FIAR List of Books by Country

Hello everyone!

I am excited to start working with Five in a Row curriculum. As a matter of fact we are starting tomorrow! The first book we are going to row is Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. I also wanted to have a list of the books by countries so I made it today and here it is to share it with you. I made the list to make planning easier and also so I could using it along with Little Passports if it works out. That is why we are starting with Madeline. The story is based in Paris, France and we worked on France with Little Passports.

I hope the list comes in handy for you too!

Have fun rowing with your child!

Water Bead Science

For our science sensory bin this week we placed water beads in water and then we observed the changes. I was amazed by the little, fun and bouncy water balls. We did this once before but we chose one color. This time we did a little of all the colors we have. What was weird is that the clear ones were invisible! It may be obvious now that I think about it, but just like a child we did this activity with no expectations. I knew they were going to expand, but what I didn't know is that the clear ones (that didn't look that clear when they were dry and hard) were going to be invisible!

So, if you decide to play with your children with water beads you could try different experiments. For example, choose red beads and put them in red colored water. Would they be invisible too? What if you put yellow beads in blue water. Would they change the color? What happen if you put them in the freezer? You can talk about what things are invisible in the real world. Like a stick bug on a branch. They camouflage with their surroundings. Or things that are there all the time but we don't see them. For example, when we go to the supermarket we are always looking at the products they have, at the floor, at your child pulling his siblings hair, or the little toddler pulling things off the shelves! haha. We don't normally look at the ceiling, or at the art work if there is any. Then is when we notice that those things were there all the time but we never paid attention to it. Before those things were invisible to us even though they were there all the time. Next time you go to the market ask your children to look at places they never saw before!

Tatyland-Montessori has a Facebook Page!

Hello everyone!!! I exited to tell you that Tatyland-Montessori got a Facebook page. My goal with this page is to share with you some of my post and a place to discuss educational issues, success stories, encouragement, and ask questions. So please, visit us and make sure you "Like" us to receive any update!



Tatyland_Montessori's Facebook Page


See you all there!

Monica

Montessori Style Workbox System

 So I came up with a system using Sue Patrick's workbox system idea. It helps to make sure that every day they do an activity by themselves and also that it gives them something to do when I am busy or want a break. So the way I set it up is that they both have one daily activity. So on Monday they'll be doing at some point in the day Monday's activity. And they cannot choose another activity from a tomorrow but can choose one from yesterday, but only if they finished the today's activity. So on Wednesday they finish Wednesday activity then they can re do Tuesdays and/or Mondays.  This way I make sure they get a variety of activities. Saying that I am not totally strict. If they REALLY want another activity we can switch. It hasn't happened yet though. They always seem happy doing the activity of the day. They only get one activity per day.

I homeschool in Spanish as much as I can. So I used binder clips and tape to write the days of the week in Spanish and I placed one clip per space and one on the top ones for their names. I choose an activity that they can do on their own unless I know that that day we'll be home and we are not homeschooling.

Here is a close up of the activities we have. I print some things from Confessions of a Homeschooler and other resources that I find online. But mainly I use if for Practical Life activities, art, and math. 

What's on the trays this week:

Umi:

Monday: ice cube tray with cotton balls and a tweezer.

Tuesday: Number tracing printout from confession of a homeschooler (COAH)

Wednesday: Letter A dot-a-dot page (COAH)

Thursday: Pattern activity also form COAH

Friday: Math-U-See math

I am still working on setting up Little Princess workbox. I only have now paper cutting. She loves using scissors!

I use it for both of my children. Little Princes has her spot next to Umi's. You can see in the picture above . The rest if the spaces are for papers and dry erase boards. 

Montessori is about letting them do things by themselves by fostering their sense of independence, and self discipline. That makes children feel empowered. I think this workbox system does just that. They have activities that they can do by themselves when they want to without anybody telling them how and when. 

Do you use workbox system at home? Does it work for you? 

Quick, Easy and Healthy To Go Snack Idea

I was doing some research on recipes for snacks. And in one of the blogs somebody was using 8 oz. plastic Ball brand jars to store the snacks (I wish I could remember the blog...). So that sparked in me to do something similar. I used this glass canning jars because glass is better and they don't brake easily. My daughter uses them as a drinking glass and when they drop they don't break!!

Every morning, well, every morning that I can, we make a organic veggie smoothy

for breakfast. When we are done with the smoothie I immediately put it in the dehydrator 

to make fruit leathers. So I cut them in stripes and then in squares. Each jar gets a stripe.

Then I add Barbara's organic cereal and organic raisins.

I close them up and put them in the fridge! And if I had one of those air sucking things to extract the air I'll use it too. Now they are ready to go...When you have to go somewhere you have a healthy organic snack that has veggies, fruit, cereal, chia seeds and grains! 

I know it seems a lot to do. But it is not. The fruit leather takes less than 4 minutes to put into the dehydrator. It does take a while to dry but that is ok because I am not planning on eating it right away. Getting those jars ready took me less than 10 minutes and it will save me lots of time when we are on the road!

DIY Unifix Cubes Cards

Here is a great way to help children grasp the concept of quantity, numbers and language!

So I used card stock paper and fold it in three parts so they are all the same size. The I cut them and trace the unifix cubes. Wrote the number and the name and the card is done! I am planning to laminate them so they last longer. Especially because Little Princess likes to to use the scissors to cut paper.

Once the cards are done the child will use the unifix cubes to add the right amount. Then he can get the movable alphabet to make up the word. I made 20 cards. Umi can count to a hundred with some help. But I want him to make sure that he also understands the quantity. Any child might be able to memorize a poem, a song, or numbers but what matters (I think) is to know the correlation between any given number and its quantity.

I will put this in his workbox system ( I will post soon about it). 

Do you have more ideas on how to use the unifix cubes? If so, please share!

I have this unifix cubes of 1000: DIDAX DD-2BKA UNIFIX CUBES 1000 ASSTD COLORS (Google Affiliate Ad)

Five in a Row (FIAR)

Hello everyone!

I am really excited because I came across a curriculum called Five in a Row. I ordered it used on amazon  and I am still waiting for it to arrived. This curriculum is literature based. You are supposed to read the same book for five days and in the manual you have suggested activities for each subject. I think as an addition to our montessori adventure. Umi LOVES reading books. So I think it would be a perfect match for him.


You can find a list of the books for every volume here and more information about FIAR there.

I just got the first book I bought it is called Madeline. Luckily I found it in Spanish. I went to the library today hoping I would find more of the books in Spanish but I only found one. There are a lot of resources for FIAR in homeschoolshare and others in pinterest.

I can't wait to get started! I will post more about it once I get the volume 1 of FIAR. I paid 24 dollars in amazon.


Have you used FIAR before? Any recommendations? Please share!