glue sky » By Age

While sculpting the other day, Lou asked for a ball of clay. I rolled one. She began shaping it into a triangle. She said she was making a Totoro (A catlike creature from the movie My Neighbor Totoro.) She looked a little deflated that it wasn’t looking like Totoro. I said “Let’s get a picture [...]

Sorting Nature

On our walks we collect sticks, leaves and weeds. I read in one of my Montessori books to collect a bunch of twigs of different sizes and let the kids sort them by height. I have not had much luck with sorting. The kids love to sort, but they love to sort when it’s their idea. [...]

Milk Clouds

It’s a pretty cool special effect they used to use in old movies. We did this type of stuff when I was doing a claymation video game. High tech. Pour or drip, either way it’s great looking. I’m sure teaches some kind of science, though I am not sure what. Do tell if you know. [...]

Making Montessori Objects for Reading

We have our sandpaper letters, our movable type and a little carpet. Lou is eager to kick reading in gear. Now all we need are some Montessori Objects for reading. These are usually things Montessori moms hunt for all over, or they can be bought from Montessori Services. But I didn’t have the patience to [...]

Gardening With Toddlers

It’s that time again. Gardening! The kids enjoyed mixing the dirt. They stirred it up in a bucket and then they scooped it into the pots. We put the seeds in and marked what they were. Then Ero took a big handful out right where the seeds were. Then we put it back. Then Ero [...]

Painting with Acrylics

My kids want to paint a lot. We don’t have one of those easels with primary colors because I am not a fan of giving little ones red, green, and blue in plastic jars. I think they will not enjoy painting if it’s always going to look like a mash up of red/green/blue on a [...]

Little Button Collaborative

A while ago I found a great tutorial at the Purl Bee on button making. We decided to give it a shot. I drew some circles on linen and asked Lou to draw whatever she wanted with the disappearing pen. She drew faces. Then she picked out some colors. Then I stitched the faces… We cut them [...]

17 Months – Lacing Beads

I didn’t expect Ero to be able to do the lacing beads. Peter however, doesn’t have a good grasp on when kids are ready to do things, so yesterday he started playing beads with him. Ero seemed to be getting it, at least getting the part where you put a bead on the little stick [...]

Shelling Last Seasons Beans

I’m not sure if this is the right way to dry out beans, but it works for us. We just leave our beans up on their trellis, or in this case a fence, over winter. They looked dry enough so we grabbed us some beans. And these aren’t just any beans. They are Red Runner [...]

16 Months – Real Clay

Lou, now 3.5 years old, sculpts with me all the time. For some reason I didn’t think Ero, 16 months, would get it. He thought otherwise. He climbed up the step stool and set up shop. He grabbed a little wooden tool, some terracotta and did what came naturally. He jabbed at it, sliced at [...]

16 Months – Pouring All The Time

At 16 months Ero wants to pour all the time. If you put two glasses, bowls, containers in front of him with a little bit of liquid he can’t help himself. Above he found some left over glasses on the coffee table and went to town. He then moved them to the window for some [...]

Peeling and Cutting Carrots

Sculpting with Reference