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Montessori Short Bead Stairs
It’s hard to think of a way to make maths more attractive to a child than with a treasure chest of jewels. The Montessori Short Bead Stair is appealing to adults and children alike. It is irresistibe! There’s something about the colours, the compartments, the order, the shiny surfaces which is so inviting that you want to find out what this box is all about. What is the Montessori Short Bead Stair The beads are a material used by children throughout their primary school years to learn mathematical facts and processes. From straightforward counting to simple processes like counting on and addition to step counting and even multiplication and the…
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Montessori Appropriate Fiction about Animals
In our home we tend to stick to five principles of Montessori Appropriate fiction, you can read more about them here, this can be tricky because Alfie LOVES animals and finding realistic animal fiction is tough. I’ve divided this list in two the first section features books with nothing unrealistic in terms of behaviour or ability, the second has some very mild fantasy. I’m happy to include some fantasy (Alfie is 3.5y) because this is a home not a school! Alfie spends so much time with real animals he knows the limits of their abilities. Likewise he can ‘read’ animal behaviours so knows they can think and have feelings eg…
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Finding our Home Rhythm
If you’ve been following us on Instagram then you will know that for a few weeks I have been consciously making an effort to establish a home rhythm. This rhythm was inspired by being a student on Eloise Rickman’s Rhythm In The Home course. I highly recommend this course for anyone who wants to be intentional about their parenting and their self care. Identify the Family Needs The first thing I did was identify my main problems. For me the problem was stagnation. I was feeling overwhelmed, under-stimulated, harassed, ignored, tired and a bit bored. I was uninspired by my life. I hate to admit this but it felt like…
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Cooking with Toddlers: Simple Apple Tart
Finding the perfect Montessori recipe for toddlers can be tricky. I usually find I have to get a bit creative with adult recipes. This apple tart is a combination of a few different ones that I’ve adapted to allow for greater toddler independence. Alfie (3.5y) complete each of the steps and only needed guidance on what to do next. It was really delicious and looked far fancier than it was. Toddler skills Spreading Rolling Peeling Mixing eggs Sieving Ingredients 3 large apples (I used Fuji) 1 sheet ready-made puff pastry 2 tbsp apple purée 20-30g butter 1 egg Few tbsp castor sugar Pinch of cinnamon Method Roll out sheet of…
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Montessori at Home; The Table Tray
Many a meal time have descended into a kind of seated jig for me. I plate up a meal, we sit down to eat and someone needs a drink, or someone forgot a fork, someone needs the toilet or someone wants more juice or in the worst scenarios they don’t like what’s on offer and I’m making something new. Meanwhile my dinner forms a skin and goes cold while my blood pressure creeps ever northward. I’m fairly laid back but this was starting to really grind my gears. So, I looked at our problems and tried to come up with a solution. Part of the problem was a lack of…
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Our New Montessori Kitchen
Over the last few months we’ve done a bit of moving and shaking at home. Our house layout wasn’t serving us anymore so we moved the playroom and with it the kids’ kitchen. However that didn’t really work either so their Montessori kitchen space has migrated back into our kitchen BUT I’ve made some changes to how it’s used. Follow us on Instagram to see daily stories of how we use Montessori at home. A Simple Montessori Kitchen Firstly I scaled their available equipment all the way back, they no longer have everything displayed all at once. We used to have too much choice, their utensils were all necessary for…
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Christmas Books for Young Children
”Tis the season to be jolly semi-permanently curled up with a good book. This is our pick of the best Christmas books. We don’t make a big deal about Santa (more on that here Montessori and Santa) or the whole naughty/nice thing (more on that here Why There’s No Elf on Our Shelf), neither are we religious so many of these books focus on experiences and family. Pick A Pine Tree We love this book! A simple rhyming story about a familiar tradition that lots of children will recognise. The illustrations are fun and lively and provide plenty of extra talking points. Christmas is Coming, An Advent Book What a…
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The Prepared Adult: Reflecting on Parenting Experiences
The August focus on Instagram has been The Prepared Adult. This came about as a result of my own experiences going through therapy to resolve some issues I felt were nagging at me. This experience was a mix of difficult, hilarious, painful, enlightening and most of all releasing. It helped me to see myself clearly for the first time in a long time, myself as an individual and myself as I was in relation to other people. The Prepared Adult This awareness caused me to understand some of what motivated my parenting decisions and to put them in the context of my experiences of being parented. It occurred to me…
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August in the Kitchen Garden
What’s growing, what’s wilting and jobs for toddlers this summer.
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Raising Readers: Tips for reading with a toddler
Until Alfie was about 20 months old I’d have described him as a bookworm. His first choice of toy was always a book and he would happily have sat for three quarters of an hour while we read story after story. Then something changed. One day he had less time for reading, in fact he had no time for anything that wasn’t tearing around the garden! It seemed he tossed away every book I offered to him. I was horrified! What had happened to our cosy mornings reading our favourite books? Did this mean that he’d never be a bookworm again? Of course not! It just meant that reading time…
