Ewa from Wczesnaedukacjanntkaikuby shared on Monday that she has a current giveaway for Karen Tyler’s Online Montessori Training Course (for 2-6).

I’ve heard a lot of great things about this course and hope to take it someday (hopefully soon!).

The giveaway includes a set of 12 downloadable teacher training albums, manuals, full curriculum, lectures etc, starting on March the 1st, 2012.

So, head on over to learn more about the training course and enter the giveaway!

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Do you have a fun tradition for Valentine’s Day? 

Growing up I always looked forward to Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t the school parties or exchanging Valentine cards with friends. My mom made the day special. Each of us would get a card with a small present and in the evening we’d have a fancy dinner as a family.

The table would be set with the nice linens, my Mom’s china, and the silver. We’d even use glass goblets and ate by candlelight. The meal, however, was a mismatch of our favorite foods. (I always remember having shrimp with cocktail sauce.) Then we’d finish the evening off with dessert.

This is one tradition I’m continuing with our family. I’m already planning next week’s dinner.

Even though Valentine’s Day is an overly commercialized holiday, I think there’s value in setting aside a special day to celebrate your family and friends and showing your love in an out of the ordinary way.

Not quite sure what to do for Valentine’s Day?

Here’s a few ideas from Pinterest:

Decorate

Felt Fortune Cookies via Martha Stewart

Valentine’s Tree via Alderberry Hill

Valentine’s Mantle via The Shabby Creek Cottage

Keep Calm & Love On Poster via The Hands-On Housewife

Eat

Heart Pancakes via Gatorade Military

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies via Two Peas in Their Pod

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pops via Glorious Treats

 Spiral Cookies via Sprinkle Bakes

Cards

Valentine’s Cards via Amy is the Party

Printable Valentines via One Charming Party

 I “Wheelie” Like You via Thirty Handmade Days

Vintage Valentine’s Cards via Vintage Holiday Cards

Crafts & Games

Paper Flower Tutorial via Dozi Design

Valentine’s Day Party Circles via Anything But Perfect

Valentine’s Bingo via Makoodle

Paper Love Bugs via Kaboose

What Valentine’s plans or traditions do you have?

Our first week getting back into routine was pretty well. We managed to do “school” most mornings with a lot of practical life Valentine’s inspired activities.

Counting Conversation Hearts

Pin poking has been a favorite activity of Joey’s this week.

Transferring with wooden balls.

Practicing in and out with a homemade imbucare box.

What are you up to this week? 

I’m planning to start our poem a week with Longfellow’s “The Arrow and the Song” and work on sensorial extensions with Joey.

Linking up with

Just a few fun links from the week:

Play Create Explore - Activities for Ages 1 – 3 

Fun Family Crafts - Tic Tac Toe Hearts

I started making a smaller version of this a few years ago, but never finished. Maybe it’s time to pull it out and finish.

Livable Learning –  Practical Life Tackle Boxes – Cutting

 This would be super easy to make and Montessori Print Shop has a cutting set you might use. 

Gutenberg –  Poems Every Child Should Know

 One thing I want to begin to incorporate in our school week is to have a poem a week that we read every day, so that the boys become accustomed to poetry, lyric, and rhyme. This looks like a good place to start.

Mousehouse –  Picture Books on YouTube

 This is a fun thing to do on rainy days or when you can’t get to the library. 

Harvesting Kale - Homemade Texture Boards

 I made my own homemade texture boards (sometimes called rough and smooth boards) a few years ago, but these look a lot more polished than mine. 

If you’re watching the Super Bowl tomorrow and wondering how to keep the kids entertained, then you might want to check out this printable football unit from 2 Teaching Mommies. I think I’ll be printing some of these!

Yesterday, I asked on Facebook ,

What’s your favorite children’s book that not everyone knows?

Mine is Princess Furball.

A lot of readers chimed in and shared their favorites, we’d love to hear yours. Hope on over and share!

We’re finally home and getting back into the swing of things. It’s crazy to think we were gone for nearly 8 weeks. Eight weeks!

Whew. That was a long time away from home, but we had a lot of fun visiting family.

I’m still catching up on e-mails and working on the infant/toddler posts—so hold tight…they’re still coming.

We’re ready for February and I actually put together our works for the month ahead of time. I usually only keep out 6-7 practical life type activities on the shelf at a time, because that’s all we have space for and rotate them throughout the month.

***Updated*** It was late when I posted this and I had already lost my post once, so I wasn’t in the mood to comment on the activities. Most are self-explanatory, but I wanted to say a few things.

14 Valentine’s Inspired Montessori Activities

Pencil Sharpening

Spooning

Sorting Beads

Making Patterns with Hearts

These are just little heart boxes I picked up in the dollar section of Target. If you take them apart you’re able to make longer and more complicated patterns. Children could try to come up with patterns on their own or you could make pattern strip cards to guide them.

Making a Valentine’s Card

Folding Towels

Putting Rings on Napkins

Tweezing Hearts

When I took this picture I couldn’t find the tweezers, but you could do this with or without tweezers. Without tweezers would focus more on the general pincer grip and with tweezers would mimic a pencil grip and require more fine motor muscle control.

Cards & Counters with Hearts

Candy Box Counting

At first I wrote a number in each space (trying to keep them consecutive), but now I wish I hadn’t and had used stickers to write the numbers in that way he could work on numbers 1-12 consecutively or 1-6 in random order to make sure he knows the quantity.

Often I’ve seen children be able to quantify numbers when they’re consecutive, but switch them up and they can’t tell you the quantity of number 7 if it follows number 3. Does that make sense?

Pouring (dry & wet)

Lacing

I just made these out of construction paper and laminated them for sturdiness. If you try this with a paper doilies, you might want to put a heavy paper between the layers. Our doily is quite flimsy.

