We have travelled back to my home town for Christmas and bought along with us some new Montessori works. This puzzle was actually a Christmas present. We love puzzles 🧩 from the pincer grip to the fine motor co-ordination and the visual perception needed. The feeling of success when you get the puzzle piece to fit. I’ve got my eye on some more puzzles because I can never resist!
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A has been disappointed lately that he can’t read, so I’ve been slowly introducing the sandpaper letters, well the concept of them. A week or so ago I demonstrated how to use them. On the weekend when we were playing, A identified that Transformers started with the ‘t’ sound. So I pulled out the t sandpaper letter. I didn’t take any photos when we were working with just the t though! Sorry as per usual I’m not prepared! So after presenting the t, and having A trace the letter and say the sound A identified that he had a t in his name. I took out ‘s’ and ‘a’ because they are also in his name. We went through each letter, A loved guiding my finger over the sandpaper too! He took over, and as he traced I repeatedly made the ‘s’ sound which he started to copy. To finish this session off I asked him to identify which letter can make the ‘s’ sound etc. He’s getting pretty good at this but far from perfect!
I got my sandpaper letters from Wood Puzzles. They are made to order, using Queensland cursive, but you can choose other fonts. They are also made here in Queensland. I highly recommend them and will be buying more from there. The method I used for this is based upon the three-period lesson which is used a lot on Montessori. You can read more about it here and here. I remembered that I had kept some wooden Christmas craft buttons and shapes, so I got them out to see if I could use them as counters. There was enough to create counters from 1 to 5, and A was interested in counting them with me. I got the Montessori numbers and counters puzzle down off the shelf so that we could also put numbers to our counters. Basically I showed A a number and said, ‘This is the number 2, can you find the collection that has 2 in it?’ I then put the Christmas counters to the side and pulled the counters part of the puzzle out of the box. I repeated the activity, pointing out the number and asking him to find the puzzle that had that many dots. A then grabbed some cars and started using the completed puzzles as car parks or truck pads. 😅 You just got to ‘roll’ with it. I really wish I owned the sandpaper numbers. I want to DIY some basic number tiles instead of buying them but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I do like this puzzle. I could have DIYed them easily, but I like the tactile warmth of the wooden puzzle that a laminated piece of paper doesn’t have. I have removed the parts for 6 through to 10 to make it easier for A. When he can count the dots half of the puzzle, and it actually matches up to the number half it’s pretty satisfying. A was proud of his efforts during this activity. Our shelves needed some rotations! We’ve swapped out the scales and weights for a number puzzle and a stacking game! A really enjoyed the puzzle - an improvement from last time I had it out. I asked A to pick up a number and I told him the name of that numeral. Once he knew what the numeral was, he could then count the animals on the jigsaw before putting the number in place. I think this is also helping with estimating how many items are in a group which has a name but I can’t remember it. The other shelf we swapped over is the miniature tray. We put out the Safari Toob Nativity set. I printed out a picture from this link which was from this YouTube video. We watched the video and A had to find the figurine as it was displayed. We can match up the figurines with the image for a later activity.
I have had this work on the shelf for some time and it’s been pretty much ignored so I thought that as A is getting into counting I would demonstrate this and let him have a go. This work consists of a tray of mixed shells and a piece of wood that I have drawn lines on to create a ten frame board. We did a bit of comparison between shells and then decided to use the cone shaped shells. I showed him how to place the shells within the frames, then away he went, picking out shells and putting them on the board. He wanted a variety of sizes. He especially likes tiny ‘cute’ things at the moment so the baby shell had to be included. He talked about the smallest, biggest and ‘mediumest’ shells.
And then of course we practised counting the shells. A still has trouble with one-to-one correspondence, he will sometimes count the same object twice. This is over a week old now but we’ve been using scissors around here. I have a little bowl of pretty card pieces with a pair of scissors. The pair in the bowl is a pair of safety toddler scissors which does okay but doesn’t chop as well as real ones. A wanted to try with his other hand but seriously dude - you are right handed. Then I busted out a proper pair of scissors and much mess was made, which he picked up, packed up and put back on the shelf... pity about the rest of the house!
Also meet our rag doll kitten named Fish and Chips. In our house my husband gets to name the animals. They other cat is called Squish. 😂 I bought a proper shelf for our geography puzzles. We have the continents and the Australia/Oceania puzzles and I would like the oceans one as well. The two we already have and use didn’t really have a home, sometimes they were on the coffee table, or the ironing board, or just in the way.
I’ve put the smaller Montessori puzzle shelf underneath the geography puzzles. We have been filling this up and I have two hidden away. Unfortunately another shelf won’t fit beside this one 😩 but for now this is making my storage obsessed self very happy. So it’s been a while but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been learning and doing stuff at home. Going back to work fill time and working towards a promotion is really taking a toll on my free time and my brain is pretty mooshy by the time I get time for myself! A’s favourite game at the moment is The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game! It’s pretty fun even for adults. Each player gets a log, and we take turned spinning the dial. If you land on a colour you get to pick up an acorn with the squirrel tongs. On the dial are also an opportunity to get 2 acorns, to steal from someone else, a miss a turn, and a storm which means you loose all your acorns. A sometimes struggles with the sad ones - like he hated me stealing his acorn and he almost had a trantrum but we talked it through. I’m guess I’m not frightened of hurting his feelings because he’s learning and I’m with him. But he is a little cheater lol! He tries to sneak the arrow on the dial into the good options 😂
A has been keen to cook lately, as he is trying to be more and more independent. When he grabbed his usual ‘knife’ I remembered that I had bought a small knife from Daiso. I showed him how to use it and how to hold his other hand. He didn’t get it though. It’s a little tricky to co-ordinate both hands! I’m scared for his thumb!!! But he didn’t cut himself. He was so chuffed that he prepared the filling of our filo triangles by himself! Scariest moment though was when he lifted the knife to his mouth to like the feta cheese off!
Side note - the baby spinach came from our own garden! 3 years old I was a puzzling morning! We cracked open our puzzle of the world parts. I sang the song as I demonstrated the continents. You can find the Continents song easily on YouTube 😊. Pretty soon A asked me to stop singing 😂 So away he went and did the puzzle. And then he did another, and another. I didn’t photograph him doing the frog puzzle though.
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AuthorHi, I'm Pamela. A nail crazy lady with green hair. I live in outback Queensland with my toddler and my husband. I love books, writing and crafting. For more info about me go to my 'About' page. Archives
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