better for this age to be doing "hands-on" materials.

You can always browse through Shu-Chen Jenny Yen's albums for work ideas - they're all perfect for 3-6:

Montessori Albums

I'm always surprised at how even 5 minutes of planning can make a big difference!
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