Puzzles

E has been into puzzles for a couple of months now.
All sorts of puzzles.  From shapes to vehicules, with knobs or knob less, he just loves to fit the pieces together over and over again.

When I choose toys and material for my children to use, I always try as much as possible to use beautiful items that are gentle for our environment, and also safe to play with.  These are discussion we are having a lot right now with X.

We have had loads of Melissa and Doug puzzle, and although well thought, they are of poor quality.  The paint chips easily, and they are still being produced in China.

In an attempt to find new puzzles for E to play with, I found this:




It is called "The First Jigsaw Puzzle Square" by Young mind at play
It is a hand made wooden puzzle made of hardwood and finished with food grade beeswax and oil.

The quality is outstanding.  The pieces are big and chunky and very nice to manipulate.  I love the various colours of the wood they used for the pieces.

E obviously like to touch and make this puzzle over and over again.  And I think that one of the reasons it is not getting tired of it is because the pieces can fit together differently!

and so creating simple patterns ad shape is possible.

Since the pieces are interlocking rather then just made to fit into a pre cut shape, it really does train some other movements of the hand.

instead of just sliding the piece until it enters the hole, now he has to lift the piece and fit it one onto the other.  Loads of fine motor skills.

I really love finding (and sharing about)  products that fits all our criteria of protection of environment, and also development for the child.  This one, while not cheap, totally does, and I can see that it will stay on E's shelves for a while.

using the letter pouches

They have been finished for a while now, and the kids have had the time to play with them a lot.  

They are intended to be used just like an alphabet box.   But again, each of my little ones is using them for their own purpose.

E (20 months old)

He loves to empty and fill the pockets.  But I think his biggest pleasure is to explore what is in there.

Since he is in a very verbal state, he often asks me the "name" of the letter, and so I sound the letter he shows me to his great pleasure.  I often hear him saying sound now.

M 4 1/2 yo:

She is the one I had in mind when making this.  And she is using it the way I had in mind.

She gets a couple of pouches out, explore what is in them, sounds all of the words of the items. There is usually 5-6 items in each bags.   She loves it.

She is also using them as sensory pouches.  When I make a rotation of what is in there, she loves to find out what they contain by trying to guess what she is touching.  Of course, she has a good clue (the first letter) but it sometimes still hard.  This is such a fun game!

She LOVES looking at all the letter at the same time, she loves touching them (she is working very hard on her sand paper letters recently), she traces the  letters frequently.  I know she is wishing for these to be stored in her room. She asked me several time.

X 6 1/2 yo:

He loves to participate in the guessing game too.  But what he mostly does with those is to practice writing.  He gets an item out, and write it's name on a small piece of paper.  

He has also started to ask me to make a kind of a grammar game with it. (Mommy, this is LA souris, and LE saxophone right?,  La souris est AU DESSUS du saxophone...)  So I can see that is use of it will change soon

I cannot wait to be able to fetch a long piece of wood to hang them on there. I'll need to wait a little bit more until the wood has finally dried.  That leaves me a little time to figure out where they will be hanging 

practical life for the toddler - spreading

This is an activity that happened all by itself one morning, after I received the set of spreaders from Michael Olaf.  And since then, it is part of E's breakfast ritual to spread his own toast with whatever he wants.  There is no way we are going to be able to sneak this one past him, he demands it very strongly whether times permits or not.  The joy of the Montessori children!

I think it is a very easy activity to set up, and also very rewarding for the child.
Here is how we are doing it:

E sets his place with his plate and spreader.

Then he helps me put *just* the right amount of the spreadable item (here is organic peanut butter) in a separate bowl.  I think this is the key step in organizing this activity.
We are still only using things that are easily spreadable, organic peanut butter is more runny then regular one, so E has no problem with it.

He brings the bowl at the table and spread his toast (remember, the important part is not the result but the process!)

This part takes the longest.  I give him all the time he wants  to spread as he wishes (and trust me it was hard at first not to help him spread evenly!) as long as he is doing this purposefully.

