The Pink Tower

The Pink Tower

by | Dec 21, 2022 | Homeschool, Parenting, Sensorial, Sensory DIYs

A material I wanted right off the bat when I started homeschooling was the Pink Tower. It is iconic, well known, easily recognized. A Montessori space should have a Pink Tower right? It took me three years to finally decide to purchase a pink tower. Before I did so I did a lot of reading and research about how I could make the material myself. I want to share today why I decided this was one material that is not worth making yourself.

So to start, what is the Pink tower and what does it do? It is one of Maria Montessori’s sensorial materials. It is used to teach visual discrimination of size. Like me you may think oh great, I can use any nesting blocks and they would function in a similar way. However there is much more to the pink tower than just size discrimination! Firstly when you pick up the largest block of the tower you will notice right away that is has quite a bit of weight to it. It weighs much more than the smaller blocks in the set. The blocks do not only differ in size, they differ in weight in a way that is very noticeable. Much more so than with hollow nesting blocks. When a young child carries the blocks to their workspace they can feel the difference in size as much as they can see it. The size differences is also significant. They do not just become gradually smaller. The smallest block is 1 cm where the largest block is 10 cm. A child can check if their work with the Pink tower is correct by placing the smallest cube upon each level of the tower and seeing if it fits. The pink tower is an exact match in size to the brown stairs so the materials can be used together. This material also is an indirect introduction to some math concepts that the child will use later in their education such as the decimal system! My point is that painting a nesting blocks set pink simply will not recreate this material and it will not be useful in the long term.

So I moved on to trying to decide if I could make it myself with solid wood. I considered this for a long while, and my husband and I discussed how we would do it and what tools and materials we would need. We quickly realized that we were not equipped for the precise nature of this material and it would be no easy feat with our limited resources. At this point we decided that we would purchase the material if we deemed it necessary.

We bought it for the children last year for Christmas. They were drawn to it immediately. My then four year old commented that he loved feeling the blocks. He couldn’t express what about them appealed to him but I believe it was the weight as he often picks up and admires the largest block in the series. However as much as he admires it, he never uses it. He compared the different cubes to other materials that he realized matched exactly such as the brown stairs and the table of Pythagoras. Then after the satisfaction of those discoveries ignored the tower forevermore. Little Miss who is two and a half and closer to the correct age the tower was designed for finds much more joy from the tower. Nearly every day she constructs the tower, says to herself, “I did it” and returns it to the shelf. Every time we tidy the playroom she ensures that the tower is properly arranged and most days points out that its pretty, or it looks just right. She adores the pink tower. It will be interesting to see how much use the tower receives in the next year as Little Miss gets older and starts to receive introductions to other materials in our homeschool inventory. I am excited to see her make the connections that her brother did in a more graduated way, as she is not previously familiar with the materials as he was when we purchased the tower.

My final review is this. If you want the Pink Tower then purchase it early on. Any diy will be expensive and challenging. If you wait to purchase your child likely will not get too much use from it. As always if your child attends a Montessori school avoid purchasing any of the materials as it may be confusing, and is unnecessary. However if you homeschool like me, then the Pink Tower is a beautiful addition. Not mandatory, but lovely nonetheless.

Preparing for a Five year Old

Preparing for a Five year Old

by | Dec 21, 2022 | Homeschool, Parenting, Toddler Environment

Mr Man is getting older and taller and recently I realized that he has outgrown the little kids table and chair set we have been using the last four years. His materials are also growing in complexity and need a larger space to be spread out and used effectively out of the reach of Little Miss’s curious reach. We decided to set up my old desk on the one side of the playroom to create a space just for Mr Man. The children who visit my home for preschool each morning, and Little Miss have all been told it is a space for children five and up. They have acceped this explanation and not one of the children have explored or disrupted the space.

We also set a narrow shelf up beside the desk with the more complicated materials. The division and multiplication boards, the moveable alphabet, and the stamp game all permantly reside here. I will be adding more shelves and materials as we work through them and he moves more into abstraction. Mr Man loves that he has a safe space to store his paper work, his scissors and cutting materials, and his books. While the younger children play I can sit with him at the table and show him a material. Then I can move through the room as usual from child to child while he works undisturbed. So far it is working out beautifully!

