4Real Forums: Lakeshore Learning

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Nurturing the Years of Wonder ( Forum Locked)
4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder

Topic: Lakeshore Learning

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dawn2006
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Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 2:33pm \| IP Logged

Anyone familiar? I browse through their catalog a lot and they have a store here in my town. They frequently have things that I think are Montessori-ish but I wonder about sacrificing the quality of the product to the gods of Plastic and Primary Colors. For example, here is a moveable alphabet at Lakeshore..

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Me rchant_Id=1&Catalog_Id=1&Product_Id=92407&RememberCatalogId= 1&Status_Code=ACTV&uniq=2007yr%3A8mth%3A24day%3A12hr%3A23min %3A53s%3A297ms%3A+

Now, I bought some long thin wooden planks at Hobby Lobby last week to have my neighbor cut them for me into 1x1 in. squares per the instruction in the Hainstock preschool book. I was going to handwrite the letters onto them unless I can figure out some great way to paste letters printed off the computer onto there that doesn't look cheesy. Then I'd have to fashion a box... Anyway..do you think the kids would be more drawn to the material if it was made from the small pieces of wood or not? Would they be equally pleased with the plastic ones?? (which, btw, I could buy before Sept 9 for 20% off - but would still cost signigicantly more than making.)

TIA. In the case you've already had a debate about what materials are made of I'm off to search the forum. Even then....what do you think of Lakeshore Learning??

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Dawn Farias | wife to Ariel | mom to Gabriel 9, Daniel 7, Elizabeth 5, and Michael 3 | blogger at Be Absorbed | native Texan but currently living near Seattle

montessori_lori
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Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 2:49pm \| IP Logged

Lakeshore items are very cute, but horrendously overpriced in my opinion.

For a movable alphabet, I'd much rather print one on cardstock and laminate it. There are free ones at jmjpublishing or pretty cheaply priced from me; no pasting or drawing required. Just a little bit of cutting.

When kids get really into story writing with the MA, you need 20 or more of really common letters (e, a, t) and I can't imagine making that many from wood. Oh, and a tackle box is perfect. Suzanne has some pictures of hers at jmj that are a good guide.

Keep in mind, the Hainstock book was in the days before printers, cardstock, and easy laminating.

Oh, and one thing I love to do is print capital letters on the back of the lowercase letters. Then when a child is working with the MA and needs a capital (the beginning of a sentence, for instance), they just flip it over.

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dawn2006
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Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 3:27pm \| IP Logged

Oh, and one thing I love to do is print capital letters on the back of the lowercase letters. Then when a child is working with the MA and needs a capital (the beginning of a sentence, for instance), they just flip it over.

Is this the most brilliant thing ever?? Thank you for the suggestions. Oh and yes...Lakeshore is overpriced. In my town they are located in the same shopping center as The Container Store. If I need a night out I often get a coffee and browse these two stores...without.buying.anything. Ha!! ROFL!!

ETA I looked over at JMJ...I think I saw that tackle box at Wal-Mart...I saw a nuts-and-bolts storage box with adjustable dividers. I didn't buy it b/c it could only make 24 spaces. I think I saw somewhere when browsing the other day, though, that you could double up the last 4 letters, x, w, y, and z.

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Dawn Farias | wife to Ariel | mom to Gabriel 9, Daniel 7, Elizabeth 5, and Michael 3 | blogger at Be Absorbed | native Texan but currently living near Seattle

montessori_lori
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Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 3:44pm \| IP Logged

I know, what I do is get ideas from their website and then make the materials myself for much cheaper. I love that!!

If you have a movable alphabet with only lowercase letters, you can teach the kids to push a letter up a half-inch or so to indicate a capital if they want to. That works well too.

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