And when he decides that he is done, he gives the spreading bowl back

I told you, the process, not the result :)

These spreaders from Michael Olaf are really well made.  The size is perfect.  But they MUST NOT remain in water, and they do need a bit of maintenance for the wooden part (of course, which can be done by the child )

they are stored here:

always readily available for E to use.

(sorry about the glass just in front of the pitcher, E must have put his glass back behind my back without me realizing!  I just caught this right now!)

The spreaders are in the 2nd stainless steal container.  As you can see, they are really tiny. (the big fork at the left is an IKEA fork for children, and the smaller ones are from Michael Olaf too)



E a commencé à beurrer ses rôties depuis quelques jours déjà.  L'activité s'est proposée de elle même, après que nous ayons reçu les couteaux à tartiner de chez M.Olaf.  Depuis ce temps là, tartiner sa propre rôtie est un rituel qu'il n'oublie pas, qu'on ait le temps ou pas!


Je crois que c'est une activité très facile à organiser, mais également très enrichissante pour l'enfant.
Voici notre façon de fonctionner.


E met sa place avec son assiette et son couteau.
Ensuite nous préparons le bol de la tartinade, en y mettant la quantité à peu près exacte pour une rôtie.  Je crois que ceci est le point tournant du succès de l'activité.
Il apporte le bol à table et se met au travail.
Je le laisse aller, tant et aussi longtemps qu'il tartine avec concentration (et parfois c'est dur de ne pas intervenir pour tartiner plus uniformément!!!)
Lorsqu'il a terminé, il le signal en me donnant le bol à tartinade.


Les couteaux qu'il utilisent sont géniaux! Ils sont juste de la bonne grandeur et facile à manipuler.  Ils ont besoin d'entretien particulier par contre, rien que l'enfant ne peut pas faire seul.
Ils sont rangé dans ses tablettes de cuisine (voir image plus haut), et donc toujours à sa portée.
(je suis désolée, sur cette dernière photos E a rang son verre sur la tablette devant son pichet juste avant que je prenne la photo à mon insu.  Je viens tout juste de m'en rendre compte, dans un éclat de rire :)  )

Practical life for the toddler - emptying the dishwasher

Emptying the dishwasher is a relatively new activity for E.

He started this out by just joining us when we were all working at emptying it one night.

I love this practical life activity, because it not only promotes fine motor skills and gross motor skills, is a fine sorting activity (plates goes with plates and so on) but it is a lovely opportunity to develop language skills.  (this is a plate.  Can you bring the plate to the cupboard... and so on)

While E usually engages in this activity to help out just like his brother and sister, at some point, I see him switch to another mode, his activity becoming this concentrated work M. Montessori often talks about.  At this point, he gets out a pile of plates (or glasses or else) and he just piles and unpile them many times in a row.  He does this until he has repeated the activity enough and just go onto something else.

this is an easy enough activity for a child that has:

• previously learn how to hold plates, glasses and other kitchen utensils (which is not something that is hard to learn starting at 15 months, the age of the inner force)
• that is able to pile objects one on top of the other 
• that can sort object with a little guidance

and the best part is that it doesn't require anything to do it.

Have fun!

Vider le lave-vaisselle est une activité relativement récente pour E.  Tout ceci a commencé un soir qu'il désirait coopérer avec nous dans le nettoyage de la cuisine.

J'adore cette activité de vie pratique parce qu'elle ne permet pas seulement la pratique de la motricité fine (et également globale), c'est une activité de tri intéressante, et permet un jeu de langage enrichissant pour l'enfant.

En générale, E débute cette activité lorsque vient le temps de vider (ou remplir) le lave-vaisselle.  Mais à un certain point durant notre travail, je le vois changer dans un mode différent.  Il accroche sur une partie de l'activité, et la répète plusieurs fois, démontrant le niveau de concentration intense qui est souvent mentionné dans les écrits de M. Montessori.  Il répète l'activité des tonnes de fois, jusqu'à ce que son besoin interne soit comblé, et il arrête spontanément.

C'est une activité relativement facile à reproduire chez un enfant qui a précédemment manipulé de la vaisselle, qui est capable de faire du tri avec un peu d'aide au besoin, et qui est capable d'empiler des assiettes et verres.

