Window Washing

It must be a weird moon phase or something's going on because I decided it was time to do some cleaning.  Armed with my sprayer bottle and a towel, I began spraying and wiping some of the mirrors in the bathroom.  My son saw me and wanted to help.  

Is it weird to say I've been dreaming of this day?

Lo' and behold:

Working those hand muscles!

Wax on!  Wax Off!

I introduced the squeegee as an afterthought.

Well, there you have it.  My darling window washer (with an admirer).

This is a very good activity for my son for many reasons:  strength building, coordinating, both fine and gross motor skills, concentrating, etc.  I have been a humongous fan of Montessori education, and as I speak with my son's various therapists, I can easily see how much Dr. Montessori truly understood the needs of our children.  Window washing falls under the practical life category, and I'll admit I bought that little spray bottle over a year ago waiting until he was ready to use it. 

Where'd It Go?

My daughter loves this activity! I made this when she was 11 months old, and she brings it to me (the lid is a little daunting for her 1-year-old fingers) almost every day. She smiles each time she successfully slips block through the little square hole. I love those triumphant smiles!

The bin is an old Domino sugar bin, but a shoe box would work fine. I cut a hole in the lid to be just big enough to fit a block, so she really has to concentrate in order to fit it in. I wanted to make sure it wasn't too difficult, but still challenging enough to give her some determination.

The blocks are the small pieces of our Twig blocks set (which is awesome, btw).  

The first time she did this, she definitely had to work at it, but now she does it with much improved dexterity.  I'm glad it still holds her attention, but now I need to figure out what to make for her next!

Easy Counter Activity: Part 1

This is an activity that can be made quickly, easily, and inexpensively. I've done a few versions of this, but this is the one I ended up laminating. And at the time, "laminating" involved an iron. I have since upgraded to an actual laminating machine. Oh... I love it so much...

Take 10 index cards, cheap circle stickers, and 0 - 9 number stickers (though you could write the numbers and draw the circles with a marker). You'll also need counters. In our case, we used a gf/cf equivalent to Cheerios. Count out 45 O's and place them in a container.

We did this a year ago or so. While Matthew understood the basic concept then, I was really impressed with how he did this time. To see if he could do it, I asked him to take 3 O's from the bowl (random example), and sure enough, he counted out exactly 3. We did this with a few of the other numbers and he did those correctly. At one point, I think it was for number 5, I watched him pick out 3 O's, and when he reached back in, he knew to get exactly 2 O's. He did this with a few other numbers as well. Addition!

In writing this post, I remembered how displeased I was/am with his cards. I'll make some new ones in hopefully the near future so that the cards have two columns for counters to better reveal the difference between odd and even numbers. That will be Part 2.