Montessori Mamas...

This one is for you. I know some of you are reading books and are interested in Montessori philosophy and work for our little ones. The first activity I did with the babes to work on concentration and self-control is working with beans. The babes had to first learn not to eat them, and then not to fling them. Now, they are getting down to the business of transferring them from bowl to bowl. In the video you'll see Amelia working on transferring beans with her hands. After she worked with her hands for a while, I introduced a measuring cup and she worked on filling it up and pouring it into the empty bowl. Next we will work with a spoon. I love to see them concentrate and I really look forward to more activities as they get older.

I read a great book recently by a Christian mom of 12 who is also a trained Montessori teacher. She wrote this book to give mom's ideas on activities to do with their preschoolers to help build their sense or order, independence, self-control, service, and more! I highly recommend it. It's an easy read and gives detailed instructions on the activities given. Most of them are geared towards ages 2-5. I'm going to start getting my materials ready now so that it isn't so overwhelming when the time comes. It's called "Mommy teach me!" by Barbara Curtis.

On the subject of book reviews, I hope to have a link to my Amazon "store" up soon. Basically, it's a place where you can see books, toys, etc. that I recommend and if you purchase them through my link than I get a little bit of the revenue. I seriously doubt I'll make much money, but I love sharing resources and thought this was a good way to do it!

Anyway, without further ado, here is Amelia hard at work. I hope it goes without saying that this is an activity that needs constant supervision so that beans don't go up the nose or in the mouth!