The real magic in Montessori

I had a question about the hand washing activity I have set up for E a few days ago through email that reminded me of the feeling I had, when I started out in Montessori, a feeling of inadequacy that lingered over me  every time I was looking at blogs. That feeling of not being able to make this work like others did.  And it inspired this post, hoping that it can be helpful to parents that are feeling overwhelmed.

Learning to work within a contained space

I remember the first time I entered a Montessori facility, I was fascinated.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Young children truly concentrated onto a task, working with a precision that is not usually attributed to children this age.  I had no other explanation then magic to understand what I was seeing.

scrubbing with a brush - 13 months old

After years of living by the Montessori philosophy, and reading about it, I now understand that there is no magic, except maybe the fact that Dr Montessori was able to understand the very basis of childhood through careful observation and thus answer many of the the questions we have about early childhood and the formation of man with outstanding clarity.   But seeing a tiny children be able to perform standard Montessori tasks (there is so many of them, just pick one!)  is still fascinating to anybody who witnesses it.

But how does this happens?

I can say at this point that it is through no miracle, but through careful observation and preparation of the child before he is presented the activity.  And that is the information that most blog post lack, because of the difficulty to capture it and explain it, making it a little unsettling for newcomers in the Montessori pedagogy.

precision in handeling material - about 9 months ago

When I presented the hand washing activity to E, it was because I knew he was ready. I had figured out what are the steps and the skills required to master this activity.  (In this case, pouring, scrubbing, drying hands, not putting soap in his mouth, and making sure that water stays in the bowl when manipulating water)  I knew that he had mastered all these component, and that the only thing left he had to do was to combine them all to carry out this specific task.  Would I have just presented this to him without ensuring that he would be able to carry it out, he would most likely have failed,  due to my misjudging.

Pouring his own drink at 19 months

And this was something that was very confusing to me at the beginning.  Looking at blogs, I was very impressed but most of all discouraged to see these children could do.  I think this was mainly because I didn't know what was done before to prepare them to a certain task, since this information was never disclosed, or even mentioned.
 I was only able to see how my children would fail this specific task I had just seen if I gave it a chance.  And it most likely would have, as the previous preparation was not done.  It is by reading M. Montessori herself that I finally understood that just following a certain blog or just trying out activities that seems ingenious was not going to guarantee any success for my own children, and that there was more to it that meet the eyes.

Playing in water -  last summer, almost one year ago.

I have just finished reading the book The Formation of Man.  I am so glad I took the time to read this book.  It has shed the light onto another topic that added to my confusion and that escalated my fear and feeling of inadequacy.

The goal of the work we are proposing to children, is not the successful completion of the task.  It is not to have them know and be able to perform all sorts of things.  That is just an added bonus, this is the mean by which the true goal is reached.

The true goal of it all is the formation of men that is taking place during the early years.  This formation is taking place unseen, on it's own timetable, and this is the true magic of Montessori.  It is the allowing of this task to be completed, without hindrance, by the environment, by our actions and by the knowledge we have about the process (which is not much) that is important.  It doesn't matter that the activity was successful or not, that somebody's toddler was able to perform a specific task before my own.  What matters is the process, that is essential to the formation of our children into men (and woman).
When I finally grasped that concept, I was able to let go of blogs, and just follow my children.  It removed a weight of performance that is not necessary, and dare I say "dangerous" to this process my children are going through.



I hope this was somehow helpful to other parents that wants to tackle Montessori in their home but just feel overwhelmed, mostly when reading blogs.
I think it is normal to feel this way.  Most of us have not been raised this way, and all of this might not come naturally to us.  But with time, patience and reading (books), understanding comes along.  I feel it is well worth the time and efforts.

For more reading on this topic, I would refer you to many of the books that M. Montessori has written.  She often speaks about the sequence of event that leads to the explosion of writing, and she goes into great details about it.  I think this illustrates better then I ever could the importance of sequencing of activities towards a goal.  I have just read about it again in the Formation of Man, and I think she also discusses it in the Montessori method.  If you know any other source for that information, leave a comment!

