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AndreaG
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| Posted: July 09 2007 at 11:08am | IP Logged
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Well as discussed I thought I'd start a thread where we can discuss our observations of a montessori presentation we have tried with our kids. I think if I could do this every week it would be very helpful!
So to begin I will discuss a presentation I actually gave last week and how it went over: Tonging puffballs (red, white, and blue for the 4th!) into an icecube tray. I set this up and left it on the dining room table to attract interest and since my school room is such a mess! Then my 5 -year-old got into it while I was upstairs and threw all the puffballs at his brother! I put it back together and presented to my 3-year-old, but she wasn't interested in doing it. I left it on the table and my 8-year-old did it, sorting the colors instead of placing them in red, white, and blue sequence. Then I put it on our montessori shelves and my daughter took it off today, but hasn't worked on it herself, she says she needs help. My 8-year-old did it again. I will have to represent it to the 3-year-old.
I can't wait to hear other's presentations!
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Andrea
GrayFamilyCircus
Read Through the Catechism in a Year- For Moms!
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SeaStar
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| Posted: July 09 2007 at 11:26am | IP Logged
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Last week I did several related presentations:
standing, walking, sitting on the line and walking on the line.
The kids were very receptive to all of these- I was surprised that they were excited to practice standing, of all things. Walking on the line was harder for the 2.5 yo. She could walk just fine, but the concepts of waiting her turn and leaving room between herself and the next person were hard.
We went on to walk balancing an egg on a spoon and bean bags on the head. Again, the 2.5 yo was not so interested in staying on the line. She walked all over the house with her egg on the spoon, though.
Ds, 4.5, was very enthusiastic about all line activities. Our line is a piece of blue tape on the floor, and he has been walking it quite a bit on his own, saying he is practicing balancing.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Meredith
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| Posted: July 09 2007 at 11:43am | IP Logged
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Wow, what great experiences. Isn't it cool to actually *see* how it works in reality, not just theoretically!! Andrea, I love how you patiently redirected and kept strewing for interest!
Melinda, isn't that fascinating how your ds is talking about it!! Wonderful!
So my presentation was the first Knobbed Cylinder Block!
I presented it to my ds 2 first and he was pretty good at watching, but kept saying "me do it now". (I followed the MWEI presentation sheet) so it was hard for him to wait for me to do the whole thing. I know he is still pretty young, but I plan to move pretty slowly with him to start and work with very few materials for a long period of time. He went ahead and did his turn and tried to do it quietly like I had explained and he did very well! I asked him if he was ready to put it away after about 5 minutes as I didn't want him to start mishandling it and then have it become a negative for him (and me  ) I showed him how to carry it to our hearth which is low enough for him and then I put it up higher for the rest of the day.
Later on in the day I introduced it to my ds 5 and he just loved it!! He mastered it so quickly and so well with it that I chose to show him block 2 so he could see the similarities and differences and we had a nice talk about how they were to work. He is SO ripe for Montessori and these materials it was a thrill and a joy for us both!! Now to just find a way for him to work with the material again today without ds 2 sabotaging his time to work 
Can't wait to hear more presentations!!
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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Angel
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| Posted: July 09 2007 at 1:42pm | IP Logged
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I've made two hammering presentations this week: one to my 4 yo, and the other to one of my toddlers.
I had set out this hammering activity, which I received from Montessori Services right before we went on vacation, only because I didn't have any other place to put it. Naturally my 4 yo has therefore been begging for me to show it to him, but with vacation, etc., there hasn't been a good time. Finally he brought me the box last night as I was trying to make dinner and would not be put off. So I stopped what I was doing and showed him how to use it.
I had looked at the activity prior to showing it to my ds, but I hadn't practiced it, and those little tacks were tough to manage, even for me! But he waited patiently while I showed him how to pick a wooden piece and put it on the corkboard, then fit the tack carefully in the hole and hold the shape while hammering with the wooden hammer. I had to finish cooking dinner, but he managed pretty well by himself; the babies were outside with dh, so there was no one to distract him. He worked for about 15 minutes, then surprised me by putting everything back in the box and putting the box back on the shelf where it belonged. I was pleased! I think he would have worked longer, but everyone else was outside, and getting those tacks in the holes and hammering them down took a lot of concentration.
