Farm Box

Saw this in pink and green mama (like her blog, very colourful) and i thought it would be good to make a farm box incorporating it into our recent visit to the rodeo live stock show. Yuta were down with fever and it was just perfect to make up a simple farm box to play indoor. I dint do alot to put in the box, only get him to collect some branches at the backyard and made the horse stable fence and tree from toilet roll and felt. He was not so much into the making, he was only interested in Trevor the truck making some pattern on the sand and alot of talking as usual. I like those frogs especially, those are math counter that i bought from a teacher store and other animal figurine were from our barnyard set. The box is still on display now, thought of making the a barn and night scene with glittering stars and shinny moon. well, that will have to be in waitlist. Overall good activity.

New toy

This is husband's new toy, a fishing kayak. He had wanted it too badly eventhough i warned him about where we are going to store this when move back to japan. Now that the moving date is drawing nearer, i really dont know where he is going to stuck this kayak in a house that is smaller than garage now.

First Word

Ai's first word at 14 month is FISH

Teen bead and Teen Board

I received my first bought montessori material from Alisson Montessori. I thought the bead set comes together with board but it didnt so i have to just make up my teen board quickly with cut carton box pieces. Overall, i was quite satisfied with the buy $15 with the set of bead that comes with a nice 2 compartment wooden box and Allison gave me a free gift of a remote control truck(save it for his birthday present). Well, it worked out well. I found out that one of my friend actually have a wood cutting machine so will bring my measured wood piece and get her cut for me and that will save me alot of time and money. Making the material by myself is fun but sometimes sourcing for the material takes a longer time then the making process. Since Yuta is in school 3 days a week i have to work out my activity plan fast to cope up with him.

Cancun

For a mom and wife that hasnt had a real vacation in over 3 years, this was heaven. What is better than no cleaning and cooking for 5 days. We can easily get all inclusive vacation package back home in Malaysia or neighbouring country but it is hard to get in houston (or maybe i havent find one). Holiday means, you need to pack your bbq pit, pack your food, bring your kayak, prepare for 2 nights stay seems like preparing for 2 weeks stay.

We just take it slow and easy, just playing sand castle in the beach and lying there from morning to late afternoon. I always stay with Ai and Yuta were always with daddy.Yuta is growing up into is boyhood i can see. He is more attach to daddy now. It was justbeautiful to see that they have a very strong bonding.

Waking up to a beautiful sun rise. Even daddy needs a break. Phew!

More on colours

Yuta hasnt got enough of his colour changing work. After the did our first presentation , he wanted to show daddy what we did, so did the same thing again with daddy after dinner.The next day after school, he asked to do the same work, so we did it and some extension to that.

This time i gave him the primary colour, blue, red, green and white and show him how the colour

changes into a lighter shade by adding white to it. Also explaining about darker shade with adding some black.

He would prefer to do it on liquid rather than paint, so i gave him 3 primary colour again and let him work around. Im glad at the end of the work,he told me, "mommy, this is Green, and this is Dark green, they are same green but different". Nice intepretation,i like it.

Gotta hurry with my making of colour tablet.

Starting out slow

Today is our official first classroom day. Im trying to start things slow, means starting with something Yuta is familiar with is good. We started our line time with the "days of theweek"song, but he surprised me with the spanish version which i cant sing along. So,that was my lesson of the day. We started out with pouring water, " the water work" he calls it. He is very familiar with this and has quite a good control in doing this work, so i make some addition to this work. Pouring into an ice cube tray,and using a dropper to suck it back from ice tray to pitcher.

He keep on asking me about "changing colour" work,which we did long time ago. In extension to the water pouring, i gave him some different colours,to mix around and show him what colour changes into what colour and get him to record down the result.

Drawing out the observation.

The result

Later in the day we did more practical life, scrubbing table.

Perhaps he has done this in school but this is the first time i seen him doing. He is expect to put away all his dishes in the sink after meal(still need reminder), with some luck he will volunteer to clean up the table spill on the floor after meal. I think by montessori standard, he should be able to do this without any reminder but im just taking it slowly.

Squeezing out water from a sponge practise.

Squeezing out water from wash cloth practise

Later he took out his japanese writting booklet for first time. Im surprised that he could actually write quite well with the japanese character eventhough that was his first time drawing japanese character compare to the alphabet. I guess is probably Japanese character is made up of few strokes where by alphabet always have only 1 or 2 only continuous line that needs better control and motor skill.Anyway grandma will be very happy to see this picture.

Wrapping up the day. He still wants to do more but it was just too much for me for today.