Practical life with a toddler - Spooning

In our home, practical life activities are ones that happens spontaneously, at any moment, usually following an activity that my little ones were incorporated in, or saw me doing.

Most of E's practical life activities happens just like that.  Out of the blue, he demonstrates an interest in something we are doing or something he sees. The activity is then built for him.  Nothing is preprepared, we just make it simple

 This spooning activity was a very spontaneous one that occurred just after I had been doing dishes.  The ladle was drying on the rack and so the bowls.  He climb up his stool, got the bowls, and asked me for water.  I had no idea what he wanted water for.

This went on for a long while, asking me once in a while for more water as he was emptying his bowl.

I love practical life activities.   They don't have to be complicated, nor planned. Just following the current interest of the child is enough.  And at this age, I feel they are the activities that engages the child best.  Everything is there for success:  movement, real work, with a purpose, imitation.  Perfect!


Les activités de vie pratique ne sont pas organisés ici.  Ils surviennent quand l'enfant ressent un désir de pratiquer quelque chose.


La majorité des activités de vie pratique de E ne sont pas déjà prêtes ou même planifiées. J'organise le materiel nécessaire quand je vois qu'un intérêt vient de surgir.


Cette activité de transfert, c'est E qui se l'est organisé lui-même.  Je venais tout juste de terminer la vaisselle.  Il y avait sur le rack de séchage des bols, et la louche.  Il a mis les bols dans l'évier, et m'a demandé de l'eau.  Sur le fait, je ne savais pas trop pourquoi.


L'activité s'est déroulée pendant un long lapse de temps.  


J'adore la simplicité de ces activités, qui pourtant engage le mieux mes enfants,  et pour une période de temps beaucoup plus longue que n'importe quelle autre activité.

Closer look at the hand washing station

Thanks for your comments on the handwashing post.  I am happy that it has inspired many of you to give it a go!

As promised I wanted to show you the hand washing station that E is using.  Hopefully, that information can be helpful to people that are almost ready to give it a try.

I have used a part of our play kitchen to safely hold the wash basin.  It works, E loves it, and associate handwashing with a sink.

He was showed how to pour water in the basin (with assistance), to use soap to wash his hands, and then rinse in the basin.  His favorite part?  Putting the dirty water in the bucket.  Yes, he loves to pour!
The hand brush comes from Michael Olaf, and is perfect for hand scrubbing if needs be.

Stored under are material for dishwashing that we will be starting soon.  E is allowed to explore the material right now, so he'll already be familiar when we start.

How did you set up hand washing in your home with a toddler/preschooler?

Tel que promis, je vous montre un peu plus en détail le coin de nettoyage que j'ai aménagé pour E.


Sur le dessus du meuble, j'y ai mis tout ce qui est nécessaire pour que E puisse se laver les mains de façon indépendante:  un plat pour se laver, un savon, une brosse à main, un pichet qu'il utilise avec un peu d'aide, et une serviette pour s'essuyer les mains.


À l'intérieur du meuble, se trouve le matériel nécessaire pour des activités de nettoyage.  Un bassin d'eau en plastique, diverses brosses (dont une à légumes) et un sceau pour disposer de l'eau sale.


E adore ce coin, qui lui permet beaucoup plus d'aisance dans ses mouvements que lorsqu'il est sur un banc.


Et vous?  Comment avez vous aménagez votre environnement pour faciliter ces tâches de nettoyage?

Practical life with a Montessori toddler - Hand washing

Hand washing is E's new thing.

I try as much as I can to make sure the activities that are done here, are done in their proper place. My oldests washes their hands in the tiny bathroom that is just right by the kitchen.  But as much as I tried to set an adapted environment for E to follow along, I quickly noticed that it just didn't work.

So I set up that station in the kitchen to facilitate the task until he gets just a little bigger.

Hand washing is a fine practical life activity, because it requires many skills, most of which E has been practicing a lot lately.  Pouring, rubbing, lifting and carrying a container of liquid...  I feel washing his hands is the culminating point of all of this work, and a meaningful tasks he loves to carry out. (and feels proud accomplishing!)

