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Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts

Friday, 6 September 2013

Paint and pasta!

Addie does not seem to want to wait to start school... so why should school wait for her? We aren't quite ready to start to be honest, the house needs sorting out which is this weekend's goal. But one thing is sure is that my little girl is bored of her toys and although she loves her books, she has been very demanding and tearful recently. 

She is breaking her last 2 teeth, so that might be contributing, and last night we went out for our anniversary and my sister babysat. Just after midnight she came in to me with her blanket, and wouldn't go back to sleep for ages, she just cried. For about an hour and a half! But I think she definitely is ready to start 'Tot School', so today we did a couple of things - some art and some practical life.

Art
I am aiming to introduce Addie to the primary colours week by week, but this work is not ready, so I decided that today she could paint with the colour red only. She has previously seemed a bit reluctant to get her hands dirty, literally, so I tried her with finger painting and hand prints, which she did do, but asked for her hands to be wiped and then used the brush. Afterwards, we looked at a red flower she picked yesterday too, so a gentle introduction to the colour red and art activities.


Practical LifeSo the other activity we did is Transferring with a Spoon, which Addie has done before, but this time we did it at the table, and she really enjoyed doing this. She started to transfer the pasta well from one bowl to the other, and then started using her hands. Any that fell on the floor she picked up, and she also poured the pasta out of the bowl into the large, deep tray the bowls are in. A lot of touching and exploring the pasta, which she calls 'patia'. She also experimented by putting the other bowl on the chair and started transferring with her left hand. She did this activity for about 40 minutes which was amazing and when she had finished, she put the tray back on the table and put the table away (it's normally kept in the corner of the room and was meant to be the nature table, but it is the only one we have that is exactly the right height for practical life work!).





Saturday, 17 August 2013

Every child has a huge potential if we let them develop it!

I tend to spend a lot of time (probably way too much) surfing the internet looking at educational things that inspire me. I came across a homeschooling website, and it had some examples of self-directed work that children had done. This is not necessarily Montessori work, but I love the way it demonstrates how a child can really get their teeth into something they love and learn at the same time, without the constraints of a prescribed and timed curriculum. If they are given the freedom to learn, look what they can produce! Here is an example of Ella, aged 9, who undertook a year long study on foxes, completely her own choice, and produced so many wonderful things including a 30-page Fox Encyclopaedia which she word processed. Think of all the skills she has developed in that one year.

http://pbhkids.tumblr.com/post/55635090139/fox-encyclopedia-by-ella-age-9

The skills I can think of are:

Zoology - study of animals, their habitats, different types of foxes, lifecycles, habitats, endangered species (if you look closely she includes this information on her pages)

Geography - where animals come from, the biomes/continents they live in

Language skills - writing a table of contents, alphabetisation, the format of books, note taking etc

Practical skills - word processing, book binding, using a scanner, typing skills, referencing and citing references, research skills, sewing, decision making, presentation skills

Art - sewing, using clay, photography

There are probably loads more that haven't automatically come to mind, but how amazing is that? This is what is possible in Montessori elementary (primary in the UK, or ages 6-12 approx)... I can't wait for this time!

Tuesday, 23 July 2013

What Addie has been up to...

Here are some pictures taken over the last couple of months... nature walks, painting, water play, reading, drawing... mainly by an almost-naked baby because it has been so hot recently! 
Nature walk - she loved this!




Looking at her First Book of Mormon book...



This is the first time painting at home... and only 3rd time ever! She really likes it...









Cleaning the easel herself...


She continues to play with the water and sponge...




So we decide to do a transferring water with a sponge activity...









Transferring with hands? ...






Spilled the water!


Walk in the water!!...



Drawing with outdoor chalks...