To be completly honest I am not happy with the change. Sure it is functional, but it does not appeal to me aesthically. I am not a fan of the metal chair. The room no longer looks like a sweet little preschool space. It feels more crowded. However I am choosing to ignore the side of me that wants a pinterest playroom in order to indulge the educator in me who sees the necessity for this change. Aethetics are important in a child’s space but, sometimes in browsing my Montessori and Homeschooling Facebook groups I notice that aesthetics are being valued over the practicality. No matter how beautiful a play space is, if it does not serve the children who use it then it is pointless. So for now I will keep this space functional and maybe over time I will find a way to make the chair more appealing and find some organizational method to clear the surfaces and make it all appear cleaner.

An Easy DIY for Christmas

An Easy DIY for Christmas

by | Dec 20, 2022 | Geography, Geography Activities, Geography DIY, Homeschool, Science DIY

This year for Christmas I wanted to try making a number of my children’s gifts myself. I have been admiring the cosmic address activity made by Waseca for a very long time and that became one of my main DIY goals this holiday season. I got some wooden nesting blocks off of my local buy nothing group and set to work. These particular blocks were from a cartoon Melissa and Doug set. I sanded off the original images ( the children actually unknowingly helped with his step). After a few layers of paint they were ready for me to start working on our cosmic address. I only had eight blocks to work with so I had to alter it somewhat ending the address with our house address. I painted these blocks by hand but I think it would look gorgeous with print outs of real maps modge podged onto the blocks. I am still considering doing this for the back of the blocks, but I am running out of time until Christmas! It would also be great to make paper or felt cut outs that symbolize each stage of the address and glue them onto the blocks.

This is it for this post, I just wanted to share that sometimes you can make your own materials without spending a dime and often children love these materials more than store bought toys and are even more careful in their use! I will update sometime in the new year to show the different ways my children have found to use these blocks and some of the activities I have in mind for them as well. Merry Christmas!

K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S.

by | Sep 12, 2022 | Homeschool, Parenting, Sensory DIYs, Toddler Activities

I think by now my love for felt has become pretty evident. I use it often in my materials and I find it incredibly versatile. The fact that I can often find it at my local dollar stores makes it even more appealing to me. Besides the low price tag and versatility it is also extremely easy to store! The felt mat I have pictured in this post was an activity that I made to accompany our land, air and water impressionistic lesson. After my children and I had sat down and discussed what was land, what was water, and what was air I realized that they were still very interested in exploring the concepts but the impressionistic lesson did not leave much for them to work on independently. So I spent twenty minutes with my sewing machine creating a simple mat that depicts some land, some water and a little dash of the sky. I did not include any trees or bushes purposely to extend the usefulness of the material, I had in mind already an extension I could use it for when we started exploring animal habitats. The mat has since been used with our original jars that show land, air and water. It has been used with small animal figurines, and vehicle figurines. It has been used with our colour tablets for identifying and matching colours. It has joined our blocks as a simple invitation to play. It has been hung behind a simple dinosaur invitation to play as a back drop. This quick little DIY is a reminder that sometimes simple is the most beneficial. If I had added much more complexity to the mat then I would have lost so much versatility. The reason it is so useful is because it is so plain.
Whenever I am planning on purchasing or creating a material I try to keep in mind the saying my Dad used to tell me on occassion, the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). Its a funny little saying but it honestly holds a lot of truth in four words. Keeping it simple, keeps it open. I actually forgot this principle when I made my second felt mat for my children after this one was such a hit. I made an underwater scene complete with coral and vibrant colours. I noticed my children were not using it much at all and then I realized something. It was way too specific. It did not work as anything more than a play mat for toy animals because it was so zoomed in to a specific scene. That coupled with the fact that the sea creature figures we have would not live in such a habitat made the mat basically useless. I forgot to keep it simple and the result was a waste of my time, and my felt. For now that felt scene is kept on my desk while I try to brainstorm a way to use it. I may end up adding some more details and adding it to my continent boxes, further minimizing its utility but at least giving it a function.
I think sometimes when looking at homeschooling, Montessor at home, or parenting in general we have a tendency to overcomplicate things. I often see posts on my facebook groups asking how to extend a child’s interest in door knobs, or replicate an opening and closing activity because the child loves to open and close cupboards. As much as I love to create DIYs and extend activities I think this is another area to consider how you can KISS. If a child is fascinated by door knobs then you do not have to do a thing. Sit back and watch them examine the doorknobs that are conviently installed all around your house. Maybe point out some other kinds of door knobs while on an outting. You do not need to replicate it in the form of an activity especially since this would not be an activity that would last very long at all. If a child has a skill or an interest and they have found a safe way to satisfy the desire to explore it on their own, then in most cases it is more valuable to let them do that, than it is to create your own way to do the same thing. Unless there is a safety concern, let the child explore what they have found works to satisfy that curiousity!
An Invitation to Play