Waking up to a shock

Woke up this morning and got to know that a earthquake and tsunami stroke japan last night. it just so sad to just look at the video in the news. this is scene reminded me of the tsunami in Thailand years back. luckily our family are all in southern part and they are safe. my thought and prayer goes to all victim and japan. Stay safe .

The setting up

I have converted this formal living room to the class room. This room is perfect for our classroom, bright enough and overlooking our front yard with alot of old oak tree. The only thing is that kids might get distrupted when car pass by sometimes. I only use the coffee table which have shelves on it to display a few material for Yuta. So far i only have the number card, sand paper and geometric inset done. well, not really done, the sand paper is half way done.

At the other end is baby corner for Ai. That is our old tv shelve. you can see i put up some random toys that i have at home, puzzles, block and some fruit cutting toy, stacking cup.

She likes to work with the bottles and stacking cup. she would stack up to 3 cups and knock them down and giggle. thats fun to watch. she also likes transfering. i put water bottle top in a basket and she will transfer from one bottle to another.

The blue couch with some books next to it, is our cozy corner.

I have started them in this place for 3 days, and so far so good, some peace at least.

My Montessori In Making

I heard first of the word Montessori when there were a Montessori and Kumon boom back home in Malaysia in the early 90's. Couldnt be bothered what that really was since i dont have a kid yet until when i was looking around for a daycare for Yuta. I sent him to a home day care so called montessori method but was not impressed with that, after 3 months i stop sending him. and i started looking again after 3 months, and i found this wonderful school nearby our house. I also went to a tour in few other school but after looking at the montessori child development centre, i know that was my choice.

Yuta is going to the montessori school 3 days a week for over a year now. I see significant improvement in his personalitiy, level of responsibilities besides all other academic improvement. I went on to read alot more about montessori method from books and online resources. Without formal education of either early childhood development or montessori method, i took me so long to actually begin my montessori journey. My objective is to incorporate montessori teaching in my children learning routine. I dont plant to homeschool but teach montessori as a supplement.

The setting up part is the most difficult. Ihave tried to make a classroom in a room, it didnt work out, i set the learning space in the living room, it didnt work out either. This is my 3rd attempt to set up a learning space, and by far it is the most comfortable for three of us.

I dont have all those shelving to accomodate materials, just using whatever shelve and table and material that i have. A big moving will take place in another 2 months so i dont plan to buy anymore shelve/furniture for the classroom. Just need to make as many material as possible and when we get back to Japan, i can just put them up right away. I feel sad sometimes that iwont be able to send children to montessori school anymore because is just too expensive in japan for a international montessori school.

This is my place to document down all my ups and down in our montessori journey and i hope one day i can look back at this blog and proud of what i have done.

Bento

Bento or japanese lunch box, got to love them. This is a simple and basic bento. I only have to prepare lunch box for Yuta on Friday but i usually dont want to send him to school on Friday because im lazy to prepare bento. This was one of those day that i sent him on Friday. He requested Onigiri(rice ball), shell pasta, tamagoyaki, fruits. Im glad he likes this more than a MC Happy meal. When i first started to prepare bento, it took me over an over to cook and put everything together. But after you have get used to it, it was not that difficult. They have all the gadgets for bento making. To prepare cute bento once in a while is fun and very addictive, you want to put more and more food in it and want to decorate it more and more but if it is a everyday thing,..mmm.. i dont think so

Spring Is Here

Tada... pick of the day. "this is for you mommy", Yuta will always pick up some wildflower and put it on my hair, he is really a sweet and loving boy.

You can tell Spring is here. Wildflowers are blooming in our not so well maintained yard. It was a beautiful day and decided to get the kids out to walk around. Picking up wild flower, study them in a magnifying glass, and drawing with sidewalk chalk at the driveway, picking pinecones, studying ants, chasing grasshopper and butterfly that was enough to keep them busy for hours. We just love this house. It is an old house, but very comfortable, with lots of pine tree in front and backyard. Squirell, birds, hawk, owl, racoon, opposum, we have seen them all here. We have the best playground and park at home.

NO more TV in the house?

Did i just do that? yes! out of frustration, i just plug off the tv and store it in the room. This morning when DH sent Yuta to school he refused to go in the classroom, with the teacher not around to help talk him to the classroom and DH rushing to the office, he just sent him backhome. When asked why, the almost 4 year old just said he wants to watch TV at home. When asked to cutting practise work, he just said " i cant do it" without even trying and "mommy, is it tv time yet"? so, i figure, probably is time to just cut off the tv thing. The whole house seems more peaceful without that TV. and he is to figure and find out what work he is going work with.