Today I showed one of the babies (Pip, on my blog) how to do the hammering golf tees into clay activity. He sat at the dining room table for it, let me show it to him without grabbing for anything, then tried to hammer a few times before he just started sticking the tees into the clay, pulling them out, and putting them back in their box. In retrospect, that was probably a better activity for him; the hammering took a little too much motor control. His twin brother was sitting at the table with me at the time, and crying because I wouldn't let him have a cupful of Sharpies. But even with all the noise, he concentrated for a good 15 minutes or so before he got down and headed back outside to pour water.
These simple practical life presentations have been a lot more successful than some of my others have been, so I'm encouraged that I'm on the right track.  Due to all the summer stuff going on right now, we're doing them pretty informally, though.
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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SuzanneG
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| Posted: July 09 2007 at 1:43pm | IP Logged
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My 6-year-old was gone, so I did these with the 3.5 and 5 year old.
Walking the line - they LOVED this! and loved the variations of it too. Talked about balance, posture, etc.
Cover your Cough - I love when they say "excuse me please" afterwards.
Cover your Sneeze
Walking with a tray ~ they loved doing this over and over, each time adding a few new things to the tray to see how much they could walk with without the items moving. 3.5 ds would sometimes just drop the tray instead of setting it down.
Knocking - Lots of discussion about the diff't parts of the hand and why we use the knuckle instead of other parts of the hand. if we use other parts of the hand it seems like pounding which isn't poliite.
Carrying Sharp Objects - Hard to get them to carry it so that the scissors are DOWN, not up. Practiced actually putting the scissors IN the hand the right way. It was frustrating.
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Suzanne in ID
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Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
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Jordan
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| Posted: July 10 2007 at 6:44am | IP Logged
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Thank you all for sharing. This feels like an IRL conversation.
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Jordan
Cheerios & Fingerpaints
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marianne
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| Posted: July 10 2007 at 7:34am | IP Logged
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Funny you mention the puffballs (we call them pom poms), but we did the same activity! I found an assortment bag with lots of colors and sm-med-large sizes. I had my 4yo work with a muffin tin. He didn't really initiate any sorting at all, so I suggested he try it by size.
I'm still finding pom poms all over the house, so something else happened while I wasn't looking!
We've also been working a lot with pouring seed into our bird feeder. My blog has pictures and a better description. That has been great fun.
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Kristee
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| Posted: July 11 2007 at 12:18pm | IP Logged
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I started with a line with tape on carpet, but ds 2 1/2 just wanted to run around. The next day, I turned the line into ladder shape and showed him how to jump, hop from square to square. He was interested in doing that. I'll try again with the line, and walking with tray.
Yesterday, I found a rope for us to stretch across the room for ds 2 1/2 to jump over and crawl under. We also held the ends of the rope and moved arms in circles. He enjoyed it. I carefully put it away after out of reach of both kids. I'm thinking that doing these activities will focus his energy and prepare for other work.
Transfering Objects:
Yesterday, I used several small blocks with two small baskets. I demonstrated picking them up one at a time, and gently/softly placing down into the next basket. As I was presenting, ds 2 1/2 wanting to entertain picked up blocks and put them in his mouth to shoot them out. I picked up the tray and took them away.
Today, I was presenting to younger brother the same thing this time with the blocks in a wood box, and I was transfering them into a small cookie sheet. Ds 10mo has been taking blocks and throwing them down like balls, and so I thought that I would demonstrate putting down softly. He watched as he chewed on a block, and picked up and threw into tray. Older brother 2 1/2 came over to watch and I explained that I was showing his brother how to put them down softly. So, he joined in and placed a couple of blocks in the tray softly. When done, he helped transfer the blocks back into the box--not one at a time, but a handful at a time.
Kristee
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ALmom
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| Posted: July 11 2007 at 1:32pm | IP Logged
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Would walking along a curve be akin to walking the line - say an extension of it. I know my fil, involved in eye and vision development, always, always encouraged my dc to walk/balance walking along a curb, narrow wall, anything like this. Just wondering. It might entice the more wiggly in the bunch.
Janet
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Observations for week of July 8-14