An Invitation to Play

by | Aug 17, 2022 | Homeschool, Parenting, Parenting Hacks, Parenting preschoolers, Parenting Toddlers, Toddler, Toddler Activities, Toddler Environment

As a home childcare provider I find parents are often curious how I manage to get so much done in my home. I provide childcare, homeschool, write and have a large collection of plants and animals that I care for in my home. I am the one who primarily does the cooking and house work as well since I am the parent who has more time to do so, my husband works many more hours than I do. I was thinking about it this morning when a client was shocked that all three fish tanks in the house were mine. She asked how I manage everything. I think one of the most useful tools in my parenting (and childcare) arsenal has been the invitation to play. This is the tool that lets me get so much done each day. Many evenings before I settle down for the night I set out a few invitations to play. Something in my living room that will greet the children as they arrive (either my own two from upstairs or my clients on daycare days), something in my dining room to attract them while I prepare breakfast, and something in the playroom to draw the children in while I tidy and move us through that transition.
The strategic use of invitations to play has saved me so much time, energy and conflict. So what is it? It is exactly what it sounds like. Some call it strewing, literally strewing toys around to entice children, some call it a provocation to play (technically a little different but I use both) and as this post suggests some call it the invitation.

Take a few minutes to set out a few toys, art supplies, or even random household objects out in a play area (or another surprising area) to draw your child’s curiousity and provoke them to play. This morning I set a few blocks out in a row, put a few cars on top and then rested a baby doll at the end of my makeshift track. It took me two minutes to prepare, and bought me thirty minutes of play and giggles from my daughter and two daycare clients. By the time they finished playing and decided they were ready for breakfast, I was ready for them with a prepared meal. After breakfast they were ready to hop right into the bingo dabber and sticker art invitations that I had set out on trays on the floor around my dining room. While they explored the art materials I made myself a coffee and tidied up breakfast. Then we moved down to the playroom. Last night I had spent 5 minutes taping a picture of a washing machine to a tiny cupboard, filled a basket with doll clothes and hung a makeshift clothesline. The kids were thrilled when they discovered this invitation and played indepently while I drank my coffee and observed. This is just an example of a morning where I used a few different invitations to make my day run more smoothly. They can be used anywhere however. I have placed small dinosaur toys and pebbles out on our driveway near where we park. Conviently out of the way of where I need to carry groceries up to the house. My children are equally likely to either help me with the groceries or get drawn into that play area, but either way I have an easy and unhindered trip to bring the groceries in the house.

Similarly I have left a couple shovels in the front garden, just sticking out of the soil along with a pile of bush clippings. I have set paint and twigs out on my picnic table when I noticed some children are ready to head inside before others. Small starts to activities. Simple ideas or prompts that the children can develop. That is all it takes, a few minutes of planning and some strategic timing and placement. Let me know below if you are interested in hearing about some ideas for invitations or provocations to play.
Great Expectations

Great Expectations

by | Aug 15, 2022 | Parenting, Sensory DIYs

When my husband and I first seriously started discussing starting a family I immeditately started forming expectations and imagining what my child would be like. We had already selected a name before we even found out that I was indeed expecting. We had already spent hours discussing how we would set up the home for a child, how we would discipline, and how we would eat once the baby was born. My husband and I still laugh each time we pass happy meals back to our kids while leaving the drive through. We vividly remember the moment we said we would probably have to stop eating fast food any time now because our son was nearly the right age for solids.

I am getting ahead of myself here. Back to when I was pregnant and wanting to set up the perfect Montessori space for first child. I had these ideas of a kid friendly home where my son could explore and have a yes space. Where he would not need any play pens or cribs. I wanted to do a floor bed from birth, and planned to only have the beautiful Montessori alighned toys available to my little man. It didn’t take long for those expectations and aspirations to crash into my reality. We lived in a teeny three bedroom apartment with three cats. Our bathroom barely had enough room to turn around in let alone set up a changing and toileting area for a baby. Our kitchen had enough room for one adult to cook or clean, and honestly barely enough space for that. There was no room for a learning tower. No space for stools or low seats, or even low hooks to hang his little sweaters on. We decided to do the best we could with what we had available. We had recently been students and our second bedroom had been set up with computers, desks and books. We moved these to our bedroom to make space for a nursery. We painted and filled the nursery with the furniture we could afford, which was not exactly what I had envisioned but it served its purpose.