Setting the Table

Tracing Shapes

While I love the Montessori philosophy and am happy to incorporate it into our home and make it our choice of schooling, I never want to hold so tightly onto the philosophy at the expense of losing our home environment.

What I mean by that is the home should first and foremost be a place of rest, comfort, and retreat from the world. It should be a safe place where children can speak openly and honestly with their parents and know they are loved without their latest accomplishment or failure looming over them.

I want my boys to love learning, to explore the world and discover its mysteries. I want them to come to the schoolroom excited about their next lesson, expectant at the knowledge unfolding. I want them to feel empowered by their education.

But I never want them to feel because we choose to school at home that our home is always a school; that I am always the teacher, and they always the student.

I’m careful to notice when I’m becoming too overbearing, nitpicking, or take on the “You have to finish this work before you can have fun” attitude. And I keep an eye out for when my boys feel overwhelmed, overstimulated, or constrained by their work.

My relationship as a mother comes before my role as a teacher. I am their confidante, encourager, comforter, truth-speaker, and leader before I am their Montessori guide. Before I look for their sensitive period, I want to look at them–how are they doing, what do they need, where are they struggling.

I want to meet them where they are at and let them know that our home is a place of love, acceptance, joy, and discovery.

How can I do this practically?

• Make a point to stop and talk to them face-to-face, one-on-one each day. Ask them how they’re doing, how they’re feeling, is there anything they’re concerned about, excited about or for, or even how can I help them.
• Slow down life. Take an inventory of my pace for the day—Am I rushing? Am I making my children rush? Are we out too much for activities or errands? Am I taking their pace or forcing them to take mine?
• Respect the child. Acknowledge their emotions, help and encourage them to express themselves in useful and healthy ways, allow them to contribute to the family work.
• Join in the play. Be intentional to join in the play and discovery with my boys. To play with them—initiate play or follow their lead. Give them opportunities to discover new environments, objects, and ideas.
• Evaluate. Take time regularly to evaluate how I’m doing in these areas and how our children are faring in our home as well as in their schooling. Identify areas in need of growth, my own strengths and weaknesses as well as the children’s, and what we can do to make our relationship and home healthy.

How do you manage the balance between homeschooling, your philosophy, and family?

Living Montessori Now – Inexpensive & DIY Moveable Alphabets

Like a Warm Cup of Coffee – Homeschool Wisdom

Quirky Momma: Kids Activity Blog – Activities for One-Year-Olds

Therapy Fun Zone – Fine Motor Skills (a lot of ideas for various ages)

Woodbridge Public Library – 100 Books for Kindergarten (I think we’ll try reading through this list this year.)

Kids Pages – Flashcards (A ton of free printables that could easily be turned into 3-part cards–animals, seasons, body parts, instruments.)

I hope you had a great holiday. We’ve been enjoying family from coast to coast and are in the middle of a month-long visit in San Diego. It’s a nice mid-winter break from the cold weather and snow, so we’re soaking up the sun and getting outside as much as we can while we’re here.

For the beginning of the year at Our Montessori Home, I want to focus on infant and toddler activities as well as the some of the basics of the Montessori philosophy.

Infant/Toddler Montessori Activities

Here’s what you can expect to find in the next month or two:

• Creating a Montessori environment without losing the home
• Setting boundaries in the Montessori home–keeping family first
• Planes of Development & the Readiness of the Child
• How to Present Infant/Toddler Activities
• Explaining your choice to pursue the Montessori philosophy to family and friends
• Setting up an Infant environment
• Setting up a Toddler-friendly environment
• Motor Activities
• Cognitive Activities
• Practical Life Activities
• Sensorial Activities
• Language Activities
• Social Activities

If you don’t have an infant or toddler, don’t worry. I’ll still be posting activities for preschoolers and focusing on making homemade Montessori materials from time to time.

About the Montessori Method

• Who was Maria Montessori?
• A Brief Overview of the Montessori Method
• Common Montessori Terms
• Making the Most of Sensitive Periods
• Building a Montessori Lifestyle
• The Purpose of Discipline
• What is a Prepared Environment?

Homemade Montessori

• How to Make a Child’s Placemat
• Homemade ‘In and Out’ Box (for older infants)
• How to Make a Grasping Ring and Bell
• How to Make a Coin Box
• How to Make a Child’s No Sew Apron
• An Infant Discovery Box
• Homemade Lacing Cards

If you haven’t yet connected with Our Montessori Home, why not do it today?

You can subscribe, follow the conversation and community on Facebook and Twitter, or pin along at Pinterest.

We’ve come to the end of 12 Days of Montessori Christmas. It’s been fun and I hope you’ve been inspired by a few ideas to do in your home.

Today I’m combining activities for infant/toddler and preschoolers with apple-cinnamon ornaments. 

Making Cinnamon-Applesauce Ornaments

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup applesauce

• 4oz cinnamon

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients together.

2. Roll out the dough and cut with cookie cutters.

3. Make a hole at the top of the ornament to string through after baking.

4. Bake at 200* for 2-1/2 hours.

Pretty simple and wonderful smelling!

Matching Christmas Object to Picture

This is a work I didn’t have time to make, but think it could be fun for a toddler. Make a set of 5 or 6 pictures (could be clip art or actually pictures) and have the corresponding items in a basket for the child to match.

An extension you could do for older tots or preschoolers would be to have a pictorial list of items and have the child find the items around the house, like a scavenger hunt.

A way to open this activity to infants (maybe 6-12 months depending on skill level) would be to  have a basket with 2 or 3 Christmas-themed objects, place them on a mat, and ask for a specific object. The objective would be for the child to retrieve the correct object. This helps build their language and cognitive skills.

Tweezing Pom Poms