Montessori Inspired Day.

Monday 24th February 2014

MONTESSORI INSPIRED DAY.

Well I am enjoying my evolving into a more peaceful parent (well on some days, old habits die hard).

Miss Personality was not sure about all my new games I have been making up over the last couple of days.

I think she just presumed it would be more stuff mummy was going to make her do.

I don't think she thought she would actually enjoy it.

Miss Personality started off her day choosing the bath mat game :)

It is actually inspired by the montessori multiplication board.

I didn't want to have to go and buy one, and I had seen on a website the suggestion of a bath mat turned over. The little sucker things on the bottom are great for placing each individual bead.

First she chooses a multiplication equation -  say 6 x 4. She then places beads in 4 rows of 6, then counts up the total of all beads. Then she writes down the equation with the answer.

She got bored with this activity after about 3 equations. I don't think she enjoyed the repetition.

Miss Personality then asked to do the grid game.

You just use a piece of grid paper and 2 dice. Roll the dice and say you got a 2 and a 5. This becomes 2 x 5. Then the child uses a ruler to rule a line across 2 squares then down 5. So you have got a rectangular shape of 5 rows of 2 squares. Add up all the squares and then write down the equation on a piece of paper.. I then modified this to use a pack of cards, till we get around to buying a 12 sided dice.

She got to do as many of these multiplication equations as she wanted to, till she was ready to move on.

Then she asked to be shown how to play this game. It is a great way to practice addition and subtraction. But she wanted to do addition, so subtraction will be another day.

She chooses a equation, places it down in front of her -  4 + 5. She would then count and place 4 pebbles in the first container, then 5 pebbles in the second container. Then she would pour contents of both containers into last container and then add them altogether. Then she will write down the equation with the answer on a piece of paper. Again she could chose how many equations she wanted to do until she was finished.

Miss Personality then asked to use the strings of beads we had cut up the other day.

First she picked a multiplication equation out of the container - say 4 x 7. She then would find the strings of 4 beads, then pick out 7 of them. Then she would add up the total of all beads, then write down the equation with the answer on a piece of paper. She could chose to do as many of these as she liked before moving on. I then got her to use the multiplication board to double check her answers and tick them off.

She enjoyed doing all these activities because she had choice and could check her answers for herself.

I look forward to doing more of this work with her tomorrow.

Just need to figure out a way to get her this inspired about spelling and writing?

What montessori or hands on learning tools do you use for spelling and writing?

Would love to hear of any suggestions :)