completely out of sync

Have you ever gone through a time when you felt like you just were not as tuned with your kids as you thought you were? That is where I am right now.

In the last few days, I have come to the realization that while I was looking at the holidays coming and going, my kids kept evolving, and I obviously missed some of that.

It started with E's letters, one that I didn't saw coming at all.  And it keeps going with now the pink tower.  

I wanted to wait until E would be 2 1/2 to start using real Montessori materials.  I didn't want to rush anything.  So today, I felt like it was a good day to surprise E (30 months old) with our modified pink tower (the tiniest pieces of 1cm and 2cm are not included), hoping that we would be interested in that for the next few days, and go from there.

Turns out, the only person that was surprised was myself.

I was looking at E building the tower.  He made a mistake, which was what I was anticipating.  But what stunned me what that he looked at his tower, realized the mistake was there, changed the wrong blocks, and added the right ones instead and kept going until the tower was built.  I didn't think he was there yet.

I tried having him make the tower on another mat, going each time to take the right piece on the mat that was further away.  This shows another level of discrimination, because you have to remember what size piece you need to build the tower without looking at it.  With this, I thought it would match his level, and yet again, I could only realize he was passed this.

He finished the activity with building the tower horizontally, again, making a mistake, and fixing it right away, and showing me, with his tractor (see first picture) how every step was even.

Our children are out best teacher.  How is that for a lesson of humility?

The same holds true for X, who we have learned that is a visual spatial learner, and sees the world pretty much upside down from the standard benchmark. Trying to understand the world his way is my current challenge, and it is a big one.

I guess I know what I have to do for the next few days: sit down and look at my kids, play with them, and try to meet them where they really are.  I guess I might be surprised.

Do you have any tips for when you are out of sync like that? I'd be all ears!

What E (30 months) is loving right now

At 30 months old, here are E's favorite activities right now: (sorry the pictures are dark, it is very cloudy and snowy today)


The letters are going strong right now:

Tag toy's peg tumbler:

Pegs he received at Christmas from family members.  This wouldn't have been a choice for me as I try to limit plastic, but E seems to enjoy it for now. Very interesting for counting and color matching.

Wooden block in a bucket.  I think his favorite part right now is to sort them in the holes.  This too was Christmas present

Building train tracks: I was happy to get them out again.  X played so much with these, and E seems to enjoy them just as much!

Number puzzle

Vehicles puzzles: E is very much into trucks, tractors and such.  Anything related is interesting to him

And the one thing that I see all day long...

this is a real replica of a tractor his grandfather owns.  He plays with this all day, everyday.

The rest of his time is spent with BOOKS, and PAINT, 2 things he loves deeply.

Meet Doggy

Bedtime routine is an ever evolving situation here.  Composing with 3 tired children at the same time is not always easy, and requires ingeniosity and diligence to make everything smooth.

E's bedtime routine has evolved over time, and he needed a light source for the times when it is bedtime and he has to remain in bed, but he is not completely ready to get to sleep yet.  I didn't want to have a light that could be hazardous to him since I am not present with him all the time, and thus this restricted my options.

Until I found Doggy.

Doggy is a DEL light.  It is battery operated, so I charge it during the day,  to be used during our bedtime routine.  When used it must be unplugged, so this dramatically diminished the risk of electrical shocks.

The DEL lights are located under Doggy's head.  The head swivels up and down to expose the light sources (there are 12 tiny LED lights)  There are 2 options available as far as light intensity goes.

E uses it by it's side in it's bed.  Since there is no electrical outlet, I am not scared that something could happen if he falls asleep with the light near by. (which happens occasionally)

It is easy to handle, there is a button on the back that E can open and close without any troubles at all.

It is not by all mean a lamp to light up the whole room.  It is a punctual light used only to allow reading.    I didn't want to have a very bright light source, because I think it can interfere with sleep arousal.  This is just enough.

When the light is left open, but the dog's head is lowered down, it also serves as a night light.

M has one that is similar, and she claims that this, used as a night light, is enough for her not to be scared.

Letter explosion!

I don't know what 2013 has in store for us, but I do know that it has started in force!
New understanding of X's learning style (which by itself is so big!  More on that later), many changes in our home environment, jobs... I sure hope that 13 will keep on being good to us.

I have noticed many changes in E too lately.  He is generating a lot more questions then he used to, he is starting to be interested in things he wasn't before, one of them being letters.