This sequence went really fast, it all happened in about 2 minutes.  I didn't have much time to help him.  As soon as I gave him the pitcher, he was on his way.  I was able to help him pull off his sleeve right before the last picture.  I was amazed to see him pour the water on his own in the basin (that is his first time doing so!).

And after a good wash, he finished by emptying the basin in the bucket.

as you can see in the right lower corner, he did drop a little water on the floor

and so with a towel, he managed to clean his spill.

Tomorrow, I'll show you his hand washing station  in more details.
(and if you look at his feet, you should have a fairly good idea of what other practical life activity I'll be talking next. )

How do you manage hand washing with your toddler?  I'd love to have more ideas on how to facilitate transition to the real sink too!


**********************************************************************
Se laver les mains. 
C'est une tâche que E adore.  


Je tente toujours, autant que possible, de faire faire les activités de vie pratique dans les endroits logiques en fonction de l'activité.  Mais après maintes tentatives, je ne suis toutjours pas parvenu à organiser un environnement  facilitant cette tâche dans la salle de bain, endroit où les 2 autres font cette tâche.


J'ai donc décidé d'organiser un coin nettoyage dans la cuisine, et je dois avouer que ça été reçu avec succès.


J'adore le lavage des mains comme activité de vie pratique parce qu'elle englobe plusieurs étapes et donc plusieurs manoeuvres qui doivent être maitrisées par l'enfant pour réussir son travail.  E travaille sur plusieurs de ces étapes depuis longtemps déjà, et je crois que si cette activité est un succès, c'est parce qu'elle est apparu juste au bon moment.




Lors que j'ai photographié la séquence vue plus haut, tout est allée tellement vite, que je n'ai pas eu le temps d'intervenir d'aucune façon.  Normalement, E m'attend pour vider l'eau dans le plat, mais cette fois-ci, j'imagine qu'il était prêt à tenter le coup lui-même, et avec succès je dois avouer!  


Une fois le lavage des mains terminée, il a jeter l'eau dans la chaudière, et comme il en a renversé un peu sur le plancher, il a sorti la serviette pour le ramasser. L'acte n'était pas parfait, mais il savait comment la compléter!


Demain, je vous montrerai en détail la station que j'ai monté pour lui.  


(et si vous regardez bien ses pieds, vous aurez une bonne idée d'une des prochaines activité de vie pratique que je vais présenter...)


Et vous?  Comment avez-vous organiser le lavage de mains pour votre bambin?

The light table

I have had so many questions about this, that I think I'll answer everything with a post dedicated to the subject.

The light table has come into our house a few months ago.  Light tables are not a material that is used or inspired by the Montessori philosophy, but rather in the Reggio Emilia one.

About a year ago, I was acquainted with pedagogy during the playful learning space e-course that I took.  I have been reading a lot on Reggio since, although I have to say that information is scarce about it.  I find that there is a lot of Montessori influence in the Reggio philosophy, but the big difference is in their use of art.  They uses what they call the 100 languages of children: art as a medium for learning.  M and E have 2 extremely artistic personalities.  And I know that Montessori was not a pedagogy based on self expression through many mediums, but rather through work.  My children are flourishing within the Montessori philosophy we are living by.  But I also wanted to incorporate more means of expressions, ones that my youngest were keen on using, and this is when I thought Reggio might be an interesting approach for us.  I have so much more to read and learn in Reggio, and I am definitely the best person to deeply explain the basis of this pedagogy.  If you want to find out more on Reggio, I suggest that you visit:

Mariah's blog: Mariah's approches are deeply influenced by Reggio as she had the chance to visit and live in Reggio school in Italy.

The site of Reggio education : which contains a mine of information about the schools

And other very good articles about the subject, this one being an excellent one

All of this to say, Reggio has been tainting our days for a while now.

Back to the light table.

