Sweeping Gems

I've been reading about the Montessori method of teaching lately, in addition to other types of education. While I don't think we'll end up sending Chase to a Montessori school, there are certain concepts about the approach that I want to infuse at home. One philosophy is the idea of providing opportunities to allow your child to learn and practice (through repetition) doing daily living activities and introducing these activities to your child in an interesting way.

I found a cute mini dust pan and brush at a local Japanese store and decided to try my first Practical Life exercise with Chase. He was excited the moment he saw me coming into the living room with the tray and got even more excited when he saw what was on top of it. It's all about presentation folks. ;)

The idea is for him to pour the gems from the tupperware onto the tray, which makes a great sound. Then, he'll need to sweep the gems into the dustpan. Finally, he'll transfer them from the dustpan back into the tupperware.

I think this was a nice little challenge for him. It was neat for me to watch him try out different ways to hold and angle the brush in order to get the gems into the dust pan. With Montessori, when needed, you can first demonstrate how to do the activity the right way and then step back to let the child do it themself. But, Chase is very much in a stage right now where he wants to figure out and do everything on his own so there was very little listening to/watching mommy demonstrate.

The little guy did pretty well for his first go at it, don't you think? There's quite a few gems in that dustpan - great job Chasee!!!

Dinosaur Book and Sensory Bin

I mentioned yesterday that Chase's current favorite bedtime story is How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night.  It was gifted to him by his Ninang Ruby, his Godmother. He looks forward to reading it every night and often wants to read it multiple times.  I discovered last week that he's actually memorized quite a few lines. It's so awesome to watch him 'read to himself.' He has a little twinkle in his eyes when he reads because he's well aware of me watching him in awe. I love this age. :) 

To extend his learning, I embarked on creating some dinosaur related activities, starting with this sensory bin. 

What it contains: 

• 3-4 (?) small bags of small rocks (Dollar Tree) and 1 small bag of medium sized river rocks (Michael's). 
• 3 mini plastic dinosaurs (Party City).
• 2 wind up dinosaurs (Dollar Tree) - I ended up taking these out because he can't wind these up on his own quite yet. 
• 2 rubber monster finger puppets (Target). I tried to get away with passing them off as dinosaurs, but I don't think he bought it. He's even smarter than I thought. ;)
• 2 trees, which I made out of popsicle sticks, felt and fabric glue.
• Leaves pulled from a fake plant (Dollar Tree). 

What he's done with it and what he's learning: 

• Stands/balances the trees in the rocks, then knocks them over so he can do it all over again
• Buries the leaves and dinosaurs with rocks using a scooper or his hands
• Scoops rocks into bowls and other containers, then transfers them back into the bin 
• Plays with the finger puppets and uses them to tickle me

We ended the night walking around on all fours roaring and pretending to be dinosaurs. He loved this! Stay tuned because I'll be sharing other dinosaur activities soon. 

Favorite Books

Lately, I've been finding Chase on the floor flipping through a book on his lap. Sometimes, he's simply looking through pictures. Other times, he's 'reading' to himself by recalling lines we've read together.  I love looking at the genuine interest and focus on his face as he inspects each page.  It's my favorite form of 'play' that I love finding him do.  I often wonder what he's thinking as he looks at the pages. 


I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite books (past and present).  Some we both love (great story, characters, pictures, rhyming, etc.) and some I simply love because he loves them. 


Here's the roundup, in the order as they appear in the picture above (sequenced by size of the book): 

• First Look and Find, Let's Look! - Baby Einstein: I love the rhythm of the lines in Baby Einstein books. 
• How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? - Jane Yolen & Mark Teague: His current FAVORITE bedtime story. We read this many times every night. He loves reciting several of the lines. He's a genius! ;) This was gifted by Ninang (Godmother) Ruby. 
• Violet's House - Baby Einstein: This is a GREAT touch and feel book.  He loved this since he was a baby and still does.
• First 100 Words - Bright Baby:  He hasn't opened this one in a couple of months, but he used to love looking at the pictures.  I would ask him to show him 'x' and he would proudly point at the corresponding picture. This was a great book to help him practice matching words to objects/pictures.
• My Big Truck Book - Roger Priddy: This book has been a favorite for a long time.  It's basically an large picture book of various trucks. He inspects each page carefully.  I'm often amazed at names he remembers like "telephone tuck" for telephone line truck. 
• I'm Going to be the Best Superhero Ever! - Moira Butterfield: This is a recent love. I got it for $3 from Joanns (score!). I absolutely love the lines in this book and have fun hamming it up when reading it to Chase.  
• The Very Busy Spider - Eric Carle: Chase likes this book most when we incorporate different animal toys to correspond with the animals that visit the Spider in this story.  
• Corduroy - Don Freeman: This was our previous favorite bedtime story.  There's a scene in the book where the security guard is looking for the bear in the department store. Chase loved pretending to walk around with a flashlight when we got to that part in the book. 
• The Very Lazy Ladybug - Isobel Finn: Simply because he loves lady bugs. :)
• Olivia - Ian Falconer: Such a cute story. 
• My Very Own ABCs - Maia Haag: A personalized book gifted by Ninang (Godmother) Ruby
• A House for Hermit Crab - Eric Carle: Love most Eric Carle books
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? - Eric Carle
• From Head to Toe - Eric Carle
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle
• Good Night Moon - Margaret Wise Brown
• My World: A Companion to Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise

[Top Row Right]

• Is Your Mama a Llama? - Deborah Guarino
• Blue Hat, Green Hat - Sandra Boynton - Love the toddler humor in this book. 
• Time for Bed - Mem Fox
• Little Gorilla - Ruth Bornstein

Chase's Ice Cream Parlor

I had a great conversation with my boss earlier today about how important it is to show gratitude to the caregivers and/or teachers that take care of your kids everyday.  I'm lucky to work for an amazing working mom to both learn from and simply chat about shared beliefs when it comes to raising kids. My boss is definitely my role model when it comes to showing Chase's daycare providers how much I appreciate everything they do on a day to day basis.  She has done so much for her daughter's teachers throughout the years.  

We talked about how we both never take for granted how much of an impact teachers and providers have on our kids.  We both believe in treating them the same way that we would want them to treat our kids - with respect, patience, gratitude, praise, encouragement and recognition.  We probably think alike in this way for the same reasons we both found ourselves doing the work we do in training. 

The conversation I had with her earlier reminded me of an ice cream thank you treat that I put together for the Teacher Appreciation week at Chase's day care (May 2011).  I realized that I hadn't shared it yet here...

It was pretty easy to put together.  Time spent was for grocery shopping and making the sign, which I did using Word.  I pulled the background image from Google Images. I didn't have the time to upload Chase's photo onto the document I was working on so I just attached the picture separately with double sided tape.  The hubby does the morning drop off so I asked him to set this up in the teacher's break room.  I armed him with this photo that I took the night before...otherwise, who knows how it would have ended up.  ;)

Here's a closer look at the sign. Hope this inspires you to creatively express your appreciation to others that positively impact your little one's day.