spaces
June 21, 2007
I've been meaning to post my worktable that Ryan built for me so here it is…
It's great to have all my sewing stuff in one place AND I can leave it messy without having to walk by it every two seconds- which is how it was when it my stuff was in the dining room. I have a few more things I want to get for here but it's great for now. Someday I may even sew something again! Next up…
I mentioned that I moved a little bookcase in our study for Keely. I've filled it mostly with educational goods and a few baskets that our loosly based on the Montessori kits idea. I read some about Montessori in college and every once in awhile I come back to it for inspiration. I really dig a lot of the Montessori goods. Too bad they cost so much. We just made up our kits with things we had or cheaply found goods at thriftstores. Keely made a few "kits" of her own too. There's a "pirate" basket where she keeps all her things that she thinks a girl pirate would need and a bean bag basket too. She seems to be enjoying it so far. All of her "artist" things are also there. She has a basket of paper so she can get it herself. She draws a lot! And now she is taking tape and hanging up all of her pictures on our walls. It's quite a sight. She calls this space her "artist" school or her "smart" school, depending on which activity she decides to do. Apparently, you can not mix the two. I have more I plan on doing/organizing/gathering for her, but for now that's how it is.
See that wooden cylinder thingie on the left? It's a pot maker. You take a scrap of newspaper and wrap it around it, push it down and it makes a little pot. You can fill it with dirt and seeds for early spring planting. When your seeds sprout enough, you then take the whole little package and plant it outside, paper and all. Groovy? I found it for $2. but I've seen it in catalogs before.
Another thing I've gotten together for Miss K is vases. She's picked some out (.25) and I had some. She LOVES picking flowers outside and filling her vases. She gives us flowers all the time now. It's such a simple idea that pleases us all greatly. Alright so that's mostly indoor stuff, now for outdoors. We are trying to come up with a kiddie/nature space in our yard for her. It's just not coming together yet. I want to do a butterfly garden or maybe a senses garden for her (soft plants like lambs ear, smell good flowers, edible plants and herbs etc.). I also want to put out a birdbath and try to encourage some neighborhood frogs to move in to our place too. I'd like to incorporate some observation things for her too- like a rain gauge and some more bird feeders.
I think I need to narrow this list down though. Ya think? We do not have that big of a yard and don't have tons of resources or mass amounts of free time to tend to all of that. It's just some stuff I'm thinking about right now. We'll see if anything more than a rain gauge goes up out there.
Filed under: random chatter
15 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
beki | June 21, 2007 at 8:53 am
Love your work table! I sure could use something like that, but I’ve given up on that now. There are too many things on the to-do list. I think your garden area for Keely is a great idea.
2.
Chara Michele | June 21, 2007 at 9:52 am
I think a little garden area for Keely is a wonderful idea!
Your work table looks lovely (and clean! – mine is nowhere near that clean).
3.
lera | June 21, 2007 at 9:56 am
I love all of your ideas for Keely. Especially the ones for the outdoor children’s garden,
4.
Beth | June 21, 2007 at 9:57 am
I knew we were in synch as mamas! I just posted about the new Montessori resource catalog I found, and just checked “Root, Shoots, Buckets & Boots” out from the library (very inspirational– makes the outdoor part seem easy).
Love the banner!
5.
Jennifer | June 21, 2007 at 10:05 am
I love the work table! I covet immensely. That little pot maker is adorable.
6.
Robyn | June 21, 2007 at 11:17 am
AS always, I love your ideas and am inspired. I, too, love the Montessori kits, but not the cost.
7.
laeroport | June 21, 2007 at 11:38 am
You know how much we love montessori. One of my kids favorite things was the “box work”. It was a basket full of little boxes with lids for you to take off and put back on. Easy. I collected small tins, indian paper mache boxes, round, square, heart shaped and put them in a basket. I made one of these works for Eliot when he was about two, but Aidin (who was 4 1/2 at the time) thought it was great too. It is good for matching skills, shape recognition and manual dexterity.
Our school also has a scented garden – just a small space with plants that have strong aromas – lots of herbs, a few fragrant roses, geraniums, etc.
You’re doing great, mama! Keep it up!