I have no regrets getting this for the children.  They all use it very differently, but they all use it.  A LOT

X (the oldest)

My oldest is a mover.  A doer.  He needs to go, move, do, create, try, miss and try again.  He never stops.  Concentration is hard for him.  But when he plays on the table.  he is absorbed.  It really helps him stop and concentrate truly on what he does.   It amazes me every time.
On the table he build.  This is his passions: trucks, loaders, cranes, blocks, building...and so every time he has a chance, he sneaks to the atelier without E seeing him and he builds. (E loves to play with X on the table, but X likes to have a minute to do it alone sometimes)

M (4 yo):

She creates:

things that are beyond my imagination, or at least beyond what I thought she could do or rather that she could imagine.  She loves to use this table to experiment all sorts of things: paint, pattern making, window crayons, name it.  She tries things and looks at the result.  It seems to fill a desire to explore that she was able to express before.


E (18 months):

Oh, what can I say about him:

he has all sorts of sensorial experiences on there.  He seems more aroused to all activities I set up for him when they are on the table.  He gets more concentrated (or at least for a longer period of time) and he keep asking for more

most of his pouring, sorting, transferring activities are done on the table, and he actually set them up himself (!!)

he goes in the table, takes the jars he want to work with, sometimes get some cups to transfer from, sometimes spoons or other material that is available to him

and he just goes:

His absolute favorite activity on there are hands down the window markers

and those blocks are also very well loved

the colors are appealing to him.


FAQ:

• Where did I get my light table? : in my local teacher store.  But they are clearly starting to be available at more places, I am starting to see them everywhere.  But for a lot of information on light tables, panels, including how to do it yourself, I suggest that you go read Play at home moms's blog.  They are doing tremendously interesting stuff with all this!

• Do I only set activities up for this, or do I let my children use it as they want?  I do both.  But if I see they are having an inspiration for something, even if I had set something up for them, I try to encourage their creativity and join them in their work

• How is this Montessori?   It is not.  As I have been saying for a while, I have been influenced by other philosophy and I am trying to incorporate what feels right for us into our days.  But I like how this really helps my children express themselves, helps their creativity, and also they concentration.  X become so calm and settled when working on the table, he always tell me how he feels good after.  I think it brings him closer to the period of intense concentration M. Montessori talked about in the absorbent mind, and it helps him learn to concentrate to longer periods of time.   I am considering using this table to help him through academic material he has a harder time to go through.  I am sure it will be somewhat beneficial to him.

As you can see this is a topic that I am currently passionate about.  I hope to be able to share more about it soon.

If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask, I will be delighted to answer them.

E's toddler room

Life has been going faster then I have.  BUt after a few days/weeks of trying to be on top of things, I am finally getting there.  Only to know that I'll have papers to grade starting next week...ugh.

Talking about trying to catch up, I'm almost caught up with replies.  Thanks for your patience!

Today I felt like giving you a tour or E's room.  Now that we are well into toddlerhood, I had to adapt his room to his newly acquired skills, and trust me, the acquisition of skills goes faster then the response I am producing.  After he started walking last september, his development has taken strides that have left us speechless.

The first and big change that we needed to make was to have E sleep in a child size bed.

He has been able to climb into our *very* high bed for months now, and so having a bed off the floor was just the natural next step for him.  He loves it.  He climbs easily in it, he loves to go at any moment of the day to just sit in it.  I have found myself countless times, since this bed has made it's appearance here,  looking for E through out the house because he was making no noise whatsoever, and more then half the time, I found him there, sitting in his bed with a book.  (let's not talk about the other half of the time shall we?)
The non matching green blanket that is on his bed is the blanket he has chosen himself.  It is a woollen that we used to have at home when I was a child.  I have no idea why he loves it so much, but it was clear that this was the blanket he wanted on his bed.  So we respected his decision.  He sleeps only with this blanket (he HATES being covered, he despise it really) and so bed making is rather easy.  I would like at some point to only have a big comforter on the beds of my children so bed making would be easier.

The dressing area was also redesigned

I added a shelf in the module so that I could have a space for diapering material, without interfering with his dressing area.  it works well so far.
The other thing that I add and that we both love is the mirror.  It is big enough so he can see himself, it is at the right level and he loves to look at himself in it while we are dressing up.
In the drawers I have all of his clothes, and in this dressing are (the side with the rod) I usually get out 2 outfits, and he chooses the one he want for the day.  I always leave a pair of indoor shoes (padraigs) at his disposal, and also a woollen vest in case he is cold.  The vest is being currently used to learn to put on and off the hanger.

