We have only been open a few short weeks, so up until now I have been getting a feel of how my day care will run and the children are still settling in, so we haven’t started any traditional Montessori (M) activities which has been frustrating for me. After reading countless home schooling M blogs, I felt that my current set up wasn’t really conducive to learning so I changed it up. We have a big open plan living space where the kitchen/dining/family room was and I found we were spending most of our time there during day care hours and the children weren’t utilising the beautiful toy room I had set up for them out the front. So we swapped them and I now have a gorgeous, open classroom which we trialled today with little Miss P. I also have a clearer view of where I want to go on our M journey, so we were able to start our Zoology, Botany and Geography units. I didn’t want to start them til a little later, but Miss P was interested in some of the resources I had out, so we started today. Before I go any further, I have to say I am not Montessori trained so ours is definitely not a traditional M set up. I also love the Reggio style of teaching so our curriculum is a scoop of Montessori, a teaspoon of Reggio and a pinch of magic. So here’s our new set up!
Our ‘work’ area
Rest and reading area
Art corner and Science table
Our weekly activities on the shelves
The Baby area for my beautiful 6 month old son
I love animals and nature so I love that learning about this is very Montessori. This week we are learning the difference between plants and animals and also have a matching animals game. We made some clothes peg animals and looked at different parts of animals with our magnifying glasses
We made some beautiful paper plate flowers today and talked about seeds and what they are. We also completed the first page in our Botany Journal
I love this felt world mat I bought a few years ago and had it sitting out thinking I would use it in a few weeks, but Miss P decided she liked the look of it too, so we had a spontaneous geography lesson. Using the pictures of animals, landmarks and people, Miss P had to decide whether the picture was of something that lived in the ocean or on land and put it on the proper place. Absolutely amazes me how much knowledge these little people already have about the world!
Lastly we briefly touched on maths by using play dough to cut out shapes and then cut them in half. We snuck in a tea party, Miss P practiced her pouring with the water table and little baby had fun grabbing anything and everything close by! Hopefully the rest of the week will be as amazing as today was
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