The Great Diaper Hunt

The Cute Caboose is adding to the fun for The Great Diaper Hunt by having their own giveaway!! Come and enter!

http://www.cutecaboose.com/pages/TheGreatClothDiaperGiveaway.htm

First attempt to a Montessori activity

I have been reading and reading and reading about Purposeful Play through Montessori activities. I have a few books and the Internet has been a plethora of information!

Why Montessori?

After year of teaching preschool, I have really come to believe and understand that children's brains are programmed to learn, but only if they are stimulated at an early age. Observing children can open your eyes to simple things that can be done to accommodate them to be more active participants in their leaning experiences.

* All children have "absorbent" minds

*All children pass through "sensitive" periods

*All children want to learn

*All children learn through play/work

*All children pass through several stages of development

*All children want to be independent

Together these form the core belief upon which the Montessori Method is based!

Now back to our journey. We have just begun! We do not have a room that is dedicated to Montessori activities..yet. I figured you always have to start somewhere.

Today, I tried our first activity. I saw something similar online and decided to see what we had in the house and see how the Munchkin' Man would respond to such activity. The pictures at the top is the activity for today. He had four plates that are four different colors all with a clear jar on top. Also on the table was a basket of sticks that had coordinating colors for the plates. The objective was to put the correct color stick in the jar with the matching plate. Hmm.. did that make sense? I introduced it to him and set him on his way. I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did right away. He seemed to fancy the blue sticks. This activity lasted between 5-10 min, then he was done and began dumping the sticks and doing other things that any 2 year old would do! I would make this as a success.

I look forward to doing more activities and reading more about The Montessori Way!

Recently, we found out the Munchkin' is allergic to peanuts!! It was not through routine allergy testing. We found out when he got hold of a peanut butter Whopper! One little Whopper led us to two shots of epinephrine, a ride in an ambulance and then a night stay at the hospital. We did have a suspicion that he was allergic, but for me I think I was in denial. Well, since that day, our lives have changed. We can not just go out to eat anywhere or at any ones house with out thinking ahead of time "Is it safe?". I personally have had a hard time adjusting to this! It is hard to think that something so small can take my son's life. Peanuts are in more things, not just food!

I am trying to be optimistic that in this day and age, there are so many resources that are there to help and guide us to have the Munchkin' lead a normal life! He already knows that he can not have peanuts and that we have to check boxes and ingredients. He may be small but he is becoming such a big boy!!

In September, I plan on putting a team together and to do the FAAA walk in Longbranch. I will post further details for anyone that wants to participate.

The awful pic of the Munchkin' Man is from his first peanut reaction. The last one we did not have any pictures and I am glad, I do not need a reminder of that whole day!!

New purpose

Ok.. I said that I was going to do more posts and then, well, I did not. I am totally addicted to looking at other people's blogs and have neglected mine. I would love to add more about the Munchkin' Man and what we do all day! I would like to also include future projects that I would like to do. This year a goal of mine is to make more handmade gifts. To do this, I would like to learn to sew better!!