Sorry, sorry, for my delay in announcing all our new materials. Verity and I had a
great vacation while the boys were gone, and blogging was far from my mind. Which was probably a good thing.
I've had to be sneaky in taking my pictures without Mcclellan seeing what the new materials all were. I want them to be new and fresh when we put them out!
Here is the bookshelf that until recently, occupied Mcclellan's north wall. It was chock full of all his books, but since I've decided to just put a few out at a time (10-15), the shelf has been moved to the main living area and houses new work!
And the mirror area with our old shelves, including Verity's main work.
I've had these magnetic balls for quite some time. I acquired a magnet wand from M&M (
THE amazing M&M) and added it to the collection of magnetic and glass balls. This one is not out yet.
Another one I've not put out yet, the eraser sorting. I got two of each of these tiny erasers for pairing up and sorting. Mcclellan
loves tiny things. Which means he always needs to be watched, double closely! He's gonna love these little guys.
Cardboard shapes. Each shape has the name written on it, and they drop nicely into a slot in our recycled yogurt container.
My favorite! Mcclellan just kinda likes picking up and fingering the marbles, or dumping them out into the tray, but what they hey...they are fun and I actually like doing this work! I cut different pieces from an old suction-cup-bottomed bathmat. The marbles fit so nicely, and look really pretty atop each little cup. A great fine-motor activity!
Here are two baskets with locks & keys (two sizes) and nuts & bolts (again, two sizes; one with a wing nut). Mcclellan loves the locks but hasn't quite cared about the bolts yet.
OK, so Jennifer will flip when she sees these. I had bought some lacing cards from aforementioned M&M which served their purposes fine for the fine motor, hand-eye coordination activity that is lacing. BUT THEN, at one of my favorite thrift stores (Vaughn-Trent!), I descried these Noah's Ark lacing cards! Two of each of 4 animals, Noah and the ark? All for $1!!?? They are much sturdier than the M&M version, but I will hang on to both, just for variety and...well, I paid $4 for the new ones!
M&M also offered these pegs with a foam pegboard. The classic. You know this one. Mcclellan has not seen this one yet either, but I'm excited to introduce it to him!
And, in the mail, fresh off ebay, I got these tesselating shapes. I was slightly miffed at myself for not noticing on the auction that these WERE NOT wooden (when I thought they were) and a little disappointed when I opened up the package to this foam variety. Nonetheless, we will forge ahead with these slightly inferior shapes. Until I find some wooden ones at the thrift store!
Verity got these new napkin rings. They stack well, don't roll away (they kinda roll in a big circle on our hard floors), and they make a fantastic sound when chucked against the floor! She loves them. I may put them out later with scarves for Mcclellan to do some "lacing" type work.
Mcclellan's favorite: The Funnel. I don't know why our household does not contain a funnel, but this thrift store 0.25 purchase suffices well. The pitcher and mini carafe I also thrifted from Good Shepherd.
I do have one more online purchase coming in the mail: colored baby bears. There are 48 mini bears, in 6(?) colors for sorting and pre-math activities.
I'm thinking of dividing our work into stations. Math station. Language station. Sensorial station. Not sure yet. Not sure if I have enough space for stations or enough work for each! As it is, we now have a good 8 surfaces for putting out work and working on it. Mcclellan's getting really good about setting his work rug on the floor when he wants to do something too! He's doing a super job of rolling his (and Verity's) up when we clean up. I'm Digging (with a capital D) this whole Montessori set-up we got going on right now!
He loves the peg board.
Verity helps herself.
Learning the difference between playing the triangle while holding the metal vs. while holding the attached string!
Verity shakin' it.
Ahhh...So tonight we introduced a "clean-up" station. Taken from my uber-yummy Montessori environment link (on the side), I set up this help-yourself area. You can see, from the glowing apples on his cheeks, that Mcclellan LOVED free play (I mean, work) with the soap.
Washing off his chin, post dinner.
(Note the now-cloudy soap tainted water!) At the station we have:
I'm thinking about adding our all-purpose and glass cleaner spray bottles somewhere closeby (child safe! and vinegar-based, of course), but I'm afraid my bottles will just be drained daily on the random sprayings around the house. Those and a roll of a paper towels. Looking forward to that magic day that he's three. That's when they become adults, right?
And Verity? Yeah, that's her learning how to crawl. Wild.
