Officer D!

This month we've been reading books included in the "community helpers" kit from our library.  D is obsessed with this book:
















Without any initiation on my part, she built a radio and gun from her trio blocks, used her belt, flute (as baton), toy keys and became "Officer D!".  This is huge because this is the first time she has built meaningful stuff with her blocks.  Check her out!

Items on her belt (L to R): Gun, Radio, Baton and her car keys!  This kept her entertained today for a couple of hours.  Love imaginative play!

Karen Tyler's Montessori program

I've enrolled in the FAST Track version of Karen Tyler's Montessori program.  So far I am loving it!  Her albums are extremely detailed and this would sure help me put out more work for D using proper Montessori techniques.  Going through the albums has given me more knowledge than what I could gain by just reading through the various books and blogs.  I am also looking forward to interacting with all my fellow classmates and discuss the various materials!  I am all excited now and I wait every day for the uninterrupted"me" time that I get for my studying!

March Sensory Tub

Here is our March/Spring sensory tub.  I know we are a little early, but we are ready to be done with winter, hence this one!  I just love how colorful and spring-like this tub is.  Another plus with this one is that my 10 month old can play too and she has been having a blast with her sister.  She can mouth the easter eggs all she wants!  She somehow does not eat the paper just manipulates it with her hands, putting it over her head and generally empties it from the bin!  It is so pleasing that I've been playing with it too!

These are the items that I added to the tub.  I got everything from the dollar store, and spent less than 8 bucks!

• Green Easter Grass
• Half a packet of the colorful Easter Grass
• An easter bucket
• Easter Eggs
• Bunny Egg Dipper
• Some flowers and leaves
• A shovel and a small jug

March Poetry

With spring on the horizon this month's poetry basket is one of my all time favorites.  Wordsworth's "Daffodils".  It is slightly longer then what D is used to, but I thought I'd give it a try as she enjoys her poetry trays so much and memorizing is never an issue with her.  There aren't any props with this one as of now, I am not sure if I would have any later on.  I just googled the poem and added some google images.  I printed this out and added dots below each line, so she could point to the words as she recites the poem.

Edited to add:


I added a bunch of artificial daffodils that I found at the dollar store to this tray.  We've already recited this poem quite a few times today.  D loves it!  I was initially a little bit worried at the length, but it doesn't seem to bother her at all!

What we've been upto

Its been more than a week since my last update.  But we've been busy at home working away the week.  February is always a busy month for us with lots of celebrations since it has my birthday, valentines day and our wedding anniversary.  We've had a lot of fun this month!

I ordered the language materials from Montessori for everyone.  The quality of the materials is amazing and D has been enjoying the pink series work.  She can fairly breeze through all the pink word lists.  I also started to introduce some of the blue series sounds and she has been having a lot of fun with them too!

In math I bit the bullet and ordered some of the golden bead materials from Caliber Montessori.  This is my first time ordering from them and I need to wait and see how the quality of the materials are.  But D has been ready for a while to move on and having the materials on hand would be awesome.  We've been doing the odd/even work and the hundred boards too.

We've not worked much on the other areas as I haven't had the time to put out new materials.  I made a calendar, which has been a long pending item.  I will post pictures in another post.  We've been singing a lot of songs and reading a ton of books.

Practical life has been home life for D.  It amazes me how much she can do by herself if only I let her be!

Valentines Day Celebration

We had a simple valentine's day celebration at home.  We made pink indian ice-cream and froze it in a heart shaped tray.  It turned out delicious!  I forgot to take pictures, but you can find a variation here.  We did not make it as fancy, my recipe is quite simple.  Just one can of Sweetened Condensed milk and half a teaspoon of rose essence mixed with half a cup of whole milk.  I mixed everything in a blender with some cardamom seeds.  We then froze it and once done, gobbled it all up!

We read quite a few valentine themed books that we had.  A new but sweet one is "Snow Valentines".  This book was perfect with all the snow we had here!

Karen Tyler's Program Giveaway

Here is a great give away.  I've been meaning to take this course, winning this would be ideal.  While you are there, also check out her blog, it is awesome with so many great ideas!