The reading nook is still there.

this was something I had set temporarily until I had find a better seating solution for this area.  But I have yet to find the said seating solution, and every time I have tried something else, E was very upset about it.  SO obviously he is happy with this arrangement.  He has a strong preference for the orange pillow, which he always asks for if I sit by it by mistake.  He truly loves this nook.

And finally his activity area has evolved according to him

New material, new set of images.
I am planning to soon change the shelving setting.  I would like to use this as a bedside table in order to have a shelving system that would provide a little more space for material.
Kylie has posted this yesterday, which is fabulous and that is not too far away from here :)

She has also posted about the shelf she uses for Otis, which I have adored from the first moment I saw.  But this one is a little far away... I might use it as an inspiration for a 3 shelf high module though.

And of course the Oeuf mini library remains high on my list, but I have to admit that I am put off by the price...
so we'll see

Have a good valentine's! :)

let the child walk

Firstly, I just want to apologize for the replies that have not been written, and the emails that I have not answered back to.  E started to be sick during the weekend, and all my focus went from everything to him.  We are finally out of the hot water, and we are finally on the right track again.  So thank you for your patience!

I remember reading, a while ago, in a book written by Dr Montessori, how little children could walk a lot more then what we give them credit for.  They walk for walking, just to improve this newly acquired skill, to perfect it, like any other movement they do.  It might seem pointless to us, just like any other repetitive activity they do at that age, but it serves a very important purpose: to construct the child.  It helps their self confidence, it helps their body to become stronger, and it helps them to love walking.  She was saying how little children don't seem capable of walking long distance, because we don't give them the chance to, and eventually, because being confined every time they could, they are not interested in it, nor have the ability to do it.
I am not able to find in which book I have read this, nor the exact complete quote.  (and if somebody knows, I'd love to know!)

We have been very in tune with our 3 children during this walking stage.  But I have to admit that I am amazed by E's willingness and ability to walk at this point.  He walks, at his pace, without any disturbance with precision and with will.  He does not get distracted by much, he is not exploring, he is walking, and he is doing this with all of his senses and concentration. He is perfecting walking.

And he walks in hard conditions:  snow, ice, slush, conditions that would make many people turn around and go back home.  But when we hit the trail, he wiggles his feet to be put on the ground ASAP, and ready of not, he starts walking forward.  He has not idea where we are going,  now how long we'll be walking, but he just walks straight ahead.

And when it is time to come back, he just turns, without looking ahead, and starts walking back in the other direction, no questions asked.

This morning, when we got out, our driveway was like a ice skating ring.  It was hard to get the the car without falling down.  And even though he has only been walking for a few months, he managed to make it to the car by himself not falling, not even once.

Colors

Many of you asked me to talk about E.  So the next few posts will be dedicated to him.

I'll start by talking about his new favourite book

It is a book that I gave E during the holidays.  I found it at a local library at the last minute, right before leaving for the holidays.  I thought it was well made, but I never thought it would be such a hit.

This is the first side of the pages.  I like the graphics, the vivd color, and simple text.

But the cool part is this:

so many possibilities!  Perfect for matching games.

What you see on the last picture is an activity I set up for him one afternoon this week.  I used his stacker, and combined it with the book.

I had him match the rings of his stacker to the colors of the book.  We had loads of fun doing that activity over and over again during the day.  And he has been asking me for it everyday ever since. (he gets the stacker out, he gets the book out, loud and clear honey, loud and clear...)

I decided to take a step further to this game, and create color boxes.  I started with the primary colors, but the secondary will soon follow.  E has already started to use them with the book.

They all contain different objects of the said color.  E can manipulate everything in there freely.  The boxes are easy to open and close, another activity E craves for right now.

His abilities are really exploding right now.  I am amazed every single day at the things he suddenly does (out of nowhere it seems!)

Do you have any favourite game regarding colors with your toddlers?  I'd love to have some more fresh ideas!