today’s activities bought to you by the letter…..

I love the sound of the day!! For our very first sound i chose ’ssss’. Montessori language exercises start with more commonly used and differentiated letters rather than starting with the beginning of the alphabet song (and the alphabet song does absolutely nothing to help teach a child to read anyway so it is not something we will be working with).

Once i started looking and thinking about ’ssss’ i was amazed at how many things we could use. Here is the table and mat that i layed out for him before i went to bed.

i have the sandpaper letters for him to feel, the sand tray (filled with polenta!) for him to feel how he can create the shape himself. And then a mat with various items that start with ’ssss’ as well as the fingerspelling auslan sign for S. I have sun, snail, sponge, snake, star, spoon, sock, scissors, sultanas. I also added a stick after taking the photo. I was going to put his sandels in too but just in case he called them shoes (which starts with sh and not ssss) i left them out.

Here he is making the shape of the letter. The first one is a bit backwards! and the second one he did not leave himself enough room to make the while letter. But he played around with it for a bit and made curves and circles and got the idea of the sandtray.  I think i might make him abnother bigger one to just draw in.

As well as naming the items, practicing the sound ssss and making the shape of the S we also talked about things you can do that start with ssss like swimming (he has swimming lesson today), and scratch and spin etc.

I was going to so a walk through the house and find more things that start with ssss but i will leave that for tomorrow. I will put the mat out again for him in the morning and build on the activity.

I also added another practical life activity with some rocks, tongs and two metal bowls. I have used metal bowls so that if he drops the rocks it will be quite noisy, and i have demonstrated how to do it as quietly as possible. He enjoyed it yesterday and has chosen to work with it again this morning.

And i finally found an Australia map (at Timbertown yesterday). The puzzle itself is not all that challening but he is asking the names of the states and has noticed the star (Canberra) and where the capitals are marked.

cylinder block 2

i introduced the second cylinder block yesterday. Jordy put each of the cylinders back correctly with no effort but we sort of worked with it separately from the first block (although i presented them together). We’ve already had a big day out this morning (see my main blog) so i doubt we will do much more with it today but tomorrow i will set them out again and mix the cylinders up and see how he goes. He is good with the terminology too naming them thin and littlest etc.

Only issue we had was he noticed the V shape and then wanted to move to the other side and see the A and then he wanted to sit inside the V, and move them to form and L and a 7 etc etc! He’ll make letter shapes out of anything!! I really have to get his phonetic pockets up and ready.

spooning, more latches, and other bits…

The latches board is still getting a good work out! It’s one of the first things Jordy chooses to work with most days.  Apart from doing the locks and latches he spends a lot of time reading the letters and counting what’s behind each door. I almost always leave him to work with it alone but if i am nearby I have started to ask him to find the circles, rectangles, triangles etc.

He is also chosing the cylinder blocks (1) regularly. I might show him how to arrange them outside of the block. I don’t want to introduce block #2 yet as i think he has enough other materials without adding to them but i will introduce it soon. I might spend a few days working with block 1 with him and getting him to select a missing cylinder or a few other things rather than just leaving him to work alone with it.

And today i introduced the spooning materials. He is working with it now so i’m about to go look and see how much of it is on the tray and how much he has decided to pour elsewhere!

… we just tidied it up. He went quite well with it. And the “Tidy Up” song is helping immensely for cleaning up afterwards.

He is really starting to enjoy the order and routine of things too and packing up is becoming less of an issue (sometimes! not always!). But brushing his teeth and hair, and getting dressed and going to the toilet before getting in the car and those sorts of routines are also becoming fun and playful for him- which is nice!

The phonetic pockets are good but i need more things for it. I am learning so much from each thing i introduce. I should have sewn the velcro tabs on the pockets before showing it to him as they keep getting pulled off! And i should have found a full selection of items for the pockets. I had a few items in most of the 6 letters i gave him but i had a couple of empty ones (nothing around the house that was suitable). That bothered him and he wanted to fill the pockets and move the letters around. So i have removed it until i can present it properly.

catch up

Over the last week i have found Jordy has a preference for the latches board, puzzles, and sandpaper letters.

He has also chosen to work with the colour cards, sandpaper globe, globe of the earth, cylinder blocks, lacing animals, balls, plastic animals, shape sorter, building blocks, books, and cooking set.

His imaginary play consists of his cardboard rocket and car, imaginary shop play, hide and seek. 

His main focus has been on letters and numbers. He spends a large amount of time each day reading individual letters and numbers wherever he can find them, as well as counting forwards and backwards.