8.
laeroport | June 21, 2007 at 11:55 am
Oh, I also meant to say that “flower arranging” is a montessori work, so Keely is right there!
And a few other works that seem so simple and are simple (and cheap) to put together at home:
water pouring: small pitcher to pour into a bowl
bean pouring: any dried beans (or the colored rice!) and a scoop or pitcher to pour them into a bowl – wooden bowls are especially attractive for this work – it has as much to do the the sound it makes as the manual dexterity that they gain.
marble sorting: maybe 4 or 5 colors in a similar shade of marbles – i.e. different shades of pink/red – all in a bowl and sort into different compartments/bowls. You can find these kind of marbles in the floral section at a craft store.
Shoe or wood polishing: There is a specific set up for this, but my kids love to polish leather shoes with plain saddle soap.
Button sewing: They start with felt in an embroidery hoop and a really big two holed button, but then move on to sewing a button on a wrist-long piece of felt with a botton sized hole in the other end to make a button bracelet. Aidin loves this work. I have about 100 felt bracelets to proove it. Aidin started at home with a “button sewing work” with a big eyed needle, thread, needle threader, buttons and felt stips in a cigar box.
You can also introduce geography with simple maps and flags of different countries.
And introduce numbers with the zero work: divide two shoe boxes into 5 comparments each. Label them 0 – 9. Put the appropriate number of objects (they use long wooden spools in the classroom, but any object that you had 45 of would work) in each box. This introduces the concept that zero is none, but also shows physically what each of the numbers represent.
With all these “works” you should give Keely a “lesson” first on the proper way to do the work, hold the pitcher, pour the beans, etc. Once she has had a lesson, she may go back to it as many times as she likes. I’ve got more if you want ‘em.
Have fun!
9.
amy h | June 21, 2007 at 1:47 pm
That table is great! Your husband has been busy.
I need to start making up some of these kits for Elise. We already do a few of these activities, but they aren’t really organized… I love all the Montessori stuff.
10.
Felicia | June 21, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Um, do you think Ryan could come on over to my studio and build me one of those lovely worktables? Yours is brilliant!
I love the idea of having a pirate basket. All the things a girl could ever need
11.
Suzan | June 21, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Love the new header!! Keely is so cute! Alexandria loves to work with me in our yard. I bought her some child’s garden “helper” gloves last week. She was taking pictures of the mushrooms in our yard with her Tinkerbell Camera a couple of days ago.
12.
Audrey | June 22, 2007 at 7:23 am
Love the idea of the garden for Keely – a herb garden is such a great idea – as it teaches kids to explore all new smells and tastes.
I made a herb little herb garden for my daughter whe she was five – she planted the herbs herself and just loved watering them twice a week. She had rosemary, sage, parsley and sweet basil – and we used all of them in our salads and other foodies – she now just loves herbs in her food and still runs to the herb garden when she puts a salad together – especially basil and rosemary for salads and with bolognaise sauce.
Enjoy!!
13.
Sharon | June 22, 2007 at 11:12 am
The gardening and the table will be great for Keely. My son also just turned 4, and I am getting nervous about the whole kindergarden thing. Funny, you talk about a garden for her–that is just what kindergarden used to be! Kid-garden! They used to have children garden as part of their education. A great education if you ask me! I think it’s so sad that children get so little of nature these days even when they are outside. Just playgrounds with mulch–no plants to watch grow, no butterflies, etc.
Anyway, I wanted to say that try a hummingbird garden–which happens to be a great bitterfly garden too. We did one a while back when we were in Texas, and it was wonderful to attract those hummingbirds. They are AMAZING (as one can guess)! They are NOT shy as one would expect. They will stop and stare at you in mid-air. Perfect to get a good look at them! We had one or two that would fight over the feeder, and would pause to stare at all of us looking at him. I found it more interesting than even the kids.
14.
Beth | June 23, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I’m just reading about Montessori and am really loving it. Great to see other mom’s are finding it as intriguing. Feel free to post more stuff like this to continue to give the rest of us inspiration.
15.
Melissa | June 27, 2007 at 10:21 am
I’ve been wanting the wood pot maker myself for the kids but they cost around $12 that I’ve found. I love it that you found it for $2, now that’s my price range for sure.
The space looks awesome!
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