The beautiful mobiles that I had been hoping to hang for the first weeks of my sons life were extremely expensive, and the shipping for them was absurd. I realized that there was no way we would be getting them. This was my first DIY project for my son. I made him the Munari, the Gobbi, the Dancers and the Octahedron mobiles. I was honestly not at all satisfied with how they turned out. I wanted to offer my child the best, and I did not feel like these met that expectation. We recieved many beautiful gifts at my baby shower which filled the empty room and soon my son’s space was complete. It was mostly Montessori I told myself and I knew that more than the room and the things, it would be about how we parented this little guy.

I planned for a medication free, natural birth. Well my water broke early one morning and by the following morning my labour still had not started and we found out that I would have to be induced with medication. It jump started my labour, it was intense and quick and I still had my (mostly) natural and (mostly) medication free birth that I had hoped for. The moment that stands out to me is when my son was lifted up for me to see and I looked at him and was surprised that I didn’t recognize him. It should have been obvious, I had never met this little person before, but I realized later that I even had expectations of what he would look like and this contributed to my surprise.

When we brought the baby home things went mostly as I expected. We did the things we had planned on like baby wearing, skin to skin, tummy time and so on. I struggled and cried through breastfeeding. I had expected it to be a lot easier than it was, I had envisioned these beautiful moments of bonding and admiring the baby. What I got instead was awful pain, bleeding, and dread. I did not want to feed him. I found myself trying to stall and wanting to avoid feeding him. I realized I would have to pump instead because I was so tempted to wait and skip feeds. After a few weeks of exclusively pumping I realized it didn’t hurt anymore and we switched back to breastfeeding directly. It was not what I had imagined but I realized how thankful I should be that it was (mostly) working out the way I had hoped.

I did not want to bedshare. It was dangerous right? I was sure we would room share, but never ever bedshare. Well, one night I was holding my son on my lap and I started to doze off. It was not more than a moment or so but he slid and woke me. He was fine and safe but it made me realize how much more dangerous it was to be trying to stay awake in the night when he woke. We carefully rearranged our sleeping arrangements and my son started sleeping beside me. I am not by any means advocating for bedsharing, nor am I advocating against it. What I am saying is that it worked for us at the time, and we did what we needed to do, regardless of what we had hoped to do.

This trend continued in a lot of ways throughout my parenting journey so far. I had my ideas and expectations and what ended up happening, and how we ended up parenting was mostly aligned. I learned pretty quickly that I could not control my child’s experience, and all I had control over was my own reactions (mostly).

Let’s fast forward to my second baby. We were living in a bigger home now and this baby had her nursery set up exactly how I had hoped. I still used my hand made mobiles though. We knew this time around that we would be co sleeping and planned for it. Breastfeeding was easy with my daughter, but I was so busy that half the time I didn’t soak it up, I just rushed through. We had our bathrooms set up for children now, low furniture for them, hooks for their little sweaters, and a playroom dedicated to their learning and development. We had our learning tower in the kitchen, and the Pikler triangle I coveted in our basement. I think you could say we met majority of my hopes and expectations the second time around.

Now here is the big point of all these stories. I didn’t see any big difference in the way my daughter developed as compared to my son. She had the stuff, she had the environment. Yet I essentially parented her the same way. My son is 4.5 and my daughter is 2 now. We have already given away the learning tower, they prefer chairs. We are trying to sell the Pikler triangle, they don’t use it. We are considering having them share a bedroom because they do not use their carefully cultivated bedrooms for anything but sleeping. I will say that the low hooks for their little sweaters have come in handy, we still use those (mostly).

I guess one of the biggest lessons I have faced since my children were born is that I need to manage my expectations. I can have aspirations, and ideals for sure, but they cannot hold so much power over me. I think it is a battle I, and many others will fight our whole parenting journey. We have our ideas about how things will go, and then we have reality to face. It is a feeling that I like to keep close when I find my children fighting over things like Little Miss knocking down Mr Man’s block castle. He had expectations and goals and reality made them come crashing down. It is hard work for people of any age to manage expectations and yet it is also so crucial.