A few weeks ago, he started to sing the ABC song.  Honestly, I am not yet sure where he got it from, but I didn't think much of it until he associated a letter he saw to it's name: A.  This made me realize he knew more then I thought.

And with M that suddenly is reading, and spontaneously writing, and X that is now reading regularly cartoon type books (Asterix and Tintin of course), I can say that we are in a time of letter explosion right now.  I do not know how long we'll ride this wave, but I will surely enjoy it will it passes.

So E is currently crusing along the line of learning the sounds of the alphabet.  I never thought I would be teaching this at 2 1/2, but I have learned the importance of following the child.

I took advantage of the Christmas season to buy this beautiful letter puzzle (picture above)  that I have had my eyes on for a while.  I really wanted it for M, but I didn't get it on time for her.  It is right on time for E.

It is a puzzle by TAG toys.  I have said it before, and I will say it again, I love this company.  Their products are really high quality, and they, undoubtedly, will last forever.  E's peg's tumbler is still a hit, 6 months later.  And while the price of the puzzle did seem high at first, I totally understood why then it came home.

Let me show you the actual size of this:

We are not talking about the standard size wooden puzzle.  This is big and heavy and sturdy too!  And I think this is what makes it so satisfying for E to work with it.  He LOVES to travel this around, he does it many times a day.
The letters are easily the same size as the letters of the large movable alphabet.  They are thicker (and not as smelly...).
I hesitated between this and the typical Melissa and Doug; I have no regrets whatsoever about my choice.  I wish I had bought it for the other 2.


So what do E do with this?

Right now, he picks a letter, and I say its sound.  He usually repeats it after me.  This is basically the 1st part of the 3 parts lesson.  The difference is that I let him choose which letter.  I am not pushing anything, he has his own agenda.

In Montessori education, we rather teach the sound before the name, but obviously, he got it the other way round.  Does this worry me in any way? No.  He'll get it soon enough.  Do I think he will be confused? No, he is currently learning his letters both in french and english at the same time, and he manages not to be confused by that... I don't know how he manage.

I am a little surprised by the interest E has in letters right now.  I hadn't planned anything else then playing around with this puzzle, but it seems clearer to me that I might have to go to another step with him.  This next step will probably be the letter pouches that I made before for M.  We'll see how this go.

Overall, I am completely happy with this puzzle.  I have seen M using it to write words (using it like a movable alphabet).  Of course, since there is only one letter of each, it makes it very limitating for that, but I see the delight of being able to handle such big and thick letters in her hand (and in E's hands too!)

Wishing you happy holidays

We are still in the midst of holiday preparations

And I am logging off for the rest of the year.

May you have happy times, 

and see you again next year!

One of my favorite toy

...if not my absolute favourite, Cuboro was a gift we gave X last Christmas.

I have not once regretted the price tag of this toy.  The craftsmanship of this toy is outstanding, and the toys itself is a delight to play with. It is engaging, foster creativity, cleverness, but also requires a good dose of fine motor skills.

Challenging enough even for an adult to play with, and yet it can be oh so simple that E asks to play with it daily.

I love how everyone can get a challenge regardless of their ages, and how it allows intergenerational play.

I have seen countless hours of collaboration over this toy, and I know I have yet to see many more.

The Cuboro set is fully compatible with the Cogulino set which is aimed towards a younger crowd.  It has already been decided that E's next birthday present will be a set of Cugolino blocks

I absolutely adore this toy, and cannot recommend it enough.  If you ever get a chance to try it, go ahead!

E's painted Christmas present

E loves to paint.  I don't think a day passes without him asking to go paint in our studio.  I thought it would be fun to share with other members of our extended family the work he does and loves so much.

I set him up with Christmassy colors, and a big canvas.   That is all I had to do, he did the rest.

I used acrylics for this project. He really loved it.

He played with the colors separately at first, and then he started to mix them up.

He was not so used with a canvas, and he struggled at first with the texture of it: his paintbrush was not sliding on the surface as it would with the paper we normally use.  It didn't take him long though to figure it out, and add more paint to his paintbrush.  I love how it created really rich colours.

We have starte to play with colors lately, and I saw that he was expecting new colours unlike the first time we tried our colors experiments, which was more of a surprise to him.

He loves this spot to paint: the mirror is always there, showing him another angle of his work, and I always fill the tub beside for him to rinse out his paintbrushes.

He did 3 canvas, and he was ready to do more.  I love the end result, and I think it is a beautiful and completely child made project.  I am sure our families will enjoy those.